Basic Stuff

We strongly recommend:

• Every user have antivirus and antispywire programs installed and these should be updated automatically.
  
• You should also have a firewall that protects you system from periodic intrusions from hackers. As long as you are on the Internet, people can use your system as they wish unless a good firewall is there. Most routers have a hardware firewall that protects your address. We also suggest a software firewall installed that protects the system within the internal network.
  
• If you are using a wireless network, you should be using it in an encrypted mode.
  
• You should also have a backup system that works for you. I prefer multiple backup systems.
  
• We suggest using the Partition Magic product to put your data on a separate disk drive of your computer; that is, partitioning your single hard disk to two virtual disks. If this is done and your main operating system must be reloaded, the data is still intact.

Kill the Spam

We use to experience over 90% of our mail as spam each day. We've written to congresspeople at the state and federal level and voted a few (three) out because they didn't seem to be able to hear I had a problem; but it didn't do much good. By the next election, the issue will be even more critical.

Another alternative is to use an ISP (host system) that filters spam out for you. Our hosting system does this for us. We also filter for spam at our local system. We put the spamming IPs coming into our system into a public database for hackers to use for their fun. In other words, don't spam us unless you want to see your host go down and hold you liable.

Register Cleaner

You should have a register cleaner program installed that continually monitors the Windows register file and repairs it as necessary. This is the master file on a Windows system. If it is bad, you may not be able to boot you system and everything would be gone.

Reading PDF Files
This program enables you to read Acrobat (PDF) files when they are posted as part of a web site. It's free, and we recommend installing it to your system. Files published as PDF files on a web site maintain their original format and fonts (whether these fonts are on your system or not). This makes the program valuable for users publishing on the web. The program is free.

Macromedia Flash

The Flash player enables you to read the animated movies on many sites. Flash is used on many of our pages, and is already installed on most browsers that you purchase today. If it is not on your system or you wish to upgrade an older version, you can get it free and it's here!