Despite all the publicity surrounding dotcom crashes, teenage millionaires attacks from viruses and billions of pounds of investment, the Internet is still a much misunderstood and often frustrating place, but with over 10,000,000 people in the UK visiting shopping websites in November 2001 alone, you can't afford to ignore the potential.

Here we give a little advice on making your use of the Internet a little easier and perhaps safer…our half-day courses or one to one sessions can add to this and personalise your use of the World Wide Wait.

Cookies

These are tiny text files stored on your PC by most visited sites.
They can be useful, such as helping to remember you when you revisit, unfortunately they can also be very antisocial. Many cookies report your browsing habits back to the initiating site and will build up a database of your usage, often resulting in unsolicited emails, or configuring ads to appeal to your preferences, whether you want them or not.

Try this. In Windows Explorer, go to C:\Windows\cookies and have a look at the list of cookies you have collected.
If you see things you don't like, click on any cookie, hold down Control and press A, then shift and delete to remove them. The only file that you can't remove is the cookie index from Microsoft, but it doesn't track your movements so it's safe.

Bookmark your favourite pages.

While looking at a page, click on the Favourites menu and then Add to Favourites. Then choose the folder you want to save the page to and click OK. IF you want to create a new folder for pages with a specific theme, click on Create New Folder.

Firewalls. Stop those of malicious intent, getting into your computer. Hackers, Trojans and malicious code can cause loss of data or Hardware damage.
Many choices, but of those that are free try Tiny Personal Firewall (TPF) at www.tinysoftware.com or Zone alarm at www.zonealarm.com

Antivirus software

This is a must if you use the Internet and/or e-mail.
Many excellent programmes including Norton Antivirus 2002 and McAfee Anti virus are commercially available.
However, for a free Anti virus solution look at AVG on www.grisoft.com for version 6, free for home use, which also checks e-mail in and out.

Change your home page.

Why wait for the BT or Virgin page to load on to your PC every time log on? In Internet Explorer, click on the Tools menu, select Internet Options and change the address of your home page. You could change it to your usual search engine, perhaps www.google.co.uk or your favourite site, perhaps www.bbc.co.uk or your company website.

Alternative Browsers.

Just because Microsoft bundle Internet Explorer with Windows, don't feel obliged to use their software just because it's there.
Try an alternative like OPERA at www.opera.com/download/
A small, fast and highly configurable alternative. Yes it has banner ads in the free version, but they aren't intrusive. The full retail version isn't expensive either.

If you do use Internet Explorer, update your cipher strength immediately.
Once on the Internet, open Internet Explorer and go to Help, About and click on Update Information.
This takes you to Microsoft's browser upgrade site and allows you to freely download the high encryption pack to update to 128-bit code strength. The best the American Government will allow us to have!!!!
Free, quick and you only need to know your operating system and browser version, for example Windows 98, Internet Explorer 5.

Upgrading to 128-bit cipher is a security precaution. It allows greater security on the net as personal details are encrypted and re-encrypted 128 times. It could give you a bit more peace of mind over your Internet security.

Contact us to arrange a free, no obligation appointment with one of our specialist business advisers.