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Surfing the internet is interesting for any user but at the same time, it could be frustrating when you visit a bad website by clicking a fake link title or typing a wrong web address (URL) as an example. This blog is not dedicated for advanced or IT users, it is was written for general users even if they have basic knowledge in using the computer as the intention was to help those people in understanding the essential security level they should have. I am not trying to advertise for any product or company, I just like to share some useful tips with you based on my experience, and below are some of these simple rules or methods that you can follow to protect yourself and your family from those types of websites or security risk.

First, when using WI-FI connection at home (to connect your computer to the internet through a wireless modem without using cables or wires), you need to have a strong password that is not easy to be guessed or predicted by intruders or computer hackers. I still see some people using their home phone, for example, to be their password or their family names, yes because it is easy to remember and cannot be forgotten but still it’s easy for others also if they try to connect to the internet using your network. So try to come up with a password that contains a combination of upper/lower case letters, symbols, and number. Remember that you need to follow the same rules for any password like for your email or Facebook account for example.

Second, please you have to install an antivirus software and make sure it’s always up to date. Some people install two protection software believing that this will protect their computers more! No, on the contrast, there will be a conflict between the two and each one might see the other one as a virus and for sure having two antivirus software will reduce the speed of your computer and will eventually reduce its performance. There are lot of Internet Security software available, some of them are included with your internet service provider but you might need to pay for adding this extra feature to your service or buy a one-year antivirus SW from a trusted company.

I know this could be expensive if you need to buy all-in-one SW like Internet Security as they are not always on sale. However, if you don’t need to buy, you can go with the free ones. There are many trusted companies that provide free versions of their commercial ones, it doesn’t have all the entire features like the paid one but it’s definitely better than nothing or an expired one.

Personally, I tried MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials), which is provided by Microsoft and it’s a live update product (no need to be reinstall every year). Being the Tech Person in my company, I installed this SW in all the computers in my lab and I’ve been using this for more than 4 years. As I said there are other free Antiviruses like AVG, or AVAST. It’s a personal reference and you need install a free one if you don’t want to buy, notice that Windows 8 is shipped with an installed version of MSE, just the name is different: Microsoft Windows Defender.

Third, one of the most common problem I found frequently when I receive a defected pc is the user saw a pop-up message in their screen telling them that their computer is at risk and they have to install this antivirus or whatever SW appears in their screen to fix the problem. These types of flashy warning messages or images are totally fake and you need to remember that since you have an antivirus already installed never and ever trust these kinds of messages. Now don’t mix them with the real one from your own protecting SW, as sometimes when your installed protection SW comes to end or near to its expiry date you will see pop-window reminding you to update or upgrade it, but these warning messages are easy to recognize as they are locally on your windows operating system, not from a website and it contains the same name, logo, and interface of your SW.

I like to use another add-on to my browser called WOT (Web Of Trust), I know some users might not agree with me as adding this feature will reduce the loading speed of your browser and there are different reviews about the efficiency of WOT, but I found it useful in some cases. WOT is free software that you can install it for your browser, you have to specify which version you need to install based on which browser you use as it has a different version for each individual browser (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera). When you search for a topic you will see colored circles beside each result in your web search page, these colors have meaning, for example green for trusted website and red for the bad one. Some times when you click on a link, this link might take to a bad website, WOT will give you a warning message to leave this website.

Finally, excuse me for my long post, it’s not easy to include every single detail in this post but I hope this will be helpful for many users.