Tuesday, Feb 27, 2007 at 22:29
Poppy, you need to run some anti virus software (Nortons, AVG, or the like) and some anti malware software. ("Adaware" from lavasoft, and "Spybot Search and Destroy" from Spybot, both free downloads). This has been shown to catch about 99% of all malware on the first pass. Do this once a month or so. First attempt to clean your system may take a while (1-2 hours or so), but there will be a noicable increase in speed.
Adaware
Spybot Search and Destroy
Another thing to do periiodically is to clear all temporary internet caches, as well as actually turn your modem and router/firewall off, then turn the modem on, allow it to boot, then the router/firewall and allow it to boot.
This makes it difficult for some malware to send information "under the table" as you effectively have a "new" address and the malware relies on working under the cover of darkness on the old "direct" address to your computer (Computer nerds, don't jump down my throat, but this is he best way I have found to explain the bypassing of the DNS server and changing you IP address by the new DHCP address you get given by a reboot.)
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