How to Keep Your Computer Healthy and Safe this Summer.

Guest post by local computer repair expert Ryan Bassett.

With summer here, we have more time to relax, and that might involve surfing the web. You might visit your favorite blogs, or use the internet as your electronic newspaper. You might be an avid e-book reader, or interested in virtual music and buy mp3s from companies like Apple or Amazon. You might be watching your favorite sports teams on streaming video online, or maybe you just like browsing YouTube for the latest funny videos. Whatever your fascination is on the Internet, the common denominator is you are using a computer, and that computer is viable to attack.

Lets draw a picture in our minds. Think of your computer like your body, and the software you put on your computer like the food that you eat. You eat food to support your body with vital nutrients that keep your immune system healthy and your body at metabolism. All of this happens without you consciously making any adjustments. So you chose to eat that carrot, all you really focused on was chewing and swallowing. The benefits of that decision were numerous and happened after the fact. Your skin started glowing a healthy radiant color. Your acne cleared up. You felt more energy in the morning.

Software is very similar for the health of a computer. If you choose to put high-quality software on your computer, your computer is going to benefit immensely under the hood from that single decision. In technical terms—it’s going to be using less RAM memory and CPU processing power, it’s going to be updating itself to the latest definitions and updates so that its able to support you to the most recent changes. Your computer will feel faster, less clunky.

Just like we want to avoid fast food because we know what that does to our body, we want to avoid bad programs from unreliable software companies and instead go to the high-quality sources. The good news is that there are a lot of free, quality programs out there. Most people won’t believe that. Most people don’t even take the time to look, they’re suckered into buying something just because it’s on a stand at BestBuy or because it’s called “Spyware Remover 2010”.

A little background about myself if you are wondering. My name is Ryan. I run a computer repair business in Santa Clarita. My website is at www.computerrepairsantaclarita.net. I’ve been using computers since I was 11 years old. I was one of those intelligent, geeky kids. My dad bought me a computer one summer and I got hooked into it, I started reading all sorts of books about computer programming, web design, and the sort. Long story short, I have quite a bit of knowledge to help people with, a lot learned through trial and error and many years of experience, and I want to help people around me because of a love for others.  My expertise is in computers and software, so I feel a need to share that openly with others.

Now I’m going to shift gears into some more practical advice, because I don’t want you to just understand how to keep your computer safe but actually keep your computer safe. I’m going to recommend a small list of programs that I have used personally for years and approve of as the best of their class. Every program I mention is also free, which is what I expect you’re hoping for.

The first necessity for your computer is a strong anti-virus. I’m sure you know what a virus is. That’s what you get when you open the wrong attachment in your email inbox, or view a website that you clicked on from some unknown person. You don’t have to understand what a virus is, you just have to know that it’s bad, and that to get rid of them, the best thing you can have in your arsenal is a strong Anti-virus program. Hands down, the most efficient, effective anti virus I’ve used is by Avira. You can download a free version from MajorGeeks website. Avira is doing a thing now where you can fill out a bunch of forms and buy some products through some affiliate companies to get a “free” version of the Professional software, but the reality is there is not too big of a difference between the free version and the paid version. As long as the virus definitions are updated on both versions equally, real-time scanning is enabled, and you’re able to perform full system scans, that’s about everything you could want an anti-virus to do.

The next step is to get a safe web browser. If you are using Internet Explorer, it’s time to move on. The best choice right now is Mozilla FireFox. Google Chrome is a great browser, it’s extremely fast and lightweight, but it doesn’t support a wide range of Add-ons that Mozilla FireFox does for security purposes. This is because Google is a newer browser and they’ve only recently just started working on making extensions that work well for it. To get FireFox, download it here .

Remember I mentioned FireFox’s superiority is because of……. good, you’re listening…… Add-ons.

Add-ons are exactly what they sound like, additional components that add new features to FireFox. Some examples are—add-ons that can help check your e-mail inbox and report back to you how many new emails you have, add-ons that can help share your favorite bookmarks to social media sites like Facebook or Digg, add-ons that can change the style of your browser in looks and personality (called themes).

Two of them that I am going to have you download are NoScript and Web of Trust.

Cool names, right?

NoScript is like it sounds—it’s an addon that prohibits the running of scripts on websites without your consent. This means websites cant play music or videos or popups without your OK. A lot of times, and especially a few years ago, there were vulnerabilities in web browsers that hackers could transmit viruses to your computer through scripting that executed without your even knowing about it. You’d have viruses in your system folder and you had no idea how they got there. NoScript is the technology that disables that kind of thing. Download it here:

Web of Trust is really cool. It’s a community (you’re going to have to register a username and password to use the add-on) where tons of people rate websites based on their legitimacy and safety. If someone flags a website as bad, immoral, adult, or unsafe, and you try to visit that site, the add-on is going to warn you about the site, with a color-coded display on how bad it is from green to red, user comments about the site, and more. It’s like a sneak-peek into a website before you actually visit it. It’s helped me tremendously. Think of it like a big brother watching over your back or a guard dog or something. Download it here: http://www.mywot.com/downloadaddon/firefox

After installing these four things: First, a high quality free antivirus, Second, a secure web browser with add-on support, and lastly, two addons that enhance that browser for security, you got yourself an arsenal for attacks on your computer. All it takes is a little high-quality diet for your computer to keep it healthy. Get rid of the idea that you can feed your computer crappy software and expect it to perform like an athlete. We are what we eat and computers are what you put on them. Keep that metaphor at the back of your mind.

If you are in need of some professional computer repair in the Santa Clarita Valley, feel free to contact me personally on my website. I have a quick turnaround, and come to you to pick up and drop off. I really hope that this guide serves you well, and that you begin to an elevated computing experience. I want you to be familiar and graceful with technology instead of the stereotypical frustrated and disappointed. There’s no reason for it to be like that.

Thanks, Santa Clarita.

-Ryan

www.computerrepairsantaclarita.net

SCVLife is not affiliated with Ryan Bassett or any of the services he is recommending.  Please contact Ryan directly with any questions through his website.