Batten down your PC hatches

Feel as if your PC is under siege? In addition to installing antivirus and firewall software, there’s a lot you can do to guard against intruders. Follow this list and secure your PC.

By PC World Staff | Tuesday, 18 December, 2001

Feel as if your PC is under siege? In addition to installing antivirus and firewall software, there’s a lot you can do to guard against intruders. Follow this list and secure your PC.

DISABLE FILE SHARING: File sharing lets networked computers pass documents back and forth, but it also lets strangers steal files from your PC over the net. Consider enabling file sharing only when you need to give someone access to files, and disabling it afterward. Use password protection for shared files so only the designated person can read them.
To fix: to disable file sharing, go to Start•Settings•Control Panel•Network• Configuration•File and Print Sharing. Make sure the option boxes are not checked and then click OK.

BOLSTER YOUR BROWSER: The web harbours bad code that can exploit your browser’s ability to run “scripts” (which, when friendly, do nice things like run an animation inside your web browser).
The fix: Adjust the security in Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Change IE’s security via its sliding bar (depending on your version of IE), or choose specific functions to control. To use the sliding bar, go to Tools•Internet Options•Security. Select Internet Zone, click Default Level and move the bar from Low to Medium or High. Low provides almost no protection from web hazards, medium disables many scripts but allows cookies and high disables virtually all scripts and cookies. To set specific functions, select Custom Level and set controls one by one. Be warned: this is more complex. In Netscape, choose Edit•Preferences, and then Advanced in the Category window.

CONFIGURE OUTLOOK AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Outlook allows you to disable macros in email attachments or to let some macros through, such as those that are digitally “signed” by trusted sources. You can also have Outlook adopt the same security options you define in IE. In Outlook Express, set email security levels based only on the settings you’ve chosen for IE’s internet and trusted sites zones.
To fix: To allow Outlook to let only trusted macros through, go to Tools• Macro•Security and click High. Then, to ensure that Outlook is using your IE security settings, click Tools•Options•Security. You should see the Internet Zone icon in the Secure Content list box. While you’re at it, click on Attachment Security and make sure it’s also set to high.

DISPLAY FILE EXTENSIONS: Many viruses have extensions to the file name, such as .vbs (visual basic script), or a double file extension (AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs, for example) which tips you off. But the default setting in Windows hides them, so you’re tricked into opening a malicious attachment.
To fix: Display full file extensions in Windows Explorer by clicking Tools•Folder Options. Select View and check Show all files (in Windows 9x) or Show hidden files and folders (in Windows 2000 and Me). Some extensions are visible only with a Registry tweak. If you’re an advanced user, you can see even those extensions by installing a free copy of Extension Manager (available on the CD that comes with this issue). Before opening an attachment, right-click the message in your in-box and click View Attachments (but don’t click the attachment). If the file has two extensions, it’s probably up to no good. If the extension is .bat, .com, .exe, .lnk, or .pif, it is an executable file and may attack your system.

PATCH HOLES: New security holes are constantly being uncovered in operating systems, browser programs, antivirus scan-ners and applications. Don’t be caught with your system open.
To fix: Install the latest patches from software vendors.
The worst offender is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and the best fix is to always have the latest version (install it from the CD that comes with this issue). To download updates for the buggy Microsoft programs on our list (see below) surf to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

Top holey apps
RankPackageKnown security holes
1Microsoft Internet Explorer69
2Microsoft Windows 9835
3Microsoft Windows 9530
4Microsoft Outlook28
5Netscape Navigator22
6Microsoft Outlook Express16
7Microsoft Windows Me10
8Microsoft Excel10
9Microsoft Word9
10Qualcomm Eudora8

Quick tips
Disable AutoComplete in Internet Explorer
With IE’s AutoComplete function active, many of the sites you visit that have forms will end up automatically filled in. If you don’t want others using the computer to view your personal information (and also be able to guess which sites you’ve been visiting), you need to turn off AutoComplete. To do this, choose Tools•Internet Options. When the Internet Options dialogue box opens, click the Content tab. Click the AutoComplete button and deselect the Forms check box. Click OK to save the changes and exit the dialogue box.

Adding Bookmarks in Netscape
An easy way to add a bookmark in Netscape is to drag the URL from the web page to the blue Bookmark Quickfile button. To do this, use the mouse to grab the icon just to the left of the address bar to the Bookmarks button. Hold the mouse button down until the Bookmarks menu opens. Drag the URL to the folder you want it to reside in, and then release the mouse button.

Cover your footprints
How anonymous are you on the web? Not very. In fact, not at all. Whenever you navigate to a site, its software can easily read your IP (internet protocol) address — a string of numbers that uniquely identifies your PC.
The only way to obscure your identity on the internet is with a proxy server, such as the service offered by Anonymizer.com. Your data goes through the server so connected sites only see the IP address of the proxy server. This doesn’t make you completely anonymous, since someone with a good reason (the government, for example) could obtain your IP from the server’s management. Another drawback: although a service like Anonymizer.com is good for secrecy, it slows you down. To cover your tracks, your web movements have to go through the extra step of being routed through the proxy server.

Free online virus checks
If you haven’t got anti-virus software, haven’t had yours updated, or are curious about how your chosen brand is protecting you, try an online security check.
Symantec has just launched a free service, Symantec Security Check. The Security Check website ( http://security2.norton.com ) runs a free diagnostic on your PC. It can tell you if you’re infected with a virus, though to remove it you’ll have to buy the latest version of Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus program.
Other free online checkers include McAfee.com VirusScan Online ( http://mcafee.com/myapps/vsol ), the Panda Active Scan Online Virus Check ( http://pandasoftware.com/activescan.com ) and the Trend Micro HouseCall ( http://housecall.antivirus.com ).
If you want to see if your PC is safe from hackers, try Steve Gibson’s LeakTest ( http://grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm ). To be free from online intruders, you’ll need the latest version of a firewall like ZoneLabs free ZoneAlarm (on the CD that comes with the Jan/Feb issue of iMag) or a commercial program like Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2002 ($169 incl GST).

Quick tips
Outlook Express Stationery
If you like to use Stationery in your Outlook Express messages, go right ahead (from a New Message window, choose Format•Apply Stationery). Stationery (a wallpaper pattern that sits behind your text message) has acquired a bad name, but the internet should be fun; people enjoy getting messages with stationery — well, colour-blind people and teenagers, anyway. Just make sure the stationery you select doesn’t obscure your message.
Outlook’s choice of stationery is pretty garish and limited. For an alternative selection we recommend CloudEight Stationery ( http://www.thundercloud.net/stationery ) which has the largest collection of the stuff we’ve ever seen.

Navigating Internet Explorer with a wheel mouse
Holding down the Shift key while you move the wheel on your super new wheel mouse allows Internet Explorer to navigate backward and forward through visited pages. It’s just like clicking the Back and Forward buttons, or holding down the Alt key while you click the left or right keypad arrows.

Changing addresses in Microsoft Internet Explorer
Websites do change URLs (addresses) now and then. If some of the sites in your Favourites folder have changed, you don’t have to re-enter them. All you have to do is edit them in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Just choose Favourites•Organise Favourites, and then right-click the address you need to modify and choose Properties. When the Properties dialogue box opens, click the Internet Shortcut tab. Replace the current URL (in the Target entry box) with the new one and click OK to save your changes and close the dialogue box.

Quick tips
Netscape browsing with hot keys
The Netscape keyboard shortcuts are mostly Windows standard, which means that you can press Ctrl + N to open a new window, or press Ctrl + P to print. You can also hold down the Alt key and then press the right arrow to move forward and the left arrow to move back (the same function as the right and left arrows in the toolbar).
And, just like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Ctrl + F will open a Find Text dialogue box and Ctrl + H will open your History folder.

Netscape 6 themes
Netscape 6 offers a new, bulbous look. However, since Netscape 6 does themes, you can change your interface to the standard Netscape window that you’ve come to know and love. Just run Netscape 6 and choose Edit•Preferences. When the Preferences dialogue box opens, select Appearance, then Themes. You’ll now have two choices: Modern (the default) and Classic. To use the good old Classic interface, select Classic and then click Apply Classic.

Splitting email to keep messages safe
Email can be intercepted and read as it passes from you to your intended recipient because email gets sent along whatever electronic pathway happens to be available at the time.
Be careful if you have to send confidential information, such as your credit card number. Experts recommend sending half the credit card number in one message, half in another and the expiration date in a third. The odds that one person can intercept all three messages, each going by a different random route, are astronomically low. Your internet service provider and the intended recipient of your email are the only two sources who can see all three emails.

Browser relaxation tip:
Addictive games
Part of you wants to resist. You feel a certain amount of loyalty to your job or your spouse or your kids and don’t want to neglect them. On the other hand, computer games are really fun. One of the Web’s many fine sources of online gaming is at http://www.addictivegames.com
First, choose between arcade, puzzle and card games. Perhaps you want to relive old glories with Asteroids, Missile Command or Frogger. There’s also UFO attack, Video Poker, Ultra Deathtris and many more. It isn’t the fastest site on earth, but the content is great.

Extra for experts
Wanna see the guts behind your favourite web pages? Trying to create your own web page and need some expert examples to base your design on? Well, a web page is no more than a special type of text document that makes extensive use of HTML tags to format its contents. To see the HTML codes behind any web page:
• In Internet Explorer, choose View•Source.
• In Netscape Navigator, choose View•Page Source
When you select this command, the browsers opens up another window that lists the HTML coding. You can print the HTML source page by choosing File•Print. Or you can select all the code with your mouse, copy it, and then paste it into a Notepad or word processing file.