h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Computer Safety, protection and prevention - A12208989
Author: Atom_boy - U794375

please help me with the code and spelling. Thanks!

First of all, I guess you should change the settings to Guide ml at the bottom of the box. Preview will then show you where you've missed closing tags etc. I'll go and read some more.

Ok, here's what I've got so far, more to come if I find more.
Don't despair, you asked for it

virusses - viruses

short for cash most - short of cash ?

OS - Online Service ?

STD - care to explain ?

will cleary give - clearly

slower that it did before it was - than

Also, pop-up advertisments in large quantities as you are surfing are also a give-away - leave one 'also' out
(these pop-ups are most likely, but not limited to, pornograpy) - ( These .....pornography.)

The changing of your homepage is also a clear sign. Also, some options in windows could be disabled. You may also gain toolbars to your internet browser wich you haven't installed by yourself. Your emailclient may be sending large amounts of spam email. Or your dial-up modem wants to connect to the internet, even though you have broadband (cable or dsl) - too many 'alsos', if you ask me. Maybe try something like: The changing of your homepage settings to another site is also a clear sign. Some options in windows could be disabled. Furthermore, you may have gained toolbars ( a toolbar?) to your internet browser which you haven't installed yourself. Your email client ...,or your dial-up modem ...
Question here: you can't be on dial-up when you have broadband, can you ? The problem is, that with broadband, you usually don't notice if a dialler has intruded your PC - as far as I know. You can block diallers, though.

first line of defence - First Line of Defence - I'd put it in capitals

silly but its true - it's ( it is)

cia. - CIA.

It's most likely spyware - I thought it were most commonly Trojan Worms and viruses ?

puzzeled looks on the face - puzzled reaction - I think reaction would be better, you usually don't see your friend's face when emailing him/her

buisinessfirms - business firms

these too are fake. - these too, are fake

Protection programs - protection programs/ Protection Programs

say advertisment in the window - ..say : "advertisement" ...

second line of defence, or safety first - Second Line of Defence or: Safety first

Clever thinking sadly isnt enhough - isn't enough

Protecting your p.c is also a very - Protecting your pc is a very ..
virus-scanner, virusscanner - not too sure, virus scanner was the only one I found a reference to
whichever one you choose will scan your pc - whichever one you choose, will scan

It will not scan for spyware or protect you from hackers. - They will not ...

thanks for your tips! I'm not a native speaker and therefore make a lot of (little) spelling and grammar errors. i'll check it out!

I know that you're not a native speaker ( neither am I ), and we all make spelling mistakes and typos, that's ok.
I like the entry
You should link the sites as they appear in your entry, e.g.

Virusscanner: your pc will probably come with a trial version of a virusscanner such as Norton or McAfee. -
..such as Norton or McAfee

Here are a few more things I've found:

please state the nature of the medical emergency" Emergency Medical Hologram, Star Trek Voyager - Please...

write 'Windows' in capitals throughout the entry

these too cost mony buy and update.- these too, cost money to buy ..

not scan for virusses or spyware - viruses

from attacts from hackers - attacks

scanning reguraly will - regularly

it will not however protect - it will however not.. However, it will not..

These are holy trinity of protecting your - This is the holy trinity ( not too sure)

important to keeping your pc malware - to keep

protectionprograms - protection programs

check reguraly for updates. - regularly

update the programs so that it can withstand new verions of malware - so that they can...versions

Docter, im not feeling to well - Doctor, I'm...too well

Its a very poverfull - it's a very powerful

analised by experts - analysed

For the rest, I'll rely on the other Peer Reviewers

Hey there, Atom_Boy - looks like this has all the makings of a very useful Entry

As for help with the GuideML, you need to change it over by ticking the option for GuideML when you're editing it. Before you do that though:




Those at the top, then everything in between in or other tags (there's just a couple of bits missing). You're also going to have to get rid of one of those links in its current form (GuideML is allergic to '&' signs )

Then, at the bottom:




... and that should work Once you've got it switched over to GuideML properly, it should start helping you out itself, in fact.

As for the content, I'm sure there'll be plenty of Peer Reviewers who know their computer stuff along to help soon. Me, I'm useless! Which is why this will make a very useful Entry, I think.

Thank you Trin, you're a

right, i think i got most of the spelling errors... Word comes with a nice word and grammar checker that can be set to "queens english!" The code however is still buggy... i really have to take some time to figure that out, but this entry was written in quite a hurry...

Down at the bottom of the entry are a couple of buttons - "Plain text" and "GuideML", with radio buttons (circly ones) next to them. You need to set this to GuideML and click the button which says "change style"

I like it! a much needed entry.

A301096

A354638

A823411

A346240

C57


are probably worth looking at /linking.

We've already got an edited entry here A354638 about avoiding viruses. This entry covers more than that one does but the two also overlap somewhat. That one is also six years old and might be in need of an update. Perhaps you'd like to contact the author (who is still active on h2g2) with a view to collaborating on updating his entry.

We've also got a woefully inadequate entry on viruses here A301096

yes some of these entries are really outdated and i really dont know if i should link to them. I decided to write this because of a thread in Ask. A354638 does indeed overlap partially with mine and i will link to it. Also, i've decided not to hyperlink the companies i mentioned because i refer to specific products in the entry and give general (company) websites. They are references, "links to" and not sources.

Strange to see though that in six years the method of spreading viruses via email hardly changed...

<< Firewall: best compared to a moat around a castle >>

An analogy I like is the receptionist (or concierge) on the ground floor of a business (or hotel) - where anyone with an 'approved' ID card gets automatic entry

All too often, people with a firewall will click [ok] to ALL access from what they perceive as a 'trusted site'... and hey presto! a door (port) is wide open to all/any malware from that particular site OR any site able to masquerade itself as such


As for WinXP-friendly anti-virus, I am a HUGE fan of ClamWin http://www.clamwin.com/, for 2 reasons:

1. It's free!

ClamWin is a non-profit free software project that comes with an easy installer and open source code (with links to German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Russian versions )

2. More often than not, it's better than ALL the rest!

see http://www.linuxpipeline.com/166400446

July 14, 2005
Antivirus Tools: Clam AV Is The Best -- But Where Are The Rest?
An open-souce anti-virus product leaves no doubt that its commercial counterparts are good mostly for playing second fiddle.
By Adam Hyde, Electric Mail

...Our tests have run since the beginning of May and in that time Clam's response time has been equal to or better than the major vendors most of the time, a result we found to be very surprising. However, it is corroborated by the German test site " PC WELT.DE " (http://www.pcwelt.de/news/sicherheit/111012/index2.html).

...The PC WELT site results demonstrated that for one Sober variant, Clam Anti-Virus had the first patch in place with well-known Symantec releasing a patch a full nine hours later. Most of the other vendors fared better, but were hours behind Clam...

...A scoring system was devised based on who was first, second, and third to release a virus signature. Anti-Virus outranked the other two antivirus vendors by a wide margin. One key measure is that Clam Anti-Viruscame in first 77% of the time. Kudos to Clam Anti-Virus!

...To find out more about Electric Mail's PerimeterProtect service, visit http://www.electricmail.com/

thanks for your comment. I´ll add it to the entry.

Oh, and ofcourse "when in doubt press cancel!"

You still haven't changes the settings to guide ml
And btw, if you don't want to link, but merely refer to the websites, you'll have to do it like this:




Norton
McAfee
etc.

well i think i have. i changed it from plain text to guide ML. but i just cant get it right...yet

replying to self... the illegal use of an Ampersand "&" blocked the GuideML. Changed that and now im smiling :P

The & is a reserved symbol in html (and Guide-ML)

Instead of & type &amp; (NB remember the ; that belongs on the end)

yeah, worked that out. Now there are some other guideml errors in there as i'm buzy making the reference links. Once that's done its prolly allright

First thing I would change is the title.

When I saw it, I immediately thought of people tripping over mains leads or being cut by flying pieces of disintegrating cheap CDs, (both of which were genuine concerns for the UK civil service a few years back, believe it or not).

Then I thought maybe it was about safety critical IT systems, e.g. air traffic control and the like.

Then I opened it and found it was actually about computer security, and nothing whatsover to do with safety.

Yes, I agree. I think the title would be better as Basic Computer Security

There are a few house style and consistency things - I would stick to PC (capitals without the punctuation).

Suggested edits:

"This entry will deal with the most common means of malware and means on preventing and protecting your P.C. Also, since most hitchhikers are really short of cash most of the programs mentioned here are free. It is however not a commercial for those free programs! This entry is written for Windows XP users, as it is the most widespread Operating System or OS out there"
->
"This entry will deal with the most common means of malware and means on preventing and protecting a PC running Microsoft Windows XP, currently the most widespread Operating System (OS) in use. As most hitchhikers are really short of cash most of the programs mentioned here are free."

STD -> STI (is the official term these days - probably worh putting a footnote to expand to full)
will contaminate -> may contaminate
For that sentance it would be really useful to get some figure rather than 'in no time' - I do recall some site doing a test and finding that it took about 30 mins, but would be better to provide a direct reference.

The list of symptoms would be best formatted as a bullet list.

Perhaps you could re-order the second line of defence section - I think patching message should be first and then introduce the 'holy trinity' (is that an 'official'/well known term?). Subheaders for the three types?

Would it be worth mentioning using Firefox to avoid some nasties?

-scrumph