If your children have access to your computer, you may want to consider using Microsoft Internet Explorer's security options to control access to the Internet. To do this, choose View|Options and click the Security tab. Now click Enable Ratings and enter a password. Next, click Settings and select the levels of language, nudity, sex, and violence that you feel you can allow. After you make your selections, click the General tab. If you disallow unrated sites, you'll find yourself entering a password almost all the time. We recommend that you select the check box labeled Users can see sites which have no rating. To complete the settings, click OK twice to close all the dialog boxes. Be aware that the protection offered by Microsoft Internet Explorer is not complete and some undesirable unrated sites might slip through. If security is a serious problem for you, you should consider one of the third-party net watcher programs.
If you enable security to keep some users from viewing selected material on the Internet, you may find it a pain to always have to enter a password to search for material. The best way to handle the situation is to disable the security while you work. To disable security, choose View|Options and click the security tab. Click Disable Ratings and enter your password. Click OK, then OK in the alert dialog box. Don't forget to re-enable the ratings before you shut down the computer. The settings will remain as you set them, so all you have to do is click Enable Ratings and enter the password.
The World Wide Web is a great place to go to get information. But - do you realize that while you are visiting others on the web when you're connected, they might be able to visit you?
Although you might visit a site using it's Domain name, such as "micrometric.com", it has a numeric address - called an IP address. In our case, the MicroMetric IP address is 160.79.215.37.
Just as each web sit you visit has an IP, so do you when you're surfing the net. And just like you can visit web sites using their IP, others can try to visit you using your IP.
So how can you tell how susceptible your computer is to outside access For an eye-opener, especially if you currently have no firewall protection, try visiting www.grc.com, and run the Shields Up test.
A few excerpts from "Internet Connection Security for Windows Users", by Steve Gibson, Gibson Research Corporation detailed on the site are included below:
"If your computers are only connected to the Internet briefly, when you're browsing the web or retrieving and sending eMail, your connection exposure will be minimal. But if you are one of the millions of people who are discovering the amazing power and convenience of a persistent connection to the Net � through a cable modem or DSL line � and if you leave any of your computers on and connected for hours at a time, then your exposure is substantially greater."
"While I was conducting the background research for this web site, I encountered one of these "File Shares" scanners and gave it a try on a region of the Net that I knew to be populated by cable modem users. (That's very easy to determine too � see my Further reading page.) I was shocked by the number of file shares that were wide open, made available by well-intentioned people who had unwittingly exposed the contents of their PCs to the entire world! Their lonely drives are calling out for company on the Net . . . and before long they're probably going to get some!"
So, go out and see how safe your computer is today. In the next TipSheet we'll cover some of the actions you can take to make your computer "A safer place".