When I first stumbled on the internet, I was skeptical. But after a couple of hours surfing the net, I fell completely in love with the wealth of information I could find by typing a few words. Of course along with all of that wonderful information, you also get free spyware, malware and all kinds of pretty popup ads. Am I being sarcastic? Yes, I am.

The days of being able to logon to your computer and type a letter or design a logo are long gone. Now it is a mad scramble to make sure you have the latest operating system updates, the latest anti-virus updates, and oh, we can't forget the latest spyware protection. I am a computer technician and even I am fed up with all of the time I spend just protecting my computer from the deluge of malicious crap found on the internet. At one time in the not so distant past, I built computers for people who wanted a nice, optimized custom computer. Most of my time now is spent on removing unwanted trojans and spyware. Yes, I do charge for this service, but I would much rather build a new computer for customers, not clean up all of the unethical crap that seems to plague everyone. With that being said, let me give some common sense tips on what not to do on the internet.

Free is wonderful, and there is a lot of free stuff on the internet. Buyers beware!!! Free is not always free, even though there are a few exceptions. I know that daily, we are all bombarded with spam and advertisements that claim to offer wealth and gifts for absolutely nothing. The only truly free thing that I can think of is the air we breathe, and even that will probably someday be patented. With that being said, we all need to apply a little common sense here. I know that I have even clicked on an ad that just begged to be clicked on. For some reason I thought I might get that one deal that is truly free. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Of course I regretted it afterwards, but because I am a techie minded person (it is my job after all), I didn't have a problem cleaning the bad stuff off of my computer. For the average person this just isn't so.

The number one rule to apply here is, if it sounds too good to be true, than it is.

About the Author: Eric Graves is a Senior Computer Technician at ARCH Computing Services, Inc. He is currently completing his BS in IT Management and his MS in Computer Security. http://www.archcomputing.com

Source: www.isnare.com