Computing Topics

Online Security Tips

When your PC is online or you load programs or data onto your PC, it is at risk. To make sure all the data on your PC is safe and protected you should:

• Use Antivirus software
  This will protect your PC before or after suspect programs arrive on your PC
  Use one that will protect WEB browsing and e-mail as well as real-time monitoring and can periodically scan your hard disk. Make sure that the virus definitions file is updated daily.
• Use a firewall
  A firewall will stop unauthorised access to your PC. Choices are:
  Your operating system may come with a software firewall
  You can use a different software firewall which may have more features.
  Your PC may have a hardware firewall.
  Your ADSL router may include a firewall.
  Your ISP may use a firewall.
• Apply security patches
  Keeping your operating system and other software, like WEB browsers and e-mail, up to date will stop any exploits of errors or “holes” in your PC software.
• If you use a dial-up connection, use a dialer that will help prevent it from being changed to dial premium rate or international telephone numbers.
• If you have a WiFi wireless network, ensure that security options are setup and turned on.
• Be very careful about downloading and installing software from unknown WEB sites.
• Be very careful about opening e-mails and attachments from unknown sources. Remember that even if it appears to come from a known source it could be infected with a virus. If in doubt, DELETE suspect e-mails.

For maximum protection you need to follow all of the bullet points.

As Computers get more powerful, they use more power and so generate more heat.  This leads to the components getting hot which can damage them and the surrounding components. The PC components that generate the most heat are:

• Hard Disk
• CPU (Processor)
• Graphics card
• Chipsets (e.g. Northbridge)

These sections explain how to improve the cooling of these components:

• Chipset Cooling - the original fan in the nforce chipset heatsink on the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mainboard is noisy and prone to failure, which can result in data corruption and possible motherboard damage. This section shows how to remove the original chipset fan heatsink and replace it with a passive Zalman ZM-NB47-J heatsink.

• Graphic Card Cooling - Replacing the heatsink / fan on a ASUS 6600 GT Video Graphic Card with a Vantec Iceberq 5 video card cooler.

• CPU Cooling - Replacing the heatsink / fan on the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mainboard with an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU cooler.

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