How to Do Everything to Fight Spam, Viruses, Pop-Ups, and Spyware (How to Do Everything)

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Summary: Remove the trash and keep what you need.
Review: Anyone who has been around computers lately can tell you that spyware, pop-up, adware and other assorted infections is enough to drive you right up the wall. Trying to remove all the problems could become a full time occupation. How does one combat all these nasty problems and still have the computer up and running?

Having spent that last several months working on a spyware lockdown, this book has provided some very important information for me to the project. The book does give you a great deal of interesting reading that is written for just about all levels of comprehension.

The author has given you a number of ways to configure, install, setup and troubleshoot the various ways to block spyware, spam, the ever annoying pop-ups and even viruses. What this book does is lay out a way for the reader to first take in the concepts and then try it out. As always you need to make sure you have a backup of the system you will be working.

The book does come with a cd that has several demos and even a couple of freeware utilities, although the Spybot and Ad-Aware are out of date since the printing, they are still useful and best of all free. Overall the book does a good job of informing the user without being over technical and if you are new to computers this might be a good pickup to see what you are in for.


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Summary: Feel safe again online
Review: As someone who's been dealing with a lot of spam and spyware problems lately, I found this to be an invaluable book. Feinstein really knows his stuff and offers lots of great info and practical advice, suggestions, etc. It comes w/ a CD-ROM too, which is a nice plus. Highly recommended for anyone having trouble with spam, spyware, viruses, and pop-ups. Read it and you'll feel safer about your online life.

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Summary: Gentle Art of PC Self Defense
Review: Getting sick of the neverending battle against spam, pop-ups, spyware, and viruses on your PC? Don't throw up your hands. This book tells the home PC user how to do everything possible - and I mean everything - to go on the offensive against online threats and take control of your computer again.

For a computer-user guide, this book is refreshingly direct and easy to read and use. It's humorously written and is plain-spoken without talking down to you. There's technical information about topics like browser security and where viruses come from, but it doesn't barrage the reader with jargon or unnecessary details.

The directions on using utilities and configuring settings have plenty of screenshots and are easy to follow. The author talks you through diagnosing and fixing ad-ware and virus infections, so you don't have to worry that you'll accidentally delete something crucial. A CD containing essential anti-virus software and anti-spyware programs, like Ad-Aware and Spybot, rounds out the package.

Even if you feel like you already know how to keep your own computer safe, this book makes a great gift for family or friends who are overwhelmed by spyware or keep unwittingly sending you virus-laden emails. It's a computer book that even your parents can understand and use, and it's one they really need. Too bad it wasn't available when I bought my mother a new PC earlier this year; I'm sending her a copy right now.

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Summary: Helped solve my spyware problem
Review: I had a problem with spyware displaying ads on my PC. I read through the section on spyware, and using the software included on the book's CD, I was able to remove it completely.

The books doesn't just tell you how to remove problems like spyware and viruses, it explains how to avoid them in the first place. I especially appreciated the section on spam, which offered some clever techniques for keeping your email address safe from spammers.

The authoer includes a bit of humor throughout the book, and doesn't pull any punches. I found the background info about how spammers operate and how spyware and viruses propagate to be especially interesting.

Overall, it's an excellent how-to guide aimed at a general audience.

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Summary: A Program on the CD solved my problem.
Review: I've tried to use the internet as it was intended, a free and open system where I could surf, send e-mails to friends and business associates, and generally tried to be a good internet citizen. Why is it then that about 60% of the e-mail I receive is trying to sell me investments, medicine, a phony degree, or enlargement of certain body parts, some of which I don't even have.

The answer, of course, is that it's free to send out e-mails in any quantity to any list of addresses. What I don't understand is why the congress has allowed it to continue, but they do.

The answer is that you have to be prepared to defend yourself from these unwanted intrusions. I thought I was doing pretty well, until a particularly nasty adware program managed to get into and install itself in my system. One of the packages included on the CD in this book solved the problem, that alone made the book worth its price.

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Summary: Stay a step ahead of spammers and hackers
Review: If you want to fight back against spammers, first you need to know how they operate. This book explains in detail the techniques spammers use to create their mailing lists. That's essential to understand if you want to avoid spam in the first place. The book also offers tips and techniques for coping with an inbox already overrun with spam.

The same is true with viruses and spyware. You first need to learn how these nasty things spread so you can avoid getting infected. The book goes into great detail on this issue with clear explanations and very helpful advice. For those already afflicted, it explains how to remove a virus or spyware infection. The software on the included CD helps with that as well.

The section on pop-ups explains what pop-ups are and where they come from. It then teaches you how to effectively use pop-up blocking software.

Make no mistake, this book is written for the general user; it's no reference text for IT professionals. But even experienced users will find a lot of worthwhile material.

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Summary: Useful Tips To Help Keep Your PC Pest Free
Review: There is no question that the pests addressed in this book are a significant threat to the everyday functionality of computers. This is particularly true of home users who don't have the benefit of a network security administrator to implement and maintain a perimeter firewall and ensure that antivirus detection is kept up to date.

Home users generally think of the computer as an appliance. They don't want to know more than they have to in order to use it for its intended purpose. They aren't trying to become computer security experts any more than they want to understand the physics behind how the microwave oven works.

Unfortunately, you can use a microwave oven without understanding the physics, but at least a rudimentary understanding of the threats out there and how to protect your computer or network from them are required to effectively use the computer.

Feinstein does a good job of explaining what the threats are and why you are at risk, and then providing the reader with fairly simple instructions to help shield the computer from that threat and protect your data and your network bandwidth so you can use the computer as you intended.

This is a good resource for a home user trying to learn about protecting their PC

Tony Bradley is a consultant and writer with a focus on network security, antivirus and incident response. He is the About.com Guide for Internet / Network Security (http://netsecurity.about.com), providing a broad range of information security tips, advice, reviews and information. Tony also contributes frequently to other industry publications. For a complete list of his freelance contributions you can visit Essential Computer Security (http://www.tonybradley.com).