Book IV Chapter 3 Protecting Your Computer 219 Visiting the Windows Security Center Figure 3-5: The Firewall Settings window. Figure 3-6: Vista prompts to allow a connection. The dialog box shown in Figure 3-6 is light on details. You’re being asked to decide whether or not an application should accept connections. If you allow it, the Windows firewall will allow incoming connections into this application. To be clear, the application has requested the privilege of accepting con- nections. The first question you should ask is “Did I just launch that applica- tion?” If the query came while you were in the middle of browsing the Web, then you should be extra cautious. However, in this case, I ran the program. If you’re not sure which program generated the alert, then check the dialog box because it’s listed there. 220 Visiting the Windows Security Center After you determine that the alert was as a result of a program you chose to run, you should ask “Is this the type of program that accepts network connections?” On the Internet, a client (your computer) connects to a server to get some information. The connection is always made from one side to the other, and having a connection come in to you if you’re a client is rare. Therefore, if you see an alert asking you if you’d like to accept connections, you should qualify the last question by asking yourself why someone would want to connect to me. You want incoming connections on the following scenarios: ✦ When you’re running some server software such as an FTP server. ✦ When you’re running a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing program that shares out parts of the file as you download the rest. ✦ When you’re running some remote control software and want people to be able to control your computer. It’s also important to note that if you’re behind a router, then people from the Internet can’t make direct connections to you and wouldn’t be able to connect to the application anyway. There are exceptions to this, such as if you’ve enabled port forwarding (see Book IV, Chapter 2). If you want to allow the application to receive connections, then click Unblock. If not, click Keep Blocking. Using automatic updates Software isn’t perfect. Actually, if you spent some time as a software devel- oper, you’d be continually surprised when it works at all. A popular quote among developers is “If we built buildings the same way we built software, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.” Despite Microsoft’s biggest efforts, bugs exist in Windows. Some of them are pretty tame such as “screen doesn’t redraw properly.” But some of them are pretty bad like one that surfaced in late 2008 that allowed anyone that could connect to your machine to take it over. Oops. Patches are pieces of software that fix bugs. Think of using patches as patch- ing up a hole in a wall, or in a bike tire. Microsoft releases these patches every month, and you can download them to make sure your computer’s software is up to date. Book IV Chapter 3 Protecting Your Computer 221 Visiting the Windows Security Center The problem is that Microsoft software often has bugs and, therefore, it tends to release a lot of patches. Chances are you won’t remember to download every single patch every month. Figuring out which patches are necessary is also a problem. So Microsoft introduced Windows Update some time ago, and more recently, made it install patches automatically, should you allow it. In Figure 3-7, the line corresponding to automatic updates has been pulled down to show some more details. Figure 3-7: The Windows Security Center showing the automatic updates option Click on the Change settings button to bring up the automatic updates con- figuration, which is shown in Figure 3-8. From here, you have two options: ✦ Install updates automatically: In this mode, Windows checks for updates periodically and installs them. ✦ Let me choose: Gives you more flexibility on how you apply your updates. If you choose the Let Me Choose option, the screen in Figure 3-9 appears. You can select one of the following options: ✦ Install automatically: This option is almost the same as the one in the previous menu. Updates are downloaded and installed without your intervention. The difference between this and the previous menu is that you get to choose the time the updates happen. 222 Visiting the Windows Security Center Figure 3-8: Configuring automatic updates. Figure 3-9: Showing the available options for Windows Update. ✦ Download updates but let me choose whether to install them: If you’re not comfortable with updates happening without your knowledge, choose this option. When new updates are released your computer downloads them and then prompts you to download them. ✦ Check for updates, but let me choose whether to download and install them: This option is similar to the last option, except that the updates Book IV Chapter 3 Protecting Your Computer 223 Visiting the Windows Security Center aren’t downloaded automatically. I find this option to be troublesome because I like having the updates happen when I’m not using the computer. ✦ Never check for updates: If you want to do it by hand, choose this option. I recommend setting your system up for automatic updates, so you won’t miss an update. Checking for updates manually The automatic updates only download the patches that Microsoft deems critical. Every so often, check for updates manually; doing so lets you down- load all the optional updates. Going through the process manually after you first install your computer is a good idea. Usually, you have some updates that require the presence of earlier updates, so even after going through the updates once, you may find that you’re not fully patched. Only the manual process gives you the confi- dence that you’re up to date. To do so, follow these steps: 1. From the Control Panel, select Check for Updates from the Security menu. The screen shown in Figure 3-10 appears. Figure 3-10: Showing the available updates. 224 Visiting the Windows Security Center In Figure 3-10, you can see that the system has 57 important updates to download. If you are curious about what they are, you can click the View available updates link. This screen also lets you confirm your automatic update settings. Here you can see that the system is configured to update nightly at 3 a.m., and that it’s never been updated. 2. Ignore the optional updates for now and click the Install Updates button to begin the update process. Sometimes the updates come with a license that you must accept to use. In Figure 3-11, the license is for the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which is the built in anti-spyware product. I look at this later, but for now, you have to accept the license terms and click Finish. Figure 3-11: Accept the license terms. 3. Wait while your system downloads and installs updates. The time it takes to do this depends on the speed of your computer and how many updates you have. Your computer will be usable during the update process, but don’t expect peak performance. There’s a lot going on during the update process, and at times your computer might feel sluggish. After the updates are installed, you get confirmation, as shown in Figure 3-12. Book IV Chapter 3 Protecting Your Computer 225 Visiting the Windows Security Center Figure 3-12: A confirmation that the updates were successfully installed. If you read the message on the screen, you can see that you’re being prompted to reboot to finish the updates. You can do so now, or close the window to reboot later. If you choose to reboot later, then you are periodically reminded to reboot by means of a dialog box that pops up from the system tray, shown in Figure 3-13. Figure 3-13: Vista prompts you to reboot. You can continue to postpone the reboot as long as you want. When you finally reboot, the process takes longer than normal because updates are being processed. Some updates depend on other updates already having been applied. The first time you apply updates you should go back and check to make sure all updates were applied correctly. 226 Visiting the Windows Security Center 1. After the reboot, go back to the updates window by going to the Control Panel and selecting Check for Updates from the Security menu. Figure 3-14 shows that there is one important update and 20 optional updates. 2. Click on View available updates to get details of these 21 updates. Figure 3-15 shows the available updates. The important update is a security update, and most of the rest are regular system updates. If you are curious, you can enter the identification next to the update, such as KB931099, into the search engine at Microsoft.com to find out the details. Figure 3-14: There are still more updates. Figure 3-15: Viewing all the updates. Book IV Chapter 3 Protecting Your Computer 227 Visiting the Windows Security Center 3. Choose the updates you want to install by checking the box next to the name. If you want to select them all, you can check the button at the top of the dialog. 4. Finally, click on Install to begin the update process. You might have to go through this a couple more times before you’re all up to date. However, after you’re done, you are told that there are no new updates available, as in Figure 3-16. Figure 3-16: No new updates are available. After all of that, your automatic updates take care of you, and all you have to worry about is performing the odd reboot. Protecting against malware Microsoft Windows spawned an industry of malware authors eager to make a buck off of computer users. The malware authors were fairly successful, which itself was the drive behind the good guys to come out with anti- malware products. Anti-virus products have been available long before the Internet was com- monplace and have managed to keep pace with the virus authors. Anti- malware software has not been as successful as its anti-virus brethren. Finally, with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft bundled its own anti- malware software with the operating system. Microsoft calls this software Windows Defender. It is bundled with Vista and also downloadable from Microsoft.com for Windows XP and 2003. 228 Visiting the Windows Security Center Sadly, Windows Defender doesn’t do anything for viruses. You’re on your own there, so I’ve got a free alternative for you later on in this chapter. Looking at Windows Defender 1. From the Control Panel choose Security and then click on Windows Defender to open Windows Defender, shown in Figure 3-17. In the figure you can see that everything is just fine according to Defender. 2. If you want to scan your computer right away, click the Scan button at the top. If anything pops up, you can deal with it right there. Figure 3-17: The Windows Defender main screen. Bundled security software If you’ve bought a computer recently, espe- cially from a retail outlet, you might find that it comes with anti-virus and anti-malware soft- ware. If so, great! But, please check carefully, because many of these are time-limited trials and will stop working after 30, 60, or 90 days. If, after the trial, you’re happy with the soft- ware, then by all means buy it. Windows Vista was designed to work with third-party anti- virus and anti-malware products. Make sure that you understand what you’re signing up for, such as recurring billing. If you don’t want to keep the software, make sure to uninstall it to avoid being nagged about buying it. [...]... the Windows Security Center 233 ✦ Agree to provide information about detected threats to AVG: This option is disabled by default, and you may want to consider enabling it Turning on this option sends information about what the software finds back to AVG for product improvements and virus research Any information that could identify you is stripped before it is sent ✦ Change my default search engine... should be enough Figure 3-24: Configuring the time and type of scan Configure the scan for a time that works for you and make sure that the Enable scanning check box is selected Your computer is slower than normal because of all the disk reads, so pick a time where you don’t expect peak performance Lunchtime works well for me Follow the instructions on the screens to complete the installation You may or... and click on Continue if you had run the program indicated If it pops up for no reason, or on a file you downloaded from the Internet, it’s time for caution! Fire up your anti-virus software and scan the file first Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Network Problems In This Chapter ✓ Verifying your settings ✓ Checking hardware ✓ Finding information about a Web site ✓ Exploring the command line W eb sites can... server If you’re getting one of these addresses, then the problem is between you and your ISP Begin by rebooting your wireless router and then your computer If that doesn’t solve the problem, refer back to Book II, Chapter 8 for instructions on how to troubleshoot your computer and wireless network Pinging Around Underwater sonar relies on measuring sounds to determine where an object is and what it... seconds is almost like forever! Because you’re pinging the gateway, you should expect less than 10 ms, except possibly for the first response If you receive a few replies and a few timeouts, that’s usually a sign of packet loss Losing a few packets here and there is normal, but again, if this is the gateway, then you might have interference and should go back to Book II, Chapter 8 for instructions on... called routers, and their sole purpose is to send your traffic to an adjacent router that’s one step closer to your destination Therefore, you’re sending your data to your ISP’s edge router, who will forward that inside their core, probably to another provider, and so forth, until it’s time to send the response back the other way You can trace the path to your Web site to see how far along the path... The first example is a site that successfully works Figure 4-8 shows the path from my home to www.unpluggedandonline.com, a site by the author about consumer wireless The first hop is 192.168.1.1, which is the wireless router, and then to the wireless router’s default gateway Hops 3, 4, and 5 have names (on the right) ending in shawcable.net, which is my Internet service provider The traffic is then... the use of private addresses like 192.168.1.1 that you see in your home network Private addressing has done a remarkable job of extending the time before all the IPv4 addresses are depleted The so-called “death of the IPv4 Internet” has been predicted for years, and somehow we always make it through another year In the early 1990s work was started on the next-generation IPv4, which was eventually called... anti-spyware software with various features They offer their base package free for noncommercial use If you don’t already have anything else, I highly recommend AVG If you scroll to the bottom, you can see the download link, which is shown in Figure 3-18 Upon clicking the download link, you are redirected to another site for the download If you are using Internet Explorer, you might get the warning... options It’s nowhere near as interesting as anti-virus Installing anti-virus software Many companies are selling anti-virus software You can expect to pay around $30–$60 for the software, depending on the features, and to pay that every year for upgrades and updates to the virus signatures Packages at the upper end (and higher) include more than just anti-virus and anti-spyware; they help you with spam, . ✦ Never check for updates: If you want to do it by hand, choose this option. I recommend setting your system up for automatic updates, so you won’t miss an update. Checking for updates manually The. Microsoft.com for Windows XP and 2003. 228 Visiting the Windows Security Center Sadly, Windows Defender doesn’t do anything for viruses. You’re on your own there, so I’ve got a free alternative for you. information about what the software finds back to AVG for product improvements and virus research. Any informa- tion that could identify you is stripped before it is sent. ✦ Change my default search