Practical Ways to Protect Your Computer
Advice from Chequamegon Experts

Chequamegon Communications understands the importance of computer security. That's why we use a program called Postini to filter spam and viruses out of your e-mail before they ever reach you. Of course, not all threats are transmitted by email, so it’s important for you to take security into your own hands, too.

You should be sure that you are running an anti-virus program on your computer and that the program scans and updates regularly. Anti-virus programs typically check the files on your computer against a list of virus definitions. If you don't update your definitions, then the program doesn't know to look for the latest viruses. Anti-virus programs are available from McAfee, Norton and Symantec, to name a few.

Additional protection can be obtained by using an anti-spyware program as well. Spyware can track information on your computer and send it to a remote computer over the Internet. Two popular anti-spyware programs are Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware, both of which may be downloaded for free.