It is important to keep your computer free from malware for a better and a safer computing experience. There are 10 tips i would like to share that are a bare minimum for safe computing.

1. Updated antivirus
• Keep an updated antivirus in your PC. You can go for AVG free online edition and download it from download.com. It is useful and has the auto update feature
  
2. Anti spyware
• Keep an anti spyware installed. Most of us think an antivirus is OK. But some antiviruses don't come with an antispyware.
  
3. Don't download EXE files
• You might get an exe file in your email as attachment or while downloading a software. Be careful while doing so. You can be downloading a possibly deadly virus.Check out the website/source you are downloading and when you are 100% sure, then only download it.
  
4. Go for a routed traffic
• If you are connecting to the internet through a broadband service and you do not have a router, go get it. They are cheap
  
5. Allow OS auto updates
• Let your windows or your MAC OS be updated. They contain bug fixes and also seal several loopholes that might allow the hacker to break in to your PC.
  
6. Activate the hardware firewall
• Your router should support SPI. SPI is Stateful packet inspection, whihc distinguishes the good internet traffic from the bad harmful ones
  
7. Don't mix multiple firewalls
• 2 is better than 1 does not go well with firewalls. It does not increase your safety quotient. It just calls for headaches.
  
8. Go for one antivirus
• Again the same thing. Go for one antivirus. Two will just slow your system and add headache
  
9. Use a bi-directional firewall
• It comes standard with Mac OS and Windows Vista. The old windows users can get a third party firewall(check point's zone alarm)
  
10. Don't use auto fill for filling passwords
• Auto fills can be a disaster waiting to happen to your email account. Better remember your password and write it somewhere.This becomes even more vulnerable, when using a shared or an office based PC. You can use the master password in Firefox. In Internet explorer you can go to content tab and then to autocomplete settings to disable.

Previous topics
Assemble your PC #1 : The basics
Assemble your PC #2 : Choosing the parts

What operating system am I going to use?

Before you buy components, be sure that they are supported by the operating
system you plan to use. Almost all current, commonly available PC devices have
drivers available for current versions of Windows (generally, anything 2000, XP,
Vista, or newer); if you want to run an alternative operating system, you’ll have
to do some research; many alternatives have extensive ’Hardware Compatibility
Lists’ as well as software comaptibility.

Windows hardware support lists
Windows XP supports most processors and motherboards based on the i386
(x86; 32-bit) or x86 64 (AMD64/EM64T; 64-bit) architectures. Put simply, all
available consumer processors (especially from AMD or Intel) will work with
the Windows XP operating system.

Linux hardware support lists
As one of the most popular free operating systems, Linux is a very good alternative.
It has versions for many different architectures, including i386, x64 and
PowerPC, though i386 versions are much more common. It will also support all
kinds of processors, enabling it to be used on Palm PCs and even iPods. There
are many different versions of Linux, produced by different companies. These
are called ’distributions’ or ’distros’ for short. For a desktop PC, you should
make sure to pick a desktop distro, one where the company/organisation has
desktop users in mind, e.g. Ubuntu, SimplyMEPIS or Mandriva. SUSE is also a
good choice, and has tools that make it easy to use as a server. Ubuntu has won
many awards from PC magazines and is noted for being particularly easy to use
(for basic tasks, e.g. web, email, word processing). It should be noted, however,
that many popular programs, especially games, are not available for Linux, and
the only way to run them is with special compatibility layers or programs like
Wine, which may or may not work with a specific program.
All this is important to bear in mind as different distros will support different
hardware (generally more ’bleeding-edge’ distros will support newer hardware
look at Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, but not the stable release of Debian). A good
rule of thumb is to buy hardware that is 12 to 18 months old, as it most likely
has Linux support with most distros, but won’t be too old.

Previous topics
Assemble your PC #1 : The basics
Assemble your PC #2 : Choosing the parts

The first step to building a computer is acquiring the parts. This guide will
start with a quick explanation of essential parts and elaborate on them further
on.
A computer is made up of a case, also called a chassis, which houses several
internal components, and the external components, including peripherals.
Inside the case go the following internal parts:
Power Supply/PSU power supply unit, converts outlet power, which
is alternating current (AC), to direct current (DC), which is what the
internal components require, as well as providing appropriate voltages
and currents for the various internal components.
Motherboard/mainboard As the name indicates, this is the electronic
centerpiece of the computer, everything else connects to the motherboard.
Processor/CPU central processing unit, the “brain” of the computer,
most actual computation takes place here.
RAM random access memory, the “short-term memory” of a computer,
used by the CPU to store program instructions and data upon which it is
currently operating. Data in RAM is lost when the computer is powered
off, thus necessitating a hard drive.
Hard Drive/Hard Disk the “long-term memory” of the computer, used
for persistent storage i.e. the things stored on it remain even when the
computer is powered down. The operating system, and all your programs
and data are stored here.
Optical Drive device for reading/writing optical disks. May read CDs,
DVDs, or other optical media, depending on the type. It is essential for
installing many operating systems and programs. It may be able to write
some of these discs, as well. Some people like to have two such drives for
copying disks.

ref:wikibooks

Posted on February 23, 2008.

What is NOD32 ?

• NOD32 is an antivirus package made by the Slovak company Eset.
• Versions are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other platforms.
• A NOD32 Enterprise Edition is available that consists of NOD32 AntiVirus and NOD32 Remote Administrator.
• The NOD32 Remote Administrator program allows a network administrator to monitor anti-virus functions, push installations and upgrades to unprotected PCs on the network, and update configuration files from a central location.

NOD32 was born in the early 1990s when computer viruses were becoming increasingly prevalent.

What does it provide ?

• AMON (Antivirus MONitor) - scans files as they are accessed by the system, preventing a virus from executing on the system.
• DMON (Document MONitor) - scans Microsoft Office documents and files for macro viruses as they are opened and saved by Office applications.
• IMON (Internet MONitor) - intercepts traffic on common protocols such as POP3 and HTTP to detect and intercept viruses before they are saved to discs.
• EMON (E-mail MONitor) - An auxiliary module for scanning incoming/outgoing e-mails via the MAPI interface, such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Client.
• XMON (MS eXchange MONitor) - scans incoming and outgoing mail when NOD32 is running and licensed for Microsoft Exchange Server - ie, running on a server environment. This module is not present on workstations at all.

What makes it the best ?

• NOD32 is written largely in assembly code, which contributes to its low use of system resources and high scanning speed.
• NOD32 can process more than 23MB per second while scanning on a Pentium 4 based PC.
  It uses less than 20MB of memory in total.The physical RAM used is often just a third of that.
• According to a 2005 Virus Bulletin test, NOD32 performs scans two to five times faster than other antivirus competitors.
• In a networked environment NOD32 clients can update from a central “mirror server” on the network, reducing bandwidth usage since new definitions need only be downloaded once by the mirror server as opposed to once for each client.
• In addition to signature files, NOD32’s scan engine uses heuristic detection (called “ThreatSense” by Eset) to provide better protection against newly released viruses.

Also Visit: ESET website