About.com Rating



Spam, viruses, pop-up ads and spyware are all pests that at their best are a significant annoyance and at their worst can destroy your data and render your computer effectively useless. No matter how you look at it you don't want these things in your computer and you need to do what you can to make sure your computer stays clean and functional.

About The Book

If your computer is running too slow to be useful because all of the memory and processor resources are being consumed by spyware you don't even realize is there, it makes it hard to use your computer.

If pop-up ads fill your screen every time you open a Web browser window, it makes it difficult to use the Web and find what you need. If your email Inbox is filled with hundreds of email ads for Viagra, low-interest mortgages, online casinos, and pleas from African diplomats to help you transfer their $45 million offshore, it hinders your ability to use email as a form of communication. If your computer is infected with a virus or worm that deletes data, turns your computer into a spam distribution point, and allows an attacker to spy on your computer activity, you may just throw in the towel and decide this whole "PC Revolution" thing is more hype than it's worth.

With fairly clear and down-to-Earth explanations and advice, along with some software on the accompanying CD to help you out, Feinstein does a great job of helping you learn how to shield your computer from these pests so you can use it for its intended purpose.

My 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