Along with the wonderful access to knowledge and all the other great benefits of the internet came some major problems too, one of these is the constant threat from viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware or adware. The threat of getting one or more of these conditions is a guarantee sooner or later by everyone. There are thousands of computers that are infected all of the time and numerous people don’t even realize it, until something disastrous happens to them.
There are numerous ways to get your computer to become infected, you may visit a website and the next thing you know, random popup messages start appearing, you click to close one, and two more open, you shut the computer off and reboot it, and as soon as the system is back up running, the popup messages appear again, your system has been infected by spyware or adware. Some of these nasty programs even appear as reputable virus tools, that warn you that your system is infected, they even show a list of infected files, and ask you if you want the program to fix them, clicking yes, actually installs another trojan or more adware, leaving your computer in an even worse mess.
You visit one of the download sites on the internet and see some free software you want, maybe it’s a great sounding game or some interesting little application, you download and install the file, and it works and functions properly, and your glad you installed it. Things are going great, two weeks later when you go to turn on your computer, it seems your WINDOWS Operating System will not load properly, what happened? What happened was this, remember that game or little application you downloaded and installed two weeks ago, it actually was a trojan horse. What appeared to be just an innocent and fun game or utility, was actually checking the date by using your computers clock, and two weeks later it launched it’s preprogrammed attack, which was to delete crucial system files from your hard drive, preventing your computer from booting properly.
Things like I just described happen every day, to thousands of people around the world, and almost 99% of these viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware or adware can be stopped before they infect your computer, or safely removed before they can cause any serious harm, if a person does four very important things:
1. Make sure your computer is behind an active firewall when you are connected to the internet
2. Have a Virus Scanner that monitors email and internet activity in real time
3. Have an adware or spyware tool
4. Keep all virus and spyware tools as current as possible, by checking them for updates daily (many users install an antivirus program but fail to update them regularly, this makes them worthless against new viruses, because new viruses are created every day).
If you have been using computers for a long time, and consider yourself very good or more skilled then most users, at keeping them free from viruses and spyware, why not use your skills to earn some extra money. There are computer sales and service centers in almost every town or city across the country, and many of the computers that are taken in for repairs are simply for the removal of viruses, trojans, worms or spyware. Depending upon where you go, and the damages the virus as done, some of the fees for virus removal can cost over a hundred dollars. Maybe you can do the same service from a room in your home or apartment, in your spare time, wouldn’t you like to earn $50 or even $100 for removing a virus, updating the software, and on a few rare cases, reinstalling the WINDOWS operating system.
I never took a computer repair course in my life, but I have removed and installed sound cards, video cards, internal modems and even formatted, and partitioned hard drives, and reinstalled the WINDOWS operating system numerous times over the years. I got so good at computer repairs that folks at work started bringing in their systems for me to take home and fix for them, then they paid me when I had the job finished. I thought it was great getting some extra money for a hobby I enjoyed, and you can do the same thing during the long cold months of winter. So, this winter and every winter season, don’t worry about being stuck inside with nothing to do, tell your friends and family to pass the word, that you are taking new clients for your computer virus and spyware removal business, it’s not only great to make some extra money, it’s also a great way to keep busy, and to help fight the winter blues.
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