From Paul Gil,
Your Guide to Internet for Beginners.
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April, 2008

If you subscribe to Cable or DSL broadband at home, then you are likely to be casually "attacked" by hackers up to three dozen times a day. Especially if you use Windows XP or other Windows operating systems, you are a prime target for savvy hackers who will exploit your fulltime internet connection.

As good as Microsoft products are, they are also obsessively targeted by hackers around the world. Small Microsoft "holes" perforate your computer, including: your administrator account, your ICF firewall service, your guest logon, your shared folders, your messaging services, your Identifier Broadcasts, your port openings, and your Encrypted File Services... all of these obscure points are absolute candy for hackers!

Yes, this is frightening. But all is not lost... most of these security holes in Microsoft are easily patched by an hour of reading and an hour of configuring your PC.

Good home security is about vigilance, knowledge, and meticulous attention to detail. We here at About.com want to help you with that, so we have provided dozens of free articles explaining security holes and how best to plug them.

Welcome to the exciting and challenging world of anti-hacker and anti-virus defense! What follows next are explanations of firewalls, packet filter routers, toggling Windows services to prevent external access, configuring WiFi networks for privacy, and overall blocking of hackers on Cable and DSL networks.

These next tutorials are updated frequently to reflect news and software changes. Please check back often for updates!

Go to the About Home Computer Security Handbook now...