** Continued From: Tweak Dat: Your PC!

Ah the Internet. I know you love it.

"Surfing is potentially hazardous and one of the biggest time-killing annoyances in this industry."

Well, except for the pop-ups, browser hijacks, auto-installs and assorted vulnerabilities consistently found in Windows/Microsoft software. In these days of affordable broadband and accelerated dial-up providers, the problem isn’t staying connected. The problem with surfing the web today is that it’s so full of danger it’s almost not any fun.

Being an adult webmaster is hard work. We have to be on the net for hours and hours and hours. Any time we spend taking care of some new browser crisis or system crash is time that should have been spent on our business.

What’s worse is that often, the source of these assaults come from the sites of our nefarious peers. Gallery builders encounter dialer downloads when they submit to some lesser TGPs. TGP reviewers are hit with toolbar stealthware when they open submissions, as do Link list masters. Beware when you click that homepage URL in that webmaster’s profile on your favorite message board. But don’t let’s forget the mainstream web. It’s not much better. Surfing is potentially hazardous and one of the biggest time-killing annoyances in this industry.

This article will concentrate on ending the fear and the hassle of unsafe surfing. I showed you in my previous article, "Tweak DAT: Your PC!", how to use some programs to change system settings so that your Windows machine will run better than it does by default. These tools really aren’t tweakers. They’re more like fixatives for all those Windows security holes:

Big Fix
(http://bigfix.com/download/download.html)

Have you ever been to Microsoft.com? I know they have a lot to cover on that site but finding a real solution, new patch or a necessary driver is one hell of a long journey. US-CERT be damned. Most of us might stop using IE but we’re not giving up the Windows operating system anytime soon.

Big Fix is software that monitors internet security/development databases and will notify you when your machine needs and upgrade or patch. The program will also give a direct download link to fix your problem along with text concerning how the fix will affect your computer.

As Big Fix’s creators say “stop problems before they happen”. So this tweak that isn’t a tweak is kind of a tweak because it’s doing something that Microsoft Update should do better.

WinPatrol
(http://www.winpatrol.com)

If you use WinPatrol you become the proud owner of Scotty, the Windows Watch Dog. This program monitors your computer and barks for you if it thinks your system or browser is in danger.

WinPatrol allows you to examine, disable, remove or shutdown start-up programs. Do the same with Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), active running programs, scheduled tasks and cookies. Click the Info button provided for each WinPatrol listing to read the exact path to the file in question, a description of it’s actions and the consequences of disabling or deleting it. Scotty’s not a tweaker but he keeps the bad guys at bay.

Mozilla/Firefox
(http://www.mozilla.org)

The US Computer Readiness Team (US-CERT) recently advised web surfers to use any browser other than Internet Explorer. There are many alternative browser programs out there but a lot of them are Internet Explorer-based.

Opera is exceptional software and they were the first to incorporate a tabbed interface, but the Opera browser costs money. The free version is ad-based. This isn't a bad thing but Mozilla is both cost-free and ad-free.

For the moment, most hackers, spyware programmers and virus writers aim their efforts at Internet Explorer. With Mozilla/Firefox you save time because your browser isn't in the line of fire. This will change and in fact, there are plenty of malicious scripts and codes written for Mozilla/Firefox software. The difference is that Mozilla/Firefox is open source code with developers working 24/7 to improve the program. A recent vulnerability was discovered and patched (by Mozilla developers) within 24 hours. The best way to tweak your Internet is to use a dependable browser.

So sue me. There’s not one program in this article that could be categorized as a tweaker. What does it mean to tweak? Technically, it means to make manual adjustments to program/system/hardware settings. The word reportedly comes from the days when electronics technicians used tweezers to mess with wiring. I could write about tweakers like dial-up connection helpers, download accelerators or DSL connection boosters. I could show you how to tweak the settings in your IE and Internet software but you probably already know how to do that. The software I’ve mentioned tweak something more important, your time and security while you’re on the net.