Internet 3xx - The at home snoop

[Jedi_Outcast]

This is where it gets really interesting. Stopping the at home snoop, whether it is husband, wife or kids.

301 - What your computer knows about you, and how to clean it up

Your Web Browser is a gold mine of information about you. When you visit a web page a lot of stuff is deposited on your computer, a copy of the web page is kept in your cache, the address you went to is stored in your history, and cookies, your preferences for that particular web site, are saved. Put these three things together and you have a very complete picture of where you went and what you looked at.

How to clean it up?
There are a lot of programs out there that promise to clean your tracks for $39.99+ S&H. they all do the same thing: clear your cache, wipe out the cookies and erase the history. If you really feel the need to spend fourty bucks, there is a hungry techie out there in need of a pizza

All of the following directions are for Windows Millenium (ME)

to clear out your cache and cookies:
Double click on "my computer", double click on "local disk (C". If all you see is the windows logo click on "view the entire contents of this drive" on the left hand side.
Double click on "windows". If all you see is the windows logo click on "view the entire contents of this folder" on the left hand side.
Double click on "Temporary Internet Files", highlight everything and hit the delete key. that should take care of all your cached web pages and cookies. Click on the folder with the Up arrow in it. That will take you back to the Windows folder.
Double click on "History". right click on each item and select delete. Your history is now cleared.

To make sure your cache and history don't come back:

Open up internet explorer, click on "Tools", select "Internet Options..."

Midway down you should see a "Temporary Internet files" section, click on "Settings" use the slider bar to reduce the amount of disk space to use down to 1 MB. that will keep your tracks to a minimum. click on OK.
Right below the "temporary Internet files" section you will see the history section, use the small down arrow to change the number from 20 to 0. that will stop IE from keeping track of your history.

if you want a quick way of clearing your files, click on the "delete files", and check "delete all offline content". click on OK. then ckick on "clear history", then "yes". This is the easiest way, but may not get everything.


Next - How to keep your private stuff private

 

[Jedi_Outcast]

302 - How to keep your private stuff private
If you have any concerns about somebody snooping at your documents, there is really only one thing to do ENCRYPT. you can't stop them from looking at the files, but you can make sure what they see is garbage. My preferred way of encrypting files is winzip(www.winzip.com). It's simple and the you don't have to worry about losing keys, just losing the password. The downside is the encryption is easy to break if you have time. It is meant to keep out the casual snoops. not somebody with a lot of time to go snooping.
Using winzip: Open winzip, drag the files you want to encrypt into the winzip window, you will get the add dialog, click on new, and type the name of the zip file, click on OK. Then click on Password, and type the password, click on OK, retype the password, and click on OK again. Finally click on add, and you are done.
To get the files out, double click on the zip file, double click on the file you want to extract, then type in the password. the file will open.

if you are truly paranoid there is PGP, mentioned in another post. The protection is unbreakable, but it is more difficult to use.

If your computer will support it I reccomend windows XP. not only is it more stable than windows ME but it is also more secure. As long as the other people are not Administrators, they cannot see any of your files, that includes internet cache, history and cookies. for even more protection Windows XP supports encryption at the file level. This encryption is also unbreakable, but if you lose your computer to a re-format or try to move the data it will be unreadable. I don't reccomend using XP's built in encryption. It's kind of risky and not really worth it given XP's other protections.

If you have a home network, other people on the network can see your files and folders. To completely shut this down, right click on "my network places", select "properties" click on the "File and Print Sharing" box, make sure both boxes are unchecked and click on OK. this may require a reboot.

Next: Viruses, Spyware, and Firewalls - Oh, My!

 

[Sunny One]

You are just a wealth of information. Thanks so much. I've cleared cookies and history before, but haven't reduced the disk space.

MY husband isn't too much of a snoop, so I wouldn't need any of the really advanced stuff. Just enough to keep him out of a few files if he is on here looking for something.

Looking forward to the part on firewalls.

 

[CallaLily]

Thanks for taking the time to post all this, Jedi. It's really informative. I'm not worried too much about snooping, per se... but I do share this computer with four other people, so it's nice to know how to get rid of that stuff in case anyone accidently stumbled upon it. Thanks again!