To protect your privacy and security while surfing the web and to avoid the introduction of viruses, spam and other nasty things, you need to perform several simple tasks with your web browser on a regular basis. These tasks involve deleting cookies, deleting files and clearing history. When surfing the Internet, your computer automatically collects information from the sites you visit; this includes web site addresses as well as tags to your personal information. This information can serve as a source of all types of “pop-ups, etc.” ETS recommends that you clean all these files at least once a week.
Cookies - A cookie is a very small text file placed on your hard drive by a web page server. It is essentially your identification card. Web sites often partner with advertisers who place banner ads on the web site they partner with. These banner ads can be used to place cookies on your system. To delete cookies:
Open your browser
Under the Menu item “Tools” go to “Internet Options” and under the General Tab press the “Delete Cookies” button.
It will ask you if it’s “OK to delete all cookies”. Press OK.
History - The History folder is a list of the Internet addresses or web sites you have visited. This history list is what you see when you hit the dropdown for the address bar at the top of your browser or use the back button in your browser.
To delete your History:
Open your browser.
Under the Menu item “Tools” go to “Internet Options” and under the General Tab press the “Clear History” button.
It will ask you if it’s “OK to delete your history” of visited web sites. Press Yes
Temporary Internet Files - To delete your temporary Internet files:
Open your browser and under the Menu item Tools go to Internet Options.
Under the General Tab you will see a button called Delete Files.
Press that button and it will ask you if it’s “OK to delete all temporary Internet Files”. Press OK.
Stay tuned for next week’s article on additional tools for fighting spam!
Communications and Network Services
Educational Technology Services
03/28/2005 |