Internet service has opened doors to making information, education, and entertainment available on demand. Always readily available and easily assessable, websites are the new wave of fast easy access to almost anything. Blogs are an excellent example. Short for “weblogs” blogs can be anything from a personal journal or diary to a professional analysis of news and trends in a large variety of genres. Some people blog as professions, others for fun. Either way, blogs are an entertaining and popular way to get information, news, updates, and commentaries on the topics that interest you—or provide an interesting viewpoint on daily activities and other life topics.

Since blogs are just written entries and not usually representing any business or organization, they aren’t often edited or pass inspection of anyone before they get published. Therefore, you can’t always expect them to be professional and reputable. They can, however, represent a business or characterize the well-thought out and researched opinion of well-spoken and knowledgeable individuals. These are usually the type of blogs that have the most visitors, incoming links, and subscribers, so the blogs getting the most attention have reason to be popular. They are probably good resources—at least for getting insight on other points of view, etc. Here are some of the most common types of blogs:

*Personal Diaries
Many people enjoy keeping a blog of entries on personal events, thoughts, or as an outlet for their creativity. Sometimes it’s a way to keep friends and family informed, others simply want to express themselves and sometimes keep their identity anonymous. Personal diaries might even be a collection of poems, pictures, and the like.

This type of blog can be very interesting and inspiring. It’s a way to see the world through another person’s point of view—from across the country or even the globe! You can find blogs such as these as a source of entertainment or to learn about a certain type of lifestyle, career, region, etc., from someone who experiences it from day to day.

*Business Blogs
Blogs can be a useful form of marketing or advertising. Whether a blog offers advice, describes services, or posts entries about related content that would be useful to customers, business blogs’ primary function is to attract new customers, assist current customers, or attract business or links from affiliates.

Regardless of the “marketing” nature of business blogs, they are often helpful and legitimate resources. Unlike a personal blog, these blogs must be accountable to the business they represent, so they are often reviewed by others or must conform to stricter standards. Thus, the blog has a higher probability of containing usable and reliable content.

*Professional Blogs
Believe it or not, there are a number of people who can make a living from blogging. Whether people or companies need these bloggers to post articles or entries for marketing purposes or they simply have a valuable, professional insight that can be a useful and coveted resource for other companies.  A professional blog could also be an insightful informational blog written personally by a professional that only or mostly includes professional topics. These can be useful to those who want or need that “inside information” for that profession or topic.

Professional blogs often get a lot of interest and attention because the writer is famous or at least well known in their field. Most people read these blogs to gain from the wisdom, experience, and insight of someone of this person’s standing. They will usually be focused on a genre, profession, or topic that will most likely be of interested to a certain group of readers. They could be about fashion, politics, sports, finance, business, marketing, etc.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Malware, or malicious software, is any annoying, misleading, dishonest, privacy-invading, computer-harming software. Different malware is contracted in different ways, and removing them is different depending on the program as well. Removing malware can be a messy problem to deal with, but it is certainly worse if it is not taken care of as soon as possible.

First of all, if you don’t have an antivirus program and a firewall running, you need to install and enable them now. If you use Windows firewall, you can enable it from your Security Center in the Control Panel. If you antivirus service is expired, you must renew it or at least install a free service. Next, check to be sure your antivirus service has been updated recently. If you open your antivirus program, it will very clearly tell you if everything is running properly, yellow and red indicators will notify you of anything expired or out of date.

Once you have established that you have a current, up-to-date antivirus program and your firewall is on, run a full computer scan with your antivirus program. You may have to go into the advanced options or check through the available buttons and tabs. Once the full computer scan is complete, follow whatever instructions are recommended with any infections it finds.

Now, so far you have checked for viruses and worms, etc. There is another group of “back door” malware—spyware and adware, etc.—that will not be detected by antivirus services (unless your service has additional antispyware or other malware tools). If you are still having problems or believe your problem is specify “back door” malware-related, you should probably download a spyware scanner. Be very careful what you download! Some of these advertised scanners and spyware removers are actually spyware themselves and would only worsen the situation!

When looking for a good spyware remover, look for tools that are recommended on several websites. Find reviews on the products and ratings by reputable computer services websites, like CNet and Downloads.com. If it is recommended on several reputable sources, it is probably safe to download. You probably only need one spyware scanner, because too many programs that will simply bog down your computer and conflict with one another. You may want to try several different programs, though, to find one that is easy to use and works the best for you. Once you have downloaded and completed the spyware scan and removed any infections, you should download a good firewall and antispyware program (or both if they don’t conflict and you want extra protection).

If you still have suspicious problems with your computer or if you have problems with these steps, you may need to take your computer to a technician. The sooner these problems are handled, the less likely this is necessary. If you do take your computer to a technician, if possible, be sure to back up your personal files to CD’s, flash drives, or an external hard drive, in case the technician has to reformat your hard drive, etc.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

The computer and Internet world is new to many people. It’s a wonderful and exciting thing—but it can also be scary. With horror stories of identity theft and computers crashing due to spyware and viruses, it’s no wonder it’s a scary place for many. Here’s some helpful information to understand the basics of malware and determine the differences between the types of malware.

Malware, the shortened name of malicious software is any software that has an ulterior, unscrupulous, or dishonest motive. The effects of malware can be as harmless as simply being annoying and slightly slowing down your computer’s performance, or as dangerous as attacking your computer and your important files or collecting private information from you, like credit card numbers and passwords.

There are two basic categories of malware, the “front door” and the “back door” intruders. Malware that tries to infect your computer through email and networks is known as front door intruders and can be detected and caught fairly easily by an antivirus program. The “back door” intruders are hidden and disguised software that is often bundled with another program or appears to be something helpful. Usually these are downloaded by users from the Internet. Back door malware cannot be detected by antivirus programs. The following is a brief description of the different types of malware in each category:

*The Back Door Intruders*
Spyware: This is software that collects information about a user, often to obtain search or surfing habits or private information, like passwords and credit card information. There are different types of spyware, like keyloggers that detect what keys are pressed, and “security programs” that promise to scan your computer for infections, but instead install programs to use your computer memory and give hackers access to your computer.

Adware: This type of malware is typically packages with other software, especially if it is free. It can vary from simply bombarding you with advertising every time you use the software, or collecting information about the searches and surfing you perform in order to tailor advertising to your interests.
A good indication that you may have spyware or adware on your computer is if your browser redirects to other pages by itself or search sites you don’t recognize, your homepage changes by itself, or advertisements pop up constantly, especially if they address you by name or appear even when you are offline.

There are several tools that can be downloaded to remove existing back door malware, but be careful what you download, as a misleading program might simply worsen your situation! A good firewall or antispyware program will help prevent new back door malware from having access to your computer.

*The Front Door Intruders*
Computer Viruses and Worms: These programs enter the computer through a computer network or through files like email attachments. They can replicate themselves to infect core computer files. Viruses and worms use up computer resources and are poorly built, so an infected computer will run slowly or crash often.  Some types are very dangerous and can destroy important system or personal files. Because of their replicating nature, these infections become more harmful the longer they are on the user’s computer.

Trojan Horse: This is a file that appears harmless or helpful, but once installed, it can open a “back door” through which a hacker can access the computer, use system resources for spamming and other malicious purposes, all without the knowledge of the computer’s user. Unlike a virus, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves, but they are usually installed and running without the user’s knowledge or intent.

You may have a virus if you computer suddenly begins lagging significantly more than usual or shuts down and gives error messages repeatedly. You should have an antivirus program installed and running on your computer. You must also keep it updated constantly so it will be aware of new virus threats. A computer scan by your antivirus may resolve basic virus problems, but an advanced virus infection may require in-depth resolution by a computer technician. In many cases, this step results in the loss of personal files, so keep your documents, pictures, and installation files backed up regularly to another computer, CDs, flash drives, or an external hard drive.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

When you get a dial-up service, perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of a slower connection is that few antivirus programs are simple enough to download and update themselves on dial-up. But you still have to have an antivirus program! So what can you do?

Fortunately, there are several antivirus programs that appeal to dial-up users not only for their simplicity, but because they are free!  You don’t have to pay a cent to download and install these programs. They install updates of new malware threats, etc., and scan your computer for viruses, just like subscription antivirus programs. The most popular of these free programs is AVG Anti-virus, the Free Edition, and Avast Anti-virus.

So why are these programs free? Well, the free programs are very basic, and these companies do offer subscription versions of these programs (and recommend you to upgrade, of course!). Also, you will probably not get technical support (at least, not live) with these programs, nor will you often be able have a free installation CD to be shipped to you from the company.

These free programs aren’t as all-inclusive as an expensive subscription program that covers every imaginable aspect of Internet and computer protection. However, these large paid programs will not only take up a large amount of space on your hard drive, but they also might not download the installation files and updates it requires to work properly on your dial-up connection.

Many of these programs’ updates takes up to 6 or more hours on a dial-up connection. This is most likely never going to download at all, because most dial-up services drop your connection after 4 or more hours because of a maximum online time regulation. Even if your ISP had no such regulation, dial-up connection can drop a connection unexpectedly for other reasons, like problems with the modem or phone line. Of course, then you would have to restart your download, and the whole hassle would take days and you would not be sufficiently protected in those times.

Download.com has ratings, reviews, and descriptions of a plethora of free downloads where you can compare and install various free antivirus programs. You can run a search for “free anti-virus programs” to see all the available anti-virus programs. On the home page, if you scroll down to the heading “Most Popular Downloads”, you’ll see the two free anti-virus programs listed above.

If you do want to download AVG or Avast, you should probably just go straight to download.com, because the websites of these programs will actually redirect you to download.com anyway.

It is usually possible to download free antivirus programs with most dial-up connections. It is also possible that the initial download could take several hours or require several attempts. If you have too much trouble, you may need to quickly download the installation file to a flash drive at work, a restaurant, or the library using their broadband connection. Then you can take the file home and install it on your computer in a few minutes.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Perhaps the biggest challenge for dial-up users is downloading updates on Windows computers. When everything takes ten times longer, getting daily updates for your computer or antivirus program can be a cumbersome task.  If you want to surf quickly on the Internet or have a large download to do, the last thing you want to do is share that precious little bandwidth with your updates. However, failing to do these important updates can put your computer at risk because you didn’t download a security patch. It can also cause your computer to run slowly because it is missing an important fix or upgrade for the operating system. So even as frustrating as these may be, these downloads really are helpful and necessary.

Here are a few tips if you are struggling to keep up with antivirus updates and windows updates:

*Schedule your antivirus scans and updates. You can often adjust when your antivirus uses your system resources and bandwidth in effort to avoid doing so when you want to use the Internet. You should find these setting in the advanced options of your antivirus program. Refer to the manual, website, or tech support line if you need more help with this step.

*Don’t turn off updates. As tempting as it might be to just turn off updates so you don’t have to take the time to download them, this will only cause the necessary updates for your computer to pile up until you turn them on again. If you don’t regularly update your computer, catching up on updates could take days on a dial-up connection. In the meantime, your computer is at risk and may not be able to keep up with normal functions and web applications.

*Adjust your Windows updates settings. You can set up your Windows updates so that you will be prompted when an update is available. This way you can ensure that you choose when to download an update, instead of your computer taking over and running installation while you are using the computer for other things.  You will still easily see when a new update is available.

*Take turns. If you know that your antivirus has a new update ready, you can temporarily stop windows updates from downloading. Your antivirus should take first priority, because if your connection is interrupted, the download has to start over. If you download your antivirus updates as soon as you connect to the Internet, you are more likely to get it to download successfully the first time. You can then turn on, or start the download for your Windows updates afterward, because these downloads can be interrupted and will resume the next time you connect to the Internet.

*Update overnight. You can connect to the Internet just before you go to bed, then start your updates. This way, it doesn’t matter how long they take or how much bandwidth they take up because you aren’t sitting there waiting on them.

*Download at another location. If you have a laptop and travel with it occasionally, you could turn off automatic updates and then manually download them every time you are at a place with free wireless or another form of broadband. Then you can quickly update every few weeks in a few minutes instead of trying to do them at home.

If you ever want to check whether your computer has all the updates that are available for your computer, simply go to http://www.update.microsoft.com (make sure you are using Internet Explorer) and your computer will automatically be scanned for any possible updates. You can pick what updates you want by choosing a custom installation, or you can just download everything (which is recommended by Windows).

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Windows updates, or automatic updates, is a component of the security features on any computer running the Windows operating system. They are designed to keep your computer up to date with the latest patches and security fixes that Microsoft releases for Windows computers at any given time. They vary in size and importance, and if your computer has an Internet connection, it can receive notice from Microsoft when your computer lacks the latest update for its operating system.

These updates are not too frequent, but can quickly pile up if you do not connect to the Internet very often or if you disable your computer from automatically installing new updates.

These updates are important. Sometimes they help your computer function better. For example, if Microsoft releases an operating system, there might be a bug or glitch that arises after it has been released. Microsoft can issue a fix for this glitch and your computer can receive notice of this update automatically and, if windows updates are fully enabled, download it for your and install it right away.

There are also security updates that arise as Internet and computer threats become stronger and more pervasive. These are especially necessary if you use your computer to surf the Internet. You could actually experience an improvement in the speed and functionality of your computer after completing some Windows updates. Other updates you might recieve are newer versions of other Microsoft supported programs that are installed on your computer. You may receive automatic updates that are specifically for or related to your Office, Outlook, Adobe, and Internet Explorer programs. There is a chance that you would not want to install an update, fix, or new release, for example, if you didn’t want to take up hard drive space or you didn’t really use that program very much anyway. For the most part, however, these updates are necessary and will benefit you.

You can view or change your Windows updates settings by opening Automatic Updates in your Control Panel settings. You will see that there are different ways to handle Windows updates:
1. You can download and install updates automatically. This would mean that any time you are connected to the Internet, windows update may detect that a new update is available and download and install it immediately. This is great if you want your computer to be as updated as possible and you don’t care to make decisions about what gets installed.

2. You can specify that you would like to be notified when an update is available and choose when to download the updates yourself. This is the best option if you don’t want to download every update just because Microsoft has determined you don’t have that update. You can see a name and description of the file, choose the one(s) that you want, then download only those.

3. You can download the updates, but specify when to install them. This might be convenient for you to do if you don’t want to use system resources while you are working on the computer or uploading/downloading a large file. You can leave your computer on whenever a new update is available and let it install overnight or during the day when you are at work.

4. You can completely turn off automatic updates. This is ok temporarily, especially to free up space while downloading large files or using the computer for your own purposes. Another way it might be ok is if you do not use this computer to surf the Internet, but then you wouldn’t be getting updates anyway. If you turn off automatic updates, you will be warned by your Windows security system that your computer might be at risk, as you may be missing out on an important security update.

If you ever want to check if your computer has all the updates it needs, using Internet Explorer, visit www.update.microsoft.com and your computer will automatically be scanned to check for the latest updates your computer might need.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

The Internet provides a vast variety of entertainment. Its options are nearly endless and is expanding and improving daily. With the development of broadband services, the gaming and entertainment world online has revolutionized from its early beginnings only a short decade ago. Many people, unfortunately, do not have access to broadband and many real-time online games require higher speeds than dial-up can provide.

One type of popular online games today are role playing games, or RPG's. This means that each player is playing the part of a character in a virtual world. Many times, the game sequences in real time, and dozens or even hundreds of people can also play the same game from all over the world, and the events of the game are happening at the same time for everyone. Dial-up and other slow connections often cannot display passing events in real time because of latency, the delay experienced because of long loading times. RPG's can be played on dial-up if it is not in real time, or if the graphics are simple and easy enough for dial-up to load. An example of this is GuildWars.com.

There are many fun and engaging games that can be played on a dial-up connection, many of which are very popular for dial-up and broadband users alike. The key to finding a dial-up compatible game is to look for flash games. Flash games are games that are loaded by adobe flash player and are run from the website itself. This means that once the game is loaded, it runs completely without using your Internet connection. Usually, flash games do not require you to leave the webpage you are on when it loads. The means you can play the games offline! The following are some websites that offer free online flash games that work great with dial-up Internet connections:

* Addictinggames.com

* Flashgames247.com

* Games.Yahoo.com

* Miniclip.com

* Popcap.com

These are only a few of the hundreds of gaming websites. Other gaming websites can be found by searching for “flash games” or “free online games” on a search engine like google.

The games may take much longer to load on dial-up than they would on broadband connections, but once they do, you can play for hours without experiencing any problems because of having a slow connection. In fact, you can even disconnect from the Internet after the game has loaded, and continue playing the game from the cached webpage. This means that you don't have to tie up your phone line in order to play for extended periods of time.

Here are a few other tricks and tips:

• Save your favorite games to your bookmarks or favorites list so you can access them quickly.

• Load a new game on a separate window while you play another game. This way, you don't have to sit and wait for the new game to load. It can load in the background while you are playing on another window.

• There are hundreds of gaming websites, and some are better quality or load games more quickly than others. If you find a game you like, but the game window is very small or takes too long to load, run a search query for that game's name to find other websites that have that game. Chances are, you'll find a website that plays the game better than the other one.

• Minimize a game window rather than closing it. This way, if you have other work to do or need to leave the computer for some time, you can set your computer to “Stand by” and come back later. You can then open the window you have minimized and your game will still be there. You won't have to start over or wait for it to load again.

Don't let having dial-up get you down, there's still so much fun to be had!

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Every time your computer opens a webpage, it requests to retrieve pictures, images, and other data from a website to your computer. This process can take some time, especially on heavily loaded websites or if you're using a slow Internet connection like dial-up. To save time and be more efficient, your computer saves many of the files that download from each website to your harddrive. This makes several things possible:

* When you revisit a site you have already been to, your computer needs only to search for new information or changes to the website, and load all of the identical features (like images, logos, and layouts that don't change) from your computer.

* Sites you visit frequently will load because it does not need to re-download the entire site, every time you visit.

* When you click the “back”, “forward”, and “refresh” buttons on your browser toolbar, you can quickly reload pages you are currently visiting.

* Features like “History” used temporary Internet files to keep track of sites you visited recently, in case you want to go back to something you visited earlier that day or up to several weeks ago.

* You can view entire “stored” websites on your browser when you are not on the Internet. They may not have the most up-to-date information, but you will still be able to view information and use features that were loaded from a previous online visit.

* Some websites that have browser-based flash games can be played offline, because the temporary Internet files have saved this content to your computer. This means you can play some of your favorite games for hours without using online time on your Internet service.

Temporary Internet files are not always a good thing. It's nice to save the information from websites you visit frequently, but eventually, your computer will be full of saved files from hundreds of websites you only visited once and may not visit again. There is no need to keep this information.

Many times a technician will direct you to your Internet Options and have you delete all your temporary Internet files and cookies in order to free your browser of the clutter of all this unnecessary saved information from visited sites over time. This sometimes helps browsers run faster, and aviod error messages like “This page cannot be displayed”, etc.

This can be a quick fix that you can do if you are having problems with your browser. It may not solve your problem, but it never hurts to try—plus, cleaning out your browser is a good thing to do—especially if you do a lot of surfing.

• First, click Tools at the top of your browser.
• Then click “Internet Options” (or maybe “Options” if you are not using Internet Explorer)
• Then look for “Browsing History” or Temporary Internet Files”. Click the Delete or Delete Files button.
• If you click Delete, you will see a list of different types of stored information on your computer. You can select which you prefer to delete from here.

If you are using a browser other than Internet Explorer, the options will look slightly different. If you cannot find what you are looking for, you will find step by step instructions for most browsers on websites like wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser's-Cache. Also, there are many downloadable tools that clean your computer of Internet files and cookies regularly that are stored deep in your computer that will still remain behind after a manual delete described above. This is usually not necessary unless you need to make sure no one ever knows what websites you have visited.

Many browsers now offer the ability to surf the Internet without saving any information to your computer in the first place. Internet Explorer 8's “In-Private Browsing”, Firefox's “Private Browsing”, Chrome's “Incognito Mode”, are all the same concept—surf the Internet without leaving a trace on your computer. This is one of the best ways to surf privately and not allow anyone to retrieve the information later.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

What Are Internet Cookies?

An Internet cookie is a text file that a website saves to your hard drive when you visit their site. This is helpful for websites to get an accurate representation of how many different people visit their site and how often. They can also make polls and surveys and ensure that no one is voting more than once.

It's also helpful to the visitor, for example, who want to save preferences. For example, if you like to check the weather and you enter your zip code, a cookie on your computer will notify the website that it's you that's looking at the webpage. They can automatically load the website with your location information in place. You don't have to reenter your zip code!

Here's another example of how cookies help you. If you check your email or log in to any other website, you can check to save your user name on your computer and it will be entered for you the next time you visit. Conveniences like shopping carts on online stores would not be possible without cookies. For many types of basic browsing and Internet uses, cookies are helpful and necessary.

How Internet Cookies Affect You

Since website store information about your searches, browsing practices, and purchases, it can be questionable whether cookies are really doing you a favor. Should you allow these website to gather this somewhat personal information? Well, for one thing, you are still anonymous. A cookie will just identify you as a string of letters and numbers. The only information it has is what you give it. For example, if you add your name and email address onto the website to register for their services, you are volunteering this extra information. Furthermore, if you use a free email account and a phone name, they still don't really know anything about you.

The worst thing that could happen from cookies having your information, or from registering your name and email on a website is that you might start getting unwanted email advertising. Unless you are a very private or overly cautious person, you will not suffer from allowing the websites you visit to store cookies on your computer.

Recommended Privacy Settings

There are differing options on what would be the best way to handle cookies. There are always going to be a few conspiracy theories going around about how terrible and unsafe the Internet is. The truth is that prominent Internet websites from reputable companies will often have a privacy policy to protect your information and only use it for their own marketing purposes (like recommending items similar to those you searched for or bought). ISP's and Internet browsers like Internet Explorer are constantly looking for ways to keep you safe and often block or warn you about harmful website. Most of the time, if you just use the default setting to handle your cookies, you will be safe and be able to use the Internet as you please.

There are two extremes when it comes to handling cookies. For example, you might be advised to not allow any cookies other than the ones from trusted sites whose privacy policy promises not to sell your personal information, and delete all your cookies once day/week/month, etc. This might sound like a great idea, but it is a lot of work, and, as mentioned in the previous section, is not really necessary unless you are overly concerned about your privacy. Furthermore, any time you begin placing stricter guards on your Internet surfing, you risk causing some features not to work properly, for example:

* If you don't allow session cookies, you might not be able to stay logged into your email long enough to finish writing your message and lose your content when you click send.

* If you block all cookies from incoming websites, some perfectly safe websites will not be able to load certain functions, or may not load at all. If you get a message on your browser saying that something like "this page cannot load because you are not accepting cookies", it means you must either add the site to your safe list or lower your cookies restrictions if you want that site to load.

*If you constantly delete cookies, websites will not be able to save log in information and preferences.

The other extreme to the recommendations for your Internet privacy is to allow all and every cookies, both first and third party cookies. This is not necessarily bad for you, because your safely on the Internet often correlates directly with what websites you go to. If you only surf on secure websites and only do basic browsing, like surfing, banking, and reading news, etc., you might never have any problems with privacy infringement. Sometimes, allowing all cookies, or deleting all your stored cookies is recommended by computer technicians if you are having problems viewing webpages because this is the easiest way to ensure that your browser settings or stored information is not causing the problem.

The best cookie settings depends on you and your surfing habits. For most users, leaving the cookies at the default settings and occasionally clearing all temporary Internet files is the best recommendation.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Internet cookies are often misunderstood as wretched little monsters that attach themselves to your computer so Internet hackers can spy on you! Thankfully this is not the case. A cookie is just a text file sent to your computer that saves basic information about you so the next time you visit the same website, it can retrieve the cookie from the website and recognize you as a returning visitor.

The idea of a website placing something on your hard drive to get information from you can sound a little scary. Some very private people have no interest in being recognized upon returning to a website and see this as an invasion to their privacy, regardless of the benefit that it could be to them. Usually, a cookie is only an identification method meant to benefit you, much like a person who runs a general store in a small town can be more helpful because he or she knows many of the customers and their preferences.

Sometimes, cookies also save information about the pages you visited, the searches you performed, and the items you bought while on a website. For example, an online store like Amazon noted that you often buy or search for books from the romance genre and would use this information to recommend other romance books when you visit the site again. This is a marketing tactic, but is still helpful to the customers.

The information that a website can gather from tracking the habits of its customers could become invasive. They could (and some do) sell their information (like shopping or surfing habits) and their email addresses to third parties, so they can send soliciting emails, or spam to your inbox based on searches or purchases you have made.

The following are a few ways to control cookies if you are highly concerned about the risk of becoming spammed with advertising from other parties. Keep in mind that none of these options are recommended or necessary for your safety. Most anti-virus programs and Internet browser filters are already designed to protect you from harmful websites and spyware. Also, these options will limit your use of the Internet and some may cause certain websites not to function correctly or at all.

* Check the privacy policy in the terms of service on websites you visit. Many reputable websites have privacy policies saying they will not sell your information to third parties. If this is the case, they should be safe to visit and allow any cookies from them.

* Don't register your personal information on websites. Many website require that you register and provide your email address to use certain features on their site. If you do not want your personal email address to be spammed, you can set up free email account to use for this purpose, like Yahoo Mail or Gmail, and use a name and address other than your own. You can also simply refuse to use these sites, but this could severely limit your shopping options.

* In your Internet Options, click on the Settings button under Browsing History (or Temporary Internet Files) and click Veiw Files. You can select all or some of the cookies that are stored on your computer and view or delete them as often as you like. This will not, however, prevent websites from reassigning a cookie to you if you visit their site again.

* Under the Privacy Tab of Internet Options, you will see a slider that has different levels that handle cookies. You can raise or lower the strictness of cookie handling here, as well as manually enter a list of website that you trust from which cookies are always allowed. If, after you have made these changes, you cannot veiw a webpage, you may need to add it to your allowed list or lower your privacy settings so the website can load properly

*If you don't want to use the slider, simply click the Advanced button on the Privacy Tab of Internet Options, and check "Override automatic cookie handling". Then choose specifically how to handle different types of cookies. First party cookies are from the website and third party cookies are from other websites that the website you are visiting uses. The "Prompt" option will ask your permission on each separate occasion that a website attempts to save a cookie on your computer.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!