Live OneCare can be used on as many as three computers. It not only protects you from Internet nasties but also keeps your computers performing at their best and forces you into backing up your documents, photos and videos on a regular basis.

A performance tune up is carried out on a regular basis according to a schedule you set and a regular backup regime can be organised. Backup of your important files follows an old fashioned requirement, namely, that your files be backed up to a device or medium external to your computer. In other words, you’ll need plenty of blank CDs or DVDs, or an external hard drive. External hard drives that connect via a USB port are cheap these days. The first backup usually takes a fair amount of time and space but subsequent backups are done on an incremental basis (only new files or files that have changed since the last backup are added to the main backup) and only take 30 minutes or so.

Live OneCare has other useful features, one being it can set up any printer so that printer is shared among other computers on a home or work network. As well, if you have two or three computers using OneCare, then the other(s) can be managed from whichever computer you choose in the OneCare hub.

Family Safety was recently added to the OneCare program for Australia. This function enables parents to control their children’s access to the Internet in two ways: certain times can be specified for the children to use the computer on the Internet and unsuitable sites can be blocked. The latter function can help by protecting the younger ones from accidently viewing sites that are not suitable for their age.

OneCare installs and manages a two-way firewall so you’re protected from malicious programs that roam the Internet trying to access your computer. As well, the firewall also pops up to ask for your permission when one of your programs wants to access the Internet. For example, each time you run Paint.NET (a free graphics program to edit your photos or create graphics), Paint.Net checks for updates. The first time you run Paint.NET, you’ll be asked by the OneCare firewall if you want to allow Paint.NET to do this check (in this case, you’ll click the Allow option because you know the program and what it wants to do).

Another security feature is that OneCare ensures you’ve turned on the phishing filter in Internet Explorer to protect you from online scams, particularly those appearing to be from a bank which want you to give away your account number and password. Remember that more than $2 billion was stolen through phishing scams last year.

Finally OneCare keeps you on your toes to advise you when there are updates available for Windows or Microsoft programs.

If you’re undecided about spending a few dollars on Live OneCare so you’re protected against Internet nasties and have a solid backup procedure in place, just take a moment to think about the consequences of losing all those photos you have on your computer.

• Need help finding your way around? It's just a click away...»

• The webDotWiz Column is published fortnightly, on the same day as Rushworth's volunteer, fortnightly paper, The Waranga News, and updated regularly as sites are added to the webDotWiz Sites Directory.

• Comments? Questions? Contact the webmaster at webdotwiz-column [AT] hotmail [DOT] com.

• © Bernie Halpin, webDotWiz Online 2000-2008.