Scott Spanbauer

The same Internet connection that lets you reach out and touch millions of Web servers, e-mail addresses, and other digital entities across the globe also endangers your PC and the information it contains about you. Here's how to stymie the three gravest Internet risks.

The same Internet connection that lets you reach out and touch millions of Web servers, e-mail addresses, and other digital entities across the globe also endangers your PC and the information it contains about you. Here's how to stymie the three gravest Internet risks.

Linux purists may cry foul, but many of us still need to dual-boot between Windows and Linux. In this feature we'll look at how to make your documents easily accessible no matter which OS you're using by putting them in their own partition.

The most recent build of Longhorn--Microsoft's next Windows--has some impressive visual touches, including the kinds of translucent objects found now in Apple's OS X, and more powerful ways of finding files. But it doesn't yet exhibit any breakthroughs in productivity, or promised features such as security improvements and smarter connections to handheld devices.

Computing freedom means being able to find, protect, and move our data from computer to computer, and from application to application. E-mail is perhaps the most crucial communication tool we use at work and home, but it can also be the one that makes us feel the least free. Want to export your Outlook messages to Mozilla? Good luck. Wish you could transfer all of your Eudora addresses into Mozilla Thunderbird's little black book? Me too. We know for a fact that our messages and contact addresses and phone numbers are in there, someplace. But where, exactly?

Windows XP Service Pack 2 promises to protect you from the most pervasive worm attacks, stop pop-up ads, and tighten security in Windows' Achilles' heel, Internet Explorer. But given the problems many users experienced with XP's first service pack, some people have been waiting to hear whether this update is more likely to hurt than help.

As if you didn't already spend enough time blocking spam, battling pop-up ads, and replying to every single e-mail message you receive, another Internet communication medium is competing for a chunk of your brain: instant messaging.

As W32.blaster, Sobig, and earlier virus threats have shown, the Internet is not a terribly safe place to connect your PC.