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SECURITY ALERT
Ten email tips for grandparents
By Brenda Coxe
There used to be a time when grandparents and grandchildren used to communicate by letter or the occasional telephone call. Although they may still communicate by telephone -- especially with so many telephone providers offering unlimited long distance -- the days of writing letters have gone the way of the horse and buggy.
As a result, grandparents who never worked on computers have had to learn how to use email to communicate with children and grandchildren. Of course, one of the hardest part of teaching the older generation how to use email is helping them understand how to use it so that they alleviate their fears of interception by the wrong people.
The advent of the computer age has made some people uneasy. Some older men have always worked with their hands, without benefit of a computer. Some older women either never worked in a job or never worked in a position that required using a computer. Many of the older generations never had an opportunity to work on computers during their working years.
It can be scary to those folks, and even in the 21st century you are likely to find those who are intimidated with the thought of using a computer. The good news is that with email programs and like Outlook, it's easy for older citizens to learn how to use all the features of email without a great deal of instruction.
Of course, before you even begin to use email, there are some things that you need to know. Some are safety tips, and others are just helpful hints about handling different email functions. What follow are ten important tips for grandparents.
#1 Antivirus and firewall
Before you begin using your email program, or even your computer, make certain you install a good antivirus program and a firewall. Unfortunately, communicating online is not always as safe as we would like it to be, so we have to take it upon ourselves to assure that our information only reaches those to whom we wish it to go.
#2 Don't open attachments
Do not open attachments from anyone you don't know. As much as we would like to be trusting, the Internet is not the place to do that. The majority of viruses that are generated online begin as an email attachment.
#3 Update, update, update
Keep your virus protection updated and running in the background at all times. Run a system scan at least once a week and any time you update your virus definitions to eradicate any viruses that may have entered your computer before a fix for that virus was created.
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