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Optimising your computer and safety


RuneHQ Robot

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When playing Runescape, there are many things that players complain about, but the two most common things I have been hearing is "Omg I've been hacked!" and "My computer is so slow!"

In this guide, I will be showing you guys a how-to in keeping your computer fast and safe, making your Runescape and RuneHQ experience a lot more enjoyable.

Contents

  • Common Sense Prevails!
    • Secure Passwords
    • Bank Pin
    • Recovery information
    • Social Engineering
    • Keeping your IP safe
    • Downloading "Bad things"
    • Emails
  • Security tighter than...
    • AntiVirus is a MUST
    • Firewall Please
    • Useful Alternatives
  • Computer faster than the speed of...
    • Stop those start ups!
    • Temporary File cleaning
    • Dat Task Manager
  • Other useful things to know
    • Use GMail
  • Conclusion


Common Sense Prevails!

It really does! A lot of hackings are the results of very stupid decisions made by account holders, such as logging in on a phishing site, or downloading "cheats" for Runescape that turns out to be a silly keylogger that now has your account information and much more! Visiting a site you've never heard of before should also be taken with extreme caution as some are designed to download items without your consent.

This section covers basic human decisions that you and I make while on the computer, these decisions are the crucial difference between being safe and getting hacked.

 

Secure Passwords

A password is the key to your account, it's the "open seseme" to the cave of wonders. So with that in mind, it has to be intricate and yet memorable. Runescape passwords can be made of both numbers and letters (however, they AREN'T caps sensitive) so why not make use of that fact.

An example of a bad password uses only words, and probably something to do with the game.

  • Runite
  • Dragon
  • Edd

 

The above are ALL bad examples of passwords, they are easy to guess and would only take about 3 minutes of force guessing to get it.

Good examples of passwords make use of different numbers and letters, perhaps words that together make no sense whatsoever!

  • Egg57tuna10apple3 <--- (Don't EVER use this example or I'll kill you! :classic_tongue:)

Passwords like the above probably will NEVER be guessed, and would require something more sophisticated such as keylogger to obtain.


Bank Pin!
This statement is going to sound silly, but the bank pin is actually one of the most neglected features used in Runescape. It could be that a person is too lazy to type it in every time they log in, they just don't want to have one. Believe me when I say that a bank pin will save you should you unfortunately be hijacked.

A bank pin should not be part of anything to do with you, for example, it shouldn't be your birthday, and it certainly shouldn't be your real life bank pin. It should be a completely random set of four digits.

A bank pin will:

  • Protect your bank
  • Protect your POH
  • Protect your Dungeoneering Tokens
  • Protect the Clan Citadel settings

 

Recovery information
This is like having a backup USB to work stored on your Harddrive. If your Haddrive fails, then use the USB!
That said, recovery questions must be stuff that no-one else knows of. If in doubt, try to make some questions and answers that make absolutely no sense to anyone else and only you. It sounds crazy but it's more effective that you imagine.

Bad Question: What's my Runescape friend's name?
Answer: A username

^Easily guessed, especially if they have access to your account, or if someone knows who your friends are. A better example would be the following;

For example, Q: OMGWTFBBQ?
Are you actually ever going to guess the answer to this question, ever? It completely destroys any knowledge that a hacker would know of you. Speaking of knowledge, this leads nicely onto the next topic.
 

Social Engineering
Our Admin Lilroo503 made a very interesting topic on this a while back. After reading it, I seriously questioned a lot about what my friends knew of me, and changed details accordingly so that no-one, not even my closest friend or family member, would ever have these details.

Social Engineering is when someone befriends you in order to acquire more information about you. This could be through a Facebook account where you have personal information stored, or perhaps through general chitchat. For example, they could ask you through casual conversation what university you went to. Was that one of your security questions? Bang! One down!

It's so easy to release this information without realising what you did until it's too late. Therefore, when it comes to social networking or anything that may give away personal relevant information, the smart thing is to be careful who you trust, OR BETTER YET don't even put that stuff on the internet in the first place.


Keeping Your IP Safe
Your IP is like saying your address on the internet, it's where your "computer lives". In actual fact, this piece of information CAN actually tell people where you live in real life.

Your IP can be homed in on by hackers which can do really nasty things. They can perform things such as Backdoor Rats that open up ports in your firewall and allow things into your computer that you don't want, such as keyloggers, malware, and more.

If you suspect someone untrustworthy of having your IP, (and you have a dynamic router) then please walk upto your Router, turn it off and turn it back on again. This resets your IP address, and can thwart someone who is making any attempts on it.

IP's are usually split into XXX.XXX.YYY.YYY , when resetting a router, it is usually the Y values that change.

How can someone get hold of your IP?

  • Visiting a website
  • ALL Peer-to-Peer programs (Steam, Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Skype, MSN, etc.)

Be careful when visiting other Ventrilo servers, or giving out such contact information from above.
PLEASE NOTE: The RuneHQ website will NEVER abuse such important information when visiting the IRC or Ventrilo features. Any staff found doing so is subject to punishment or worse!



Downloading "Bad things"
There are some programs out there designed to steal your information, such as keyloggers or other spyware.
Downloading ANYTHING that promises Runescape cheats and hacking will 100% of the time result in the hacking of your account, it would be foolish to believe these things.

There's a various other things non-related to Runescape that claim they can increase the performance of your computer by downloading them, infact all it does is clutter your computer with malware, here are some examples of things that you should never trust;

  • Registry Cleaners
  • Driver Downloaders
  • Programs claiming you have viruses unless you download their "anti-virus"
  • Toolbars (ugh!)

 

Emails
The final section of this chapter covers e-mails. The main topic of this section will be about phishing e-mails, and how to identify them in your inbox.

Phishing e-mails are a mass amount of e-mails that lead to "fake" websites, designed to "catch" people into entering their real details into their sites, storing the information so that accounts can be hacked later.

Here are some important points to understand regarding Runescape;

  • Jagex NEVER e-mail you regarding account status in terms of mutes and bans
  • JagexNEVER ask you to confirm your details

A handy thing I've found out, is that Phishing E-Mails address people by "Player". The official Jagex e-mails always address you by your login name, or by the nickname you tell them to address you by in your account settings.

You can always check to see if the URL has been manipulated, simply by hovering your mouse over the "link" and seeing whether the URL displayed at the bottom left of your browser says "https://www.runescape.com". If not, it's completely fake and you should immediately delete it.


 

Security tighter than.....

This chapter covers your computer security, doing the things that otherwise you wouldn't notice. By the end of this, your computer will be nice and secure, unless of course you have no common sense! :classic_tongue:

This will mostly cover some of the programs that every computer should have as standard.


AntiVirus is a MUST!
No really, it is. If you don't have any, I should slap you! But have no fear because we're here to help you sort that out. In lame-man's terms, an Antivirus simply scans every file in your computer to see if it contains any malicious coding designed to steal your information, slow your computer down and more.

I would wholly recommend that if you have spare money, you should invest in some of the following Antivirus programs;

  • Kaspersky
  • ESET NOD32 / Security Essentials
  • Norton (Apparently it's less stressful on systems now)

If you don't have that cash to spare, then you can use some of these programs! ;

  • AVG 2012
  • Malwarebytes
  • Avast
  • Microsoft Security Essentials
  • Kaspersky (free trial)
  • ESET NOD32 Scanner

With these, you should be scanning your computer at minimum on a weekly basis.


Firewall Please
A firewall is complementary to an Anti-virus. The Antivirus is like a sword, killing off viruses in your computer, a firewall is like the shield of your computer, protecting you from further intrusions.

At minimum, always make sure that Windows Firewall is turned on. However, there are far more effective programs that integrate antivirus and firewall together.

  • ESET Security Essentials
  • Kaspersky Internet Security
  • Norton Internet Security
  • McAffee Interet Security (Not as good IMO, but better than nothing)

There are separate programs that also give a firewall that compliments to security such as ZoneAlarm, but again, if you don't have these, make sure Windows Firewall and Windows Defender is on.


Useful Alternatives
There are other useful programs that also help keep your computer clean.

Spybot Search and Destroy is a program that, instead of scanning your files individually, actually searches your computer for file names, making the process faster and provides different methods of catching out those pesky spyware.

Ad-Aware is another program that is useful for specializing in catching malware on your computer.


 

Computer Faster than the speed of.....

Ram.. bad joke. Anyway, so now you're safe and ready to take on the world of Runescape in a more safer environment. However, you may wish to seek increasing your Frames Per Second and reducing that lagg on your computer.

Well, by making sure that your computer is secure, you've already reduced some lagg that malware or spyware was causing by eating up your upload and download speeds. Well done!


Stop those Startups!
Start-up programs are what they say on the tin, they start up when you turn your computer on. Sometimes this is convenience for a computer user to have everything up ready to use, however depending on the specifications of your computer it may actually pose a problem.

Two problems caused by start-ups:

  • Boot-up time of your computer reduced, more waiting time after logging on.
  • Background programs consuming memory.

If you know what programs are being started on boot, then they probably have an option to stop "Start up when Windows loads".

[This next section is for advanced users, if you aren't confident then don't do it, I will not be held responsible for blowing up your computer]

If you can't find the option then do the following
> Start
> run "msconfig.exe"
> Select the "start up" tab

Untick any programs that you don't want starting up.
You'll also notice a services tab, containing all the processes for your computer, unticking any of these completely disables background programs. If you are going to do this, untick the "Hide all Microsoft processes" at the bottom so that you don't accidently disable OS processes.


Temporary File cleaning
Temporary files are sometimes what Windows / Internet Browsers store incase they don't have enough memory to process something, or for communication purposes. However, sometimes they don't get deleted and end up consuming memory which starts to clutter up your computer.

There are some ways in order to get rid of these;

  • Start Menu > Accessories > Disk Cleanup
  • C Drive > Users > "YourName" > AppData > Roaming > Temp (delete the contents of this folder)

There's also a program called "CCleaner" which I would HIGHLY recommended that cleans your computer of temporary files.


Dat Task Manager
Your best friend, I don't need to say more!

You can access it by right clicking on the TaskBar on Vista / 7 , or by hitting "Ctrl + Alt + Del".

Your task manager displays all of your programs and processes running. If something is consuming too much memory then you can end the task / process in order to free memory up. Be careful you don't end the wrong process though, because that could end the thing you're trying to do! Always check the description of the process to see what you're ending.

Pro Tip : Don't end explorer.exe <--- That's what displays your desktop. If you accidently end it, then go to the top and select "File --> New Task" and type "explorer.exe" to run it again.


 

Other useful things to know!

Google Mail

I would highly recommend using this over hotmail or anything else, because it's alot more safer and "hack-proof".

Google-Mail can utilize a 2-Step verification, that send a code to your mobile phone that you must enter before you can access your mail. This means that for a hacker to access your e-mail, they would need your mobile phone! It's an impenetrable layer of security that could save your Runescape account!


 

Conclusion
I'll continue updating this with useful information, but hopefully it will serve as a VERY GOOD guide for keeping safe as well as maintaining a healthy computer!

See you guys in-game and at our events!
Rhodes.

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