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Top MMO Account Tips - Safe Gaming Experience
Ways to help protect your game accounts

In today's world it is essential that all of us follow a set of guidelines to ensure our game accounts stay safe and away from common hackers or scammers (people set out to make your life a complete misery).



#1 - Never share your account details!
A lot of players today tend to share their account details (i.e. username, password, secret question, etc), whether they are sharing with close relatives or distant friends. Sharing information like this is risky business, because it doesn't take long before your details become well known across the general community.

This includes sharing your information with other parties such as gold companies or power-leveling services.

#2 - Install a Virus Scanner and Spy-Ware Protection Software!
The internet can be friendly at times, but it also has a lot of dangerous pitfalls - one of which is corrupted downloads or files containing illegal data. It is highly recommended that you install some form of protection software which can help detect viruses or spy-ware through emails, web-browsers and downloaded files.

If you do not have the time or money to search for some, you can always download some fantastic free versions which do a great job at protecting your computer. Here are some free anti-virus software that you can download;

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010
Status: Free to try (30-day trial) or $59.95 to buy
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7
Official Review: http://download.cnet...4-10259842.html

Norton AntiVirus 2010 17.0
Status: Free to try (30-day trial) or $39.99 to buy
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7
Official Review: http://download.cnet...4-10592477.html



AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9.0.704
Status: Free!
Operating system: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7
Official Review: http://download.cnet...4-10320142.html

Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 9.0.1
Status: Free!
Operating system: Windows 3.x/95/98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Server 2008/7/NT
Official Review: http://download.cnet...4-10398550.html

It is recommend that you scan your computer on a weekly basis, and ensure that the software is updated regularly.

#3 - Avoid using third-party applications while in-game!
Using third party applications while playing online games can sometimes place a flag against your account ID or IP address, since these applications are constantly sending packets of information from one server to another. Examples include; bots, scripts or custom-made hacks. Even though your virus scanner fails to detect any corrupt data, these applications still pass on packets of information to additional parties - putting your account at serious risk!



#4 - Secure passwords and regular changes!
It is very important that as a gamer you change your password at regular intervals to ensure hackers are unable to brute-force your account by using randomized password generators. It is highly recommended that you include numerical digits and symbols in your game password, and avoid using the same password for all of your applications (i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc). One of the biggest problems today is that most people use only two or three passwords across 10-20 web-based applications - making it easier to target your game account(s)!

If you need help generating some new passwords then you should visit the follow website: http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/ or http://www.goodpassword.com/ (otherwise Google the term "password generator" for more websites).

#5 - Essential System Updates!
Every now and then Windows and Macintosh release a number of system updates (usually on a weekly or monthly basis), some of these updates are entitled as "security updates" - if you ever spot one or more of these listed, make sure you update your system immediately to help prevent any loopholes or exploits that experienced hackers can employ against your computer.



If you have any additional tips or advice for other follow online gamers, please let us know by replying to this topic.

[mimzy]

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