The majority of people using the internet are on social sites such as Facebook. Bringing a new spin on pen-pals because, no one can see pictures and chat in real time as opposed to waiting until the postal service delivers. Some use the internet for research seeing as there are bucket loads of information available via the internet on what are called search engines. These search engines are companies that provide information across the internet such as Google, Bing and Dogpile. There are others who use the internet to link their home computer to their work computer which is a form of networking. Just like anything else that deals with other people, you have to protect yourself. Since the internet is open to everybody there are people out there with bad intentions that are called “hackers”. These “hackers” are educated in means to access your computer as well as others in the form of programs such as Script or HTML which is used on most sites so you can see videos or pictures on the internet. Some more advanced “hackers” use what is called “binary code” which is what all computers use to run different operating systems such as Windows. Because of “hackers” there are programs designed specifically to try and protect your personal computer from attacks. These are called internet security programs and have also been bundled with other programs to protect your computer that are called “suites”. These programs are known by names such as Norton and McAffee and AVG. It is highly recommended that if you intend to access the internet that you have these programs in place. It is also recommended that you do a regular “system maintenance” on your computer to clear out what are called “cookies” which are the bits of information left on your computer each time you go to most internet pages so the page “remembers” you the next time you go to that page.