Your Mama probably gave you some good advice about table manners and street smarts, but here are a few things your Mama may not have told you:

1.  Don't put your email address on the Internet. Many people have a tendency to put their email address at the end of a post on a forum or message board. Don't. The spammers have web spiders that peruse the Internet harvesting any email address that they find for their spam lists.

2.   Use a good surge protector or UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). Both surge protectors and UPS devices will protect your equipment from power spikes and surges. A UPS will give you the added feature of providing a battery backup when the electrical power fails.

3.   Unplug your electrical equipment in a lightning storm. Even with a good surge protector or UPS, a direct lightning hit can devastate your computer and other electrical equipment. While you may not want to run around the house unplugging everything, it is the only way to protect your equipment from a close lightning strike.

4.  When the power goes out, get the flashlight and candles, and then unplug your computer and other costly electrical equipment. Often when the power goes back on, there are power spikes and surges that can hurt your equipment. If you are available when the power goes off, the smartest thing to do is to unplug the equipment and plug it in again after the power has returned and the initial spikes and surges have stopped...five to ten minutes is usually adequate.

5.  Don't click on email attachments that you don't expect. Even if they seem to come from a friendly source, email attachments can contain viruses. Don't open them unless they are from a trusted source and you are expecting them.

6.  Don't fall for phishing schemes. The government has just warned about counterfeit email that looks like it comes from the IRS, Justice Department, or FTC. These are fake messages that lure users to realistic, but bogus websites and trick them into giving out personal information. Such email is often proposed to be from banks, credit card companies, and Internet sites like PayPal, eBay, and Amazon.

7.  Reboot to clear a problem. When you have trouble with your computer, the first thing you want to do is to reboot. Turning the computer off then on again allows the computer to reset itself and often corrects the problem. Remember that many devices today have computer chips and rebooting them may also be beneficial. I have had to reboot or reset cable and satellite boxes as well as iPods to solve problems.

8. Look for the obvious. When you have a problem, look for the obvious before you call tech support or pull your hair out. Always make sure the device is plugged into a working outlet and that all connection cables are secure. If you are working with software, read everything on the screen, even the things you normally ignore, for clues to solve your problem.

9.  Try three times. You'll not find this advice in any tech manual, but it often works. If something doesn't work the first time, try again. You may have made a mistake the first time or some unusual circumstance may have screwed things up. If it still doesn't work, try one more time to be sure. This three-time rule often works wonders. Last month, my laptop came up with a blank screen when I pressed the start button. I turned it off and tired again. It gave me a cryptic error. The third time was the charm. It worked perfectly and has been working ever since. I'll probably never figure out exactly what happened, but who cares if everything keeps on working.

10.  Be adventurous. Your mother may have advised you to play it safe, but in the computer world you may be better off to be at least a little bold. Try new things. Computer knowledge is cumulative. What you learn using a new program will help you with your next endeavor. Find new ways to do things. There are almost always two or three different ways to do things when working with computers. If you know several ways to do the same thing, it can come in handy when something goes wrong. 

Of course, when you are working with a computer it may seem like things go wrong quite often. But perhaps these ten little things will help you keep trouble away and deal with it when it does come. After all, isn't that what your mother's advice often did for you?