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Computers
      
Viruses
Do you need Anti-Virus Software?
Although many Internet Providers provide excellent Virus
protection, there's plenty of other malware around and, to be safe, it
really is best to run your own Anti-Virus software on your
computer. I use Norton but there are plenty of other good
ones.
In making a choice
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Make sure that
it updates itself automatically. From Norton 2006
onwards that means daily.
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Make sure
that, in addition to Viruses, it also provides protection
against Trojans and Worms.
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Make sure that
you run a system scan regularly - Norton schedules that
automatically. It's very resource heavy, and it does
tend to slow things down rather, so pick a time when your
not going to be using the computer for anything else - e.g.
if you always go to Church on Sunday, or late-night shopping on
Thursdays, those are good times for your computer to work away
by itself.
For most
anti-virus software, you don't need to be connected to the
internet while this happens.
If you don't have your own Anti-Virus Software
Scan your computer regularly using an on-line anti-virus program.
e.g. from Nortoin or Panda.
Hoaxes
Sometimes you'll get an e-mail form a well meaning friend that
says that says there's a new virus for which there's no antidote and
for example that, if you open a particular file, your hard drive
will be wiped, your computer wrecked, the sky will turn black and
there will be pink elephants flying around your bedroom.
Hoaxes are generated by people that don't have the wit or
knowledge to write proper viruses but they want to cause alarm by
getting you to do the work that a true virus would do itself -
sending itself to everyone in your address book. You can check
it out in a good Virus Encyclopaedia like
Symantec but, if you're not comfortable with that, do
please forward it to someone who is, and wait for their
reply, before you send it on to everyone in your
address book!
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