Virus Protection
Fact: if your PC connects to the internet without any form of protection, it will become infected with a virus sooner or later. It might only be a matter of minutes.
An antivirus program is absolutely essential and should be updated frequently, such as every week. If you think there is a virus on your PC, download the free Stinger from McAfee as a quick fix to get you out of trouble. If you don't have one of the top-make antivirus programs, such as Norton or MacAfee's, download a free one like 'Free AVG' or Avira then do a full scan of all drives. Make sure that there is always a guard program running in the background from now on. Some AV programs slow down disc access times more than others. I prefer Free AVG rather than Symantec/Norton (which I purchased then promptly dumped).
Firewall and Virus Downloads
You can try to
block 'script kiddies' from hacking into your computer using a software
firewall, such as that built into XP. ZoneAlarm is very effective and most of the newer (paid-for) antivirus programs include one now. It blocks external
accesses and allows you to control what programs can access the internet from
your computer. Mind you, XP's firewall does not block outgoing traffic at all. In the Performance Gobblers part, I refer to Spyware. ZoneAlarm will block
that too and only allow it to send your personal data out if you are daft enough to let it.
It is a bright idea to use Windows Update for the latest bug fixes and security plugs but not for hardware drivers, as they are always out of date and sometimes cause more problems than they cure. Best only to upgrade drivers directly from the manufacturers' websites.
As regards email viruses, the usual advice is not to open any suspicious emails, just delete them, and certainly don't open any attachments, including MP3 unless you were expecting a particular email from someone. Delete anything that says something like "ASCII characters converted to bin file" without question. You can usually block any emails from Nigeria, as it they be variations on the famous scam requiring your bank account number. Amazing that anyone can fall for that one, or the 'political prisoner in Korea' being helped by someone in Amsterdam.
Then there's the lonely Russian lady who knows everyone's email address and wonders if you might send her some money to help her out. And there's the scam emails that look as though they come from a High Street bank but ask for your security details so they can improve their security system. Yeah, right. I have received a few plausible demands for payment that looked like they had come from eBay. The images and links looked right but linked to somewhere else. I have never used eBay!
All it needs is a tiny number of gullible people to reply with bank details and these guys can look at the brochures for a new yacht. I forward all these scams to the official websites. Most banks have an email address to forward scam emails. I find that Paypal always responds to forwarded scams.
It is the nature of email viruses and worms that they send themselves to everyone on your mailing lists, pretending to come from you. It is most likely that you will receive one from someone listed in your email address book. Your ISP might well filter some email viruses - I know that Madasafish does.
