Avoid Virus Infections on your computer

There are many actions you can take and good habits you can develop to keep viruses off your computer. Following are a few tips.

TIP # 1

Change your Windows settings so that you can see the true file extensions:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Under the View Menu select Options
3. Select "Display the Full MS-DOS path in the title bar"
4. You can also get to this by clicking on My Computer, then View, then Options, then the View tab.

And presto ... you can see that the harmless.doc file attachments on your emails have been changed to harmless.doc.pif and are not so harmless after all! Never click on a file that ends in .exe or .pif or .vbs as these are files that launch programs … and could affect your computer in some negative way. Even MS Word .doc files can be programmed to harm your computer.

Another very important precaution would be to not open any file attachments from people you don't know, or where the email somehow seems odd to you!

TIP # 2

As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your email address book (if you are using Outlook Express) and replicates itself and sends itself to everyone in your address book, thus sending infected emails to all your friends and associates.

This following method won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system.

Here's what you do:

First, open your address book and click on "new contact" (or new card) just as you would do if you were adding a new friend to your list of email addresses.

In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in: 000_ (that's 3 zeroes followed by an underline). In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address, type in:

WormAlert@alert.com (If it tells you this is not a valid address just say yes to add it, or click OK). Then complete everything by clicking add, enter, OK, etc.

Now, here's what you've done and why it works: the "name" 000_ will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But when it tries to send itself to 000_ it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered (WormAlert@alert.com). If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected.

Here's the second great advantage of this method: if an email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your Inbox very quickly. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to WormAlert@alert.com could not be delivered, you know right away that a worm has infected your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it!

TIP # 3 Buy a copy of McAfee Virus Scan or Norton Utilities and install it on your computer. On a regular basis, monthly if not more often, update the .dat (virus definition files) on your computer. After downloading the new dat files from the McAfee/Norton website, scan your computer for viruses … every single month without fail to keep your computer virus-free! Newer versions of these software have automatic updates ... you'll see a little pop-up window on your screen from time to time which tells you that the .dat files have been automatically been downloaded and updated.

TIP # 4

Choose an ISP that offers a virus scan service on all the email that is sent to you. This service will delete all messages that have viruses or worms attached to them and send a notice to you and the sender that the email didn't get through because of a virus. The best way to avoid getting infected with a virus is to make sure that the virus never gets near your computer. www.indo.net.id offers this service free of charge to its customers in Indonesia.

TIP # 5

Teach all the staff in your company that use computers (as well as your children at home) how to scan for viruses on the computer and backup diskettes. If you have had virus infections in the past, the chances are that your backup disks are also infected and need to be scanned for viruses. Better be safe than sorry and have all your staff scan any backup discs they have, once their virus definition files have been updated.

TIP # 6

Pay attention to your computer, if it starts doing very strange things, or the software doesn't function in the normal manner, there is a good chance that your computer has become infected with a virus. STOP your work, and investigate before it gets any worse. Run your virus scan. If you can't find the virus and know you have recent virus dat files ... contact your computer repair/maintenance company to see if they can help you.

TIP # 7

Files that you haven't backed up may be LOST in a virus attack. Backup your essential data files frequently ... to avoid major headaches!

Good sources of information on viruses:

McAfee Virus Scan
Symantec Virus Scan (Norton AntiVirus)