Viruses

We've been hearing a lot about viruses lately. One of the main culprits is "Nimda". Nimda's goal is to spread over the Internet infecting as many users as possible. This creates so much traffic that networks are virtually unusable. If you've been experiencing trouble with your ISP (Internet Service Provider) that may be why. But, Nimda is not the only virus making it's round. McAfee, one of the major companies in the anti-virus industry, has 15 new viruses listed this month with over 58,000 viruses on file.

Confusing the issue even more are the many hoaxes being emailed that warn about non-existent viruses. These share common factors:

• A frantic style claiming the virus will "destroy everything"
• a notice that some official group announced it (these statements are rarely made)
• and an urgent request that you pass the warning on

If you receive a virus warning don't pass it along unless you have verified its accuracy. One reason for the rampant spread of such hoaxes is large number of unprotected computers.

A computer virus is an unfriendly code buried in a program. Just as a cold virus affects us to varying degrees, a computer virus affects our computers. You can catch them from disks, e-mail, the Internet or any new media introduced to your computer. When left untreated they can cause severe injury to your machine.

Most viruses stay active in memory until you turn off your computer. When you turn off the computer you remove the virus from memory, but not from the file, or disk it has infected. So the next time you use your computer, the virus program is activated again and the infection spread.

Viruses take control of your computer without you knowing and can cause your computer to behave strangely and in some cases will not cause any harm until later. These viruses have a trigger date set. You received the virus last month, but it was not set to activate until this month. As a result, it is imperative to subscribe to an Anti-Virus Program. Typically, you can download the program or purchase it from a retail outlet. The purchase price includes 12 months of updates. Because new viruses are created every day, it's important to update your program regularly.

When you cleanse your machine of viruses, it's also a good idea to clean up your hard drive and programs. Make sure you don't run your machine constantly. Turn your computer off. Turning the power off clears memory and unclogs any glitches in the system, don't just select "sleep" from the shut down menu or do a restart, actually switch the power off. Most importantly, run Scan Disk, Defragmenter, and Disk Cleanup on a regular basis.

Remember, disk cleanup disposes of trash, temporary Internet files, and unnecessary files. scan disk checks your disk's surface and folders for errors. It is a safety check to ensure that there are no corrupt files on your machine and no potential problems with your hard disk. The disk defragmenter program reorganizes the data on a disk and optimizes the free space on your disk for best performance, which will result in greater speed.