[kj] VIRUSES

[PRAEst76]

juliet pleming wrote:

> Yeah! Dunno what you can do other than  have virus protection, firewall,
> spybot, adaware, popupstopper and some rubbish still gets through and needs
> dealing with.

TBH I almost never get them, unless my brother has been here and logged 
in. Then I have to turn the network into a VD clinic for the day.

> But I feel pretty well covered (touch wood). only thing is my
> virus protection confiscates all attachments indescriminately.

Not using Outlook or Outlook Express cuts out the majority of them. Also 
if you are using Windows you serious need to do the security update 
thing regularly.

Also, most importantly; if you run antivirus of some kind you NEED to 
update your virus definitions REGULARLY at least once a week. Otherwise 
it's no use, you may as well delete your antivirus software for all the 
use it is otherwise. This may sound stupid to some people but you'd be 
surprised the amount of times I've found people surprised to have a 
virus because they have Norton Anti-virus etc but which they haven't 
updated once since they got the computer.

If the antivirus package doesn't have the latest definitions it won't 
detect the latest viruses. Simple. I find I keep having to tell people 
this. The updates aren't optional. It's like having a smoke alarm with 
no battery in it. Or an empty fire extinguisher.

I also discovered people who thought they were secure because they had 
anti-virus installed that hadn't actually been run in years. Possibly 
disabled because an installer tld them to and never re-enabled. So it 
never ran to actually do any virus checking. I also heard of one poor 
sod who had Norton AV or something on a CD in his drawer and though that 
was enough.

  The definitions aren't that much to download, probably about 300k a 
week. that's not that much even on dialup. And you can get very good 
anti-virus software for free. Seriously. Update your antivirus and scan 
regularly. There is no excuse.

See Grisoft AVG (http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/1/) for a 
decent free program. It can check Outlook Express. I use ClamAV at the 
moment but it can't interfect with Outlook Express, but it'll check your 
system no problems and may have an OE plugin in the future 
(http://www.clamwin.net/)

...and ditch Outlook Express. No matter how often they fix the security 
holes in that thing they keep finding more. It's the price you pay for 
'user-friendly'. The large majority if not all of these internet worms 
depend on Outlook Express. Mozilla Thunderbird is working quite well 
these days. (http://texturizer.net/thunderbird)


-- 
PRAEst76
http://www.escapism.co.uk/praest76
np: Muslimgauze - Muslims Of China