FAQ - The truth about Viruses

Viruses are small programs that people create and are basically a form of Vandalism. Contrary to popular belief, computer viruses are not living organic creatures, they are merely self-replicating programs that are created by people with the intent to cause various unpleasant problems by "infecting" other peoples' computers.

Some viruses have been programmed to reformat your hard drive (erase everything on it, even your operating system) while other viruses attach their code to another application program (like Microsoft Word for example or even your Windows or Mac Operating System) and then start deleting important files rendering the program inoperable. Either way viruses are a nuisance and sometimes a plague that it's best to avoid or detect and eliminate as quickly as possible.

How viruses are spread...

Viruses are spread in a number of ways. The most common way is still probably by trading floppy disks with friends. If the floppy disk has files that have been copied from an infected computer, yours will become infected when you copy the files onto your own hard disk. Then, unless you have software to detect and eliminate the virus, you could spread it to others in the same manner.

With the Internet becoming increasingly popular every day, more and more viruses are being passed by downloading one of the thousands of shareware or freeware programs that are available. As with many other things in life, when you download software you have to be cautious about the source. Some sites aren't as careful as others about scanning for viruses before offering software for download. Or they accept "uploads" from other users and don't monitor what kinds of files are passing through their servers. In this way you could become like many others and pick up a virus.

You should generally only download files and programs from known vendors. Such as Microsoft, Netscape, etc. or from reputable "archive" sites like www.shareware.com or www.tucows.com

I've been using the Internet for about a year and a half and have so far never had a virus. Some people are not so lucky as I've been, but a lot of the reason for my "clean" record can be attributed to the fact that I don't "indiscriminately" pick up software from unknown sites.

What can be done about viruses?...

There are many programs out on the web and in stores that you can purchase or download (sometimes for free) that will scan your hard drive(s) for any known viruses. Some of the popular brands are McAfee, Norton, Dr. Solomon, and ThunderByte Antivirus. Each one of these virus protection programs have a different way of handling viruses but each one will get the job done for most end users.

You will also need to update the software regularly to "educate" it so that it will recognize any new viruses that may have been created since you first installed the software. This is usually accomplished by downloading a file from the virus software vendor.

Most virus software has is the option to scan when you (the user) decide you want to check your computer or automatically if you want it to be scheduled for every few days. Most can also be set to scan every time you start or shut down your computer, however, since virus software installed this way consumes part of your computer's resources, particularly RAM memory and can slow it down or make it less stable, I usually only recommend this option for heavy users who download a lot of software.

The virus software will not only check for viruses but in most cases it will also eradicate them for you with minimal hassle.

How to download and install virus protection software...

Refer to our download page for detailed instructions on downloading and installing software.

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"Viruses" by Jan Michael Pearson

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