Why Do I Need Anti Virus Software For My Computer?

If you've recently purchased a computer, or are just learning about using email and the internet, you may have heard about computer viruses and anti-virus software. You may be wondering if this is something that you should be concerned about, and if so, what you should do about it. This article will attempt to answer these questions for you.

First, you may be wondering just what a computer virus is. Basically a computer virus is one of many types of small programs that install themselves on your computer without your consent. Usually they enter your program through an email, or while you are browsing a website.

When these programs run, usually without you knowing, they can cause all types of problems with your computer. Some viruses can be mildly annoying, slowing down your computer as they use your computer's resources for another purpose. Others can be very dangerous, collecting your personal information and sending it to another party, or damaging your hard-drive.

True to their name, viruses are able to use your internet connection and email program and send themselves to the computers of other people you know, spreading themselves just like a contagious disease.

Because of this, just like the health of your body, when it comes to computer viruses, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is much easier to prevent viruses from entering your computer than it is to get rid of them and cure your computer once it becomes infected. This is why Anti-Virus software is important.

Once you realize that you need anti-virus software installed and running on your computer, you'll have to choose which one to purchase and install. This can be a complicated process, but here are some tips to make it a bit easier.

First, check your computer to see if it came with anti-virus software. Many new computers are shipped with anti-virus programs already to go on them, you just need to turn them on. Check your instruction manual to see if this is the case with your computer.

Check with the vendor. If you purchased your computer from a local retailer, check with them to see what anti-virus program they recommend. They should be more than willing to help you and may even be able to provide you with a discount since you purchased a computer from them.

Once you have your anti-virus installed and running on your computer, be sure to contact the software's support if you have any questions. It is also important to keep your software updated. Many of these programs will automatically update themselves when you are online. This is very important since new viruses are always appearing and you want to make sure your computer is protected.
About the Author

Angie Noack is a business strategist with a sharp edge for technology. With her unique ability to combine these two skills, she's able to help businesses save time and increase profits. You can find her online at http://softwaresoftwaresystems.com>http://softwaresoftwaresystems.com.

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Avoiding Spam, Scams and Computer Viruses

One of the most popular pages on about-the-web.com is about
avoiding scams, hoaxes and urban legends on the Internet
(http://about-the-web.com/shtml/scams.shtml). Here are a
few ways to avoid some of the perils associated with being
connected to the rest of the world.

As a general rule of thumb, beware of any offer that sounds
too good to be true. This applies to products being offered
on the Internet and especially to any unsolicited offer or
spam you receive in your email. Many of these are scams.

The term "spam", in case you don't know, refers to any
unsolicited bulk email. If it's not addressed to you, or
you don't recognize the sender, or you're being asked to
buy something or pass along questionable information, then
that's spam. My advise is to "can the spam" by immediately
deleting any email you receive from anyone you don't know.

The best way to avoid spam, is to be very careful about who
you give your email address to. My advise here is to set up
a free email account and to give this email address to
anyone you don't absolutely trust with your personal
information. It almost never does any good to fight back
against spam. Your best course of action is just to delete
any unwanted email.

A trick that has been pretty successful for me is to set up
an email rule (or filter) that automatically sends any mail
not addressed to me to a special folder. Most of this is
spam and can be easily disposed of.

In addition to spams and scams, the other thing to watch
out for on the Internet is hoaxes, urban legends and false
information. There are many of these floating around the
Internet these days. Beware of any email that asks you to
send money for any cause, or to forward the email to all
your friends. Almost all of these are hoaxes. An excellent
resource for information on hoaxes, urban legends and false
information is http://urbanlegends.about.com/index.htm

Another category of hoaxes involves virus warnings. If you
receive information that indicates you can get a computer
virus from doing anything except opening an email
attachment or running an application, then this is probably
false information.

Most computer viruses are spread by users opening email
attachments that contain the virus. NEVER OPEN AN EMAIL
ATTACHMENT THAT YOU ARE NOT EXPECTING. Even if you know
the sender, make sure the attachment is legitimate before
opening it. It is much safer to delete any questionable
attachments and ask the sender to resend them than to
assume that the sender intended to send that email.

Your best defenses against computer viruses are: 1) caution
in downloading programs from questionable sources,
2) regularly scanning your drive with virus protection
software, and 3) backing up all your important data to a
different drive or media (floppy, Zip or CD-ROM) as soon as
possible. By doing all of these, if your system does get
infected, you can restore it with a minimum of hassle.

Always check out any offer or information you receive
before sending any money or forwarding the information
to someone else. That way you can rest easy knowing you
aren't getting scammed or passing along an urban legend.

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