How to Keep Your Computer Safe From Viruses

In this guide, we will help you learn about viruses, how they may infect your computer and how to prevent infection and keep your computer system virus free.

Install Anti-virus Software and Keep It Updated!

This is very important. Anti-virus usually costs about $30 - $40 a year and it is well worth the investment. Symantec(Norton), Trend Micro and MacAfee all make good anti-virus programs. Any of these programs would be fine choices. I personally, run Norton at home and Trend Micro at work.

Keeping your anti-virus software updated is just as important as having the software installed. Updated virus definitions are updated atleast weekly by most companies. Most programs can be setup to autoupdate. You should set your software to check for updates as frequently as you can. I know many companies that check for updates hourly. You can't always trust that your software is always up-to-date just by turning on an autoupdate feature, so if you hear reports of a new virus on the news, the first thing you should do the next time you are on the Internet is run a manual update, just to make sure you are safe.

Don't Open Attachments From People You Don't Know Or Attachments You Aren't Expecting.

As long as you have updated anti-virus software, you should be safe openning any attachment, but attachments are still the most common way viruses spread. There's always a chance a new virus could spread faster than the Anti-virus company can update it's software to catch it.

Install a Firewall.

Windows XP comes with a limited firewall you can use to prevent viruses and other attacks from effecting your computer. This should be turned on. The Windows XP firewall is very limited though. There are more advanced firewalls avalible for free. ZoneAlarm is one. With these firewalls you can control which programs on your machine can access the internet. You can also purchase ZonaAlarm Pro which includes other features like spam filtering.

Important Links

www.symantec.com
www.trendmicro.com
www.zonealarm.com

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