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Everybody who has been on line for over a couple of weeks has heard about computer viruses. loads of people have had them and loads of surfers have them but do not realize it. Not all computer viruses are intended to do damage to the infected computer. Some viruses are meant to steal valuable information such as account numbers and passwords and other viruses are meant to record where you go and what you are interested in.

This knowledge, once gathered, is sent back to the virus’ master who will use it to either steal from you or spam you to death with deals based on the words that you have entered into your keyboard. These viruses are also called tracking cookies. There are also Trojans (Trojan horse), worms and bombs.

There are firms that provide )free of charge) or sell anti-virus software which is designed to protect your computer from these computer viruses. However, because up to a few dozen of these viruses are released on a daily basis, you need to have the virus database of your anti-virus software up-dated on a daily basis as well. The anti-virus (AV) software virus database is full of all the virus patterns on hand so far.

It has been estimated that 80% of viruses are meant to destroy data on the computers they infect. That is, they will destroy the file allocation table of your hard disk drive rendering it unreadable, but different viruses do different jobs. I had a virus in December that wiped out my Outlook address book. Two weeks later as I was refilling the address book, and it cleared it out again.

There are a few jobs you can do to minimize your risk of picking up computer viruses. The first thing you have to do is install an AV programme and modify its settings. Some of the free AV software is as good as some of the purchased AV software, but if you would like the best, you will have to buy it. It is not expensive – less than $50 a year – especially when you compare it with the cost of repairing a damaged computer.

Once you have chosen and loaded your AV software, check the options and instruct it to check all incoming and out-going files – that is downloads, uploads and emails. If it will not check emails, it is no use, buy another one. Then set it to update the pattern files (database) automatically or daily.

Update your patterns and then execute a complete system scan – it can take hours. Then, set the AV software to scan your computer once a week at some time while it will be on, but not in use. I do mine at 2 AM on Monday.

Be suspicious. Become as wary of downloading as you are of strangers prowling about at dusk. Never download from porn sites. Become suspicious of small files. Most viruses, like their living counterparts are tiny. Therefore if you want to download a film or some music and it is much shorter that usual, be wary or do not do it. Be suspicious of attachments to emails from senders you do not know.

Acquire anti-spyware software and run it regularly or / and set your browser to dump all cookies at the end of a session (clearing out privacy). If you regularly run into difficulties after dumping the cookies of a site you go to frequently (like Google), then add them to your ‘Trusted Zone’. Computer viruses are out there and can have expensive consequences, but you do not have to have them, if you take a couple of (free) precautions.

Owen Jones, the article of this article, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with the wireless broadband router. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Best Router For Gaming Online

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