Viruses and Malware

Everyday people with nothing better to do are producing malicious files that aim to destroy your data, steal information, render your computer useless, or just plain annoy the heck out of you. A good protection plan will protect you from these files in two ways: first it will attempt to prevent them from ever getting onto your computer, and second if these files do make it to your computer your protection plan should search, find, and render them harmless. The heart of this process is an up-to-date database on your computer that contains all the latest harmful files. Your computer will compare all files entering your computer as well as the files residing on your computer with the files in this database. If they match up, the program will somehow let you know it suspects you have a problem. The crucial part of this whole process is updating the database daily since malicious files come out so frequently.

1. Automatically update the database at least daily
2. Prevent viruses, worms, trojans, as well as executable files or DLL libraries from getting on to your computer and if they do, it should be able to detect them and render them harmless.
3. Prevent malware from ever getting onto your computer and if it does, the program should be able to detect them and render them harmless. Malware is malicious software, e.g. spyware that secretly gathers information from your computer, or adware that generates unwanted advertisements on your computer.
4. To prevent these harmful files from getting onto your computer in the first place, the anti-virus program should check all files copied and saved to your computer. It will also screen all emails for harmful files that could invade your computer.

   I've found two free anti-virus programs that seem to work very well side-by-side, that is by running both of them simultaneously I seem to get pretty good protection. They are Avast! Antivirus (the home edition is the free one) and AVG Anti-virus Free Edition. The free version of Avast! targets only viruses, worms, trojans, and DLL's. So I run AVG to take care of the rest. Yes - they are absolutely free! I've been using them with great results for quite some time. There are better programs out there but you'll have to pay for them. I've heard that NOD 32 anti-virus software works fairly well also.

   Unless you can reinstall the system from your hard disk drive (my Acer One has a partition which contains all the software necessary reinstall the system), you should bring along a system CD in case your system develops errors or your computer is overwhelmed by viruses and malware. Although Windows systems can be found just about anywhere, I've yet to find an English version of it since I crossed the border into Mexico - they are all Spainish versions!