You Have Seen My previous Posts On how to Manually Update Antiviruses and Update ESET NOD32 Antivirus but many of the users till dont know what is a virus and how it works for that kind of users here is the tip
Q: What are the signs that a virus is present?
There are several things that may indicate the presence of a virus on
your system.
1. Unexplained file growth in EXE and COM files may indicate an
appending virus.
2. Programs that used to work now return with some type of error
message and fail to work at all. This may indicate an overwriting
virus. Some common messages are "Program to big to fit in memory"
or "Unknown Command" and other similar messages. Thes should make
you suspicious.
3. Unexplained directory changes. If you execute a program and then
find that you are suddenly in a different directory, this may
indicate that a virus has been hunting for files to infect.
4. A decrease in available system memory. You should know how much
memory is usually free on your computer. If this number drops, it
may indicate a TSR virus. This does not always work since some
viruses do not protect the memory they use.
5. Unexplained ChkDsk errors. Stealth viruses will cause you to get a
CHKDSK error because they are altering the info before it gets to
CHKDSK. If you do a CHKDSK /F under this condition, it could CAUSE
considerable damage to the directory structure when in actuality
nothing was wrong in the first place.
6. Unexplained disk access. If the floppy or hard drive begin to light
up all of a sudden for no reason, it could mean viral activity. It
could also mean that you are running a disk cache with staged
writes enabled.
7. An overall slowdown in system activity. Programs may take longer to
execute than normal.
Q: How can I protect myself against viruses
There is one fool-proof positive method. Never run any program that
isn't already on your computer and never use anybody else's disks.
Unfortunately, that is practical. So what is the next best thing?
þ Backups - Make frequent backups of the files on your hard disk.
Remember that at any given moment you may lose your entire hard
drive and its contents. Do you have backups of all your important
files? Things like Phone directories and passwords are especially
hard to get back. So be prepared for the worst.
þ Rescue Disk - Many programs such as TBAV and Norton Utilities will
allow you to create a 'rescue disk', which is a floppy disk that
can be booted from in an emergency. On this disk will be stored a
copy of important system info that could be very hard, if not
impossible to come up with manually. This includes a copy of the
partition table, Master Boot Record (MBR), CMOS settings, and other
important system info.
Also on this disk, you should store utilities that can be used to
detect, clean, and remove viruses from your hard disk. This disk
should be write-protected, and should be updated any time you
make changes to your system.
þ Knowledge - Keeping yourself well-informed about how viruses work,
any new viruses, and that kind of info is very important. Most of
the computer using public is entirely ignorant when it comes to
viruses. By readin this article, you have already made a big step
at reducing your odds of being hit by a virus.
þ AV Software - There are plenty of good Anti-Virus programs
available on the market. Most of the good ones are usually
shareware or freeware. Some are commercial. Many of the commercial
ones are lousy, too. Using some of the less effective virus
software can provide a false sense of security.
What NOT to use:
The following are products that I feel are not up to par as far as
AV software goes. I would avoid using them if possible, opting for
some of the products in the following list. However, if these
programs are the only ones you can find, then they certainly are
better than nothing at all.
þ Norton Anti-Virus (NAV)
þ Central Point Anti-Virus (CPAV)
þ Dos v6.0 Anti-Virus
What TO use
These are some of the AV products that I DO recommend for you to
use. The more Anti-Virus software, the better protected you are.
Allow me to quickly explain what a Heuristic Scan is.
Normally, a virus scanner will look for a 'signature', a series of
bytes that occur inside the virus that can be used to identify a
specific virus. A huruistic scan takes a different approach. It
evaluates the code and looks for virus-like programming techniques.
This technique enables the scanner to find new or unknown viruses
and variations but also tends to cause more false positives and
takes longer. It is a very useful feature.
þ VirusScan - by MacAfee, Also known as SCAN. This is the
standard, and recognizes more than 1300 virus strains. This
program is readily available and offers frequent updates.
{Shareware}
þ F-Prot Anti Virus- by Frisk Software, I highly recommend this
program. It recognizes nearly as many viruses as SCAN and
recognizes trojan horse programs, as well. It has both a menu
driven and command line interface, huriustic scan, virus
database, and detailed descriptions. {Free for personal use}
þ Thunder Byte Anti Virus- This is a good package that does alot
of interesting things. It will create a rescue disk, is highly
configurable, does CRC test for changed files, and has an
adjustable heruistic scan. It will also allow you to replace
the bootstrap loader on your hard drive with a new one that
will perform an automatic CRC check upon bootup. This will
allow you to be instantly informed of any boot sector viruses.
{ShareWare}
þ Doctor Solomon's Anti Virus ToolKit - Although more expensive
than the others, this program has some interesting utilities.
It has "anti-stealth" technology, and an authorization TSR, and
a Certify TSR, which only allows you to run programs that have been
checked and had their CRC logged in. {Commercial}
Well, that's it for now. Now that we have covered the basics, that
will allow us to get into the more fun stuff next time, like how to
play with virues. See ya guys next time.
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