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Rule #1: You need Antivirus more than you need your power cord!

Rule #2: When in doubt about whether you need Antivirus Software, see rule #1.

I’m not sure what motivates people who write viruses, but the Internet is swarming with them! If you’re interested in knowing the difference between viruses, worms, and Trojans, check out this Microsoft site describing them. Antivirus software should stop all three types of attacks.

According to the latest statistics available on the SANS Internet Storm Center, your computer will probably only survive about 19 min. before being attacked if it's exposed to the Internet! If you check out the SANS Internet Storm Center using the link, click on Survival Time in the menu on the left then look in the upper right hand corner for the present average survival time between attacks. If you have an unpatched operating system, non-functional antivirus, or no antispyware, and it's exposed to the Internet your computer will be attacked. Protect yourself starting by patching your computer, then adding and updating antivirus software, then add antispyware software.

If you have, or are getting a new computer, you can follow the step-by-step procedures in this SANS Whitepaper on surviving your first day with Windows XP. If your survival time on the Internet is about 19 min., and it takes 2 hours to do all of your patches using a High Speed connection, how do you protect your computer with the latest patches without getting hit with a virus? This article tells you how.

How do you know if you’re running Antivirus software, and how do you know if it’s up to date? If it’s running, there should be an icon in the System Tray (the little area by the time in the lower right hand corner of your screen) that will say Symantec Antivirus, McAfee Antivirus, or some other vendor's Antivirus when you hold your cursor over it for a moment. If you have an antivirus program, right-click on it and see whether there’s an option to check signature dates. If not, just right-click it and open the antivirus program and look for a place to check the signature dates. If they haven’t updated in more than a week, something’s not set up right. If they’re very old (a few weeks or more), you’re probably infected with some viruses if you do any work on the Internet or receive any e-mail.

If you have antivirus software, but it’s not working, please remove it using the remove unneeded programs steps on the Windows Tune-up page. After removing your broken, old antivirus software, download Stinger, and run it. Let it fix any problems it finds. Then download and install either Grisoft's AVG Antivirus, or Avast Antivirus. Immediately update your virus signatures and run a full scan.

If your computer keeps locking up when you try running Stinger, you might try using Task Manager to shut down suspicious processes. To get to Task Manager in Windows 2000, or Windows XP, the quickest way is to right click on the task bar (the bar the Start Button is on), and from the menu that pops up, click Task Manager. Since Windows 98, and Windows Me don’t have a Task Manager equivalent, you can download Process Explorer from Sysinternals’ web site for free and use it. Process Explorer works for Windows 2000/XP also, and it will kill some processes that Windows Task Manager won’t. The tree view is also helpful.

If you see a process AuTb92L (I just made that up), or a bunch of other random numbers and letters, chances are it’s a virus, and you can shut it down. You can also do a Google search for items you don’t recognize, and you’ll probably see search hits indicating that it’s a virus, if it is one.

You can run an online scan to check for viruses to help you clean your system in preparation for installing one of the full featured Antivirus programs below:

Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool - Free from Microsoft. This is NOT a full antivirus or antispyware scanner, but it is quick and easy to run. You might run this first, then proceed to the software below.

Free Antivirus Software

Stinger - Free program maintained by McAfee, only for use in repairing computers already attacked by viruses. This is NOT a substitute for the programs below. Some viruses disable antivirus software. If you’re attacked by one of those, run Stinger before reinstalling the antivirus program.

AVG Antivirus - Excellent free, full featured virus scanner. My personal choice. You go to the link, register, download the program, and activate with the key AVG e-mails you. Remember to configure it to do automatic signature updates. I have it download them daily.

Avast Antivirus - Another full featured free virus scanner. Remember to configure it to do automatic signature updates. Have it download them daily.

Pay Antivirus Software

If you don’t like free software, you can use one of the pay programs below for about $45 to $55 a year. I believe the free software I've listed here is excellent but I have friends, relatives, and customers who just don't feel comfortable using free software.

Best-selling antivirus software – Norton AntiVirus 2006 Click Here - The behemoth of the Antivirus industry, Symantec's Norton Antivirus is a solid, full featured Antivirus Program. It's a bit more refined in my opinion than most free software.

McAfee - One of the main competitor's of Symantec. Another solid program. There is a link on this page for Virus Scan.

There are many other programs out there, but Symantec and McAfee are the most popular for home use.

Antivirus Test File

Eicar.org has a free virus test file to make sure your antivirus software is working. The eicar test file is only a harmless text file that is seen by virus scanners as a real threat.

Some antivirus scanners catch it real-time, others require you to scan the directory you put it in to find it. You'll want one that finds at least the eicar.com file as soon as you try to save it.