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Webwatch
January 2005
I hate computers! At least, I feel like that sometimes. The problem is that with all the trouble with viruses, spam, trojans, hacking etc. you have to spend so much time and money to keep going what is supposed to be a useful device. I would prefer to concentrate on things that interest me not on coaxing the thing simply to stay running.
A friend of mine will not have broadband for fear of hackers. This is a shame, although I say I hate the things, computers and especially the internet are a wonderful source of information. Ask yourself "what is IVIG" and the answer comes up in a few seconds. When my machine fails or the internet connection goes down, I usually feel cut-off from the world. OK, so Shirley may suggest I get a real life but the net is now better than a vast library if you are seeking factual material. A computer may not be good to curl up in bed with to read a good novel, but for facts, there has never been a richer resource.
So how do we keep the machine from heading off out of the window in frustration? In previous editions of Webwatch, I have described spam and premium rate diallers that can infect you machine, but what about viruses? What is a virus?
A virus is simply a computer program that does things that you would rather not do. The older ones deleted things from your machine, corrupted files and generally made the computer useless. They were spread by swapping floppy discs between machines. More modern viruses do less of that, instead they email themselves to other people so the spread is very rapid. Instead of deleting or corrupting things and hence announcing their presence, many viruses only show themselves by slowing the machine down as they create their "payload" as the jargon goes. This payload often means emailing something nasty to everyone in your address-book, any recipient machine that is not protected will become infected and spread the virus ever wider.
How do you stop viruses infecting your machine?
1. If you do not connect to other computers or the internet and you never use a disc from someone else's machine you are totally safe.
2. Many viruses attack Microsoft software such as the web browser Internet Explorer and the emailer, Outlook Express or its grown up cousin, Outlook. One way to avoid these attacks is to use better software. A lot of computer users have now stopped using Internet Explorer as a browser and instead use the better and free Mozilla available from www.mozilla.org. An alternative is to use Opera, available from www.opera.com, this comes in a free version that has an advert at the top or a paid version that simply removes the advert. Both these browsers are much better than Internet Explorer and are much less prone to attack. For email, stop using Outlook or Outlook Express and use something that resists attack. Thunderbird from www.mozilla.org is free but many use the free home version of Eudora from www.eudora.com or the free and very oddly named "The Bat!" from www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat.
3. Anti-virus software is important to increase your chances of not being infected. If does not guarantee that you will be safe. All anti-virus software spoils some aspect of your machine's way of working or performance. It checks up on what the machine is doing and this checking takes time and makes some tasks quite noticeably slower. To catch the latest virus, your anti-virus software must be up-to-date. The only way to be right up-to-date is to have an internet connection, the very source of most viruses!
You must choose good quality anti-virus software. I have fixed many virus infected machines that had what the owner thought was good and up-to-date software. All these machines had one thing in common, Norton Anti-virus. I make no claim as to the quality of this software, but I would not use it, quite apart from its ability to interfere with Outlook Express, it does not find all viruses. Instead, have a look at Test Results of anti-virus software on www.hackfix.org (site has died since publication) for reports on effectiveness at catching infections. Ignoring one that is only a detector so is not strictly anti-virus (Antidote), only 3 out of 11 tested detect 100% of viruses, Norton Anti-virus (also called NAV) is not one of them.
4. Ensure that your Windows Update is working. Windows Update is a means by which Microsoft issues patches for the mistakes in their software, these mistakes are the very things that viruses attack.
Happy surfing
Howard