Some tips for simple virus problems<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A good friend from Medan recently told me her
\nISP had warned her that she had a virus called W95\/MTX@M in her
\noutgoing e-mail.<\/p>\n
She was asking whether the ISP was really blocking her e-mail
\nor whether it was just a demo. The wording of the warning, made
\nher think that it was more of a marketing message. I agree. The
\nISP seemed to be offering virus scanning as a value-added
\nservice, which is not a bad thing at all given the real threat of
\nvirus and worm infection over the Net.<\/p>\n
The question is, of course, how effective is it?<\/p>\n
When I checked the ISP's website, I learned that they would
\nonly scan all e-mail messages and their attachments. They would
\ndiscard a message or an attached file if they find a virus in it.
\nThe problem is, what if the message or the file is important? The
\nintended recipient will never receive it. Obviously, what we
\nwould prefer the ISP to do is to sterilize the message and then
\ndeliver it to the addressees.<\/p>\n
If you have a Yahoo e-mail account and you use it to send
\nfiles, the attached files will also be scanned by Norton
\nAntivirus.<\/p>\n
Better still, the service is free. However, I have found out
\nthat it does not work with files created with Lotus WordPro.<\/p>\n
Real Time Protection<\/p>\n
The best protection against viruses should be a continually
\nupdated antivirus program installed in our computers plus a
\nproper system for handling e-mail messages and attachments.
\nWe can still receive important messages and files sent to us, but
\nthe antivirus program will clean them for us automatically.<\/p>\n
Nowadays there are several ways in which we can subscribe
\nto services that protect our computers from these unwelcome
\nintruders.<\/p>\n
One of them, which I have mentioned a couple of times in this
\ncolumn in the past, is to subscribe to online virus protection
\noffered by companies such as McAfee (www.mcafee.com).<\/p>\n
At the moment, McAfee is offering a two-year subscription to
\nOnline VirusScan for US$39.90. You will need a 24-hour access to
\nthe Internet to really benefit from the service, though. There
\nare also free services available from other companies. Trend
\nMicro's PC Cilin House Call (www.trendmicro.com), for example,
\nwill also check your system remotely. However, as expected from a
\nfree service, it does not provide a real-time protection against
\nviruses. What the visiting doctor does is just to detect a virus
\nif it exists on your computer. You will have to kill it yourself.
\nPC Cilin does offer information on the steps that you can try.<\/p>\n
AVG Antivirus (www.grisoft.com\/html\/us_index.cfm) has gone a
\nlot further by offering a free antivirus program. Called AVG 6.0,
\nit offers nice features such as Resident Protection, E-mail
\nScanner, Scheduled Tests and Free Updates on a monthly basis,
\nAutomatic Update and a Virus Vault for keeping infected files
\ncontained. AVG also offers commercial services that include
\nunlimited support for this free program.<\/p>\n
Besides AVG Antivirus, McAfee and Trend Micro, there are other
\ncompanies that also make very powerful commercial antivirus
\nprograms.<\/p>\n
Symantec's Norton Antivirus is usually considered the best
\n(www.symantec.com), but Panda Software (www.pandasoftware.com)
\nalso provides an award-winning antivirus program for home and
\nbusiness users.<\/p>\n
If you have a virus problem, you can also take advantage of
\nthe evaluation version of antivirus products that you may
\ndownload from the Web. Trend Micro and AVG Antivirus currently
\noffer PC Cilin 2000 for a free trial period of 30 days.<\/p>\n
One thing to keep in mind is that once you have chosen a
\nparticular antivirus program, you had better stick to it. The
\nPC's performance usually degrades significantly if more than one
\nantivirus program is running at the same time. These antivirus
\nprograms consume a lot of memory, too. If you want to switch
\nprograms, make sure that the old antivirus program is completely
\nuninstalled before you install the new one.<\/p>\n
Another thing about viruses is that a lot of information about
\nthem is also available at our disposal. To learn more about this
\nparticular virus, for example, we can go to McAfee Virus
\nInformation library (http:\/\/vil.mcafee.com\/default.asp?). Here we
\ncan search for information on W95\/MTX@M. The comprehensive
\ninformation even includes the manual steps that you can take to
\nget rid of it -- including deleting the infected files.<\/p>\n
Antivirus Best Practices<\/p>\n
Some types of computer viruses come into our mailbox and
\ninfect our system the moment it appears in the Preview window.
\nThis is very sneaky, because we do not have the chance to protect
\nourselves. What I have done to protect myself is to close the
\nPreview window in my Outlook Express.<\/p>\n
The downside is that I cannot immediately see the content of
\nan e-mail message when Outlook Express is running. On the other
\nhand, I now have the chance to check the credibility of each
\nincoming message before double-clicking on it to see what it
\ncontains.<\/p>\n
To close the Preview window in Outlook Express, click on the
\nView menu item, and then on Layout. In the dialog box, uncheck
\nShow preview pane, and then click OK.<\/p>\n
What about dubious attachments? You must always check the
\nnames of the attached files. Be extremely careful if the names
\nend with .com, .exe, .txt, .pif, .vbs and .bat.
\nSome virus makers have tricked a lot of victims into believing
\nthat they are receiving benign picture files by inserting .jpg
\nor .pic into the filenames, but they still end with .vbs or
\n.exe.<\/p>\n
As viruses can also come in document files in the form of
\nmacros, how can you protect against them? The best practice is
\nnever to open a file unless you are expecting it from the sender.
\nIf you receive an attached file that you do not expect, it is a
\ngood practice to ask the sender whether he has really sent the
\nfile to you. A lot of viruses and worms use our e-mail client
\nprogram's Address Book to send out e-mail messages completely
\nwithout our knowledge.<\/p>\n
So, a practice that we all should probably adopt is to first
\ninform the recipients that we are about to send them a file
\nbefore we do it. Better still, we can include the names of the
\nfiles that we are going to send them. (zatni@cbn.net.id)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/some-tips-for-simple-virus-problems-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}