African Drum Circles |Dance Teachers |International Drum Teachers |
USA Drum Teachers| Drums.org |Drums Not Guns |TexasDrums CommUnity|
Drum Books | FAQ Music Store | FAQ MALL |  FAQ GLOSSARY |
DRUMSTORE | Advertise | FAQ TOC | Subscribe to Djembe-L | LINKS |
Webmaster | BabelFish (Translator)|

Basic Virus Protection Procedures
by Jimi Two Feathers
<jimi@earthdrum.com>

There have been a lot of virus warnings going around lately. I wanted to give you some information to help you deal with it all.

First of all, get some anti virus software (AVS)! This is not an advertisement for Symantec or Norton Anti Virus Software, but that is what I use and believe it to be the best available for the average computer user. Most anti virus software works the same way.

Boot-up Protection

Make sure your AVS is set to scan for viruses when you boot up. There are a lot of viruses that attack the boot sector of your hard drive. The worst ones will erase your hard drive while you're booting up. The boot sector is the area of the hard drive that keeps most of your files and settings that affect how your
computer and operating system (OS) start.

These viruses that erase your hard drive are no myth. I've witnessed one on my own computer and have worked on 3 others for clients just this summer. In each case they lost everything!

Email

Make sure your AVS is set to scan all email BEFORE you open it. Better still, scan everything as it comes in. Some viruses spread by sending out an email to everyone in your address book, and can look legitimate to people that normally get mail from you. They open up the email, thinking its from you, and bang, the cycle repeats itself. Setting your AVS to scan as email messages come in is the best way to prevent viruses on
your machine.

How often to scan your drives

Scan your computer's drives once a week, or more if you suspect something. You can set your AVS to scan
automatically during a time when your computer will be on.

Virus Updates

If you use DSL, cable, or another type of "always-on" connection, you can set Norton AVS to pick up new virus definitions automatically each time you start your computer. This also eliminates the need to reboot your computer after installing the updates. If you use a dial-up connection, you have to pick up the new virus definitions manually. I suggest you do this at least every two weeks.

Some people don't like to tie up their computer's resources with applications running in the system tray. The exceptions to this should be firewalls and anti virus protections applications. The price for not running them may be too high!

And remember, even with AVS running, never open anything that you weren't expecting, or from someone you don't know. This goes for messages as well as attachments. If we all take these measures, this will do a lot to combat viruses.