A Plague of Viruses or is it Viri hit my computer recently. However, they were stopped from entering my machine by Norton Anti-Virus software. I have read all the horror stories about anti-virus software causing problems, but I have never had any. As long as I remember to disable it when I am loading software, I have never had a conflict. Actually, even when I haven't remembered to disable it, I don't believe I have had problems, but I do remember to disable it 99% of the time - only my two dogs are perfect, at least that's what they keep telling me.

I, also, manually update my virus definitions daily. I read on one of Symantec's web pages that it is updated automatically on Wednesdays, if you have it set for automatic updating, but there are new virus definitions posted almost daily. Just recently I read that sometimes there is more than one version per day and that is why Norton's naming system has changed.

I have found this to be beneficial. Coming back from a two week trip last spring, Norton Anti Virus Software caught 23 virus infected files. Soon after that, it caught one that was only two days old. In other words, if I had not kept up to date with manual virus definition loading, I would have allowed a virus to infect my machine. Every morning, I check the Symantec website and download a new virus definition if there is one and then transfer it to all our machines through our network. I then install it on the machines. We have only had one virus on any computer ever and that was before we used Norton for e-mail many years ago.

Recently, I had another bout with viruses. I even had two in one piece of e-mail. Norton caught all before they actually entered my machine. But one needs to keep the software current. Just because when a computer is sold it has anti-virus protective software installed on it, does not mean forever. New viruses are spawned daily. Thus a machine has to be upgraded daily or as often as the Virus Definitions are put out by the companies. The two largest are McAfee and Norton. Virus Definitions are the updates that contain the software to stop new viruses from entering your computer.

One can only upgrade through LiveUpdate, the built in updating program for a year from the date of installation and manually for a set period of time. After that there is a fee. However, this is one of the most important pieces of software in your machine. It, also, is not expensive. I recommend to people to upgrade to a new version each year. Even though there is LiveUpdate, I still urge people to download an update through Intelligent Updater at the minimum of once a week and preferably every day. Since I download everyday, I do not keep track of when LiveUpdate works. A friend of mine, however, has told me that Norton doesn't automatically update as often as LiveUpdates become available. So it is imperative to check the Norton website by following the steps outlined below.

The following are screen captures showing how to download Virus definitions manually.

Step 1 - Type in http://www.symantec.com/

Step 2 - Click on the link that says Download Virus Definitions.

Step 3 - Click on the link to Download Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater Only).

Step 4 - Click on Download Update.

Step 5 - Click on the magenta file name of 2002115-004-i32.exe.

Step 6 - The last step on the Internet is to save the file so it downloads to your hard drive. This screen will look different on different computers depending on the options chosen for the Internet.

Step 7 - Go to the folder that you use as your Download folder, and double click on the highlighted .exe file.

Step 8 - Once double clicked, a screen will come up asking whether you want to update your virus definitions. Click Yes.

Step 9 - You, then, will get a screen saying that your virus definition has been updated.

Step 10 - To make sure that your Virus Definitions are up to date, open Norton Anti Virus program, and look at the date, next to Virus Definitions. It should be the same as the Virus definition that you downloaded.

Attachment - Just kidding Folks

After I wrote this article, what I thought of as strange things began to happen when I would receive e-mail with attachments. It began with an e-mail that I received from my cousin with an attachment. Since I had been receiving a number of viruses through the mail, but none entered my computer, I though he had a virus. But this began to happen with all attachments - doc, gifs, etc. I had a friend, whose computer was clean, send me a a number of e-mails with attachments using different formats. All contained the yellow line message pictured below.

Recently, I had updated my computers to SR3 for win 2k and SR1 for Outlook Express 6. I realized that this had begun to happen after I had updated my two computers. I found in Outlook Express (Tools>Options>Security) that it now defaulted to a box that was checked, that stated "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus."

Once I unchecked the box, I could open my attachments.

I hate to think of all the people opening new computers during the holidays and not being able to open pictures!

Safe Computing!