Lesson 3: Safe Computing Practices
There are ways to protect your self from viruses. Following the safe computing practices we will be talking about in this lesson will give you a way to defend your computer.
Software Packages
All computers should have some form of virus protection. This does not necessarily come standard with your computer, make certain you purchase virus software. There are many programs available for virus protection, how do you know what to buy? There are a couple of guidelines I would suggest you follow in deciding on a virus software: - Do not use free software, while many virus protection companies offer free trials it is not advisable to use these as your primary method of protection. I have heard of people hoping from one virus software to another to draw out the time before they had to purchase, the problem with this is you never get up to date protection. New viruses come out constantly. Most free trials do not allow you to update in order to protect against the latest viruses. - Use a reputable company. Symantec and McAfee are the two best-known virus software companies, there are many others just as reputable, but if you don't know how to find them use one of these.
Here is a list of several Virus Detection software sites:
- McAfee
- Symantec's Norton AnitVirus 2003
- Sophos
- TrendMicro PC-cillin 2003
- Panda Software's Platinum 7.0
- Frisk Software International's F-Prot for Windows
