Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Recent Developments .. by Roger 'the brain' Davies Soft Serve Direct Magrath, Alberta T0K 1JO Phone (403) 388-4332 Email  news@ssdirect.com

'the big R.D.'

 irus for Christmas? No Thanks.

Viruses, Worms and Spam. Oh my! If you use your computer to access the internet for browsing or email for any length of time you likely have been exposed to some sort of virus or worm and more likely a heaping serving of spam email.

Viruses: Once burned, many of you will have installed a virus scanner of some sort - Norton and McAffee being two of the most common commercial choices available. Each of these products now cost about $50 to buy and up to $20 per year to renew subscriptions. I personally like (and use) Norton. They find and fix problems fast. Their website, www.sarc.com, is easy to access and informative. Constant Vigilance! Unless you maintain the subscription and keep the virus definition files updated, these programs will be ineffective on newly introduced worms and viruses. The newer versions of the anti-virus programs can automatically get updates for you from the internet.

Worms: Viruses, Trojan horses, Worms and Macros: The differences are subtle and of little real importance to the end user. The bottom line is some goofy program is taking over your computer, slowing down or crashing programs, looking at or deleting files, and propagating themselves to your friends computers via network shares and email. I also include in this broad category Spyware programs not found by anti-virus programs (aka Skumware) which attach themselves to your system and send information off to external advertising websites about you and your browsing practices.

Spam:  In the days before the internet (B.I.), these type of virulent programs spread from file to file and disk. With the dawn of the internet age, the tide has switched to transmitting these via email and websites. In addition to those sneaky infected emails, we are being inundated with junk emails. My current situation is close to 1 in 100 good emails show up in my basket.

What to do, what to do? I recommend installing and using Norton Anti-virus (just remember to update the definitions regularly), but consider also some of my other favorites (because they are useful and hey .. free!). Merry Christmas! 

1. AVG 6.0 Anti-Virus System - free to single-computer home and office users. Download from www.grisoft.com.
2. ZoneAlarm free firewall  - provides solid PC protection for the home user. Basically, it sits between your computer and the internet connection and blocks attempts by programs (out there or on your computer) to get information from your PC. It's free for personal and non-profit use (excluding government and educational entities). See www.zonelabs.com.
3. Ad-aware - Free scanner for Scum-ware/Spy-ware. Go to www.downloads.com and do search for 'ad-aware'.
4. We-Blocker - Free website blocker to protect your kids (or yourself) from adult content on the web. See www.we-blocker.com for information on how it works and for the free download.
5. Spam Buster (freeware - see www.contactplus.com/products/spam/spam.htm) accesses your POP3 email account directly  to identify and (optionally) automatically delete identified spam email from your account. It works using lists of known email spammers along with user ustomizable include/exclude keywords. However, only works with Windows and standard email accounts .. i.e. not on your Hotmail or other free html based email accounts.
6. Although the download can take a bit of time, the Symantec (Norton) AntiVirus website also provides a free web-based version of their virus scanner. Check out www.sarc.com and click on the link for 'Free Security and Virus check'.  Works best on high-speed connections.

Enjoy.