NEMRC System FAQ

Virus Protection

Virus protection software is something every computer should have. As you know computer viruses can be very damaging and annoying. Some viruses wipe you your computers hard drive while others rename and move files. Others place nice pictures on your desktop so you can not access your icons.

Your computer can get a virus from a number of different ways.

Downloading files from the Internet
Opening email attachments
Sharing files on a diskette that has a virus
If your computer is on a network it is possible for someone else in the office to download a virus and have it spread to all of the computers on the network.

How to protect your computer.

Have a good back up procedure in place. If you do get a virus and files are damaged you need to be able to restore your data.
Install virus protection software (Norton or McAfee are a couple of popular programs).
Do not open any email attachments the have an 'exe' for an extension. ie filename.exe.
If you know an email has a virus attached to it simply delete that email. Do not open the email. DO NOT open the attachment.
Set up your virus software to scan files you download from the Internet.
Set up your virus software to scan all incoming and outgoing emails.
Scan you computers hard drive for viruses.
Make sure your virus protection software is kept UPDATED. Check for Virus protection upgrades at least once a week. (the more frequent the better).
Make sure all computers connected to your network have virus protection software installed and kept up to date.

Things you can do if you get a computer virus.

Run your virus protection software to remove the program
Notify anyone that you have shared files with
If it is an email virus notify anyone that you have in your email address book
Contact your Hardware person to help you remove the virus from your computers.