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Setting Up Your AntiVirus Software
By Richard Lowe, Jr.
There is far more to antivirus software than just opening the box, inserting the CD and installing
software. To be properly protected you may actually want to do a little more than that.
You see, a good antivirus program does a lot more than you might think. In this article we will be
discussing features of Norton Antivirus, one of the best and most full featured programs available.
Similar functions exist in the other major scanners.
The first thing you must do in this day and age is purchase and install antivirus software. If you
don't have this installed you are literally living on borrowed time. Some of the common features are
described below.
Auto Protect
Perhaps the most important feature of all is auto protect. This feature allows the
antivirus system to perform it's tasks without manual intervention. This is critical
as then you can relax and do what you need to do, without constantly worrying about
checking for viruses. Keep this turned on without fail.
Checking for email viruses
This is one of the most critical features of a modern antivirus program is the
ability to scan email messages as they arrive or are sent. Scanning of this nature
is relatively new and long overdue. DO NOT TURN THIS FEATURE OFF.
It's very important to remember that the most destructive viruses arriveas
attachments in email messages. I know, I know, you would never, ever open anything
that even remotely looked like a virus, would you? But how would you know? Do you
want to take the chance on destroying your system?
Scanning disks for viruses
Most virus scanners will occasionally scan your disks for anything that looks like a
virus. In Norton Antivirus, you can schedule this scan for as often as you like - in
fact, many people turn it off entirely. After all, while the scan is running your
system will be slower than normal. It can be quite annoying.
Turning off the automatic disks scans is, however, a big mistake. These check your
disks for any viruses which may have gotten through the front line defenses. How
does this happen? You could copy a virus to your hard drive from a CD ROM, a floppy
or perhaps across the network. It will be just sitting there, waiting to explode in
your face. Scanning the disks finds these little time bombs and eliminates them.
But wait, if you have your antivirus program running won't it catch and stop any
viruses that you happen to open? Yes it will, but you could still copy it to someone
else, or another person could grab it over the network (if you are in a company, for
example). Or perhaps for some reason you turn off your antivirus program, then you
could accidentally open it up and destroy your system.
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