Viruse protection for your computer

Today I thought I would talk about viruses of course I’m going to talk about the types that affect our computers. Well to start if you us a computer it’s a good idea to have a virus scanner. Now there are some very good virus scanners out there from Norton and MacAfee if you don’t mind spending a little money. You should by able to pick one up for under $50 and its well worth it. Just keep it to one virus scanner per computer. A lot of people think more virus scanners the better, more than one will just slow your computer down. However if you are strapped for cash than I have the virus scanner for you, and as always it’s available for Windows, Macs, and Linux computers.

The software is called ClamAV, I’ll put the download links at the bottom of the page because their different links depending on your operating system. So why do you need a virus scanner? Well there a few reasons, computer viruses can do all sorts of bad things to you and your computer. Some will just become an annoyance, like shutting down your computer or maybe your “e” key won’t work anymore. These types of viruses can become real annoying, real faster. Other viruses can destroy data on your computer causing programs to stop working or worst, lose your family photos. Then there are the real bad viruses. Those that can let someone take control of your computer, to either steal data or use you computer to send spam mail. So that is way you should use a virus scanner, at least once in a while.I know some of you out there are Apple Mac or Linux users and you are probably thinking “I’m safe, there are no viruses that affect my computer.” For the most part that is true. Those of us that us an operating system other than Microsoft Windows are very lucky that we don’t have the same computer virus problems that our Window using brethren do, but don’t think it can’t happen. Microsoft Windows is the most vulnerable to viruses because it is the most common operating system in use. Virus writers want to target the largest group to increase their chance of achieving their goals. However in the past few years Apple Mac has become more and more popular and Linux is becoming a more mainstream operating system. It’s only a matter of time before all of us are affected by computer viruses. So it’s a good idea to start planning now.I suggest if you don’t have an anti-virus program or if the one you have is on the older and you don’t keep up with the updates. Updates? Yes, new viruses are released all the time you need to update you virus scanning software for it to find the new viruses. Anyways I suggest Clam anti-virus (ClamAV) because it’s free and you can download a version for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Other than that its pretty much the same as the ones you buy.

Install the program, update you virus list, and scan your computer. If you are a Windows user I would suggest updating and scanning you computer weekly at a minimum. The more often the better, but it usually takes a long time so once a week is better than not at all. Mac and Linux users I would suggest updating and scanning your computers monthly. Since there currently no known viruses for those operating systems you don’t need to be as concerned as Window users. Oh, and as I mentioned before if you have more than one virus scanner on your computer its not doing you any good. Especially if their not up to date. All they are doing is slowing down your system, get rid of them. Just keep one and keep it up to date. Okay, I’ll put links down below for ClamAV and I hope everyone has a virus free winter.

Windows ClamWin
Mac OSX ClamXAV
Linux ClamAV