Virus Alerts

Adapted with permission from La Plaza Telecommunity.

AFN uses Trend Micro PCCillin. Some new machines come loaded with McAfee's antivirus product, and this is a good alternative. Other products on the market exist, but we are not in a position to rate them.

Regardless of the product, the first thing to check is that the product is running, is set to protect all downloaded files and all e-mails. Next, and just as important, is that the "virus definition" files are up to date! In the old days, virus definition files a month or two old were OK. These days, these files need to be updates, at a minimum, of once a week.

You will need to check that the antivirus program itself is up to date. Some products will get the latest virus definition files, but don't run them because of old antivirus programs, and won't alert you to this situation! We found this out the hard way.

The links below are good places to check for alerts to new viruses, symptoms you might experience if you are infected, and how thousands of different viruses work. They are also a good place to check for "hoax" virus alerts (as if things weren't bad enough already, some people send out mass mailings warning of viruses that don't even exist!). There are also some small programs and instructions for removing various infections that are too tough to kill from within the antivirus program.

http://www.symantec.com
http://www.mcafee.com
La Plaza (La Plaza is a a new Mexico CTCNet Affiliate.")

To recap:

Run up to date antivirus software
Maintain up to date virus definition files ( one week old max )
Make sure your settings in the antivirus program are correct
Visit respected antivirus websites for updates, alerts, recommendations, and hoax notifications.