Answers
Yes . Once you're online your machine (or network) is now linked to a wide area of potential viruses and data corruption. It's a good idea to install some anti-virus software (preferably the most recent versions of Dr. Solomon's or Norton antivirus ) and regularly update the virus profile by visiting their respective websites. You should also visit our virus center every month for updates and news about the latest virus threats. Be careful when visiting and downloading files from personal sites or "uncensored" software. Every visit to a website leaves a small signature of your identity which in the wrong hands can leave you exposed. You should be wary of unsolicited mail because it is the most common media through which infections are implanted. If you have a public e-mail account such as yahoo or hotmail, periodically changing your username and password is a good idea. Some antivirus programs, notably Trend Micro's PC-Cillin and Mcafee's Virus Scan, can be configured to automatically scan downloads and e-mail for viruses. However, it is ultimately your sense of vigilance that counts. Acquiring a virus usually means you must click on a file, opening a mail attachment or launch an applet. Don't open mail unless you know the sender. . For more on viruses click here.
If you suspect a virus infection, you should perform a complete scan of your system. If you do not have antivirus protection, here's how to get it.
Visit our virus center. Now choose from any of the antivirus programs listed. For this example, lets choose Norton Antivirus for windows. When you click on "get", your browser will ask you to "save to disk". Click on "ok" and point the location to the desktop. This will start the download to your desktop. You will also need the dated "update" file to make the virus list current. That file is also listed under "Available Updates". You can download this file at the same time. Choose the desktop as the location for this file as well.
When these downloads are completed, you should see two new icons on your desktop. One of these is a compressed file, so you will need a compression program such as Winzip to read it. If the icon appears as a "filing cabinet", you already have winzip installed. If you do not already have winzip, you can find it on our web site under "utilities". To unzip a file, right click on the compressed file and choose "add to unzipped". This action will extract a folder to your desktop which contain the installer files for Norton Antivirus.
Once the installer file is "unzipped", we can then proceed with installation of Norton Antivirus. First, ensure that you are now "offline" and that you have no work files or applications open. Double click on the "nav4.0" folder and then launch the "setup" file. This will start the installation for Norton Antivirus. The installer process will ask you a number of questions and select the default installation path. When it is done, windows will prompt you to restart.
After your machine reboots, you will need to perform the update of your virus list. The file update file is an "executable" file which is named by date. In this case, lets say our file our called "0711i32.exe". Simply double click on this file and update will find your Norton Version and automatically update the engine. Now you're ready to scan your system for the latest viruses.
Launch, Norton Antivirus. Now choose the "options" button and select on scan option for "all files". Hit OK to save the changes. Select the C drive and hit "scan". Norton will perform a complete sweep for viruses. The summary report generated at the end, details which viruses, if any, were found, and prompts you for the appropriate action. In most cases "repair all" will rid your system of the viruses identified and marks the infected documents. You may want to perform a second scan to ensure any viruses identified have in fact, been removed from the system.
The entire process may seem a bit lengthy but it is really not that complicated. If you do identify viruses which originated from e-mail, you should advise your correspondents to take corrective action. It is also good practice to check our virus center every month for updates and news about the latest virus threats.
QG3. Where can I find Software on the internet ?
Inter.net.works is hosting FTP services for its clients. As a customer you can access the FTP site from the download zone. To get there now click here. You can also visit our ftp zone, for some of the best shareware sites. There are large number of public FTP sites, which host software, mp3s, images, video and movie clips among other things. Many of thee products are shareware or freeware, which means you can use them for a limited (and in some cases unlimited) period of time with a users licence. In some cases, the sites will rate their titles and rank them based on popularity. One of the best known FTP sites is ZDnet's download.com., which incidentally owns PC magazine. Another popular freeware site is freewarehome in the UK. And probably the most visited download site of all, microsoft.com. You can also purchase software over the internet. The internet is being used as a media to market software (including betas and developers titles) to a large audience. Also a recent trend are "crack" sites, which hosts saleable titles (including product codes) from dubious sources. Beware of these ! They are also known sources of viruses.
QG4. Will I be able to run multimedia applications over the internet?
Most common multimedia and telephony applications such as realplayer, Nullsoft's Winamp and Apple's Quicktime do work. Unfortunately, while the internet is rich in multimedia content, the network resources required to efficiently stream the whole spectrum of audio and video is still under development. And the technology itself is still in its infancy. We cannot promise that any multimedia applications will run well, and performance may vary depending on the level of traffic or number of users visiting a specific site. Some tweaking will be required. Improvements in global telecommunications infrastructure, will make it possible to significantly increase the level and sophistication of multimedia content traversing the internet. Multimedia performance is also integrally tied to your machine performance in particular video memory, processing speed, memory level and modem capability. For a viable multimedia experience, many products will require a resource baseline of at least Pentium 166mhz,with 16 Mb or higher of ram, a 33.6kbps or faster modem, preferably a full duplex sound card and microphone ( the headset type of better !).