Virus Alert
by Gary Woods

Computer Viruses have become a real nuisance. The current rogue’s gallery of pesky little critters that have come down the chute at me include Klez, SirCam, Code Red, Yaha, and recently SoBig.

So what can you do? Well, anybody flying without an Anti-Virus program on their machine these days has got to be crazy. The most popular ones are of course Norton and McAfee. The most important thing to remember no matter what you use is to keep updating your virus definitions. At the very least set them to automatically update, but I'll update them a couple of times a week. Also, be sure to run a full scan on your whole system at least once a week.

A cool feature, which I noticed in the last two versions of Norton Anti-virus, was that Norton would scan incoming and outgoing email. By scanning outgoing mail I make sure that nothing has gotten in to my system, which allows me to not keep my Anti-virus software running in the background and therefore allows my computer to run a lot smoother.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to be sure to back up all your data at least once a week. That way if anything does happen you can restore from backup and keep on going.

If you run the Windows Operating system, Microsoft has really taken virus attacks seriously. At 1-800-pcsafety they'll talk you through your difficulty and give you suggestions to help you get back and running. In closing I have just one thing to say BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE!!!!

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910