The first thing you can do is install a firewall to protect your computer. This will monitor your computers communications ports and block any unauthorized activity. There are no 100% guaranteed protection packages out there but it can keep many of the harmful virus at bay and out of your machine. Save yourself an awful lot of grief and install a firewall before you get an infection they are much harder to deal with once they are in your computer.

The second thing that you can do is to make sure you have some kind of antivirus software on your machine. This is taking an active way of protecting rather than it being a passive one. While passive protection protects by immunization and blocking problems active protection works by seeking out threats. Once an active protection program finds a threat it will often ask you what you want to do and then take the appropriate action.

Identifying a garmful file or virus is not a perfect science and therefore the antivirus program needs you to work with it. Sometimes legitimate programs can be identified as threats simply by the nature in which they work. If you know for a fact that a found program or file is something that you use then you will in most cases tell the scanner to ignore it now and forever. This results in fewer false positives down the line.

If your anti virus application finds a file or a document that you are not familiar with it is most likely that it is harmful to your computer. In most cases you want to tell the program to heal the file, delete the file, or quarantine the file. Quarantining is done when the antivirus software cannot remove or heal the file but can lock it down and prevent it from accessing the rest of the computer. While it’s still on your machine it’s safely locked away and in most cases a copy can be uploaded to the protection software company’s database for study and analysis.

This is how they develop new detection rules and removal routines. Aside from having programs installed to protect and scan your computer there are a few common sense things that you can do to protect yourself. Having an external hardrive and completing backups of all your personal files and data is a good way of making sure that your computer is never totally wiped out.

You should also never open any spam email or any email that has an unfamiliar name or a strange subject line. Do not be tempted to click on these pop ups that tell you your are a winner or collect your prize now. These are unfortunately there to trap you and if your not carefull they will catch you out.

By implementing some of thses suggestions it will hopefully give you some idea of how you can protect your computer from a virus. They can keep many of the nasties out there that cause infections away from your computer although it is not 100% fool proof. Remember to update your protection once a month and scan every week to be on the safe side.

You can defend both the system and your computer from almost all threats to your privacy and security, if you have a similar policy or just implement these points.

1. Each and every patches to Windows security for your Windows OS must be updated. All you need is a working internet connection and you will have an always updated Windows OS without any cost.

2. Have the best antivirus software installed. Consult software review for the best antivirus ranking to date. Nowadays, antivirus software solutions are sold at very affordable price; some with limited capablities are even free. Provide internet connection to let the antivirus update itself anytime, and let it run automatically when the computer starts. This can be done automatically by default with most programs.

3. Have a firewall installed and configure it well. A software or hardware based firewall is ok, as long as it is working and set properly. A router, in case you are using it, usually have a firewall already built in it, so that you just need to set the rules to make it work properly and effectively. Software version of firewalls are widely available, even the free ones!

4. Don’t install or run any program, but test them in different system or computer first to be safe. A virtual machine or a virtual computer can do this tricky job with no cost at all and act as a free virus protection.

5. Backup your files regularly, just in case. A best plan includes a way out of the worst. The cost may just be a few DVD’s. If you have a big harddisk to store a backup, there will be no cost at all!

It’s clear that it cost very low and even free if you want to protect yourself from threats.

Zone Alarm Free

To prevent unintended intrusion from the network and internet by using a network firewall is basically very effective. By applying all of it’s list to block packets, programs, and IPs, a firewall will minimize infiltration to over 80% of the time. However, this applies to only some situations.

How can we tell if a firewall is effective?

Firewalls should be tuned for each unique environment in a network. It depends on the behavior of the data exchange between the users and the network or internet that is permitted by the administrator. I think this is the basic conditions a firewall should be installed upon, so as not to set the firewall to a “default-allow” rule, which will practically make the firewall useless.

To make the best of a firewall, it should be set to the “default-deny” rule, with exceptions for a list of IP’s, applications, access types and confirmations, only to the widest range that the company would really need in network and internet access. It’s best to apply the “default-deny” rule with exceptions that’s based only on a daily needs of the users of the network, although a dedicated technical support that’s responsible for intelligent-”allow-rule”-supervision should be available.

This setting may be the best security firewall system setting besides antivirus with a comprehensive built-in firewall in it.

Why is it not effective?

It’s tempting to think that we are being under protection. It’s only that not every network owners really dedicate their small portion of investment to the “default-deny” set of rules implementation, because they refuse to have to add additional exceptions in the future upon someone complaining that he can’t use some internet resources.

They resent more on the necessity of having to add exceptions based on a daily basis. what they’re looking for is an easy to implement procedure, without having to mess with it later to make it work.

This issue is not there because the system administrator has no idea regarding the case, but mostly because it is a common practice. Commercials and marketing advertising copy that don’t want their products to feel hard to be used effectively also takes the part.

How can we make the best out of it?

To acquire number one firewall solution installed is fine. It’s just that it’s not good enough. It needs us to have at least a bit more knowledge about networking, computer security, and network firewall.

None that I can remember of all vendors is providing that yet, because that is our part as users. A little priming is crucial after the installation is done.

I’m talking about making use of a free firewall, Zone Alarm Free, install and prime it for the best. By watching the video guide, first-time and fire-and-forget users can benefit from it.

When we take care of things nicely, and the firewall is effective, all we have to do is just relax and enjoy the day. Well, you worked hard for it that you inevitably deserve it, don’t you think?

The most important thing!

To achieve things that we want, (network computer security is one of it), the major thing to do is ACTION. Now, what are we waiting for? Let’s do it, and relax when you have a secure networking and internet!

Computer Security Tutorial - Patch Windows using Panda Security Online Scan

This issue comes up as a new trend in online scan service provided by antivirus software and computer security solution vendors are trending. Should we really take advantage of this service? This question triggers many other questions along, such as:

- Do we need to make use of a free virus scan? At times you need to be sure that your system id free of malware whatsoever, or if a rogue antivirus that can fool you is actually hiding just behind the currently running antivirus. We can take advantage of the always-up-to-date state of an online free virus scan database, in case it can detect an otherwise undetectable virus, due to its state of update and possible different algorithm used.

- Is an online free virus scan really effective? Although this depends on the state of update of the database being used, chances are that an online scan tends to use the latest virus definition database. Chances are that it always uses the latest technologies in the engine. Regardless of that, not knowing the previous condition that the system is in can lead to uselessness of the scan, if for instance the system is already compromised by a virus.

What is it like? The usual procedure that an online free virus scan follows is: (1) download; (2) install; (3) update; (4) scan. The procedure sequence resembles a typical program installation steps of any regular free antivirus software. But it actually differs in that what it installs is only the scanner portion and not the whole antivirus program. After the scan is complete, should any infections be detected, some online scan service will try to disinfect right away, while some will only notify us about this findings and suggest on running a more comprehensive antivirus scan instead, to completely remove any existence of malware.

- On what occasion will we need to use an online virus scan? Right when it is time that we should take the risk of being compromised or let our system be infected by trojan, worm, or a virus. If the running security system remains inert, chances are some other scan software can still point out what has been missed.

- What’s in a free virus scan that’s not there in our regular antivirus software? That is the varying services of each vendors; the capability of scanning on the fly; and also the vast availability. Put that aside, I don’t think there is any.

- How effective is it? If we are to use this service as a preventive measure, the ineffectiveness is obvious. This is really a best choice for systems without any antivirus installed. For some reason, I fall into this category of PC users. Every now and then we should run a scan to check if any virus has contracted any files.

In the end, what should we decide?

The judgement is completely up to you to decide. To me, for the readiness upon request and minimum installation requirements, an Online Free Virus Scan is rather effective, being a virtual system user as I am. Nevertheless, should I survive the computing world without virtual computer, I wold rather go with an antivirus. (I currently insist on using a clean system, without any antivirus software installed. It’s LIGHT , and preserves the world)

1) It is important that you purchase and install anti-virus software onto every PC on your company's computer network.Set up your software so that it will download updates every time your system connects to the internet.

2) You should be extra precautious and download spyware for each computer.This will scan every page and file that is downloaded to make sure that there aren't any viruses attached to them.Update your registration the moment it runs out.

3) Ensure that your PC's operating system is updated regularly.This isn't a task that needs to be done manually as the PC operating system can be set up to perform an automatic updates.This will automatically download software patches that will prevent hackers exploiting holes in the software.

4) Exercise common sense - delete emails from recipients that you don't know or recognise.  They will almost certainly contain a virus.In the event that you accidentally open one of these bad emails make sure that you don't click on any of the links contained in the body of the message.

5)  Network support companies can provide training to your employees so that they will know what to do in the even that their computer is attacked by a virus.

If you are still unsure as how to best protect your network then it is is worth while approaching a professional network support company who will be able to take care of the job for you.