A common topic on the discussion list is computer virus'. We like to keep the discussions on the list toward the topic of face painting so we are going to take some time to discuss it here on this FAQ (frequently asked question page).

First of all let me remind all of you we want you to NOT USE THE LIST to post the latest virus warnings. The list is to discuss face painting issues. We do not want e-mails in relation to virus or internet scams to be posted to this list.

In this day and age of computers it is more and more common that an individual run head to head with the computer virus. If you have not been sent a virus you will. The longer your e-mail address is out there, the more likely it is you will be sent a virus. More and more people are using e-mail and more and more people are connecting in other ways via the internet. With the fact that new virus' are being created and sent each and every day increases the fact that you will get one. The irritating thing is a beginner programmer in middle-school probably knows enough to write the code to a computer virus.

Most of these virus' are more of an irritant that destructive but don't let your guard down because many of them lay dormant and at a later date wipe out your entire hard drive as well as all of your friend's computers. This can be devastating especially if you do not back up your computers. The way that most virus' work is they work in the back ground on your computer and start duplicating themselves. They have the ability to attach themselves to every e-mail address you ever have used or those that are in your e-mail address book. The use of the name "virus" is the perfect name. It is no difference that a person that has a cold, sneezes on his/her hand and then touches a door knob. Then everyone that touches that door know is very susceptible to that cold.

If you are on any e-mail discussion list you become even more vulnerable. E-mail has become one of the primary methods of communicating. It is quite common for an individual to receive an e-mail with a poem, thought or joke and have the individual immediately have it passed on to all of their friends and family. With that said, it is pretty easy to see how one little virus can multiply faster than the black plaque. It can be sent the first time in the morning and by afternoon be on hundreds of thousands of computers.

These virus' are getting more cleaver by the day. For example: John can send Jill the virus unaware. The virus will look in Jill's e-mail address book and see the e-mail address of Bob. The virus will then send out an e-mail with the virus attached to everyone in Jill's address book and it will appear that Bob sent out the virus. The reality is Bob reality does not have the virus. People that know Bob would never suspect that he sent a virus so they open up the attachment and they now have and start sending out the virus. When in doubt simply do not open any attachment unless you have excellent anti-virus software.

Generally, virus are spread in files that are mini-programs. They can often be hidden in files that have endings like .bat, .exe, .com, .pif and look out for e-mail addresses that start out with a "_" as the first letter. Bottom line is NEVER OPEN AN ATTACHMENT from anyone you do not know and then don't open attachments from your friends unless you are expecting a photo or something. When in doubt, don't open the attachment. I received a virus once from the individual that repairs our computers at our office. You can never be too careful.

On the SNAZAROO discussion list we now allow attachments. We do this so folks can share photos. With this in mind IT IS POSSIBLE for someone to send out a virus via our list. For this reason we tell people over and over to use some type of anti-virus protection. Keep in mind it is likely that if you are on the list your e-mail address is out there and this does not prevent a virus from attaching to someone's e-mail from the list and get sent to you outside the framework of the discussion list. The creators of these virus are getting more advanced every day. They can mask the virus and grab any e-mail in their address file and send it out to all in their directory and hide it under the e-mail address of an address in their directory. Then you receive an e-mail that seems to have the e-mail address of your cousin or best friend and low and behold it contains a virus. When these are sent out under a false e-mail address they are called a Trojan virus because like the Trojan legend, it comes from an unsuspected source. I once got a virus from my computer repair technician.

To make matters worse there are thousands of e-mail hoaxes out there just to confuse everyone and to encourage you to let down your guard.

So what do you do to keep yourself protected? There are many things you can do. First of all you need to keep proper back up files. It is not really necessary to back up your entire computer but you certainly need to back up all of your personal and critical files. Depending on the importance of your data and how vulnerable you are determines how often you should back up. For example at our offices we back up our accounts receivable and similar files every single day. Many of the other files we back up to cd for safe keeping every several weeks. However at my home I might only do this every six months or so. You back up as often as you feel necessary. For example: if you keep your check book on your computer you should back it up at least once per week. This is all entirely up to you.

The next step is to purchase a good anti-virus software program. The leaders in this industry are Symantec and McAfee. My personal suggestion is for you to purchase the most current version of one or the other. My favorite is the Symantec product and I get no royalty from them I can assure you.  One can buy it for about $49 at any software store, on-line merchant or even at stores like Wal-Mart and it will be well worth the money. If you ever loose your hard drive you will have major regrets having not spent the money. I suggest these two because they set the standard. They also have an auto-update ability so every time you log on to the computer you can automatically download the definitions of all the new virus that are created. There are hundreds of new virus sent out each and every day. You want to keep current. The renewal fee to keep this updated is only about $5 per year and well worth it.

If you do not have the money to buy from the two above I would suggest at the very least you download and install one of the many free anti-virus software programs that are available. Get one that allows updates. You can find these with an internet search or simply go to http://www.download.com and look in their internet section. Look particularly at the reviews and get one that has the best reviews. Whatever you do have some type of protection. A "B" grade free anti-virus program is much better than having none. Most anti-virus programs also allow you to scan all your drives for virus' and most also will help you clean them up. You might also check out the free anti-virus software and free download at http://www.grisoft.com

As a reminder use the options in your software to allow auto update, automatic deletion of known virus' and routine scheduled scans of your drive including critical file areas such as your boot sector.

Here are some helpful links for you to check out...

http://www.symantec.com the home site for SYMANTEC anti-virus
http://www.mcafee.com the home site for McAfee anti-virus
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html the Hoax Center for Symantec
http://www.download.com a free download site for free anti-virus software
http://www3.ca.com/virus Virus information center
http://www3.ca.com/virus/encyclopedia.com a Virus Encyclopedia

Use any search engine to find out more about virus'.

I hope this is of help to all of you. KEEP YOURSELF PROTECTED!!!
 

Gary Cole
SNAZAROO USA Inc.

gary@snazaroo.com and http://www.snazaroo.us

Firewall and Virus guards by Anne Ardern

For many years I have happily used the free firewall from www.sygate.com.  and ignored the emails that they periodically send out... Sygate have discontinued support for their firewall products and if you are still running Sygate your computer is probably infected with all sorts of nasties. in a few weeks I accumulated over 300 nasties...

 go to; www.zonelabs.com and download their free personal use firewall, its a good product that my son has used for a few years. as a precaution you should give your putor a spring clean,

Download these free products, go to; http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/sbupdate.html and download spyware blaster;

go to; http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html and download spybot search and destroy

Both these products are effective cleaners of most of the nasties you get when you don't have an effective firewall, I recommend that you visit; www.geekstogo.com for technical advice on any nasties you can't remove. the forum is full of good advice and they are pretty sharp at answering enquires.(but read their FAQ section before you post!!

I have run AVG virus guard for many years its a very good free virus guard available from www.grisoft.com I periodically do a "belt and braces job" by checking my computer with the online free virus scan from; http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ it takes a while to do the first time as they install a cookie, but its a good backup, and I used it to kill the nasties on my sons computer when he accidentally disabled  AVG.

finally....
 

I have used "mailwasher" a free email Spam blocker for years, this programme reads your emails from the server and allows you to delete, block and bounce Spam, it 'learns' so after the first few days, you will have set up filters for good mail like the Snaz list and blocked the many fascinating emails from earnest Nigerian businessmen looking to give you millions... its available from; www.mailwasher.net

If you use any reliable freeware on your computer let me know and we can add it to our FAQ hope this helps

Anne Ardern