Internet Explorer 9 resmi di Rilis

Microsoft secara resmi merilis browser terbarunya Internet Explorer 9, Senin (14/3/2011) waktu AS atau Selasa kemarin WIB memanfaatkan momentum ajang konferensi SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) di Austin, Texas. Software terbaru untuk menjelajahi situs web ini diklaim lebih aman, lebih kencang, mendukung standar web lebih baik, dan paling menarik untuk komputer berbasis Windows.

"Hari ini, Web dapat menampilkan kekuatan dan kinerja dari hardware PC terbaik melalui Windows dan Internet Explorer 9," kata Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president Microsoft dalam siaran persnya. Internet Explorer 9 dapat diunduh dalam 40 bahasa melalui situs www.beautyoftheweb.com.

Dengan iE9, situs web dapat melakukan penyesuaian agar secara khusus dapat ditampilkan di menu Windows 7 seperti sebagai sebuah aplikasi tersendiri dengan ikon di layar memanfaatkan fitur Pinned Sites. Saat ini telah lebih dari 250 situs terkemuka di seluruh dunia memanfaatkan fitur khusus tersebut untuk menghadirkan pengalaman berbeda bagi para pengunjungnya.

Pinned Sites dan JumpList memungkinkan para pengguna menempatkan situs web secara langsung pada Windows 7 Taskbar, seperti halnya pada aplikasi-aplikasi, dan menjalankan berbagai perintah dengan mudah dan cepat terdahap situs-situs, seperti memeriksa inbox mereka, mengganti stasiun radio, menerima undangan seorang teman atau melihat berita penting. Selain 250 situs terkemuka, lebih dari 1.000 situs dan disain lainnya juga memanfaatkan fitur-fitur baru dengan Internet Explorer 9 dan Windows 7.

"Apa yang menjadi perhatian pengguna tentang Web adalah situs mereka, bukan browser mereka. Karenanya Internet Explorer 9 membuat situs mereka menjadi menarik. Browser ibarat gedung theater dan situs yang dikunjungi merupakan pertunjukannya, demikianlah Internet Explorer 9 membuatnya lebih menarik – pada situs favorit Anda," kata Ryan Gavin, senior director, Windows Internet Explorer, Microsoft.

Versi terbaru dari Internet Explorer memanfaatkan kekuatan hardware Windows PC masa kini untuk meningkatkan seluruh kinerja browsing Web. Browser ini memiliki akselerasi penuh HTML5, Internet Explorer 9 menggabungkan kekuatan Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), menggunakan 90 persen dari kekuatan PC yang sebelumnya tidak digunakan oleh web browser.

Para developer kini dapat mengembangkan situs web yang lebih cepat, lebih menarik seperti halnya pada aplikasi-aplikasi yang menggunakan interoperabilitas HTML5 atau menggunakan Adobe Flash Player dan Microsoft Silverlight, keduanya memanfaatkan akselerasi hardware dalam Internet Explorer 9 sesuai dengan versi yang berikutnya.

Internet Explorer 9 juga dirancang untuk menjadi browser yang memiliki sejumlah teknologi keamanan, privasi, dan dapat dipercaya untuk membuat konsumen lebih aman mengakses online. Microsoft telah memperkenalkan Tracking Protection di Internet Explorer 9, yang membantu pengguna mengelola data yang mereka kirim ketika mengakses web. Selain itu ada fitur PrivacyChoice, TRUSTe, Abine dan Adblock Plus. IE9 juga menyediakan download manager yang pertama terintegrasi dengan perlindungan malware SmartScreen. Beberapa studi yang dikutip Microsoft menyatakan bahwa Internet Explorer 9 menahan 99 persen dari serangan malware buatan masyarakat, lima kali lebih banyak dari Firefox dan 33 kali lebih banyak dari Chrome.

Kombinasi Windows 7 dan Internet Explorer 9, menciptakan pengalaman terbaru yang menjadikan web seperti aplikasi-aplikasi PC yang ada. Hasilnya adalah pengalaman web yang lebih baik.
source :  kompas

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How to Surving Web Faster on a Slow Internet Connection ?

If your current Internet speed is very slow and you are living in an area where broadband connections are still not available, here are some ideas to help you download web pages faster on your computer. You may use the same tips to improve your web browsing experience on a sluggish USB modem.

Surf the Web Faster on Slow Internet

1. Turn off web images, the Adobe Flash plug-in, Java Applets and JavaScript from your browser settings as these files are often the bulkiest elements of any web page.

2. Increase the size of your browser cache. If the static parts of a site (like background graphics, CSS, etc) are stored in the local cache, your browser can safely skip downloading these files when you re-visit the site in future thus improving speed.

3. Sometimes the slow DNS server of your ISP can be a bottleneck so switch to OpenDNS as it can resolve website URLs into IP addresses more quickly. If you aren’t too happy about OpenDNS redirecting your Google queries, follow this simple hack.


4. Finch can serve a light-weight version of any website in real-time that is free of all bells and whistles. For instance, the New York Times homepage with all external resources can weigh more than a MB but Finch trims down the size by 90% so the site loads more quickly on a slow web connection.

5. Flinch (mentioned at #4) is good for reading regular websites but if you just need to check the latest articles published on your favorite blogs, use BareSite. This service will automatically detect the associated feed of a website and render content quickly inside a minimalist interface.

6. The Google Transcoder service at google.com/gwt/n can split large web pages into smaller chunks that will download more quickly on your computer (or mobile phone).

7. Monitor your Internet speed to determine hours when you get the maximum download speed from the ISP. Maybe you can then change your surfing schedule a bit and browse more during these "off peak" hours.

8. You can use a text browser like Lynx or Elinks for even faster browsing. It downloads only the HTML version of web pages thus reducing the overall bandwidth required to render websites.

9. When searching for web pages on Google, you can click the "Cache" link to view the text version of a web page stored in the Google Cache. Alternatively, install this GM script as it adds a "cached text only" link near every "Cached" link on Google Search pages.

10. Move your web activities offline as far as possible. You can send & receive emails, write blogs and even read feeds in an offline environment. Also see: Save Web Pages for offline reading.

11. You can interact with websites like Flickr, Google Docs, Slideshare, etc. using simple email messages. Uploading a new document to Google Docs via email would require less bandwidth than doing it in the browser because you are avoiding a trip to the Google Docs website.

12. Applying the same logic, you may also consider using tools like Web In Mail or Email The Web as they help you browse websites via email. Just put the URL of a page (e.g., cnn.com) in the subject field of your email message and these services will send you the actual page in the reply.

13. Bookmarklets are like shortcuts to your favorite web services. You neither have to open the Gmail Inbox for composing a new email message nor do you have to visit Google Translate for translating a paragraph of text. Add relevant bookmarklets to your browser bar and reduce the number of steps required to accomplish a task.

14. Use the netstat command to determine processes, other than web browsers, that may be secretly connecting to Internet in the background. Some of these processes could be consuming precious bandwidth but you can block them using the Firewall.

15. Use URL Snooper to determine non-essential host names that a website is trying to connect while downloading a web page. You may block them in future via the hosts file or use Adblock Plus to filter out advertising banners on web pages.

16. If you don’t want to spoil your web surfing experience by stripping images and other graphic elements from a web page, get Opera Turbo. It will first fetch the requested web page on to its own server and then send it to your machine in a compressed format. Opera Turbo won’t change the layout of a web site but can lower the image resolution so that they load faster on slow Internet.

17. Change the user agent of your desktop browser to that of a mobile phone like Apple’s iPhone or Windows Mobile. This will help you browse certain web sites like Google News, WSJ, etc. much faster because they’ll serve you a light-weight and less cluttered mobile version of their sites thinking you’re on a mobile phone.

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Tips : Meningkatkan Signal Wi-fi anda supaya kencang dengan Aluminium foil

Apakah Anda mencari cara untuk meningkatkan kekuatan sinyal wireless router itu di rumah Anda tanpa harus berinvestasi di Wifi extender ?

Pergilah ke dapur dan ambillah bagian dari aluminium foil yang biasa digunakan oleh ibumu untuk memasak atau meratakan sandwich agar tetap segar lebih lama.

Lepaskan beberapa foil dalam bentuk persegi panjang, bentuk dengan melengkung dan kemudian letakkan foil antena di belakang router anda. Ini akan mencerminkan sinyal nirkabel ke arah yang Anda inginkan.

Jika router yang terpasang pada dinding, Anda dapat membuat lubang di Aluminium foil dan dimasukkan di dalam antena seperti terlihat pada video berikut.

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How to Autorun work ?

Autorun.inf, What is it?

Autorun.inf is the primary instruction file associated with the Autorun function. Autorun.inf itself is a simple text-based configuration file that tells the operating system which executable to start, which icon to use, and which additional menu commands to make available. In other words, autorun.inf tells Windows how to deal open the presentation and treat the contents of the CD.

The entire sequence is initiated when the "disk change notifcation" polling discovers a new disk in the CD or DVD ROM drive. Then, if the "Auto insert notification" feature is enabled (it is by default), Windows checks in the new disk's root directory for the existence of an "autorun.inf" file. If found, Windows then reads and follows the specific instructions this file defines. If no autorun.inf file is found, then Windows refers to the new disk by its serial number and executes the default actions associated with the (data or audio) content on the disk.

The Autorun.inf file defines the following:
Autorun.inf Defines the following: The process or application that will automatically run when a disk is inserted
Automatically run when CD is inserted Optionally, one can define the process or application that will run for specific Operating environments.
Icon Representing CD or DVD The icon that will represent your application's CD or DVD when the drive is viewed with My Computer or Explorer.
Menu Commands when CD-ROM is clicked Menu commands displayed when the user right-clicks the CD-ROM icon from My Computer or Explorer.

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A simple Autorun.inf example:
[autorun]
open=autorun.exe
icon=autorun.ico

A complex Autorun.inf example:
This example is used in the following section for complete definition and descriptions.
[autorun]
open=filename.exe /argument1
icon=\foldername\filename.dll,5
[autorun.mips]
open=filenam2.exe
icon=filename.ico
[autorun.alpha]
open=filenam3.exe
icon=filename.ico
[autorun.ppc]
open=filenam4.exe
icon=filename.ico
shell\install = &Install
shell\install\command = setup.exe
shell\uninstall = &UnInstall
shell\uninstall\command = Uninstall.exe
shell\readme = &Read Me
shell\readme\command = notepad readme.txt
shell\help = &Help
shell\help\command = helpfilename.hlp
This section describes the configuration of the Autorun.inf file and each of the potential items.

Example Autorun File: Description:
[autorun] [autorun] is the primary, required section name.
open=filename.exe /argument1

Open is the keyword to determine what action to take upon insert notification.
filename.exe is the value defining the application that will be automatically started.
/argument1 is the argument, parameter or switch passed to the application being run. Logically, any command line parameters used must be supported by the application.
icon=\foldername\filename.dll,5

Icon is the keyword to determine the icon used for the disk.
filename.dll is the value defining the file containing the icon.
,5 is the argument to the icon resource defining which icon to display.

Note: By default, the system looks for the file in the root directory of the inserted disk. If you want to access a file located in a specific folder or subdirectory, specify a path relative to the root.

Example: open = foldername\filename.exe This will not change the current directory.

Although AutoPlay is the default menu item, you can define a different command to be the default by including the following line. shell = verb

When the user double-clicks on the icon, the command associated with this entry will be carried out.

Note: a more common method of defining the icon resouce is an explicit reference to a .ico file. Example: icon=autorun.ico

Note: The icon defined representing your application's CD or DVD is the drive icon as viewed with My Computer or Explorer. Valid file types containing icons include .ICO .BMP .EXE .DLL If the file includes more than one icon, by default, the second icon in the files icon resource will be displayed.

Example Autorun File: Description:
[autorun.mips] Defining the autorun items for a mips machine
open=filenam2.exe The platform specific application to run
icon=filename2.ico The platform specific autorun icon
[autorun.alpha] Defining the autorun items for a DEC Alphamachine
open=filenam3.exe The platform specific application to run
icon=filename3.ico The platform specific autorun icon
[autorun.ppc] Defining the autorun items for a Power PC
open=filenam4.exe The platform specific application to run
icon=filename4.ico The platform specific autorun icon
shell\install = &Install The Keyword defining a menu item and the Hot key for that item
shell\install\command = setup.exe The keyword defining the operation to perform when the user selects this item
shell\uninstall = &UnInstall Additional menu item example
shell\uninstall\command = Uninstall.exe Additional menu item example
shell\readme = &Read Me Additional menu item example
shell\readme\command = notepad readme.txt Additional menu item example
shell\help = &Help Additional menu item example
shell\help\command = helpfilename.hlp Additional menu item exampl

How to Test Autorun.inf Without Burning to a CD

It is possible to test an Autorun.inf file without burning all the necessary files onto CD-ROM, as long as the computer has autorun enabled on at least one of its removeable devices. More information on such procedures to enable autorun can be found here.

By utilizing the following methods, constant refining of the Autorun.inf file is possible without the need to burn multiple CDs.

Using removable media (Floppy/Zip/etc...)

1. Enable autorun on the desired media drive.

2. Copy the autorun.inf and all dependant files onto the removable media.

3. Remove and insert the media.

Using a Virtual Drive

1. Download and install a virtual CD/DVD-ROM emulator, such as the tool available from Daemon-Tools.

2. Using CD-Burning software, such as provided by Nero or Roxio, create a CD project with the Autorun.inf file inserted into the root directory of the CD.

3. Save the project to a CD project file, usually with a .bin or .iso or .cdi extension, with the CD-Burning software.

4. Using the CD/DVD-ROM emulator, load the project file into the virtual drive. This has the same effect as physically inserting the CD with the Autorun.inf into the CD/DVD-ROM.

How To Enable/Disable Autorun (Windows 95/98/Me)

1. Access the System Properties Dialog. Using Control Panel: My Computer: Properties or Explorer: My Computer: Properties.

2. Select the Device Manager tab.

3. Select the CD-ROM folder.

4. Select the entry for your CD-ROM drive.

5. Select Properties.

6. Select the Settings tab.

7. Turn on or off the Auto insert notification option.

8. Select OK.

9. Select OK

How To Enable/Disable Autorun (Windows NT/2000)

1. Start RegEdit (regedt32.exe).

2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Cdrom.

3. Edit the Autorun value to '1' to enable autorn, and '0' to disable autorun.

4. Close RegEdit

How To Enable/Disable Autorun (Windows XP)

1. Open Windows Explorer by pressing the Windows + "e" key.

2. Right-click the desired CD-ROM and select Properties from the menu.

3. Select the AutoPlay tab.

4. Select each item from the pulldown list and for the Action to perform, select "Take no action" to disable autorun, or pick the apporpriate action to take if enabling autorun.

5. Select OK.

How To Enable Autorun for Other Removable Media

Autorun can be enabled or disabled for all Removable media types, such as a floppy or Zip disk. Windows systems are configured to enable CD Notification, other removable media are by default disabled.

The System Properties User interface only exposes the CD Enable or Disable selection. The setting reflected in this dialog makes an entry in the System Registry. It is in this same location that other media types are configured.

Notes:

1. Modifiying the Registry is not for the inexperienced user. Anyone will tell you, be VERY careful.
2. The modifications made in this case use Hex not Decimal numbers. If you are unfamiliar with the Registry or the characteristics of base numbering and Hex, studying these topics prior to making these modifications is advisable.

To Modify these Registry Settings, Use Regedit and navigate to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software
Microsoft
Windows
CurrentVersion
Policies
Explorer
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"

The default value for the setting is 95 0 0 0. Change the first byte to 91. Restart the computer to make the new setting take effect. You may have to right-click on the floppy and choose AutoPlay from the menu to see the AutoPlay behavior.
Additional Technical Info

The first byte defines which drive types to EXCLUDE from Autorun behavior. The hex value of the byte is the sum of all of the drive type values to exclude + 128.

DRIVE_UNKNOWN 1
DRIVE_NO_ROOT_DIR 2
DRIVE_REMOVABLE 4 (floppy disks and removable cartridges)
DRIVE_FIXED 8 (hard disks)
DRIVE_REMOTE 16 (network drives)
DRIVE_CDROM 32 (CD-ROMs)
DRIVE_RAMDISK 64

The default configuration excludes UNKNOWN (1), REMOVABLE (4) and REMOTE (16) which would be 16 + 4 + 1 + 128 = 149, which is hex 95. If you take out REMOVABLE you get 16 + 1 + 128 = 145, which is hex 91.

The calculation for this value is 1 + 4 + 16 + 128 = 149. 149 Decimal is 95 Hex

The new calculation is 1 + 16 + 128 = 145. 149 Decimal is 91 Hex

You may have to restart for the system to recognize a floppy or Zip as an Autoplay drive. If your floppy drive does not show a custom icon or AutoPlay in the menu when right-clicked, double-click on the icon for your computer on the desktop and press F5 to refresh the information in the Explorer window. Zips and floppies will not autolaunch when media is inserted. You must double-click their icon or right-click and choose AutoPlay from the menu.

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How To Use Your TV as a Computer Monitor

1. Identify your TV's input connections. Most TVs these days have three basic types of inputs. You have your coaxial cable input, the same as your cable box or satellite, an RCA composite input (the yellow, red and white inputs) and an S-video connector. Newer televisions might have Component Video, DVI, VGA or HDMI inputs but the ones listed above are more common.

2. Identify your computer's outputs. These days computer manufacturers are adding TV compatible outputs on their products so it's easy to hook it up quickly. The S-video in particular seems to be popping up on more and more computers. Mostly you will find the usual VGA output that the regular monitor hooks up to. The newer multi media computers of the near future will probably have all high definition outputs that connect directly to your TV, but for now we will deal with what most people have for both computers and televisions.

3. Find the appropriate adapter for your connections. You may need to get an adapter so you can hook up your computer to the TV. These have a VGA adapter on one end and (usually) a selection of hookups on the other (S-video, RCA composite and Component). The good thing about these is that you can take it from TV to TV and you'll be able to hook up to all of them. I highly recommend a wireless adapter. It costs a bit more but it's worth not having a big cable mess and not keeping your computer near your TV.

4. Connect your computer to your TV. If you have a TV compatible output on your computer, such as an S-video jack, just take an S-video cable and connect it to your computer and your TV. If you do not, then attach your VGA end of your adapter to your computer and use the RCA, S-video or Component Video cable to attach to your TV. After you've made all the connections, make sure you are on the correct TV video input. Press the input button on your TV or remote until you see your computer's signal.

Now, here is where you might get a little disappointed. Your TV's usual video signal is called NTSC (PAL if you live in Europe). This signal is different than the one generated by your computer. Computers use signals measured by pixels: 320x200, 320x240, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 or 1600x1200. Most TV's can only get about 500 lines of resolution, in computers this is like 500 vertical pixels. The video amplifiers in televisions cannot handle higher resolutions either. So when you factor these things together you are left with a maximum resolution of 640x480.

This is not the worst thing in the world because you can play games and watch video in lower resolutions no problem. It's just that you will never get close to the resolution your computer monitor will give you. Beware of some adapters that claim to give you more than 640x480, they just reduce the quality of the original television signal to compensate.

You can get an adapter for an HDTV that will give you higher resolutions but you need an HDTV and an adapter that costs usually 2-3 times more than your standard adapter. Any way you choose, it is not hard to use your TV as a computer monitor if you follow the few steps above.

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What you need to know about computer viruses and anti virus software protection

What Is a Computer Virus?

Like viruses that infect living beings, computer viruses infect your computer. They are software, and are often attached to other software or documents you might receive. When you run the virus's software or the file the virus has infected, the virus can infect your computer's software.

There are many types of viruses and terms for them, but we'll use the general term 'virus' to make things easy.

Like the flu virus, a computer virus must spread from host to host to survive. When we get the flu, we cough and sneeze, and tiny particles carrying the virus spread the flu to other people.

With computer viruses, the virus is designed to spread from your computer to other computers. Here are some of the most common ways they spread:

1. Once the virus has infected your system, it may automatically send out emails containing more copies of the virus using the address book in your email program. This type of virus is called an Internet "Worm," because it is a self-propagating virus. For example, an Internet worm crippled tens of thousands of computers and slowed down parts of the Internet on the weekend of January 29, 2003.

2. If the virus is a macro virus (attached to a Microsoft Word document, for example), it may attach itself to any document you create or modify. If you send another document to someone by email, the virus goes along with it.

3. Sometimes viruses masquerade as a fun program (like an electronic greeting card) that secretly infects your system. If you pass the program along, not realizing that it contains a virus, you will be transmitting the virus manually to your friends, family, or colleagues.

Trojan Horses are closely related to computer viruses, but they differ in that they do not attempt to replicate themselves. More specifically, a Trojan Horse performs some undesired -- yet intended -- action while, or in addition to, pretending to do something else. A common example is a fake login program, which collects account information and passwords by asking for this info just like a normal login program does.
Many computer viruses are malicious -- in other words, they can erase your files or lock up whole computer systems. Other computer viruses are more benign -- they don't do any direct damage other than by spreading themselves locally or throughout the Internet.

Regardless, computer viruses should always be treated.

More general information about computer viruses:

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TJU Computer Virus Information Page:

http://www.tju.edu/tju/dis/virus/

University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Understanding Computer Viruses Pages:

http://www.unl.edu/security/viruses/

What Kind of Damage Can Computer Viruses Do?

The damage a computer virus can inflict on your system depends on many things, including how sophisticated the virus is. Here is a short listing of the types of damage viruses can do to your computer -- they can really hit you where it hurts:

- Some viruses can delete or change files. Some viruses will delete all of your documents, or even reformat your hard drive, making your computer unusable.
- Some viruses can release confidential information like credit card information, account numbers, and passwords by emailing it to random email addresses or the address of the virus writer.
- Some viruses can slow down your system dramatically.
- Some viruses plant monitoring software or change security settings that allow hackers to enter your computer without you knowing about it and steal information or control it.

Other viruses, like the Internet worm that hit recently, also can have widespread effects on computer networks and the Internet.

Your Computer May Have a Computer Virus If...

How do you know if you have a computer virus? If you're not running an antivirus program (see the next section), you may not know at all since many viruses are benign.

Some symptoms of a virus infection are:

- Your computer displays strange messages, plays music, or shows odd graphic displays.
- Your computer takes longer to boot up, operates more slowly than usual, and takes longer to start programs.
- Your computer has much less memory or hard drive space available.

Some legitimate software can cause these symptoms, so *the only way you can be sure your computer is virus-free is to regularly scan it for viruses using antivirus software*.

How Can You Protect Your Computer From Viruses?

As we've indicated, you need antivirus software to be safe. You should consider the cost of the software as part of the purchase of your computer -- it's that important.

Once you've installed the antivirus software, you will need to download regular updates that tells the antivirus software about new viruses and how to detect them. Most antivirus software comes with a year's worth of updates, and you can usually set the software to either automatically download the updates, or display a reminder for you to do so.

This is vital since there are over 500 new viruses discovered each month!

Norton AntiVirus and McAfee VirusScan are the two best-known antivirus programs for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. For Macintosh users, Norton AntiVirus and McAfee's Virex for Macintosh provide protection. For Linux users, try RAV AntiVirus.

While the vast majority of viruses are written to infect Windows-based systems, Macintosh and Linux users should still also have virus protection.

All antivirus software lets you scan the computer's memory and hard drive for viruses. Depending on the software package, the antivirus program may also be able to protect against:

- Incoming emails and email attachments with viruses.
- Viruses received through instant messaging, such as ICQ.
- Infected downloaded files, before you open the file.
- Attacks against your computer from outside (firewall software).

If you are strapped for cash, AVG Anti-Virus provides a free version of its antivirus program and free updates for Windows-based computers. And if you just want to scan your computer for viruses for free right now, check out Trend Micro's free online virus scan and McAfee FreeScan.


More information about antivirus software:

Norton AntiVirus:

http://www.symantec.com/nav/

McAfee VirusScan:

http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/antivirus.asp

Virex for Macintosh: (free with a .Mac subscription)

http://www.mcafeeb2b.com/products/virex/default.asp

RAV Anti-Virus (Linux):

http://www.ravantivirus.com/

Trend Micro's free online virus scan (requires Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later or Netscape version 3.01 or later):

http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

McAfee's FreeScan (requires Microsoft Windows and IE 5.0 or later):

http://www.mcafee.com/myapps/mfs/default.asp


How Can Your Computer Catch a Virus?

There are only two ways for your computer to get a virus:

1. You load the virus onto your computer through an infected floppy, CD-ROM, or other storage medium.

2. The virus arrives by a downloaded file, email attachment, or other method from the Internet or a network.

At this point, an infected file is on your computer's hard drive. But remember, your computer will only become infected if you launch or view the file, or run the infected program.

So an important tip is to always scan new files for viruses before you use them.

Take these precautions when working with files and the Internet:

- Before you load a file or install software onto your computer from a floppy disk or CD-ROM, use your antivirus program to scan the floppy or CD.

- If you receive an email attachment from an unfamiliar email address, or an attachment you were not expecting, either scan it or delete it (preferred).

- If you receive an email attachment from someone you know, and your antivirus program does not automatically scan incoming emails, save the attachment to your hard drive and scan it with the antivirus program. Your friend or colleague's computer may be infected with a virus.

- When you download software from the Internet, be sure to download it from the software company's site or a recognized download site ( http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/ , http://www.download.com or http://www.tucows.com for example). Download the file to your hard drive and scan it using your antivirus program before you run or decompress it.

- If someone sends you a 'joke' file or electronic greeting card that you must launch to view, be very wary.

- Don't use Outlook or Outlook Express as your email program. More viruses are spread from the security holes in Outlook than any other email program.

Many experts now feel that the dangers of being infected by a virus are so great that it just isn't worth receiving email attachments. You can set your email program to stop accepting them.

More virus prevention tips are available at:

http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/virus_tips.asp

News about the latest virus threats are available at:

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/

http://www.mcafee.com/anti-virus/default.asp


When a Virus Isn't a Virus: Hoaxes and Chain Emails

Every day, we receive forwarded emails from concerned readers or friends telling us about a new, super-dangerous virus that's unlike anything the Internet has seen before.

Unfortunately, 99% of the time, these forwarded emails are hoaxes.

In fact, most real viruses don't come with email alerts (except from your antivirus software company), whereas almost all these other virus emails are hoaxes.

Much like urban legends, these hoaxes get sent around because they sound so real. But like chain letters, you can stop the hoaxes at the source. Just research the following sites, make sure the email is a hoax, and then delete it.

More information about virus hoaxes:

HOAXBUSTERS Home Page

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

Symantec Security Response - Hoax Page:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

VMyths.com

http://www.vmyths.com/

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Computers (Viruses):

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/virus.htm

(source)

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