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To protect against viruses you need to use an antivirus program - check to see if you already have one on your computer. It might be called 'Norton' or 'McAffee', although there are a couple other main brands. If you find you do already have the program on your system, you need to set it to update at least weekly to get the newest 'virus definitions', to do a scan, and then to scan automatically. Again, once at least weekly is good. The program should also be set to scan your email, and set to be running and monitoring all the time.

If your antivirus doesn't have email scanning capability, get one that does.

If you don't have an antivirus program, the one I use is free, stable, easy to use and works well:

http://free.grisoft.com/f reeweb.php/doc/2/

Most anti-virus programs do not protect against things like spyware, adware, and hackers. You will want to consider a spyware blocker and a firewall. Depending on your operating system, you may not need to install firewall protection, but an adblocker that runs all the time is a very good idea.

If you are running WinXP or 2000, there is a good free program that protects against all these things, in addition to worms and trojans (types of viruses):

http://www1.prevx.com /prevxhome.asp

Learn more about this author, Kamiko Waguchi.
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