When people say you need to have a firewall and anti-virus program, it's not just a friendly suggestion. You MUST - especially on Windows machines. These are neither expensive nor difficult tools to employ - and they could save you a lot of hassle, if not heartache, over the long-term.

What's the difference between a firewall and an anti-virus program? Well, a firewall is kind of like a big guy standing at your front door blocking unwanted intrusions. He's a bouncer, if you will. He'll ask you, "Yo. Did you invite this program in?" And you can tell him yes or no. You can also have him arrange things so the intruder never bothers you again. But he has no clue what's bad and what's good. He's just there to warn you that someone's at your door.

An anti-virus program, if kept-up-to-date, knows what's bad for you. It will recognize bad stuff and block, quarantine or delete it for you. A good anti-virus program gives you "real-time protection," so it's not only on the look-out when you run a full scan.

And it MUST be kept up-to-date. If you already have an anti-virus program, it is NO good to you unless you have a valid subscription to download the most recent updates. This usually runs about $35 per year. It's worth it. Compare it to the hassle of dealing with a nasty virus - having no access to your files or the Internet - or having to pay someone like me to come help you.

When you call me, if you're lucky, and things aren't THAT bad, maybe it will only cost you $25. If I'm with you for an hour, it's $50. If I'm at it for two hours, it's $100. Of course, I will add value to your service by teaching you how to prevent software corruption from happening again. I will let you "drive" - that is, you will sit at the computer at times (if you want, of course), while I guide you. I find this more effective for people when they're trying to learn something new. It's one thing to watch somone do it. It's another level of understanding entirely when you do it yourself.

Still, you want to avoid calling me. I mean, I'd love your business, but if you can do-it-yourself by using the resources on this site, I will be just as delighted.

Most of the people who call me have software problems - not hardware problems. People often think that when their computer slows down and/or misbehaves, that the machinery is broken. That CAN be the case but, in my experience, it rarely is. Imagine your computer is a refrigerator. If the food in it is spoiled, do you have to buy a new fridge? No! You have to clean it out and replace the spoiled items with fresh food.

And by software problems, I do mean everything - from legit programs to "spyware," "adware" or "malware" - to corrupt files in your operating system to viruses - it's ALL software. Even the nastiest virus is just a program somebody wrote - for all the wrong reasons. A "worm"? Oh, that's just software that is generally known to email itself to every address it can find on your machine, without your knowledge. It spreads the joy! This is why you should never open a suspicious attachment, even from your best friend. However, if your anti-virus program is good and up-to-date, it most likely will not ALLOW you to open the attachment because it already knows what you don't.

The other day, I did a Google search for specific automobile issues. I found a listing that looked legitimate and clicked. Norton Anti-Virus let me know immediately that this page was trying to infect my machine. It quarantined the file and basically told me all was well and I could go on my merry way. I'm savvy. I know what to avoid. But this was unforeseeable and could happen to everyone.

Most people end up with malware (spyware, adware) either because they don’t have a firewall blocking the quiet, uninvited installation of these programs, or because it came bundled with something that was deliberately downloaded. Think about it. Do you REALLY need the weather on your desktop? If the answer is yes, then get thee to Google and find yourself such a program that’s known to be clean. Too often, the malware that comes with your program is melded to the application you want, and to try to rid your computer of the bad stuff is to render the “good” application useless. Worse, if you’ve used an anti-spyware program, like “Adaware,” to removed bad stuff, you’ve now destroyed most of the files needed to delete the now-non-functional “good program.”

Example, “Kazaa Lite,” a file sharing program, was once notorious for polluting computers with malware. As I learned, the hard way, when you used an anti-adware program to remove the malware, “Kazaa Lite” was rendered useless. But then, if you went to remove the program through the operating system’s control panel, it couldn’t be removed because it was missing important files. Remedy? Re-install “Kazaa Lite,” then uninstall it through the control panel. It was the only clean solution.

As an aside – file sharing is something to be very careful about. Not only can you open yourself up to software woes – but you could open yourself up to copyright infringement problems!

Though cleaning up viruses and malware is usually an easy procedure, it can sometimes be a near-impossibility. I’ve seen machines so riddled with unwanted programs, all running in the background at start-up, that the machines had no resources leftover to do something as simple as move the mouse to open the start menu. I’ve seen viruses actually chew up anti-virus programs like Symantec (Norton) products. And forget re-installing. The virus won’t let you. In a circumstance like this, you can generally go to free virus-scan sites that will clean up your computer, allowing you to re-install Norton. Unfortunately, if things are this bad, you may not be able to get online.

In these worst-case scenarios, I spent HOURS trying to figure out which virus was causing the problem or how to remove certain instances of malware. There was no program that could do this for me. In a bad case of a virus infection, I had to do general searches for viruses which caused the symptoms I’ve described, read the find print and see if I could locate the culprit files. In a case of excessive malware, I actually came across something rather new, figured out how to remove it, myself, then shared that knowledge with one of many message forums on the Internet where people discuss and share security-related topics. It’s rare that something that’s ailing your computer has not yet been discussed, but it can happen.

The answers are always simple. Finding those answers may not be as quick as you’d like.

Therefore, in the interest of time, I find that when a machine is just so utterly polluted, reformatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system is the fastest way to go. However, 99% of the people I’ve helped either have no back-ups of their important data, CAN’T back-up their important data and/or do not have the original discs which came with their machines, nor the ability to re-install important programs. And that’s when there’s no choice but to do it the hard way – the hard and expensive way!

Stay tuned for more articles about virus and malware issues, as well as other security problems, such as phishing scams and child controls, the importance of back-ups and how to make it easy and much more.

For help with a difficult issue, call on an expert! You can reach us at 508-760-0577.