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First to understand antiviruses you must know the opposite of it which would be 'a virus' and also some other types which act very similar as a virus:

What is a Virus?
A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "Me, nude."

What is a Worm?
Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

What is a Trojan Horse?
A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive.

(by: McAfee)

Well now you know what they are....so an Antivirus would be the same thing but instead it triggers a counter attack onto the virus. Antiviruses will now always clean your computer off from spyware and adware which are not viruses so dont get those confused.


How can I protect Myself:
1. Get an Antivirus software (i will give some lonks to some free ones at the bottom of this page)
2. Update your antivirus software regulary (very important, they must be up to date)
3. Scan your system at least once a week
4. Repeat step 2 and 3 every time you run a scan
5. Download less
6. Do not open attachet files in your mail if you do not recognize the sender



Some last infos on Viruses/antiviruses....
There are specific degrees on how dangerous each virus is. There are very many viruses...to round it off it would be close to a thousand and each week new one come out so it is very important that your antivirus software is up to date. There are also online scanning for antiviruses...but i dont like 'em


Some downloadable Antiviruses:
http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/d...php?menu_id=21
http://www.norman.com/download_nvc5.shtml
http://www.pscs.co.uk/downloads/avast.html
http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/
http://www.ravantivirus.com/pages/download.php
http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-...ml?tag=lst-0-6
http://www.bestdownload.com/cat.php?dcat=Antivirus

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