Sorry if I appear to be thick but I`m fairly new to computers and am trying to learn as I go along.What exactly does a virus do ? How do you know when you have one ?If so how do you cure it?I`m not very technical so please keep it simple.Thanks Carole

Viruses can take several different forms and can *do* various things. The most common seems to be to get into your email address book and send itself to everyone in your address book. Others can wipe your hard drive ..

Best thing to do is to get some good anti virus protection. There are several on the net free or you can buy them , usually when you buy a new PC it comes with it.

I use Norton , as it was with my new PC ...but I still have to regularly update it at their website as there are always new Viruses and Worms being produced by idiots with nothing better to do

Melody - Try going to Google.com and typing in Anti-Virus Software ;)

Thank you very much Melody
I have noticed something about Norton Anti Virus when I first switch the computer on(sorry to ask another question but does it automatically update)The computer was second hand as I didn`t want to spend money and find out I couldn`t use it,thought I`d practice first on a used one (was sure I would blow it before now as I am not very good with machines of any kind)Or should I try the one you suggested and forget Norton
Thanks again
Carole

Carole ...look in your programmes to see if you have Norton installed already ...if you have then you need to check to see if it does an automatic update OR if you have to update it manually (clicking on the link that it gives ..) If it is an old version you may not be pretected against BUGBEAR which is one of the big viruses doing the rounds at the moment.

Click on the link that Leigh has given you and you should be able toget far more info than I can give :)

Melody

Carole, if you type in 'virus' into the search facility at the top of the forum page, it will give you lots of past threads on the subject :-) But here is one to be going on with:

Where do Viruses come from?

I use Norton AntiVirus for Mac, and you can schedule regular updates - all you have to do is be logged on at the time you have set :)

Thanks Snorri
Plenty info to keep me busy !
Regards
Carole

Many thanks Melody & Leigh
Lots of info to read and digest
Regards
Carole