 by
Laura Hunt
Your computer—usually so reliable—is
suddenly unnaturally slow, yet you wake up in the night to hear
its hard drive churning away, hard at work. Something is wrong.
OIT calls with a diagnosis: your computer has a virus that is spawning
spam by the millions and your Internet connection may have been
blocked. What happened?
Like the flu, new computer viruses vary in range and severity. In
the past few months, a new generation of computer virus has been
making the rounds via e-mail. By opening the e-mail and/or clicking
on the attachment, you have activated a “trojan” program
that quietly installs itself onto your machine, giving the virus
creator almost complete control over your computer. Your computer
then becomes a spam relay, or a conduit, through which spam is sent
to hide its origin. In its harshest form, the virus can delete random
files from your hard disk or make your computer complicit in a “denial
of service” attack where your machine inundates a Web site
with requests and knocks it offline.
Just like taking vitamins and getting enough rest can protect you
from the dreaded flu, there are five main ways to avoid a computer
virus:
- Ensure you have current anti-virus software. Free
anti-virus software is available for download by UM students,
faculty, and staff. Go to www.helpdesk.umd.edu/virus/software.shtml
to access McAfee VirusScan software for PCs and Virex anti-virus
software for Macintosh systems. It’s easy to install and
will keep out most of those unfriendly viruses.
- Do not open attachments you were not expecting to receive—they
are often the source of new viruses. Anti-virus software only
protects against known viruses. Even automatically updating software
does not immediately provide protection. It can take time for
solutions to viruses to be created and executed.
- Consider installing a firewall. This security
measure creates a protective boundary between your computer and
the Internet to prevent unauthorized access. If you have Windows
XP, visit www.helpdesk.umd.edu/documents/4/4206
to learn how to enable your firewall. For even more protection,
you can also download a firewall for free from Zone Labs by visiting
www.zonelabs.com and looking for ZoneAlarm.
- Download anti-spyware to get rid of spyware and other
trojans. Spyware can allow open access to your system,
which can result in a flood of annoying pop-up ads, privacy
invasion, and even the alteration of your files. We recommend
the free programs Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware),
Spy-Bot (from www.safer-networking.org),
and Swat-It (from www.swatit.org).
If you do use these programs, do so in Windows Safe Mode, which
does not permit programs that would normally load at Startup.
Once you’ve got the machine as clean as possible, consider
running Windows Update (usually an icon in the system-tray
at the lower right corner of your screen).
- Practice safe computing. Do not open any unexpected
attachments. Be wary of utilities with which you aren’t
familiar, and peer-to-peer music trading programs, as they can
be sources of viruses. It is almost certain you will download
dangerous material without your knowledge if you use them.
But what if the worst happens and your computer is infected? What
can you do to restore it to health? Turn to the OIT Help Desk (301.405.1500)
for assistance. They will point you towards programs designed to
correct your problem. In some cases, the solution may require you
to format and reinstall your operating system.
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So
you’ve seen the light and stopped downloading illegally. However,
your portable mp3 player looks sadly at you: its playlist desperately
needs updating. Where’s the latest 50 Cent or Michelle Branch
song? You feel the urge to start downloading again sweep over you.
But before you go back to risky, illegal downloading, check out the
best of the music Web sites below. Great selection, reasonable prices—all
without the potential cost of a legal battle and hefty fines. Sounds
pretty cool.
Buymusic.com
From Limp Bizkit and Beyonce, to the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen,
Buymusic.com offers a great selection of artists—all for around
$1 per song. Users can listen to part of a song before downloading
and also click on different icons to see how many times you can transfer
the song to a portable listening device or another computer, and how
many times you can burn it to CD.
iTunes.com
Mac users, take heart. The downloading industry has not forgotten
your needs. Apple’s itunes.com gives you and PC users more
than 200,000 songs to download for 99 cents each. You can also
sign up
for “New Music Tuesdays,” an e-mail bulletin that updates
users on new releases and other freshly added songs.
Napster.com
The site that jumpstarted the controversy about illegal downloads
has reinvented itself. In its newest incarnation, Napster offers songs
for 99 cents and entire albums for $9.95 to Windows XP and 2000 users.
Listen.com’s
Rhapsody
Listen.com’s Rhapsody is a streaming media service to which
you can subscribe. Instead of downloading the song, you can listen
to it on your PC (no Macs as of press time). Users can’t download
to a portable listening device yet although that is in the works.
For $9.95 a month, subscribers can listen to the music they want or
even the radio; for an additional fee on a per-song basis, you can
burn songs to CD.
Musicmatch.com
This site allows you to buy songs for 99 cents each or download most
albums for about $10. You can burn them to CD or transfer them to
a portable music player; however, Musicmatch.com puts the responsibility
on you to find out how many times you can legally burn or transfer
different songs.
Emusic.com
Though it offers artists that are not as mainstream, emusic.com offers
a pretty sweet deal for listeners: unlimited downloading, burning,
and transferring. You can enjoy a free trial period with 50 free mp3s
before formally subscribing to the service. Sign up for three months
at $14.99 per month or sign up for a year at $9.99 a month.
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