Virus Assistance 

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Virus's are everywhere and can cause various problems with your system. From fun little graphics on screen, to the ever expanding range of Service Denial Trojans, Virus's are something you really don't want to come across. An unprotected system allows Virus's onto your c omputer without any resistance, and if you catch a nasty one, its good night Seattle.

The Key words in the definition of virus's are program and replicate; destructive action is not a requirement in the strictest definition, but the street definition includes them.



Virus! What do I do 

If you suspect your PC is infected with a Virus, and your not sure on how to go about removing it or you don't have any Anti-Virus software installed, you should Immediately Disconnect from any Network your system is part of, (including the internet). You should not try and remove a Virus if you do not know what you are doing. It could cause more problems. You should never install an Anti-Virus to investigate a possible viral infection. Most Anti-Virus software these days comes with a Special Boot disk to use in the event of a non protected system being infected before installation. Anti-Virus software should be installed on a CLEAN SYSTEM.


Virus Prevention and Removal 

Ace PC engineers can in, most cases, successfully disinfect a PC. In other cases the best that can be achieved is recovery of valuable data (documents, letters) from the infected PC which can then be restored to a new environment. In some cases this can be achieved on site. Occasionally However, some viruses can cause severe problems. For example, the computer will not start or boot at all. In these cases we have the capability to recover the computer to our workshop for repair. Due to the very nature of computer viruses we can never guarantee full system recovery.

Virus Transmission 
Virus's are spread in a number of different ways. They could be via:

•    Hackers
•    Web sites you visit
•    E-Mail attachments
•    Instant messenger programs
•    Another computer on the network
•    Storage CDs, DVDs, Folppy Disks, Zip Discs, or USB Thumb Drives.
•    The Internet and Web-Sites.
•    File Sharing of Music, Video

The possibilities are endless. Once on your system, a majority of Virus's will try and spread. Again by means of sending out an effected email whilst your back is turned, or by sending itself out via any open connection ports. This is how Virus's Breed. By jumping from system to system. As long as there are unprotected Computers out there on the Internet, we will never be rid of these cyber pests. So protect your system now, for your sake, and for the sake of your friends.

Basic Glossary of Virus Related Terms 

Boot Sector: A part of the computers hard drive that contains a tiny program that tells the computer how to load. By putting its code in the boot sector, a virus can guarantee it gets executed.

Worm: A worm program is similar to a virus. The one and most important difference is that it can replicate and spread without human interaction. Like viruses, worms may (or may not) do things other than replicate.

E-mail viruses: An email virus moves around in email messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim's email address book.

Firewall: "A system or group of systems that enforces an access control policy between networked computers."

IP: Stands for internet protocol. you can see it as the common language of computers on the Internet. It is important to know a few things about IP in order to understand how to secure your computer.

IP Address: Like telephone numbers, IP addresses are used to identify a computer on a network and the internet. http://www.ace-pc-repair.co.uk is a URL which points to an IP address of a computer where the website is held. IP addresses are typically shown as numbers separated by decimal points. e.g. 127.0.0.1. This is called dotted notation.

Trojan Horse: You have heard about the story of the wooden horse built by the Greeks to sack the cities of Troy. A Trojan Horse is a program usually downloaded from the internet. As in the Wooden Horse it sneaks into your PC and when activated it can carry out tasks like erasing your hard disk which wipes out your system. A Trojan horse cannot continue to spread very far since it can be identified quickly according to its destructive nature. Note it's different from viruses since it can not replicate itself.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): URLs are used as a friendly way to access computers by IP Address. When you type a URL into a web-browser, a request is sent to your local DNS asking to lookup the IP Address of the requested url. The IP Address is then passed back and the browser can find the information it needs by contacting the computer at the returned IP Address.

e.g. Ace PC Repair's URL: http://www.ace-pc-repair.co.uk which secretly points to the IP Address of: 000.123.456.789