In an effort to assist our "family members" in navigating the waters of the Internet, we have gathered some information to help you spot some danger signs that might help you avoid some of those nasty viruses out there.

Our first and best advice is to get a good virus protection product and install it to your computer. Your job is not finished there, though. You must be conscientious about downloading the update files regularly. At the rate viruses are being produced, once a week would be an excellent idea. There are also virus products that will automatically update themselves when you are online.

You are probably already aware of some of the main things to avoid in protecting yourself from a virus, such as being extremely careful about opening email attachments and downloading files. The standard warning is to never open a file or download anything unless you receive it from a trusted source. Sadly, there are viruses now that use your email program to propagate themselves by auto-emailing to everyone in your address book! So your unsuspecting friends who trust you are duped into opening a dangerous file or downloading a file that contains a virus!

But there are a few safeguards you can still use to protect yourself as much as possible.

I will use the hoax "Blue Mountain greeting" that was circulated not long ago as an example. Blue Mountain greetings is a trusted name in e-greetings, and is very popular across the Internet. This hoax traded on that good reputation and caused a lot of problems for people who trusted Blue Mountain.

These are some of the "red flags" that could alert you to possible virus problems:

In the subject line, the real Blue Mountain greeting gives the name of the person sending the e-card.

There is always a "reply-to" address in the real Blue Mountain header, and it contains the email of the person sending you the greeting. This gives you a second cross-check (with the subject line) to verify who sent it.

The fake greeting is addressed to Friend@public.com. An actual Blue Mountain greeting is addressed to the recipient's email address.

A real Blue Mountain greeting tells you in the first line of the email who sent you the greeting; the fake one simply says, "from a friend."

The fake greeting tells you to choose "Run from Current Location." The dialog box that offers this option appears only when you are about to DOWNLOAD something! It is never a good idea to download anything to your computer or open an attached document unless you know what it is, even if it comes from a trusted source, since some viruses can replicate themselves and spread through email.

It used to be that you didn't have to be fearful of opening emails, since you couldn't get a virus from opening an email. Now, hackers have circulated viruses that activate simply because a mail program such as Outlook has a "preview" pane, so you don't even have to "open" the email to activate the virus!

The blue hyperlink used on the fake greeting was completely false to disguise the real destination of the link. The hyperlink text (the blue, underlined URL or Web address where they want you to think it will send you) was completely different from the actual link that pointed to a virus site. If you hover your mouse over a hyperlink WITHOUT CLICKING, the actual destination URL will appear in a popup box or on the status bar at the bottom of your screen. ALWAYS check the hyperlink before you click on it! If it doesn't match the hyperlink Web address, be careful!

Another hint that you are about to download something is that the email tells you what size the file is. This is another "red flag" indicator that you are about to download a file. Blue Mountain takes you to a Web site to view your card; you NEVER have to download anything from their site.

In the "headers" section that appears at the bottom of the email, it gives the return path as .greeting@bluemountain.com. Blue Mountain shows the email address of the person sending it in the return path.

The creators of this particular virus email were very clever in trying to disguise it as "the real thing" by adding links at the bottom of the email that actually went to the Blue Mountain Arts site. Don't be fooled!

The above examples are very specific warning signs about this particular virus email. However, this might give you some idea of signs to look for when you encounter a potential virus. The principles of checking out the hyperlink destination and being aware of the download dialog boxes will generally hold true regardless.

Take the time to be alert when you receive an email that doesn't look quite right. This is no time to shrug and say, "Hmmmmm, that's weird," and then simply proceed to open the file. If there is any doubt as to the legitimacy of the email, do NOT open any attachments or download any files. It is better to be cautious and delete a questionable email than to have to spend an entire day reformatting your computer and eliminating a virus.

Another safeguard is to be sure to BACK UP your data on a regular basis. Don't take a chance on losing valuable files; be sure you have a backup copy. Nowadays, computers are coming with CD-burners as fairly standard features; otherwise, zip drives are cheap insurance against loss. In addition to backing up all your data on a regular basis, you might also want to make an immediate backup of any file that you may have just spent hours completing.

Another way to protect yourself is to use informational sites such as www.mcafee.com/anti-virus. There are links from this page to the virus information library, anti-virus tips, and a listing of virus hoaxes. This last list is especially helpful if you continually receive "virus warnings" from well-meaning friends that they are passing on "from a trusted source."

When you receive virus warnings from well-meaning friends, it is always prudent to do a little homework before you, in turn, forward it to all your friends. The majority of these "virus warnings" are hoaxes. It only takes a minute to verify the validity of a virus warning. You can save one of the following links (or the one to mcafee.com above) to your "favorites" and use it to ascertain if the warning is a hoax:

http://www.stiller.com/hoaxes.htm

http://www.vmyths.com

http://www.virusbtn.com/Hoax/hoaxlist.html