To lower the risk of getting a virus the easiest thing to do is not to open E-Mail attachments unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure of it's origination. OK , but it came from your brother, it's got to be ok, right? No. If you weren't expecting it, E-Mail your brother and ask him if he sent you an attachment/file. Get direct confirmation BEFORE you open it. If you are E-Mailing someone with an attachment, always add a line in your email stating your are attaching something, what it is and why you are sending it, or send a a piece of Email first, with no attachment, explaining what the next E-Mail is and that has the attachment. Virus' and trojans normally don't do that.
The next protection would be to install a virus scanner. Comteck's E-Mail virus scanner only scans e-mail. If you obtain a virus or trojan directly from a disk or a download you'll still need local protection on your PC. Keep in mind that virus scanners are only as good as the most current list of known viruses that you have, called virus signatures. If you installed Nortons 2 years ago, and you have not obtained the virus updates, it will most likely not catch the newer virus/trojans. If you have a virus scanner, visit the company's web site often and install the latest virus lists. Most recent commercial antivirus programs include a feature to automatically update it's virus signatures periodically.
Only download programs from reputable sites like Tucows, shareware.com, winfiles.com and other large software achives where the sites have went to great effort to ensure that the software they provide for downloads are free of virus and trojans. If you have a virus scanner, always scan your download BEFORE installing it. Never install or accept a program from somebody you met in a Chat, no matter how convincing they seem, or how bad you want the program. Many people get trojans by being tricked into installing software by somebody they met in a chat room. Warez sites dealing with pirated software and cracks are another good source of trojan and virus infected software.

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