two ways.

Either they invade your system with a frontal assault like

the Huns attacking the Romans, or they sneak in a back door

like a cat burglar.

Either way, once a virus or piece of spyware gets on your

system, getting it off can rate harder than curing a severe

case of trench foot!

Viruses, malicious programs designed to disrupt normal

computing, and spyware, programs intended to literally "spy"

on your activities, can enter your computer a number of

ways.

Most commonly they enter your system through an email

attachment, by sharing files with an infected computer by

disk, as a "ride along" with a 3rd party program you

install, or through a "back door" port in your computer.

Regardless of how they get on your system, once in place,

they cause no end of headaches and frustration.

The following represent typical signs you may suffer from

infection by a virus or piece of spyware.

Your computer starts acting oddly by doing things it never

did previously.

Your modem starts trying to dial out to the Internet without

you initiating a surfing session.

You notice that files start disappearing, the system stalls,

runs slowly, or even crashes frequently.

Your computer takes progressively longer to boot up every

time you start it or you notice that your available hard

drive space has disappeared. Strange popup windows appear,

even when you're not surfing the web, or you delete a

program and it "magically" reappears next time you boot the

system.

If you suspect you a virus or a piece of spyware has invaded

your computer, follow these steps to first identify and then

delete the offending code:

Step 1 - Back up your important files, but remember to scan

these files for viruses before reinstalling to avoid

accidentally re-infecting your system.

Step 2 - Update your anti-virus definitions and perform a

scan of your hard drive.

If you don't carry virus protection, or you suspect your

anti-virus software got corrupted somehow, then log on to

www.pandasoftware.com and use the free Panda Active Scan

service to check your hard drive for viruses.

Follow the instructions for quarantining and removing the

offending files.

Step 3 - Scan your hard drive with an adware, scumware, or

spyware detection and removal tool like Adaware

www.lavasoft.de/support/download/ or Spybot

http://spybot.safer-networking.de/.

Step 4 - In many cases, when the virus or spyware program

gets installed with a free utility or game you download from

the Web, you must usually uninstall the utility or game to

finally get rid of the problem once and for all.

Step 5 - Avoid re-infection by keeping your anti-virus and

firewall up-to-date at all times.

As a last resort, if you run into a program you simply can't

get rid of, but can figure out the offending file's name, do

a search for the file name on Google.com. Often you will

find you're not the first victim and may get valuable advice

for cleaning up your system.

However, be very careful of the information you find and

think twice before modifying any system files.