• A cracker is a computer expert who creates devious programs or breaks into systems with malicious intent. A cracker is the evil twin to the hacker, who is more inclined to break into computers without doing anything destructive, carrying out complex computer pursuits for their own merit.

• Viruses come in two flavors: malicious, and annoying. And they’re either destructive or disrupting. They're created with remarkable speed (about 100 new viruses are discovered monthly), and infections occur daily.

• Just as a real live virus is passed from person to person, computer viruses are passed primarily through floppy disk swapping and downloading files from the Net, primarily in the form of email attachments. For more information, see the website

• Virus scanning and checking programs exist to ward off the attacker. Are they really effective? Maybe. It all depends on how often you update your virus scanning software, and how diligent you are about using its file examining features. Preventive care is powerful medicine in both the health and computer industries.

• Why isn't a virus checker included with Windows? Possibly because Microsoft is concerned about potential issues similar to those surrounding its inclusion of a browser with the Operating System … could it be fear of antitrust violations? Whatever the reason, there are many excellent anti-virus programs on the market. But they're not all perfect.

Let's say your system has been infected by a boot sector virus (you won't be able start your computer if this happens), so what do you do? Boot with a floppy disk and run the fdisk/mbr command. At the (A:) prompt, type fdisk/mbr and press Enter. Let me explain.

If you have the FDISK utility loaded on a diskette, and the disk is loaded into the (A:) drive, the "/mbr" portion of the command (that portion is called a "switch" in computer lingo) will rewrite the Master Boot Record and wipe out the virus while leaving your drive's partition information and data intact.

This is a drastic measure for a terrible infection, and I don’t recommend, "playing with it." However, if you're unlucky enough to be afflicted, you have nothing to lose in attempting this cure.

• Find FDISK's home on your computer by searching for FDISK using your search function (press F3 when the desktop is the focus) or use the Start, Find routine. The FDISK command hides in the C:/Windows/Command folder on a general default basis. It'll be there unless it's been moved.

• Copy FDISK to a floppy that you've made bootable. That way you’ve got it if you ever need it. Then you can actually perform the tip that wipes the virus from the master boot record when needed (hopefully NEVER).

• Your system can be infected between scans of your antivirus software, so what do you do? McAfee has a program called V-Shield that runs all the time. It works in the background, constantly checking for virus activity. This program also slows down your computer, and takes up resources.

• If V-Shield is running continuously, it'll wreak havoc with your disk defragmenter. So you'll need to shut it down before you run the defragmenting program. Remember, your hard drive’s contents get fragmented with use, and need to be defragmented.

As long as your virus program is running, changes will occur to the data structure on your drive that will cause Windows to restart the defragmenting program over and over, resulting in way too long a wait for this task to complete. Shut down any virus checking software before doing housekeeping chores.

• Eradicate potential viral infections from floppy disks by fully formatting them. If you have used floppies, doing a full format will wipe them clean of viruses and data.

• Be sure to write protect your boot floppies so a virus can’t infect them. There's nothing worse than attempting to boot from a floppy only to discover it has a terminal problem.

Slide the little plastic tab on a 3 1/2 inch floppy to the edge of the disk. If you can see through both of the little square holes, you know the disk won't accept data. You'll have to unprotect the disk if you want to add anything to it.

One of the most common methods of transmitting a virus is by sharing floppy disks. Unless you completely trust the source, you may want to think twice about doing this.

One last point ... a virus cannot infect your computer unless you give it an opening. The fastest way to bring in an infection is to open every email attachment. These germs spread rapidly from user to user, since the unsuspecting target doesn't know any better.

Do NOT open email attachments unless you know the sender.

Well, any errors or suggestions? ... ... what? everything's working?

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Here we'll return to ... Navigator ... that's bon voyage.

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