There are many different anti-virus program available on the market today. Any and every computer on the internet should have a current up-to-date anti-virus subscription on it. Here at CMINET, we require an anti-virus program. Any computer that is found to be infected with a virus on the CMINET Network, will have it's service turned off until the virus is removed. For the health of your computer and your important documents, it's best to have an antivirus program. Remember: you are not protected from viruses just because you have an antivirus program. You must keep your updates (protections/patches against new viruses) up to date and run a complete system scan on your computer at least twice a week.
Here are a few that we recommend:

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Online Virus Scan

If you do not currently have an up-to-date subscription to an anti-virus program and have a virus on your computer, you cannot install a new anti-virus program until your computer is completely free of all viruses. It's basically like building a bomb shelter (trying to install the antivirus program) after the bomb (virus) already hit you. Luckily you can find out if your computer is infected by running an online virus scan. This virus scan will determine which viruses your computer is infected with. It may or may not remove them for you. It depends on which virus you are infected with. After you find out what infections you have, then you can manually remove them with removals tools found on Symantec's website. Each virus will have to be removed individually. Symantec provides an awesome online tech support! Once you have your computer virus free, get an antivirus program and keep it up to date.

Web Filtering Software

Web Filtering Software are programs that limit what you or your family view on the internet. Web Filtering Software is something you might want to consider if you have small children and don't want them to visit certain sites. CMINET does not do any content filtering. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions Agreement. There are many filtering software on the internet today. Below is a small list of them.

A firewall is basically an extra added feature in protecting your computer for outside networks/computers. A firewall is not required, but recommended. Here are a few that are available.

Spyware is Internet jargon for Advertising Supported software (Adware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a product, other than by selling it to the users. You can get spyware from downloading music, games, etc. Spyware is not a good thing. Some spyware programs can take the personal information you have on your computer and send it out over the internet, so it's very important to keep your computer free of spyware. One obvious way to detect spyware or any computer problem is your computer acting strange. Many spyware programs will flood your internet browser with popup ads and change your homepage. Below are a few free spyware removal programs that you can download from www.download.com. Just type in the program name in the search form or try the links below.

Everyone hates pop-ups. At least everyone we''ve come in contact to. One way to stop those annoying pop-up ads is to put a pop-up blocker on your computer. Probably the easiest to use is the pop-up blocker on the Google Toolbar. It installs on your Internet Explorer browser as an extra toolbar and it's FREE. In the Options on the Google toolbar, you can select Pop-up Blocker. Every time you block a popup on a webpage, a little star will show on your mouse.