Technology Tip of the Week - June 20, 2007

PC Health Checkup

Now that you've done your spring cleaning and got your pc running efficiently it's time to do an annual checkup of the software that keeps your PC healthy.

Anti-Virus Updates

Antivirus software is absolutely essential in protecting your computer against most viruses and worms. Once you've installed your software, however, it is equally important to regularly run updates to the virus definitions and renew your subscription annually so that your computer is never left unprotected. One of the easiest ways to stay on top of the latest definitions is to configure your anti-virus program to receive automatic updates. Here are instructions to configure the anti-virus program supported by CCRI - Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus program - to automatically check for and install current virus definitions, called LiveUpdate.

Run Live Update

If you are not sure when your virus definitions were last updated, you can run Live Update by following these steps:

  1. Open Norton Anti-Virus by double-clicking on the gold shield in the bottom right corner of the status bar (or you can go to your Start button - All Programs - Symantec Anti-Virus)
  2. You should see a LiveUpdate... button at the bottom right of the window under the Virus Definition File area. Click on the LiveUpdate button to start a wizard that will walk you through connecting to the Norton Anti-Virus website and updating your computer.
  3. In the LiveUpdate dialog box, click Next. The computer connects to the Symantec Web site through your Internet service provider (ISP) connection on the computer, for example Cox or AOL. If your Internet connection is a dial-up account, the computer will prompt you to connect through the dialer for that connection. For example, an ISP configured in Dial-Up Networking may prompt for a user name and password. Norton will take care of downloading and installing any updates it finds. The LiveUpdate option is also available from the menu bar under File - LiveUpdate.
Configure Norton Anti-Virus LiveUpdate

If you'd rather have Norton take care of automatically checking and updating your system, you can configure the LiveUpdate program to run on a particular schedule.

  1. Open Norton Anti-Virus by double-clicking on the gold shield in the bottom right corner of the status bar (or click on the Start button - All Programs - Symantec Anti-Virus)
  2. Click on File - Schedule Updates
  3. Click in the checkbox next to Enable scheduled automatic updates. You should now see a checkmark in this box.
  4. Click on the Schedule... button. Choose the frequency, day and time you want the Live Update to run. For example, you would select the frequency as Weekly and then choose a time and day that will not interfere with your work on the computer, such as Sunday at 3 a.m.
  5. Click OK to accept the changes

Note:  For the latest virus information, please visit the IT virus web page at: http://it.ccri.edu/helpdesk/viruses.shtm

Next week: Scheduling Windows Critical Updates

For more help with this feature, please contact one of the IT Instructional Support team (Norm Grant, Gene Grande or Linda Beith) or faculty mentor Kathy Beauchene.

Website of the Week

Reflecting, Writing and Responding: Reasons Students Blog by Carie Windham

Ever wonder what blogging is all about and how it's being used in higher education? Read this article featured on the Educause Learning Initiative site by a graduate student who explores the campus "blogosphere" noting "who is blogging and what they are posting, as well as how faculty are using blogs in their courses and the results they are seeing" at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3010.pdf.

Feel free to post your thoughts or opinions of this article in the Teaching Forum message board.

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu. View an archive of past technology tips at http://it.ccri.edu/Training/Tips/tip_week.shtml.
 

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