Many viruses today reveal themselves because they employ a method called 'port scanning'. This means that they use the
infected computer to open a connection to random addresses on the internet, and start looking for open ports. This is easily
detected with a command called 'netstat'. Normally, surfing the internet will result in your computer making a handful, lets
say less than 10, connections to whatever systems you happen to be browsing to. When you have a virus like Blaster, or Welchi
A, you will notice many more connections. Try it. Windows users need to click 'Start' / Run / and then type 'command' and
press enter. This will get you a dos box. Type 'netstat' (without the ' marks), and press enter. A healthy system may look
like this:
			
	Active Connections
	
	Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address						State
	 TCP    compname:1940          baym-cs136.msgr.hotmail.com:1863				ESTABLISHED
	 TCP    compname:1946          cs70.msg.sc5.yahoo.com:5050				ESTABLISHED
	 TCP    compname:3349          cbc.ca:http						ESTABLISHED
	 TCP    compname:3350          a209-249-123-101.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com:http	ESTABLISHED
			
	You don't have to track down the reason for each and every connection. The thing to look for would be the volume of
connections. If that list showed 20 different connections, and, like the example, you're only browsing cbc.ca, running Yahoo
Messenger and MSN Messenger, then something nasty is probably happening to your computer.
			

	Keeping an updated virus / worm definition list is certainly recommended. However, doing only this does not seem a
bullet proof method, considering the number of people who *do* do this, and yet still seem to get hit. This is because many
worms aren't actually programs, but simply take advantage of already existing programs and services in Windows to do their
thing. There are a number of free utilities available on the internet. Symantec provides free worm/virus removal tools, but
these are only effective if you know what worm/virus you want to remove. To identify virus and worm infections, you can:

		 Run a free scan at Trend Micro Housecall for Home Networks
		 Download a free (for home use) virus scanner at http://www.f-prot.com