Fred's Safety Belt
~~ Fred Arshoff

Why you have to install your antivirus and firewall 1^st after restoring your hard drive 

First of all, each and every time you download a new data file for your AV program you should save it on a floppy disk or a CD (preferably a rewrite one) and delete the old one so if you have to reinstall your AV for any reason you have the latest data file on hand to verify you have no viruses on your computer. 

When you have reinstalled all of your material through a backup or a complete reinstall, there is a strong possibility that the reason you had to do this in the first place was caused by a virus, thus the AV software should be installed right after the OPERATING SYSTEM to scan each and every thing you put back on your hard drive before you put it back on. Of course, be sure to add the latest data file you saved before scanning or you are defeating the reason for scanning, as each new data file protects against many new viruses. In the average week there are 10 new viruses, thus if you have the data file from two weeks ago there are probably 20 viruses you aren’t protected against.  

Before going on the Internet you have to install your FIREWALL to protect yourself from having unwanted people accessing your computer. Perhaps you had to reinstall everything from the backup due to someone tampering with your computer from the outside.  Your best friend today can be your enemy tomorrow. Of course, if you feel there are some people you fully trust and must have access to your computer you can set the firewall to let them in. If you can’t recall the settings you had, most firewall manufacturers have information on their website which tells how to configure it. If you can’t recall what you did, I recommend you go now to the web site and download that documentation so you won’t be going on the Internet without protection.