Before you leave home and bring your computer to campus, it is critical that you prepare it properly. Computer viruses are likely to be running on the network. If you do not properly prepare your computer, it will likely become infected and it will then have to be disconnected from the Residence Life network. Just before you leave home to come to campus, you should:
1) Update your operating system and install all critical security updates. This may take several runs through the update process to get all updates installed. Continue to run windows update until all updates are installed. The link to Microsoft’s update site is:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/
The link to Apple’s update site is:
2) Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date (the anti-virus definition files should probably be less than a week old). If you do not have anti-virus software or you do not have a subscription with your current software to keep it up to date, the University has purchased a license for McAfee anti-virus software for PC and Macintosh computers. You can download the software using the following link:
http://www.uwgb.edu/compserv/downloads/mcafee/student_AV_Homeuse.htm
If your PC computer is already infected with these viruses, the following free tool from McAfee can be downloaded to remove common viruses:
http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=stinger
Once on campus, it is important to make sure you update your operating system
on at least a monthly basis. You also need to make sure your anti-virus software
updates itself on a daily basis.