Highway's automatic email scanning of incoming and outgoing email is a free service for its members and is designed to reduce the chances of having virus infected emails delivered to your mailbox. It also reduces the chance of you unknowingly sending out virus infected emails to others.

Highway's email scanning offers no guarantees of protection and does not accept any liability should you contract a virus on your computer. It is your responsibility to take whatever measures you consider necessary to protect your computer from virus infection. Highway strongly advises all clients to install and maintain Antivirus software on their computers. Below are a few examples.

Below you will find some tips for keeping on top of viruses:

Stay informed. Did you know that there are virus and security alerts almost every day? Keep up-to-date on breaking viruses and solutions by visiting the Antivirus Software websites above.

Get protected. This can't be stressed enough - have an Antivirus Software installed on your computer. If you're on a network, check with your network administrator first.

Scan your system regularly. If you're just loading Antivirus software for the first time, make sure that you download the latest virus updates before you scan your computer. Set your Antivirus program to scan each time the computer is rebooted or on a periodic schedule - once a week should do. Also set it to automatically download updates as soon as they're available. Make it a regular habit to check the status of your Antivirus program, to ensure that it's still scanning regularly and that the downloads are up to date. If in doubt about the updates, download it manually by going direct to the Antivirus manufacturer's site.

Don't open attachments!
One of the best ways to prevent virus infections is not to open attachments. Even if the email is from a known source, be wary. Many viruses take the mailing lists from an infected computer and send out new messages with the virus attached. So unless it's a file or an image you're expecting, delete it. Live by the rule, "If in doubt, DELETE!"

Don't use a Preview Pane. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you'll find that when you highlight an email in your Inbox, you can read its contents in the bottom pane. With some viruses, you can automatically trigger the infected attachment, just by viewing the email in the Preview Pane. You can disable the Preview Pane by going to the "View" menu, then click the "Layout" option and untick "Show Preview Pane".

Update your Email program. If you're using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, viruses are written to specifically target any vulnerabilities in these programs, so make sure that you keep it up to date by downloading the latest security patches from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.  For more about Windows Updates, click here.