Q I'm worried about a virus named Weed.5850.D. Where can I learn more about this and other viruses?

A An obstacle to finding complete information on viruses is that a virus can have more than one name. For instance, Weed.5850.D is also known as HLL.5664 and RustyBug.5330.A. These names are determined by various antivirus vendors, who don't always coordinate their efforts.

The first place to look for information on a given virus is your own antivirus program. For instance, in Norton AntiVirus 5.0, you can click the Virus List icon for a list of known viruses. Just double-click the one you're curious about for more details. In McAfee VirusScan 4.0, launch the VirusScan Central program, click Tools, then Virus Info. Click Find Virus, enter a name, and press <Enter>. Double-click the name for details. Be vigilant about keeping your antivirus program current, to ensure that it has the latest information and updated antivirus abilities.

Caption: Antivirus programs like Norton AntiVirus 5.0
often contain useful facts about specific viruses

In addition, several virus encyclopedias on the Web will provide you with more information than your antivirus program. Because of name variations and some less-than-complete definitions, it's advisable to check more than one such encyclopedia. Among the best are Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center (www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html), the AVP Virus Encyclopedia (www.avp.ch/avpve), Dr. Solomon's Virus Encyclopedia (www.drsolomon.com/vircen/enc), the Trend Micro Virus Encyclopedia (www.antivirus.com/cgi-bin/vinfo.pl), and McAfee Virus Information Center (vil.mcafee.com/villib/alpha.asp).