Check your phone book for the nearest Family History Centre location. Join a genealogy related newsgroup on the Internet. There are lots of pitfalls for genealogists, especially those just starting out. This particularly good article gives you 20 Ways to Avoid Genealogical Grief . A virus can wipe out information on your computer and create major havoc.
Viruses usually originate from malicious people.
You can unintentialy download a virus from a web site or get it from a disk that someone has lent you. There are virus checking programs, but there are new viruses popping up every day. The best defence defence against a computer virus is to be very careful not to download programmes or data from a site you are not familiar with. For more information on computer viruses and a list of many of the known viruses visit the CIAC Internet Virus Database . There are a number of hoaxes around on the Internet.