Genealogy Chat

Thanks Judy, Seems I am really going to have to eat humble pie today with my husband being right three times in a row. Never happened before, not even once. well thats what I like to believe, Georgina

Georgina: Your husband is correct, when a virus is being sent to you via an attachment no harm can come from opening the e-mail. No harm can come of it even if you accidentally downloaded this form of virus. The harm comes when you actually open the file that you downloaded. If you accidentally download an a file, it is safe to simply delete it IMMEDIATELY as long as you haven't opened it. It's a good idea anytime you receive an attachment, even from people you know, to get in the habit of, BEFORE opening the downloaded file, RIGHT click on it and choose SCAN WITH Norton, or whatever anti-virus you are using. Your anti-virus will then scan just that file and advise you if a virus was found or not. Many viruses come disguised to look like they are from people we know so it's something that should be done regardless of where or who a download came from. Keep in mind, there are viruses that come via e-mail that require you to do nothing other than to open an e-mail from someone you don't know and that, too, will unleash viruses into your system. Best thing you can do to protect yourself is to make sure your virus definitions are always up to date, check for viruses on downloads to your computer BEFORE you open them, and simply delete, without opening, any mail where you don't recognize the sender. Judy :)

I had two My Doom e-mails this morning but luckily I had updated my AVG yesterday and it picked them up. Also today I had an e-mail from the Kent FHS Message Board saying one of my messages had bouced because it was not in plain text. I have had one of these before and thought I had corrected the problem. The e-mail said my original e-mail was attached. I opened to attachment to see WinZip. I knew I hadn't sent anything like that and the name of the e-mail was hello so I deleted it. I then ran a virus check and was OK. My husband says as I did not open the Winzip I should be find. Is this right. By the way the MY Doom e-mails were called 'status'.

Many thanks, yet again, Judy. By the way, thanks for emails but I could not download advice because hot mail is not allowing me my attachments. Probably something to do with the configuration of Norton. It asks me to sign in again. I will send you my other address.

To update Norton's latest anti virus definitions direct from their site, go to : http://securityresponse.symantec(.)com/avcenter/defs.download.html Remember to remove the brackets. Click on UPDATE NOW. Once you download the update, you'll be asked if you want to install it, click OK. The home page of the site above is: www(.)symantec(.)com Judy

The warning about a Trojan Horse shows that Norton is blocking hacking attempts, what it will usually do is block access attempts from that address for a time (30 minutes?) in the expectation that the hacker will conclude your address is "dead" and try someone else's.

.. no, it wasn't me! Why can't I say .. here's another try, hot mail! (spelt it differently this time).

... Hotmail that is - the word seemed to get missed out on my last message. Really MUST be lunchtime.

After reading all the replys here I updated my 'live update' thingy on Norton (I think it does it automatically) but I took on board the advice to go to Norton and find updates. Where do I go? I have got onto the site via the 'Virus Reports' on the anit virus window but what on the left do I click? Downloads? I keep being warned a trojan horse is trying to attack my computer. Do I already have this trojan horse and bugs are trying to get into it, so how do I delete the animal? Or is it the trojan horse that is trying to be downloaded? Many thanks to all re. email warning. At the moment Hotmail won't let me open attachments anyway - keeps asking me to sign in again. What's going on there? Why do I never get spam on my outlook express address? Why is the world round? Why am I here? Who am I? Must be lunchtime ....

Can someone tell me what to do with the 23 Norvarg virus laden emails Norton has picked up in the past few days, and are now in quarantine. Should I delete them from quarantine? Is it safe to leave them there? Your help would be much appreciated Christel

Hi again, As mentioned before, when I got the offending email, I scanned my whole computer useing AVG free edition. I am up to date with my updates & still Avg did not detect this new virus. If you get ANY email whose source you dont recognise, which contain an attatchment then the safest thing is just to DELETE. Elaine x

At the moment I am scanning on a daily basis and doing all the other things one should - defragging, emptying cookies etc. I was trying to bring this to others attention in case they thought it was OK because it was headed from Microsoft. My security AVG is on on a permament basis and gets updated every week. I suppose it is a case of being extra vigilant at the moment. Margaret

Hi if you see the Records Board and read what Max of London has printed, it will help, you can also download the virus checker for it .should you get it. Joan

Judy, I really appreciate your comments and I heed them, but... I suppose I am more cautious than some, due to losing everthing twice!! but that has been due to ignorance, and not updating sooner! Even though I try to convince friends and rellies, the amount of people that only update their anti virus once a month or every 2 weeks, because that's all they feel they need to do! In the last year my address book has doubled, and that is mainly new contacts on GC. So shouldn't we all be a bit more responsible? I am no computer boff, far from it really, but, there has been so much advice on here, and on the net, that, in my opinion, we should all make ourselves aware of things that are going on when using computers. They are brilliant things, and keep us in touch with friends and the world, but they can also be a responsibility. Kim

Kim....I think many actually do have their anti-viruses set to automatically update. The problem is the rate at which new viruses are being created and sent out. Anti-Virus software manufacturers can only come up with a solution after the fact....often too, late since the virus is spreading while they are searching for a solution. You might also want to check the thread I posted yesterday NORTON ANTI-VIRUS-GLITCH? It seems that available virus definitions are not being picked up by their live update option on our computers. You have to actually go to the Symantec site for some of the latest updates. I wasn't aware of this glitch until I kept receiving a pop-up from Norton advising me that I needed to update. When I ran Live Update (which was set to do automatically!) I kept getting the message that I had all available updates. When I mentioned it to my tech he told me to go directly to the Norton site....low and behold, there were updates available that my Live Update couldn't or wouldn't get. I went back to the site again a week later even thought I was no longer getting the pop up message and again, there was another update needed. To boot, you not only have to download the latest defintions but install it, too! Judy

Can I ask a question to everyone? Why, at this present moment in time with all these viruses, isn't everyone scheduling their anit-virus to do a live up-date daily? It doesn't cost anything and it will just work in the background when you are on line. I lost my whole computer 6 months back, I had nearly 3 years of my family tree LOST! due to ignorance. It takes about 3 minutes to schedule your anti-virus, please do it for your own sake, as well as everyone else in your address book.

Hi, I have had another one of those e-mails purporting to come from Microsoft telling me to download patch which is attached, immediately. Needless to say it had been sent to my spam folder, but just in case someone gets it through 'normal' mail box. DO NOT open it. I contains a virus. Margaret

I had an email today from Mailer Demon, failure to send. I looked at it, lots of gobledygook and saying it was a failure to someone I have never heard off. No attachment though, I deleted it and after reading this have just updated my antivirus. I ran a complete check after I deleted the e mail and no virus was detected so maybe AOL somehow took it before it got to me?? A bit strange altogether.

Sioux It sounds like the email I had. Im so glad I deleted it. IT could have been worse, I could have been mislead that the e mail was safe as my AVG free editon did not pick it up. Remember take nothing for granted, even if you have an antivirus if you dont feel happy about a strange email & attatchment DELETE IT ! Elaine x

Sioux Mine was an error thingy with a 7 bit wotsit! Good job I deleted it then. Jeanette