I just got some Viruses for Xmas

[Muriel]

I also use AVG Professional and find it excellent - and at £27 for 2 years, excellent value (frees up some money for use on SP!)

Muriel

[sheilajim]

Hi All

I was away yesterday for an early Christmas gathering, so wasn't able to respond to the answers.

I have a nephew who lis a computer geek coming down from Vancouver to visit after Christmas. I am going to ask him his opinion on this matter.

I do have one other question. I have no idea where this virus came from. The only thing that I have downloaded recently was some Sudoku Puzzles, and I don't go to what are thought of as unsafe sites.

I would like to send e-mails wishing some people Merry Christmas, but I am afraid to send them, fearing that I might be also sending them this trojan.

Sheila

[DavidWW]

Hi All

I was away yesterday for an early Christmas gathering, so wasn't able to respond to the answers.

I have a nephew who lis a computer geek coming down from Vancouver to visit after Christmas. I am going to ask him his opinion on this matter.

I do have one other question. I have no idea where this virus came from. The only thing that I have downloaded recently was some Sudoku Puzzles, and I don't go to what are thought of as unsafe sites.

I would like to send e-mails wishing some people Merry Christmas, but I am afraid to send them, fearing that I might be also sending them this trojan.

Sheila

Sheila

A download isn't required, - all that is needed is that you are connected to the www by broadband (dial up as well, but that is inherently safer as the connection only exists for the duration of the telephone call).

I regularly see a little pop-up from Norton letting me know that it has detected and prevented an attempt to access my computer, by a virus/trojan/etc......

What you could do meantime is send just the one email to yourself, and see if there are any attachments, - if there are have McAfee scan them.

David

[sheilajim]

Hi David

Thanks for that advice. I just emailed myself and there was no attachment. I am hoping that this is a sign that I will not be infecting anyone that I send emails to. Think that I will take a chance and email my nephew.

Thanks again,

Sheila

[Laura]

One could always switch to a Mac.

[SarahND]

One could always switch to a Mac.

I was going to say that earlier but restrained myself... Where's the "smug" emoticon? comes close. Heh heh

Sarah, happy with her virus-less powerbook on her lap

[wini]

For Australian Members

I didn't get a virus but I did get an email from alpha@teamtelstra.com with an attachment. I didn't open it and contacted Bigpond who say the attachment contains a virus.
There is also apparently a couple of others which look as if they come from bigpond so don't open any attachments if you are unsure.

wini

[sheilajim]

Hi All

I think that I might have got my viruses, there were actually two, from an email that I thought was sent by a relative. The email came with no personal message only a sentence saying that it was important to open the attachment that came with it. When I opened the attachment, I was instructed to install a 30 second video called "Heart Attack". I thought that this was strange but I tried to install it anyway. There was nothing there. It was a little after this that McAfee was telling me that I had 2 viruses that it couldn't remove. The Malware.j and one that it said was Patched-Function in Memory\ZWQuerySystem information.

I have been running Virus Scans every day. I did have some luck on my last virus scan that just finished 10 minutes ago. McAfee did manage to finally remove the Patched-Function Virus. The Malware.j is still there though.

I know that my relative did not intend for me to get a Virus. From now on I am going to be very careful opening attachments, even from Friends and Relatives.

Everybody please be careful when opening attachments.

I had some other bad news my nephew has postponed his visit till early
February.

Regards

Sheila

[DavidWW]

The very simple rule to follow is that unless you know the sender of an email with an attachment, and exactly what the attachment contains, then don't even think about downloading the email, never mind opening the attachment

It's always safer as well to look at your new email on line, i.e. on the ISP's server, before downloading it. Anything even slightly suspicious looking can then be zapped before it's on your 'puter.

Norton can be set up so that it also scans any attachments on incoming emails, and I'd be surprised if that's not also possible with McAfee and other similar packages.

David

[StewL]

Slow computer page loading solved

I just converted to AVG fully paid up version too.

And!

Page loading back to normal, no more waiting for the coo's to come home as the page loads.

I am now a happy chappie, as I thought it was McAfee that was just too good at its job for my sanity.