Hideously so, it came at a time when I had to submit a thesis draught tommorow. To make matters worse a burglar can into our home while I was there - which also detratcted from studies and writing last week.

Marian - what was the name of that email program you use?

What are the benefits and disadvantages?

I've been happy with Outlook Express up until this point as so would like to know what your overall view of your program is.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks to Kyle Beatty for your message.

Regards,
Rochelle
p.s its late and I've been working on getting this PC back in shape for the last twelve hours. I need some JNHoward therapy...red wine..and candles....

it doesn't cost anything, so you've nothing to lose. I think(!) Marian uses Eudora, so he may still give you some input there. You can also download it (legally) at
http://www.eudora.com/

I don't use email clients at all. Instead, I use on-line services like Yahoo mail and I never open attachments that aren't described in a separate email.

What do you mean you couldn't open it? Did you expect any kind of attachment from Rochelle? Rochelle, did you send her any kind of attachment? Because if Rochelle's PC got hit by a worm and she uses the address book of Outlook, this worm may well send itself out to everybody who's in that address book. If you got an attachment from her with the ending *.vbs, *.com, *.pif, *.exe, *.doc (possibly) or anything else that's executable, and you either tried to open it by double clicking on it (or you use Outlook ) and apparently nothing happens, and you have a Windows PC, it is highly likely that you have been infected as well. If you're not sure (and it's not a private attachment), feel free to send me that attachment, I might just be able to tell you more about it.

Nicolai is right: I've been using Eudora for several years now, and am very happy with it. I've heard from Outlook users that they don't like the interface, but I can't comment on that since I've never used Outlook myself (though I always found the pictures of it that I saw a bit "uncomfortable"). Eudora is free if you don't mind a little commercial window on the left side of your screen (or you could pick the commercial-less Light version, but that one's very old - or you could buy it . I've heard good things about Pegasus Mail as well, and have been thinking of trying it myself.

The most important thing though: Eudora (and I think all other e-Mail programs other than Microsoft's) doesn't open attachments until you specifically say you want to. Best way to stay virus-less: Don't open attachments if you don't know what they are (even if they come from a friend - always make sure it's something (s)he really wanted to send you, and not something a virus may have attached automatically).

Galina get rid of the email ASAP. I did not send anyone here an email but people have been getting them.

The funny thing is that I'm getting messages from people I don't even have in my address book.

Please update your anti-virus software and scan disks.

Rochelle

quote:

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Originally posted by jonathan_little:
I love Eudora, but Eudora alone won't keep viruses from your computer. Pick up Norton Antivirus and keep your virus definitions up to date. It costs $50, but it does help reduce the number of headaches.

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Jonathon - desite my constant requests to bring one home ...it was sitting in his bag for four days.

I'll probably either go with Pegasus or Eurdora.

Now that I'm dewormed - do you think its safe to import my email or am I being paranoid?

I've used Pegasus Mail for years now, and haven't been disppointed in it at all.

Plus, they've recently upgraded to 4.0, and there's more bells and whistles.

I'll let you know tomorrow.

I tried to warn you that you had this virus, but your e-mail address kept bouncing back!
I recieved the virus from you, (I know its not your fault, but thats how the BadTrans virus works it e-mails itself to people who sent you mail but you have not replied back to them yet.)

I don't understand how it got sent to people on this board since I don't have their emails in my address book.

Rochelle

quote:

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Originally posted by MWRuger:
This is exactly why hackers and virus writers should all be sent to prison for a very long time.

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quote:

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Originally posted by cine-sin:
Now that I'm dewormed - do you think its safe to import my email or am I being paranoid?

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Importing it into a good (i.e. non-Microsoft) e-mail application should be no problem. As I said above, no good program should execute a virus unless you specifically tell it to start the attachment. (I never delete my viruses, I just move the files to a different directory so that I can't start them by accident)

Np: Harry Potter (John Williams) *****/*****

quote:

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Originally posted by Nicolai P. Zwar:
You too? Trade a Melissa for a Michelangelo?

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Hehe. Actually, I'm still missing the one virus that's really dangerous... I once found the famous CIH virus on my system, the one that supposedly ruins the BIOS chip, and got rid of it just one day before it would have activated. I burned it on a CD before deleting it, but I can't find it anymore.

Otherwise, I don't get that many viruses. So far, I think I have two or so (and no idea where that CIH came from).

Of course, it's also a lot duller.

Marian - what do you do with the directory?
Do you delete emails with viral attachments?
Thanks for the info on importing.

Thanks for the vote of support John, Timmer, Kimi etc. I now have Eudora and am happy but still tempted to have a whirl with Pegasus.

Rochelle

Seriously though, I don't know what the hell happened, being stupid I tried to open a mail from our friend here, Rochelle, and it seems to have spammed out to every e-mail address I have. I have the virus too and am trying to get it sorted.

Hope it ain't too much of a prob Andre?!

quote:

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Originally posted by Timmer:
Hope it ain't too much of a prob Andre?!

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Thankfully I was under protection, you evil influenced fellow!

But I just got a tip from a friend that may help:

On your adress book create a fake new adress starting with the # symbol. Don't put any email adress on the it.

The # symbol will be the first one on your list, so when a virus try to send itself to anyone at your list, it will appear a error message right in the first one.
Them you just delete it and make sure to erase the virus...

I hope it help!

quote:

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Originally posted by cine-sin:
See - this is what I don't understand. How did the virus go to people's addresses I don't have in my address book?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Nicolai P. Zwar:

But if you neither send out any e-mail to the people in question nor had them at all in your address book, this is sure a mystery. It is theoretically possible to program a virus that is "surfing the web" with you and snatches up all the e-mail addresses it finds (e.g. from this site), but to my knowledge such a virus doesn't yet exist (at least on "in the wild").

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I've never emailed Galina or Kyle Beatty and I don't recall having emailed TimT or Timmer.

Interestingly, it only chose moviemusic people and academics from several local universities (excluding my own). Only a few people I actually knew and had their emails received it. Could the virus have been intellectually selective?

I've downloaded Pegasus and Eudora and have opted for the latter. I'm still getting used to it but feel safer than before.

I just received the virus again (not activated) on Yahoo so please please please people update your anti-virus software. This is the fifth time in three weeks and ALL from score fans/traders/sellers.

So this thing is no joke.

Question. If I delete the email right away I'm still in the clear right?

quote:

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Originally posted by cine-sin:
Marian - what do you do with the directory?

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Nothing. It's just that this directory only contains "dangerous" files, so I can't start anything in it by accident since I only open it if I know what I'm doing.

quote:

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Do you delete emails with viral attachments?

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No, as I said, Eudora doesn't start attachments automatically, so the viruses aren't dangerous until you really start them yourself.

One exception: I'm not sure how it handles JavaScript stuff. I know it can execute JavaScript, but I don't know if this goes so far that a JavaScript script can execute another program (and I doubt there are effective viruses written entirely in JavaScript). Anyone here who can enlighten me?

By the way, don't count too much one any single one Virus Scanner. I have three, and it happens sometimes that I get a virus one of them doesn't detect. Though you shouldn't have more than one scanner running in the background, it's good to have an additional anti virus tool at hand to double check. Get a freeware one as a "second opinion", such as F-Prot or AntiVir, they are both pretty good (though not as comfortable as the commercial ones from Symantec or McAfee).