I thought I'd mention this because Anniette mentioned she was sent virus's from some people! I too have had the same experience just this week. There are obviously idiots out there watching and preying on this forum. If you're reading - I wish you the worst - I haven't even finished paying for my computer and it is unusable until I get this worm virus fixed - thanks LOSER. I may have to re-install everything. To all the good folk out there (and I know that's most of us) be really careful who gets your e-mail address......Boone

Thx fr the warning Boone. This is unbelievable BS. I will only open FS related e-mails frm people only that I have added to my Buddy list. Hope you get that system running again soon.Alex

Hi Boone,Sorry to hear of your virus problem. Once you get it sorted out I can recommend an excellent freeware virus program that has free updates too. Visit www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.htmThis program has saved me on more than one occasion.Cheers,

I would second that recommendation as well, again it has saved me more than once. Bear in mind that if your machine gets infected with a virus there is a good chance that it will also get sent to everyone in your address book - since most (if not all) of the "top" viruses are mailers.It is also handy to understand the fact that the "mail viruses" will also "spoof" the address that they have been sent from, so you cannot just assume that it is from the REPLY address (or even the senders address). In Alpha's case it sounds like the intent was malicious, however this is not always the case.If you are using the internet regularly it is also worth getting a decent firewall, for "nothing" you can get either:Outpost http:www.agnitum.comorZoneAlarm http:www.zonelabs.comBoth work well !!!

Thanks for you responses already! wow... Really appreciate the info and I'll get to those sites once I'm back up and running (I'm at work now).This all happened when I asked how I could get the simubuild A340. Somebody offered to send it to me and the rest is history.Fortunately, although the virus sent e-mails to various addresses in my address book, it failed to attach itself correctly.The firewall software sounds great.Cheers again folks!Boone

I too highly recommend Grisoft virus protection. Has saved my bacon on more than one occasion.Good luck!Heather

Ummm....Calling someone an idiot because they sent a virus in just idiotic ;-)They probably have no idea they are infected and it is just going out to all the names in there contact list.This happens daily to me and all you have to do is make sure your virus protection is up-to-date and you do not EVER open attachments from people you do not know and probably safe not to open any from people you know as they may not realize they have a virus. The only time I open an attachment is when I'm warned ahead of time that it is coming.

"you do not EVER open attachments from people you do not know"While this advice covers at least 99 pct. of the virus infections in the wild, at least one common virus (the KLEZ virus) can infect a system WITHOUT the user opening the attachment. It exploits a buffer overflow vector (discussed in a few MS security updates), and can execute if a user's "Autopreview" function is enabled.For this reason (and in addition to your advice) I recommend people turn off autopreview, and also keep abreast of the updates and patches on Microsoft's site.Also, the KLEZ virus can spoof the sender's email address--making it appear that the virus has been sent from an uninfected system. A couple of my workstations were sent variants of the KLEZ virus--but I had applied the Outlook security patch on a local level throughout my WAN--which strips most attachments than can be executed. That, combined with patches meant to protect from buffer overruns, has kept my WAN virus free through the height of the KLEZ outbreak.-John

.... aaaah but do your users love you for being an "evil" sysadmin and denying them their .exe files ??? I know that mine were not impressed ....

"Ummm....Calling someone an idiot because they sent a virus in just idiotic "There's always one isn't there.Boone

Lately I've gotten quite a few emails from simmers that I don't know... I'm glad I never opened them. They had fairly large attatchments with them, too. The subjects were stuff like "An FS Present for KG" & stuff like that.

Just remember folks,A virus checker is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard if you don't keep the virus sig files up to date.So once installed check for updated sig files every week, often it will be two, three or four weeks before there are updates but it only takes a moment to check.

I'm my own personal virus Checker. I look at the files and if they look funky, they get deleted. If I didn't ask for them, they get deleted. If I didn't ask for them and they came from a friend, they "Usually" get deleted. ;-)If that same friend asks me if I got that "Funny" email they sent me, I say "No, must have deleted it by mistake." ;-)

Hmm... you never know. How is that sound file I sent you :-):-)?Alex

I took a chance on that one, but hey, I was at work, I can be a little less cautious here ;-) LOL!