"No Mother! My computer doesn't need medicine because I am connected to the
internet, regardless of what you heard on the news". To a 90 year
old...hearing the word virus...(the noun) means something that needs
medicine to cure... In the age of technobabble virus (the adjective) means
something that when unleashed tends to be destructive.
You can avoid any viruses inadvertantly sent by list members if you will
click on the Suspend Parkinsn Mail button on the Parkinsn Email List
Message page and keep up with your parkinsn mail by reading it on
P-I-E-N-O. You will still be able to post messages but you mailbox will be
free of inadvertant viruses.
http://www.parkinsons-information-exchange-network-online.com
Computer viruses are people made for many reasons. Most slip through poorly
designed programs...to corrupt files or the operating system of computers.
Outlook Express and Internet Explorer are two examples of poorly coded
programs. I recently received two unsolicited emails by persons clicking on
the words John Cottingham on my many pages of P-I-E-N-O and Homeboys
Adventures in Australia.
These emails had code attached that if I responded would have sent my
Outlook Express address book...to an insurance salesman. :( I know a bit of
code and saw what it did. That ploy didn't work because:
1. I don't use Outlook Express as my mail program.
2. I don't respond to medical questions, medicine information questions or
unsolicited email.
3. If I had replyed...because I wasn't using Outlook express nothing would
have happened...none of my personal data would have been transmitted to the
sneaky sender.
How do our computers get infected with viruses?
Viruses can be transmitted by putting someone else's floppy disk into your
computer. Nothing is really safe...even if you know the person..because
perhaps the infection got transmitted to them by email..or using another
persons floppy disk.
Everyone now days belongs to a mailing list..funny or otherwise. Every
funny gets passed around the office lan...to friends and relatives. Some of
these can have attachments...completely unrelated to the mail. It is in
these attachments with .doc, xls, ppt etc where the trojan horse viruses
hide. Email with catchy subject lines...like I Love You...tend to make you
want to open what ever the email contains.
What do you do if someone tells you that you have sent them a virus?
If you have a anti-virus program, click the liveupdate button and get the
latest virus definitions...then check every file on your computer.
Anti-virus programs need to be updated at least every month. One month I
updated a clients anti-virus definitions and 720 new viruses had been
detected that month alone.
Most anti-virus programs provide the definitions for a year..after that you
have to pay for them or upgrade to the newer version of the program.
In the worst case, your machine will quit working and every file on the
hard drive will be corrupted.
If you catch it early and not have one of the fatal viruses, even if you
don't have a current anti-virus program, one that is free, is available on
the web.
HouseCall is at the following address. It will download some temporary
files to your computer that will run an anti-virus program. After download,
at the box at the bottom of the webpage, your drives will be listed. click
on the ones you want checked. Not wanting to be more redundant..:) read the
instructions below.
One other thing. If you have ever found a virus on your machine before with
an anti-virus program and it was put in quarantine rather than deleted..it
is still on your hard drive and house call will report it. Just tell
HouseCall to delete it.
How to use HouseCall:
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
When HouseCall finishes loading, you will see a 'window' above showing all
the disk drives on your computer.
Select the disk drive(s) or directories you would like to scan.
Click the 'Scan' button to start. (You can continue to browse the web while
HouseCall is scanning.)
If HouseCall finds a virus, it will list its name, as well as the name of
the infected file(s).
> Click on the virus name to learn more about the virus
> Click on the 'Clean' button to remove the virus.
If the virus cannot be cleaned, HouseCall will give you the option to
delete the infected file.
Having trouble?
1. Check the Frequently Asked Questions file. It is located at:
http://housecall.antivirus.com/pc_housecall/faq_corp.htm
Check your Browser:
To use HouseCall, you will need to have either Microsoft Internet Explorer
(version 3.02 or above) or Netscape Navigator (version 3.01 or above).
[log in to unmask] Search the parkinsn archive online at:
http://james.parkinsons.org.uk
Catch the Parkinsn's List Online messages at:
http://www.parkinsons-information-exchange-network-online.com
Click the navigation ads and use the new search tools
John Cottingham
