>From time to time, people send email virus warnings to everyone they know.
I get several a week, and I get kind of tired of them. Because some
misguided soul has unleashed yet another email virus on the world, I'm
issuing a preemptive educational strike with this message in hopes that we
can quickly put this behind us and keep focused on the main purpose of this
list.
There are 4 main categories of email virii:
1. Attached executable files.
You have to run the attached executable to get one of these. Happy99.exe is
the prime example, here. If you get this program emailed to you, don't run
it. If you get any executable program mailed to you, don't run it unless
you know what it is and where it came from. (Note that Happy99.exe will
come from someone you know, but they won't know they sent it.)
2. Word macro (and other macro language) virii.
The prime example here is the "Melissa" virus. If you get a message with an
attached Word file (or Excel, or whatever), don't run it with macros
enabled (especially if the subject includes "Important message from " and
has a file called list.doc attached. Right now, before you do anything
else, open up Microsoft Word and make sure that under Tools/Options/General
the "Enable macro virus protection" box is checked. Then if you open a Word
attachment and it asks for permissions to run macros, don't let it unless
you know where it came from, what it is, and why it needs to run macros.
Please see
http://www.zdnet.com/zdhelp/stories/main/0,5594,2233116-6,00.html for more
about this.
3. Chain letters and hoaxes.
This is BY FAR the most common type of virus. It isn't strictly a computer
virus, because it can't reproduce itself except by tricking the recipient
into mailing it on to everyone they know. Never forward a chain letter.
Never forward a virus warning (including ones I write) without checking
them out with reputable sources, first.
4. Fancy HTML and Javascript virii.
These are theoretically possible, but I haven't seen any of these in
reality, yet. Set the "security" settings in your browser intelligently,
and you shouldn't have a problem, here.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled mailing list...
Michael Paul Johnson
aka Soaring Golden Eagle
PO Box 1151, Longmont CO 80502-1151, USA
Rocky Mountain outpost 207, New Creation Church
Jesus Christ is Lord!
_______
To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Eat the hay & spit out the sticks!" RTKB&G4JC!
Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rangernet.org
