E-Mail Virusus

Most email viruses have an attachment! When you see the little paperclip to the left of a new email entry that indicates there is an attachment to that email. Not all attachments are a virus. In fact the vast majority of attachments are not, but that doesn't mean you should run or install them.

I make it a rule that if anyone, even someone I know, sends me an executable program, word, or excel attachment, before I open it, I send a confirming email back to the sender, asking if they in fact sent it, and what it contains. If they tell me, "It's a cute little thing for my screen" or other useless nonsense, I delete it without opening it. If it's something I truly need I may decide to open it. When in doubt throw it out! Please visit: The things you should not install on your computer For more information about the perils of email.

Also see The Melissa Virus and Happy99 for more about email viruses.

I have dual removable hard drives, so I never have to worry about my hard drive becoming contaminated. If you are interested in my dual drive solution, and don't already have one of my dual drive computers, visit the following web page: Dual-Drives

A good general rule is: "Don't open *.BAT, *.EXE, *.COM, *.DOC, *.XLS, *.PIF or *.ZIP attachments, unless you check with the sender to insure they actually intended to send you the file, and can vouch for its pedigree." Don't worry about images like jpg, gif, bmp, tif, etc. or text files "*.TXT", thay are safe to open and can't contain a virus.

There are two types of files/attachments that end in COM. Ones that start with WWW. or HTTP:// are URLs "Web page addresses", and are perfectly safe to open. Any attachments that have eight or fewer characters to the left of the dot and COM to the right of the dot, and do not start with www or http://, are executable programs and could contain a virus.

For a comprehensive list of file formats Click Here.

The best virus protection is a good Anti-Virus program. Click Here for a list of many of the anti-virus companies.

I hope this helps you keep and maintain a proper and safely running computer. If you have any computer related questions or needs, feel free to call or Email Me.