I was hit with a nasty computer virus last week and have not been able to answer my emails until five minutes ago....lots of catching up to do.  I noticed some inquiries about emails I sent with attachments.  It may be to late for some, but even for future reference remember....DO NOT OPEN ANY EMAILS WITH ATTACHMENTS from me. I never send attachments and on the rare occassion that I may, I will send you an email letting you know before hand.  

Just an FYI!

Lauren

Bless you for the warning. Above and beyond the call of duty! You are a sweetie.

Get an anti-virus program or a firewall.  It works wonders. Oh, keep the subscription current also, as these companies issue updates almost every week to combat viruses.

Stay online and McAfee online AUTOMATICALLY updates the virus definitions.

My Outlook Express 6 won't let me open any e-mail attachments. Even the ones from my CPA or broker !! LOL

I'm pretty sure if you read e-mail on the web exclusively, you shouldn't have a virus problem.

PS The original problem sounds like Klez virus, that also struck my NOW ANTI-VIRUS EQUIPPED ex.

For me, McAfee.com was disaster when I used it to fight one of the Word macro viruses a few years ago. Took out the virus all right, but virtually destroyed my Windows 98 with one of their "automatic" downloads.

A better choice for protection software is Norton/Symantec. And I would never trust any "automatic" updates from any vendor. They could screw up your computer and you'd never know what the culprit was.

Both a firewall and an Anti-Virus program are mandatory, as far as I'm concerned. However, don't expect a firewall to help with an attachment!! It doesn't... it won't... it's not supposed to!

You want your email, so you MUST open a hole in any firewall to permit the retrieval of email. At that moment, the attachment is INSIDE your firewall.

The Anti-Virus program is in charge of CONTINIOUSLY scanning files for viruses INSIDE the firewall.

The firewall's job is to protect you from someone PUSHING a file at you, and will never protect you from something you've permitted in.

It's like the salesman at the door... look through the peephole and if you don't want them, don't open the door. But if you open the door... don't be surprised if they do their scam.

Configure your Anti-Virus to scan all the time. I use NAV and when I click on a file, it instantly tells me it's a virus and lets me discard it.

I never heard of Nav.  I had Norton and a virus got through last year and then switched to McCafee.  Funny thing is that it got through on my main system that had been updated regularly, but not my laptop that had not been updated for a couple of months because my modem was on the blink.  This incident got me to fix it in order to get on line.  I just don't get as to why it would protect one and not the other.  

Lauren

I apologize for abbreviating NAV. I assumed too much.

Computers are complex devices and so a single metaphor will often not work. Let me offer another. My “fertile ground” metaphor. 8-)

Virus' and worms all need “fertile ground” to operate. Firewalls, like a fence around a plot of land, protects the ground from things that can't fit through, or fly over the fence. If your firewall is set to permit outbound initiated traffic only and not allow inbound initiated traffic, you could say your fence is high and solid. However, it does not protect you when you go out through the gate and bring back a package containing some nasty weeds.

The Anti-Virus program is intended to protect only the space within the fence and spritz weed killer on anything that looks like a weed.

But another protection exists too. That is the updating of security patches to your computer's OS.  Most virus' and worms exploit a vulnerability in the programs that come with the OS. (After all, it's hard to propagate a worm/virus that relies on you having Photoshop. ) If you have updated the OS, then there's no place for the nasties to get a foothold.

One of these three was in effect on your laptop, either you didn't re-read the infected email, thus not bringing it in again, or your Anti-Virus was in some “autodetect mode that was off on your desktop, or you had patched the OS on the laptop.

The Code Red and Nimda worms are still very prevalent on the internet. I see a few thousand propagation attempts per day. But there are thousands of computers on the internet that are still infected and continue to attempt to propagate them. Each and every one of us are likely to get one propagating attempt during the time it takes to read this message. We don't get infected because we have no fertile ground to permit them to take hold.

Prior to the Nimda virus, I believed that dis-allowing children from using floppy disks that had made the rounds at school and a diligent avoidance of opening attachments to emails from unknown sources was enough to "stay safe".  The insidious methods of infection that Nimda introduced, however, prompted me to protect myself and the dozens of client computers I support.

Coincidentally, PC World (or maybe PC Magazine) had just published the results of an anti-virus "shoot-out" they had run comparing the major anti-virus vendors' products.  Panda was the only product that caught ALL the viruses used in the testing and also the only product that generated NO false positives.  Also, at that time, Panda was the only vendor who updated their "signature" files (virus definitions) every day.  Based on that, and a recommendation from a client who had already been using Panda for about a year, I became a Panda dealer and user and currently have it running on several dozen computers.  To my knowledge, it has not allowed a single infection anywhere.

Furthermore, I know from experience and peer discussions that McAfee and especially Norton can cause system slowdown and other conflicts, especially if improperly configured.  

That being said, here's my current 2¢

ANY anti-virus product is better than none and today's computing environment dictates that it is imperative to have protection if you use the internet and/or email.  It is also imperative to regularly update the "signature files" available (usually on an annual subscription fee basis) from the manufacturer.  

After all, it's all about playing "safe", right?

I don't have to scramble from cpu to cpu for every announced virus.

plus Norton gave me grief which is why I switched.