posted
Seems there's alot of people freakin' out every time a new virus rears its ugly head so I have a few tips here that'll keep you high and dry... I know they work because they have kept my computer bug-free for years and I've never installed Anti-Virus software nor will I ever install any.
First is the remedy for the latest rash of virii - commonly called WORMs - which email themselves out to names in Windows Address books. These virii generally have no payload other than to replicate themselves via email which has no affect on end users but can crash mail servers because of the traffic generated. Some of them can do damage to the end user machine but it's rare.
WORMS operate on what's called VBS - Virtual Basic Scripting - which is a script writing interface for software development. Most people are never gonna need VBS on their machines cause they dont develop software or custom scripts, yet VBS comes enabled by default in every Windows installation unless you do a custom installation and disable it before installing Windows. You can disable VBS on your computer which kills the machines ability to even execute the worm attachments, thus keeps your machine WORM free. Click the following link to learn how you can disable the "Windows Scripting Host" on your particular Windows Operating System.
QUIT OPENING EXECUTABLE EMAIL ATTACHMENTS, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE FROM.
I cant believe how many people ignore this rule just because they got an attachment from someone they know. Executable attachments are files with .EXE, .BAT, .COM, .PIF, and .VBS extensions on them. If you receive a file with two extensions delete it. Some bugs will try to fool ya with something like happy.jpg.vbs. Most people will see the JPG part and think it's just an image file (which dont carry virii) but in fact it's a VBS file which will execute the virus.
I dont open attachments from anyone, period... unless it's an image file or ZIP, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, FLASH, Freehand or photoshop native file, and I haven't missed out on anything yet except having to clean out virii from my machine.
Then when all else fails, you can check out http://www.datafellows.com These guys have the greatest website with information on virii and even stupid internet hoaxes that get passed around by AOL members. If I ever were to buy Anti-Virus software, it would be the F-Secure software these guys sell because it's the best out there (I've recommended it in the past and used it at my old engineering gig) but for the more technical users out there you dont even need to buy the F-Secure software because they provide instructions how to remove most virii manually, right on the page dedicated to that virus.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Mike, you must be situated such that you never have to put a foreign disk in your computer.
What you propose only protects against one type of virus.
We had a case where the disk was handed to us by a personal friend, data loaded from an office computer at an established company. The disk set off the McAfee alarm and we were protected.
In another case, a high school student employee brought in a floppy so that he could create a file in Corel and save it to his disk. It was good news/bad news. McAfee was not up to date and it did not flag the virus. Good news was, with the assistance of a techie we were able to load McAfee's update and clean the system with no loss of data.
We now use McAfee's on line service which checks once a day for updates.
What is a lost day of production worth? The protection is so cheap it only makes sense to buy it. Vic G
posted
Removing Windows Scripting Host won't save you from contracting every known virus, but it WILL at the very least stop your computer from forwarding VBS driven virii to everyone in your address book (assuming you use Microsoft email programs) What Mike has posted here is good advice for any MS users not planning on programming or using scripts, which is a large proportion of users. What he goes on to say about .exe, .bat etc files should cover other potential threats. Messr's McAfee, Norton & Co. are a convenient way to handle them as well but are only as good as the last virus signature update. Disable windows script hosting and you stop the virus propagating and in most cases thats where the threat of the virus ends. Its easy and it doesn't cause your computer to melt down. David
A little bit of pedantry Mike: its "Visual Basic Scripting" but I guess you're burnt out from 72 hours of battling your card ------------------ David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com
[This message has been edited by David Fisher (edited August 05, 2001).]
Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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The info I posted is gonna save 95% of computer users' problems. The major virus threat doesnt come on customer disks these days, it comes in email.
Yes, a customer's floppy disk might contain a virus but unless you run an infected executable file from that floppy or reboot your machine with that floppy in the drive, you CANNOT WILL NOT SHALL NOT contract that virus. It wont happen just by opening up the artwork file. You have to run an infected executable file to get the virus, and an artwork file is not executable. You CAN however get a virus from MS WORD documents because those documents can contain virii within the macros that file might use.
I accept customer art all day long here but I receive most everything via email. On the rare occassion they bring/send in a disk I dont even worry about a virus living on it because I know how to keep from gettin the bug.
Dave, thanks for catchin my spelling error.. Virtual.. Visual... it's still a load of MS crap.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Thanks for the post, Mike. I found that even my Norton anti-virus didn't stop the SirCam worm from infecting my machine. We got it through an e-mail attachment with a subject line about a sub woofer. My son had some stereo equipment listed for sale on E-Bay and thought it was related to that. He unleashed it and things got ugly. Ended up having to completely re-format the hard drive and install from scratch. It was a very unhappy time
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
posted
Just another comment about anti-virus software. Norton caught that sircam worm for me 3 or 4 times. But, and it is a BIG but, Norton automatically updates my virus definitions whenever there is a new virus identified. This feature is included in the ourchase price of the software program. It is available for one year from the date the software is installed and registered. After that year is up, you have to pay an annual fee to continue recieving the updates. In my case, I bought Norton on the 18th of August 2000 so in a few days I will be visiting their website and purchasing an additional year of updates ($3.95/yr, I believe).
If you don't pay the annual fees for updated protection you don't get the protection and your program will only protect you from "old" viruses and not the latest ones.
Keep your protection current!!!!
Kelli, I am not directing this at you in particular, I am just mentioning it for the benefit of those who may have forgotten about the fact that up-to-date virus definitions don't go on forever, they have to be renewed annually.
------------------ Dave Grundy AKA "applicator" on mIRC "stickin' sticky stuff to valuable vessels and vehicles!" in Granton, Ontario, Canada 1-519-225-2634 dave.grundy@quadro.net www.quadro.net/~shirley
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Dave, you are absolutely correct. I'm not sure how Norton missed it. Our system isn't set up to automatically update, and it has probably been close to two months since we updated it. I've taken the precaution of following Mike Pipe's advice and now I'll go check about having Norton update automatically. That old adage about an ounce of prevention applies today more than ever
------------------ Kelli Cajigas aka Janda Dolphin deSigns & Banners “A satisfied customer will tell two friends, a dissatisfied customer will tell ten.”
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