OT - virus warning - 5/20/2004

AVG - Free, powerful anti-virus software download:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

I've been using it for years, and it's the best out there. Doesn't screw up
the computer like Norton, etc. Updates automatically, all the time (if you
have an open connection) so it catches all the new baddies. PLEASE get it
if you haven't done so already.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

someone using an ISP in Santa Fe that reads this group has a virus on
their computer. the supposed 'names' are all from this group in
various forms.

PLEASE check your computers regularly!


-----------
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
-----------
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Feel free to use the above variant pledge in your own postings.

Ick, sounds nasty. Is it someone using your newsgroup server? My
Mailwasher and AVG haven't seen anything at all.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net


]Doesn't screw up
]the computer like Norton, etc. Updates automatically, all the time (if
you
]have an open connection) so it catches all the new baddies. PLEASE get
it
]if you haven't done so already.

well, my Norton does all those things AND more and hasn't messed up my
computer so far, although it isn't free.

David has actually managed to track it back to someone using comcast,
believe it or not, and the virus itself is relaying through a Santa Fe
ISP that allows e-mail relaying. and the 'munged' addresses all have
variations of people's names from here. so far, they've all been
caught by our e-mail server software, and my mailwasher.

but Kandice is right - virus checkers are more important than ever
these days!

-----------
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
-----------
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Feel free to use the above variant pledge in your own postings.

The days of just turning your computer on and dialing into the Internet
without a care are in the past. Nowadays you need to have a strong defensive
system on your computer. Four things make up this defense:
(1) Anti-virus: I use AVG as well and really like it. I like Norton but
some of the MS Office applications have issues with Norton.
(2) Firewall: Hardware as well as software. My router and ISP cover me. Zone
Alarm has a free version but setting it up can be a bit of a pain to
computer novices.
(3) Malware protection: I use Ad-Aware, also free.
(4) Anti-Spam softwa I've heard excellent reviews about Mailwasher, also
free.

Another product to consider is a pop-up blocker. I use Panic-ware's Pop-Up
Stopper, free again.

Did you notice that all of the defenses you should have are available for
FREE? You certainly can't argue the cost. And before you ask, no, I am not
inundated with crap mail because I use these products. (I got hit because my
addy was harvested from the Microsoft newsgroups.)

If you aren't certain if you are protected/clean/safe/whatever, go to
www.symantec.com and follow the links for the Security Check. You can check
to see if you have any viruses, worms, or Trojan Horses AND you can check to
see if your system is protected against hackers.

Safe Surfin'
--
JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"Kandice Seeber" wrote in message
...
AVG - Free, powerful anti-virus software download:
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php

I've been using it for years, and it's the best out there. Doesn't screw
up
the computer like Norton, etc. Updates automatically, all the time (if
you
have an open connection) so it catches all the new baddies. PLEASE get it
if you haven't done so already.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

someone using an ISP in Santa Fe that reads this group has a virus on
their computer. the supposed 'names' are all from this group in
various forms.

PLEASE check your computers regularly!


-----------
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
-----------
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Feel free to use the above variant pledge in your own postings.

My ISP has black holed all comcast.net email due to problems like this.
They have contacted comcast about the problem without results.
Armand Vine

Mmmm - the last 18 hours or so, I have been swamped with undeliverable
emails myself. Comcast was down for about 12 hours last night, as well.
Both cable and internet, all over my area.
This is not an indication that I have a virus (scanned three times with
different software, and I am clean), but that my email address was harvested
from the virus vistim's address book, right? Have had over 400 in the last
18 hours. So glad I have Mailwasher.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

]Ick, sounds nasty. Is it someone using your newsgroup server? My
]Mailwasher and AVG haven't seen anything at all.

no - they're just messages coming in to my vj mail address from a
virus program someone has on their computer. since they're not coming
into any of my other mailboxes, it's probably someone who reads this
group, since the virus picked up and tried to pretend to use other
names from this group. [i saw dragonbeads and tink's gamergrl
addresses flash past] there were over 200 of them in about ten
minutes. David has set our servers now to not allow e-mail from that
particular ISP since they allow mail relaying [which isn't a good idea
anyway and most ISPs figured that out a long time ago] but this
particular set eventually tracked back to someone using comcast - and
i know a lot of people here do use that.


-----------
@vicki [SnuggleWench]
(Books) http://www.booksnbytes.com
newest creations: http://www.vickijean.com/new.html
-----------
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America,
and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples,
promising liberty and justice for all.
Feel free to use the above variant pledge in your own postings.

Your ISP blocks email from all Comcast users, but that doesn't solve
anything. Comcast is huge. The virus will attack anyone who is listed in
the virus victim's email address book - regardless of whther their ISP is
Comcast. And it will spread to non-Comcast users easily and can get to you
that way.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

My ISP has black holed all comcast.net email due to problems like this.
They have contacted comcast about the problem without results.
Armand Vine

Not necessarily, Kandice. Your email address may have been hijacked by
spammers. Mine has and I'm wondering when my halseytrading.com domain will
turn up on one or all of the blacklists used by many ISP's for spam
filtering purposes. I get waves of undeliverable email notices from all
over the world - the most recent onslaught started last weekend. One of my
importers found out the hard way that their domain was on SpamCop's
blacklist as a spammer. I had wondered why I wasn't getting my usual mail
from them and that's why. I have Mailwasher now too as the spam filtering
my domain ISP uses was filtering out some of my customers' emails. Now
THAT'S really not good for business! It's hard enough to get through to
people - especially AOHell users - who are filtering their mail and have
failed to put my email in their address book or on their 'friends' lists.
Sometimes I have to send out four different emails from four different email
addresses before one will get through to a forgetful new customer. This
kind of crap has taken all the fun out of doing business on the web...

Mj
--
=================================
Marjean Cline - Certified Bead Enabler
Halsey Trading Company
eBay ID: ladymorgause
http://stores.ebay.com/Halsey-Tradin...ny?refid=store
=================================
"Kandice Seeber" wrote in message
...
Mmmm - the last 18 hours or so, I have been swamped with undeliverable
emails myself. Comcast was down for about 12 hours last night, as well.
Both cable and internet, all over my area.
This is not an indication that I have a virus (scanned three times with
different software, and I am clean), but that my email address was
harvested
from the virus vistim's address book, right? Have had over 400 in the
last
18 hours. So glad I have Mailwasher.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

Oh, yes, I know my email has been hijacked by spammers - that goes without
saying. But I am reasonably sure the latest thing is a virus, because it
cropped up so suddenly. I get spam on a regular basis, and because it's
really hard to set filters to filter out the real spam without filtering out
customers, I have to go through it all in Mailwasher and check off
everything I want bounced and deleted from the server. It is a pain and I
hate it. But the last 18 hours or so have been much worse than normal. Of
course, I am just guessing, but it smells like a virus to me.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

Not necessarily, Kandice. Your email address may have been hijacked by
spammers. Mine has and I'm wondering when my halseytrading.com domain
will
turn up on one or all of the blacklists used by many ISP's for spam
filtering purposes. I get waves of undeliverable email notices from all
over the world - the most recent onslaught started last weekend. One of
my
importers found out the hard way that their domain was on SpamCop's
blacklist as a spammer. I had wondered why I wasn't getting my usual mail
from them and that's why. I have Mailwasher now too as the spam filtering
my domain ISP uses was filtering out some of my customers' emails. Now
THAT'S really not good for business! It's hard enough to get through to
people - especially AOHell users - who are filtering their mail and have
failed to put my email in their address book or on their 'friends' lists.
Sometimes I have to send out four different emails from four different
email
addresses before one will get through to a forgetful new customer. This
kind of crap has taken all the fun out of doing business on the web...

Mj
--
=================================
Marjean Cline - Certified Bead Enabler
Halsey Trading Company
eBay ID: ladymorgause
http://stores.ebay.com/Halsey-Tradin...ny?refid=store
=================================
"Kandice Seeber" wrote in message
...
Mmmm - the last 18 hours or so, I have been swamped with undeliverable
emails myself. Comcast was down for about 12 hours last night, as well.
Both cable and internet, all over my area.
This is not an indication that I have a virus (scanned three times with
different software, and I am clean), but that my email address was
harvested
from the virus vistim's address book, right? Have had over 400 in the
last
18 hours. So glad I have Mailwasher.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

If you're getting emails from ISP's saying something you sent is
undeliverable, it's quite possible some spammers are now munging *your*
email address as the sender of spam. I used to think those were the result
of viruses on other people's machines, but I noticed that the emails
attached to the mailer-daemon notices were actually spams for everything
from Cialis to Vicodin - or worse. That's when I realized my domain email
had been hijacked. I wrote to my ISP about it and they said there's nothing
anyone can do about it except to try to find the spammers and sue them for
what boils down to identity theft. If you get blank emails and *don't*
bounce them, you just might be telling a spammer that your email address is
alive and kicking and a good one to munge. I took your advice several
months ago and bought Mailwasher so I could bounce the crap back, but as you
know, it hardly does any good because the email list sellers don't bother to
cull bounced emails from the lists they sell.

I think the spam I hate the most right now is the one that says "If you
received this email you're not protected from spammers, so buy this product
from us now!!" What kind of unmitigated gall is THAT???

Mj

--
=================================
Marjean Cline - Certified Bead Enabler
Halsey Trading Company
eBay ID: ladymorgause
http://stores.ebay.com/Halsey-Tradin...ny?refid=store
=================================
"Kandice Seeber" wrote in message
...
Oh, yes, I know my email has been hijacked by spammers - that goes without
saying. But I am reasonably sure the latest thing is a virus, because it
cropped up so suddenly. I get spam on a regular basis, and because it's
really hard to set filters to filter out the real spam without filtering
out
customers, I have to go through it all in Mailwasher and check off
everything I want bounced and deleted from the server. It is a pain and I
hate it. But the last 18 hours or so have been much worse than normal.
Of
course, I am just guessing, but it smells like a virus to me.

--
Kandice Seeber
Air & Earth Designs
http://www.lampwork.net

I think the spam I hate the most right now is the one that says "If you
received this email you're not protected from spammers, so buy this product
from us now!!" What kind of unmitigated gall is THAT???

LOL I just deleted TWO of those when I signed on!

Could someone please explain the blank emails? I get them and don't
understand how that works at all.

KarenK