Tip O'Tex Computer Club
April 2004 Newsletter
VIRUSES!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, there's a whole bunch of new viruses going around. And believe me, they're BAD.
I've had to clean up three computers in the last 2 weeks, and one of those was so messed up that Windows had to be reinstalled, as well as several programs.
The viruses involved were "skynet" - "bagle" (sometimes called "beagle") - "sober". One computer had two of those, and the other two each had one. The computer that had two viruses took two separate sessions to get cleaned. The first session cleaned up a virus that kept AVG from running, and then with AVG updated again, it ended up with over 600 "bagle" infected files and some of those files couldn't be cleaned - had to be removed. Unfortunately, some of the files that had to be removed were important, including explorer.exe - that's the file that makes Windows work. That's why Windows had to be reinstalled. After Windows was reinstalled, all of the Critical Updates had to be downloaded and installed again.... Outlook Express had to be upgraded again.... MSWorks had to be reinstalled.
The computer got infected on March 17, because the AVG hadn't been updated since March 11. So don't think you can get away with updating once a week, or once or twice a month. No matter what your anti-virus program is, and whether it has automatic update or not, you should connect to the Internet every 2 or 3 days and try to "update" your program.
With Norton its LiveUpdate. Open Norton, click on LiveUpdate and let it do its thing. You may be getting automatic "virus definitions" but you won't automatically get any program updates, and they're important, too. Those have to be done by manually clicking on LiveUpdate.
With AVG you may have it set for automatic updates (I know I do on my computer) but if you're not online at the time it tries to do an update, you won't get it. Luckily I have cable Internet and leave my computer on all the time, so I get the automatic updates regularly. Still, once in a while I do a manual update. My AVG runs daily, and it also scans e-mail. I have yet to have any of my computers infected. Oh, once in a while I get a notice that a virus-infected e-mail has been found and cleaned, but haven't been infected.... YET. And I like to remind myself that its YET, as I'm not fond of tempting the fates.
No matter what anti-virus program you have, if you don't have "virus definitions" or a "virus database" no older than three days, you need to check for updates. If you don't know how to tell what your date is, or if you don't know how to update your program, please contact me and I'll help you through it. tipotexcc@comcast.net
Urban Legends and Chain Mail
The "urban legends" continue to flourish, as do "chain letters." Some of the legends sound so real, and you may think its important to send them along. In reality, some of them give out false information that can be more harmful than NO information.
One of the latest I've received is regarding the use of your cell phone for emergencies while you're traveling along the highways, which a lot of us do routinely, heading off for vacation or back and forth between winter and summer homes. The letter tells you that you can dial #77 in any state and get help, but that is just NOT true. That works in some states, but really only in a few of them. You can read about this (and get the REAL information) at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.seniordrivers.org/Emergencies/emergencynumbersw.cfm
That's a very long link, so don't try to type it. If you can't click on that link and get there, try going to http://urbanlegends.about.com and type in the Search line at the top: Cell #77 - then click on the Go button. You'll find it at the top of the list. After you read the e-mail that is being sent out, you'll find links to "Sources and further reading" and under that you'll see Highway Safety - Emergency Phone Numbers.
You can check out any "story" you receive that asks you to "please pass this along" and decide for yourself it you really want to do that. The one about the pink M&Ms was true several years ago, but no longer. Check that out.