Posted by spoc on June 22, 2004, at 11:57:32
In reply to Re: AAAHHHH! (long, long rant) » fallsfall, posted by Emme on June 22, 2004, at 10:50:13
Fallsfall,
Way too much, how exquisitely maddening/saddening. I hope soon "these things too shall pass." I also wanted to say that the way you presented Dee's situation sounded only like the warm concern of a friend, who was thinking about how nice it would be for her to receive the well wishes of the many people here who care about her.
Unfortunately, I too can only be of possible help with the computer related issue. Hopefully this and the other posted tips can be of assistance even beyond the current virus question, towards you and your friends protecting your equipment generally.
I wanted to mention that in addition to a virus using a friend's address book, you can also receive "undeliverable" messages as a result of spammer shenanigans. The good news is of course that in neither case do you already have a virus (your bulk mail/spam filter has probably in many cases seen through these items, and placed them there to spare you from ever seeing them). I mentioned that here, in the paragraph "Have you ever had this happen:"
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040619/msgs/358312.html
And I add my vote to the freeware already mentioned in this thread. I use Grisoft's free antivirus software myself, mainly because it takes up so little room. I really like it. And I use Spybot Search & Destroy too; but have found that freeware called Spyblaster from Wilder's software eliminates most spyware from ever downloading. The highly rated freeware firewall I use is ZoneAlarm.
The following online scanner sites may have already been posted, but for spyware there is a good one from the PestScan site, and for viruses (and maybe spyware too) there is a great one at Trend Micro called "Housecall."
All of the above should be readily found with Google, but let me know if you want the actual links.
Hoping things settle back down for you ASAP. Why do these things always seem to come in clusters!
poster:spoc
thread:358973
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040619/msgs/359035.html