By all accounts we can expect a blizzard of computer viruses in the next two weeks or so... many of which replicate themselves via the address book.

Earn yourself a pat on the head by deleting all addresses which you do not need just in case you open an unsolicited e-mailed virus by mistake. I was amazed at how many addresses had been added to my address book automatically after replying to enquiries.

I'm not a computer person so if anyone has any similar housekeeping tips,please feel free to add to the one above.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), December 14, 1999

Answers

I still use my crappy old version of Eudora, and I don't keep an address book! I started to use Outlook but gave it up once the Outlook-opportunistic viruses started rearing their heads. They'll have to find some other way to get me!

(Of course my older version of Eudora is not Y2K compliant...but that's another issue entirely!)

-- Ludi (ludi@rollin.com), December 14, 1999.

If you aren't running a virus scanner, and can't afford to shell out bucks for one, here is a nice one that you can download for free..... It does real time and e-mail, and they update the library about once a week or if there is a new threat....go to downloads and click on inoculate IT personal edition.. you'll have to register..

http://www.cai.com/

-- CT (ct@no.yr), December 14, 1999.

I run Netscape 5.0 [the one before AohelL got it. I keep the Java turned off...have two anti-viral softwares running, one which monitors online pages and such. My Email is onlinr, so therefore my addy book is saved as text on my comp. I delete anything that comes to me from someone I do not know or has the letters 'FWD' in the line. Also, if I get one that has an 'RE:', I dump it as well...unless the 'RE:' is from something I know I sent. Anything I download gets put into a shell and scanned six ways to Sunday...then I open it varefully and watch. I keep back-ups of EVERYTHING, including my bookmarks.

First sign of trouble, I unplug to stop the disk...stick in my restore CD and reformatt everything...can put this system back together in an hour.

-- Satanta (ParanoidAndProud@myDesk.com), December 15, 1999.

LOL Satanta, You're more paranoid than I am, altho, I take everything to a backup HD, then tear it apart :-) I get a lot of e-mails, FWD's, and RE's from a major corp, and they have had big problems from the latest round of viruses.... down 1 whole day, and 2 other times this month... so far :-) Even those idiots over at Debuncker weren't much of a problem, altho, they did try :-) but, geezz... reformat, resection, reload?... that might be a bit much....

-- CT (ct@no.yr), December 15, 1999.