ATTENTION: EVERYONE! IMPORTANT!

[browneyedgirl]

Someone has been using y E-mail Address on their PC to send Worms&Vireses. My WebTV cannot sent these things--there have been attachments&my puny patheic webTV CANNOT send(or read) attachments!

Jorg Michael got a message with my web address on it, plus an attachment. I DID NOT SEND IT. Supposedly a worm was sent on it. Someone is trying desperately to get me into trouble!

[NordicStorm]

That happens to me all the time, that my e-mail address is listed as the originating address despite the fact that I did not send the e-mail and that I'm not infected with any virus to begin with.
That's part of the design of the viruses. They pick the addresses to use, both the destination and a fake source, from the infected user's address book. It just means someone you know or have been in contact with has been infected. No one has been deliberately trying to fake your e-mail address, though.

Although I'm normally against the death penalty, I'm willing to make an exception for whatever people are creating these viruses. You have to be armed to the teeth to be online these days...

[Shurik]

Do you have his adress in your contact list (if you have one on WebTV, I don't know exactly how it works)? If yes - than you have nothing to do with or about it, AFAIK most worms and viruses spread this way, someone sent it to you, and the worm sends itself to everyone in your contact list.
Internet is not a safe place these days ...

[Shurik]

NordicStorm wrote:
That happens to me all the time, that my e-mail address is listed as the originating address despite the fact that I did not send the e-mail and that I'm not infected with any virus to begin with.
That's part of the design of the viruses. They pick the addresses to use, both the destination and a fake source, from the infected user's address book. It just means someone you know or have been in contact with has been infected. No one has been deliberately trying to fake your e-mail address, though.

Although I'm normally against the death penalty, I'm willing to make an exception for whatever people are creating these viruses. You have to be armed to the teeth to be online these days...

You want something funny? I reinstalled Windows a month ago and my PC goes online when it turns on. Within 5 minutes after reinstall I get a window with message "You PC will be shut down in a minute" and countdown in it and it indeed shut down after a minute. It was a virus, I guess ... The moral of the story - never go online without antivirus and firewall ...

[Moony]

Shurik wrote: I reinstalled Windows a month ago and my PC goes online when it turns on. Within 5 minutes after reinstall I get a window with message "You PC will be shut down in a minute" and countdown in it and it indeed shut down after a minute. It was a virus, I guess ... The moral of the story - never go online without antivirus and firewall ...

Happened to me once as well. I think it was Lovsan. Nowadays I have all the software I need (firewall and antivirus first and foremost) burned on a CD in case of a Windows reinstall and plug the network cable in only after I've got them installed.

Furthermore, I can't believe my ears when I hear people say that they don't have a firewall nor any antivirus software and claim that they've never had any problems. Maybe they've been spared of the more nastier stuff, but their computer is probably a complete zombie by now without them even noticing it.

[StratoHeart]

Too bad. You better think about to change your OS, guys, the VirWindows era is over.

Maybe you already know that, but take a friendly advice: check any Linux version, use it for a while, try to understand it and you will see how BugWindows is a shit. I use it (Kurumin Linux) and I can say that I'll never go back to the torture install/antiviruscheking/format/reinstall/antiviruschecking/format/reinstalll... BAH!!

When people say that don't use antviruses or firewall and have no problems, surely thy are talking about Linux. Because that's my case, Moony, and my pc is not a zombie!

[NordicStorm]

The Windows era is over? You're kidding, right? Windows has won already, contrary to what Mac and Linux users may think. Sure, there's a market for "niche OSs", but as far as the average user is concerned...Windows it is.

[StratoHeart]

Well, maybe I did overstate it, it's not over... yet. Matter of time.
Just check it out and you will see what I'm talking about. It's free, btw.

[Reaper]

Shurik wrote:
The moral of the story - never go online without antivirus and firewall ...

Also it's a good ideea to periodicaly check windowsupdate.microsoft.com to get the latest security updates, (Windows is full of security holes that can be exploited in the interest of a virus/hacker etc. ), this will patch up some of the problems but considering that new vulnerabilities are found from day to day you'd better get a more reliable OS. Or you could make a multiboot system, with Windows for general use and Linux for your online work, that way everybody's happy .

[MAJINDIEGO]

Moony wrote:
Furthermore, I can't believe my ears when I hear people say that they don't have a firewall nor any antivirus software and claim that they've never had any problems.

that´s my case!
and yeah, people have received an e-mail containing a virus, which was sent by my e-mail adress, although i did not such a thing...
what tha f*!

[streakchic]

NordicStorm wrote:
You have to be armed to the teeth to be online these days...

You're right about that. It's difficult to keep a computer running well unless you have a fair amount of software to protect you, but even then sometimes that fails as well. I recomend if you use Windows to keep it updated and to keep a firewall enabled and an anti virus as well. But I can already see that's been recomened.

[Shurik]

Linux and other Unix-like OSes are not for ordinary user, who needs his PC for surfing the net, using Office, playing music and movies and playing games. Linux is for computer geeks and I am not one of those and never will be and I'm satisfied with Windows XP home edition that I have for 2 years now ... Sure, it requiers reinstall now and then, but it's nothing comparing to problems I will have if I'll switch to Linux (it doesn't support hebrew language fonts, and I need them, because I live in Israel) ...

So, Linuxoids, halt your propaganda. Resistance is futile

[cliff]

Moony wrote:
Happened to me once as well. I think it was Lovsan.

+1

Actually few months ago, there was a virus which was really similar to Lovsan (baed on DoS using RPC protocol), and even more powerful.
It was fun to get all these SMS from my friends "help Doctor !!! I have big pbms my computer"

Furthermore, I can't believe my ears when I hear people say that they don't have a firewall nor any antivirus software and claim that they've never had any problems. Maybe they've been spared of the more nastier stuff, but their computer is probably a complete zombie by now without them even noticing it.

Indeed.
I guess they have viruses or trojans without even knowing about it.
You know, some sort of sleeping trojans who use your computer as a STMP relay, or who steals your files or passwords.
(ah... this ICQ 2001b ! )

[cliff]

Shurik wrote:
Linux and other Unix-like OSes are not for ordinary user, who needs his PC for surfing the net, using Office, playing music and movies and playing games. (...)
So, Linuxoids, halt your propaganda. Resistance is futile

I agree with you.

Lot of pp install Linux and repeat all the time "pfff. Windows sucks !!! Linux rules !". Why ? Just because it's "hip" to use Linux. You know... all these 15 years old kids who pretend to be great hackers just because they can edit the /etc/passwd file

But I can tell you, Linux is a hell of crap system as a multimedia workstation.
Of course, things are doing better and better (because the developpers seems to get familiar with hardware as well as security routines) but the different distributions and versions of Linux that I used were horrible. For exemple, the computer freezed if I moved the multimedia software window.
Linux is based on Unix and its structure is maintly based on security. not on multimedias and stuffs.
I think Linux (and other Unix based plateforms) is a great system for a server, but it is not good at all for a "everyone" use.

I really don't understand why all these stupid people always repeat "Microsoft sucks !". Of course in a question of security Microsoft products aren't the best, but it's up to the people to get the rules and protect their computer by themselves (antivirus and a firewall aren't an extra cost). But in a question of multimedias, friendly-use and reliability, there is nothing to say, XP rocks !!!

Just one thing that I love about Linux :
it's the ability to watch DVD with a GNU software called "VLC". I also use the Windows version, and I can tell you, it is a thousand times better than PowerDVD !! And you can also use it as a DivX converter, but I didn't tell

[NordicStorm]

Personally I'm going back to my Amiga. Sure, I won't be able to connect to the web with it (I lack software and equipment), but that's what makes it hackerproof

[Lightyear]

That is currently going on with some of my friends, they send me a normal email and I read it, but about 5 minutes after that I get another email that claims to be from them but has a worm/virus in it.
I would like to know what worm that is because so far it's getting around Norton.

I know very FEW people here who have firewalls or anti-virus software, that's why everybody get messed up when there is a new worm like Sasser for example.

[StratoHeart]

cliff wrote:

Shurik wrote:
Linux and other Unix-like OSes are not for ordinary user, who needs his PC for surfing the net, using Office, playing music and movies and playing games. (...)
So, Linuxoids, halt your propaganda. Resistance is futile

I agree with you.

Lot of pp install Linux and repeat all the time "pfff. Windows sucks !!! Linux rules !". Why ? Just because it's "hip" to use Linux. You know... all these 15 years old kids who pretend to be great hackers just because they can edit the /etc/passwd file

But I can tell you, Linux is a hell of crap system as a multimedia workstation.
Of course, things are doing better and better (because the developpers seems to get familiar with hardware as well as security routines) but the different distributions and versions of Linux that I used were horrible. For exemple, the computer freezed if I moved the multimedia software window.
Linux is based on Unix and its structure is maintly based on security. not on multimedias and stuffs.
I think Linux (and other Unix based plateforms) is a great system for a server, but it is not good at all for a "everyone" use.

I really don't understand why all these stupid people always repeat "Microsoft sucks !". Of course in a question of security Microsoft products aren't the best, but it's up to the people to get the rules and protect their computer by themselves (antivirus and a firewall aren't an extra cost). But in a question of multimedias, friendly-use and reliability, there is nothing to say, XP rocks !!!

Just one thing that I love about Linux :
it's the ability to watch DVD with a GNU software called "VLC". I also use the Windows version, and I can tell you, it is a thousand times better than PowerDVD !! And you can also use it as a DivX converter, but I didn't tell

Ok, maybe you did call me a stupid, but I only tried to help. Really. This kind of mentality comes from stone age (Linux is not for ordinary users), but, man, you are dead wrong - because I am a "ordinary" user, and I do all I want: play music and movies, projects to the university, use "office", anything. The difference: I don't need to reinstall my OS every month. I'll not waste my time with details, statistics or something, because you have your opinion and preferences, if you really think Windows rocks and don't want to change, to me is ok, man. Why would I disagree? It's not a resistance ( ), you can do what you want. But it's sad to see you crying about viruses and bugs, and still thinking: "we are independents, because we can protect our computers by ouselves". As I said, I tried to help.

Some old paradigms are really hard to break, but if you want so, you can do it. Just answer me one thing: how much users here have his own Windows license? How much did you pay for that?

[NordicStorm]

Heck, former software giant Corel nearly killed themselves with their Linux distribution.

[Twilightsymphony]

Mac OSX is also Unix based and does very well with all kinds of tasks. And fortunately i dont have to learn anything console related or stuff, because i suck at this. Must be the reason why i never managed to install Linux

Personally i think that Linux is way overrated, but because of the Unix base there were many very useful linux programs also released for OS X which makes it way more versatile than the old Mac OS.

Well, I never had problems with any virus or trojan, so everything is fine for me. Mainy because it isnt worthwhile to program viruses for an OS with 3 % market share

Most users will do well with Windows 2000/XP which really has become a good system to work with... if there isnt a Mac around

[streakchic]

I don't know how much it helps, but if you are using Windows XP, it comes with a firewall. I enabled the firewall on it when I was getting my computer set up just recently because I use DSL and had to have time to set up my security software and didn't want anything to happen in the meantime. So if you need something temporary and are using Windows XP, either Home Edition or Professional it comes with a firewall. I'm not sure if everyone here already knew that though.

[theflyingfinn]

I think you're all very mean, turning brownie's cute conspiracy theory topic into a technical OS lecture... No wonder she doesn't post here anymore!

[browneyedgirl]

theflyingfinn wrote:
I think you're all very mean, turning brownie's cute conspiracy theory topic into a technical OS lecture... No wonder she doesn't post here anymore!

RELAX!
I find all this very educational! I've learned alot from it!

[theflyingfinn]

Is that so? Then tell me, is there a version of Windows or Linux installed in your WebTV? I really don't know how it works...