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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Diabetes / October 2003OT: Why do you open?
The current crop of email is a nuisance. IS IT ACTUALLY DANGEROUS if it isn't opened? I don't have enough computer knowledge to answer that. But in the last 13 years, since I got my first computer, I've never had damage from a worm or virus (just worried a lot). I've also never opened an attachment from a source I didn't know (nor a lot of attachments from people I did know - and whose humor I don't share). What can hurt my system if nothing is opened? Nan, Type 2 since 1990 or so. > The current crop of email is a nuisance. IS IT ACTUALLY DANGEROUS if it isn't > opened? I don't have enough computer knowledge to answer that. But in the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > What can hurt my system if nothing is opened? > Nan, Type 2 since 1990 or so. The danger is to the network as a whole. People take for granted that they should pay 40 - 60 bucks for broadband. Don't count on it forever if nothing is done to slow this sort of mischief.  SignatureRonnie Ruff So shines a good deed in a weary world. --Willy Wonka-- I pray for the power. To turn it around. I'm too old to die young. And too young to die now. Warren Zevon 1980 ---------------------------------------------- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ronnie_in_dc >>The current crop of email is a nuisance. IS IT ACTUALLY DANGEROUS if it isn't >>opened? I don't have enough computer knowledge to answer that. But in the [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > should pay 40 - 60 bucks for broadband. Don't count on it forever if > nothing is done to slow this sort of mischief. My (private) server has received over 1600 if these files today. The peak was over 400 per hour. Annoying, but easy to clean with an awk script. Add to that a DDoS attack with ICMP pings arriving at 1-15/second, interspersed with Port 445 probes from a dialup just outside of Mableton, GA. Coincidental? A good hardware firewall helps. If you don't at least have a router with NAT, make sure you have a software firewall like Zone Alarm. Jim > My (private) server has received over 1600 if these files today. The > peak was over 400 per hour. Annoying, but easy to clean with an awk script. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > A good hardware firewall helps. If you don't at least have a router with > NAT, make sure you have a software firewall like Zone Alarm. On the enterprise end the costs of this type of activity are in the millions of dollars. It will be passed on. Linux has a confiurable firewall built in, Various GUIs are available to make it an easy chore.. New and bigger email servers, bigger pipes and IRTs and enterprise firewalls all add up in the long run. SignatureRonnie Ruff So shines a good deed in a weary world. --Willy Wonka-- I pray for the power. To turn it around. I'm too old to die young. And too young to die now. Warren Zevon 1980 ---------------------------------------------- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ronnie_in_dc >My (private) server has received over 1600 if these files today. The >peak was over 400 per hour. Annoying, but easy to clean with an awk script. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >A good hardware firewall helps. If you don't at least have a router with >NAT, make sure you have a software firewall like Zone Alarm. A router is the best bet to stop those pesky incoming ICMP packets. ZAP will stop them, but it still requires your CPU to handle the mess. A router can handle most junk far better than your pc can. >> The current crop of email is a nuisance. IS IT ACTUALLY DANGEROUS if it isn't >> opened? I don't have enough computer knowledge to answer that. But in the [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >should pay 40 - 60 bucks for broadband. Don't count on it forever if >nothing is done to slow this sort of mischief. I am have some thoughts like you. Very slow today. My e-mail account received 141 virus like post this AM. What worries is one of my other accounts never used on the internet received two. Some of this junk is not from the address books. Legislation is coming and the more screwed things get the sooner we will get action. Guy I still don't know whether or not my system, personally, is in any danger. I do understand the danger to the economy as a whole. Waste of time, money and since not all employees are canny, or suspicious, I can see business damage. If there were anything I could do - I would. These nuisances I can't even forward to AOLs TosSpam since you have to "read" it to forward it. And I won't read the junk. I just thought I'd ask you experts about me personally. I never had a computer until I was 60. I use one in the tax business but I've enough to do dealing with the Internal Revenue Code and the idiotic California version. I decided that my office would hire computer knowledge and I'd stick to taxes..... Nan, Type 2. Nan, Type 2 I don't know either. My ISP filters for spam/virus and I have AVG 7.0, but I still have no idea if my computer is at risk or not. Running Windows 98. Is it just an XP problem? Is there something else I need to be doing? -- Cheri > I still don't know whether or not my system, personally, is in any danger. > I do understand the danger to the economy as a whole. Waste of time, money and [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Nan, Type 2 > I don't know either. My ISP filters for spam/virus and I have AVG 7.0, > but I still have no idea if my computer is at risk or not. Running > Windows 98. Is it just an XP problem? Is there something else I need to > be doing? Your computer is always at risk. Yours is at a disadvantage just because you are running Win98. The Fat32 file system is not as secure as NTFS found in Windows 2000 or XP. What I am trying to say is there is always risk, how much is acceptable to us is the question we all have to ask selves SignatureRonnie Ruff So shines a good deed in a weary world. --Willy Wonka-- I pray for the power. To turn it around. I'm too old to die young. And too young to die now. Warren Zevon 1980 ---------------------------------------------- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ronnie_in_dc > > I don't know either. My ISP filters for spam/virus and I have AVG 7.0, > > but I still have no idea if my computer is at risk or not. Running [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > -- > Ronnie Ruff I still run Win 98 at work. Pick up a free firewall program like ZoneAlarm, especially if you have a faster connection than dial-up. Even if you only have dial-up and something gets past your anti-virus program, the firewall stands a good chance of stopping a worm or trojan from dialing out, and at the same time letting you know about it. Dennis (Type 2) > I still run Win 98 at work. Sorry to hear that :-) SignatureRonnie Ruff So shines a good deed in a weary world. --Willy Wonka-- I pray for the power. To turn it around. I'm too old to die young. And too young to die now. Warren Zevon 1980 ---------------------------------------------- http://www.livejournal.com/users/ronnie_in_dc >I still run Win 98 at work. Pick up a free firewall program like >ZoneAlarm, especially if you have a faster connection than dial-up. Even >if you only have dial-up and something gets past your anti-virus >program, the firewall stands a good chance of stopping a worm or trojan >from dialing out, and at the same time letting you know about it. AV will not stop worms or trojans. Modern firewalls like Sygate or ZA may not work well on older Win98 systems. They require huge amounts of RAM and a fast processor. Or, they may work to a point where they eat up resources to the point of making the pc useless. If your system is old, just look into getting a new Dell. Desktops today are dirt cheap, and they all come with XPH installed. > >I still run Win 98 at work. Pick up a free firewall program like > >ZoneAlarm, especially if you have a faster connection than dial-up. Even [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > system is old, just look into getting a new Dell. Desktops today are > dirt cheap, and they all come with XPH installed. Ronnie & Sickly: They are both pathetic 400 mhz Celeron II machines, but I put 256 mb ram in the one I use compared to 64 mb in my boss's. They are mostly used for routine office programs. I wouldn't let my boss touch a Win XP, I spend enough time every day fixing up the one he has. ;-). I am paranoid about backups and have double redundancy for them on zip drives and CD's. I regularly update and check my anti-virus, firewall and system software, and nothing has got through in five years except a fried motherboard on the other machine. He didn't want to spend the money on better surge protection for his computer (oh, well!). They are networked to share the internet, but I won't let his computer have access to mine, or even share printers. There is no justification in our small office for anything better. Sigh. I'll just plod along until they blow up or one of his nephews builds a newer one dirt cheap for their side hobbies. ;-)) Dennis (Type 2) -- "We can't help it. We're men" The Red Green Show. > These nuisances I can't even >forward to AOLs TosSpam since you have to "read" it to forward it. And I >won't >read the junk. No you don't. What version are you on? Both 8 and 9 have a way to send a notice to TOS while the email is still unopened but 9 is a LOT better at Spam control. It handles mail differently but now that I am used to it I love it. Deb > I still don't know whether or not my system, personally, is in any danger. > I do understand the danger to the economy as a whole. Waste of time, money and [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Nan, Type 2 Hi there Nan, Your policy of not opening any attachments from unknown or unwelcome sources does provide you with some measure of protection. However, there are worms that get in through various ports if you don't have a firewall installed. And an email from someone you consider a friend can have a virus in it, unbeknown to you or the sender, if they don't know they have a virus. Or some viruses and worms use the senders address book and send false emails to the unsuspecting friends of the infected user. Trojens can slip in from some sites. And so on. I have even had an email once that opened as soon as I downloaded it, and connected itself to the internet, nasty little beast. My virus scanner caught it, adn no harm was done, but the only way I could close the internet connection was to turn the computer off! Weird. So if you don't have a virus scanner or a firewall installed, now is the time to get one. There are highly regarded, reputable firms that provide free programs to private users, that are very good. Additionally, there are free programs that will allow you to preview all mail before you download it, and others that will remove "spyware", thus hopefully lowering the number of spams etc sent to you. Microsoft is the most popular target for most hackers etc, but even less popular systems are not immune from some attacks that specifically target those systems. Such attacks are definitely on the increase. Many of them harvest targets from newsgroups like this one. Certainly the latest one that purports to be an upgrade or similar from Microsoft does this. So do think about upgrading your computer's security if you haven't already done so. My gripe at the moment is the sheer volume of the latest worm. As I expected, it totally filled my ISP mailbox last night while I slept, making it impossible for any legitimate emails to get through until I cleared it. It's very aggravating. The input slowed down today, but picked up again as people on the other side of the world came on line. Sigh. So do be careful, Annette >I still don't know whether or not my system, personally, is in any danger. >I do understand the danger to the economy as a whole. Waste of time, money and [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >forward to AOLs TosSpam since you have to "read" it to forward it. And I won't >read the junk. really? non aol email software will allow you to forward it without reading it. Mack Type 1 since 1975 http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org http://www.insulin-pumpers.org In tribute to the United States of America and the State of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and terrorism. >I just thought I'd ask you experts about me > personally. I never had a computer until I was 60. I use one in the tax [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >Nan, Type 2 > really? non aol email software will allow you to forward it without > reading it. Some will, some won't. Those that will are perhaps responsible for some of the $%^&#$%$%^*$%^& ones where you have to scroll past twelve sets of headers to get to the hoax at the bottom. SignatureWes Groleau ----------- I've been framed! ... http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html >What can hurt my system if nothing is opened? Lately I have had a rash of self downloading things. I will be going along reading my mail or anything else that has me online and something will start downloading all by itself. And you can't stop it short of an emergency shutdown. I have been told it is happening to others so don't feel safe simply computing smart - the idiots are getting smarter. Deb >Lately I have had a rash of self downloading things. I will be going along >reading my mail or anything else that has me online and something will start >downloading all by itself. And you can't stop it short of an emergency >shutdown. I have been told it is happening to others so don't feel safe simply >computing smart - the idiots are getting smarter. I've had maybe a half dozen of the things in the last day that start downloading something - but my system (Earthlink) alerts me that it is happening and gives me the opportunity to cancel. I don't know if AOL has an option for similar alerts or not. I've easily had a hundred times as many SWEN.A worms. Is there a message referring to Updates are downloading, then Updates are ready to install? If so, It could be your OS downloading updates automatically. I know Windows 2000 and WinXP both do it, since you didn't mention any dialog windows or what OS, it's a little difficult to dx the problem... (Kind of like telling a Doc you pee a lot and no other info and askin if you're diabetic) ;-) >>Lately I have had a rash of self downloading things. I will be going along >>reading my mail or anything else that has me online and something will start [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > >I've easily had a hundred times as many SWEN.A worms. Diabetics are sweet people! PS trade hotmail for jomama for e-mail >The current crop of email is a nuisance. IS IT ACTUALLY DANGEROUS if it isn't >opened? I don't have enough computer knowledge to answer that. But in the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >What can hurt my system if nothing is opened? >Nan, Type 2 since 1990 or so. if you do not open the email it will not infect your system. here's the kicker, if you use an email program that has the auto preview feature turned on, it is the same as opening the email. Never use that feature. Also keeping a current anti virus program that scans incoming AND outgoing email updated and running at all times will greatly reduce your risk. Then, even if you are using a dial up account, using a firewall like zone alarm pro 4 and turning on it's mail safe feature will add even more security. Zone Alarm also has a free version you can download from the net. Mack Type 1 since 1975 http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org http://www.insulin-pumpers.org In tribute to the United States of America and the State of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and terrorism. |
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