Computerism ain't easy sometimes....
This is not another "cranky" rant today. Instead it's one of those areas that when dealing with the Internet and computers is just one of acceptance. Acceptance is the key to my serenity today.
Today I got 20+ rejected emails from all over the world telling me that my email didn't go thru because it contained the MYDOOM virus. The problem is.....I didn't send any of those emails and, no, I don't have the virus on my system. I've run two separate checks using the McAfee online system with DAT files updated daily and also a useful and quick little tool from, dare I say...... Microsoft. This is a handy little utility run from their website that instantly scans your computer for this particular virus. I was clean.
No, not me, but somewhere out there someone with my main [non-published] email address somewhere on his/her computer has MY DOOM. Could it be you? Probably not, but if you don't have virus protection or if you haven't updated since January 26th you might want to visit one of the sites linked above.
For the uninitiated virus worms like MY DOOM send out emails from the infected machine but the senders address is pulled from an email address somewhere on the computer files, be it the address book, or email links on saved webpages. And this worm, generates it's own email addresses and so consequently the sender isn't aware that the email is going out, and the recepient has no idea how some stranger got his address. Fun stuff.
The only bright spot, if one can call it that, of this whole episode was that the McAfee scan did reveal several "backdoor" viruses that have probably been on my computer for years. I spent several hours manually deleting the Registry Keys and files that controlled these. One of which had a "keystroke" recorder function. Don't think it was working because I haven't seen any of it's telltale characteristics, but good none the less to have it gone.
This is not another "cranky" rant today. Instead it's one of those areas that when dealing with the Internet and computers is just one of acceptance. Acceptance is the key to my serenity today.
Today I got 20+ rejected emails from all over the world telling me that my email didn't go thru because it contained the MYDOOM virus. The problem is.....I didn't send any of those emails and, no, I don't have the virus on my system. I've run two separate checks using the McAfee online system with DAT files updated daily and also a useful and quick little tool from, dare I say...... Microsoft. This is a handy little utility run from their website that instantly scans your computer for this particular virus. I was clean.
No, not me, but somewhere out there someone with my main [non-published] email address somewhere on his/her computer has MY DOOM. Could it be you? Probably not, but if you don't have virus protection or if you haven't updated since January 26th you might want to visit one of the sites linked above.
For the uninitiated virus worms like MY DOOM send out emails from the infected machine but the senders address is pulled from an email address somewhere on the computer files, be it the address book, or email links on saved webpages. And this worm, generates it's own email addresses and so consequently the sender isn't aware that the email is going out, and the recepient has no idea how some stranger got his address. Fun stuff.
The only bright spot, if one can call it that, of this whole episode was that the McAfee scan did reveal several "backdoor" viruses that have probably been on my computer for years. I spent several hours manually deleting the Registry Keys and files that controlled these. One of which had a "keystroke" recorder function. Don't think it was working because I haven't seen any of it's telltale characteristics, but good none the less to have it gone.
