Beagels and bagles and Germs, oh, my

ZoneAlarm does not provide any virus protection, letty.

Yes, Joe. I know the answer to that. It is because myth has it that when one sneezes, the soul leaves the body...soooooooo. We say"bless you". and in German it's gesundheit.

Rog, I don't understand the firewall bit, nor Norton, nor nuttin' I just do what people tells me. Stoat said Zonealarm..Craven said NOT

You say No...
I say: HELP!

so, I just do nothing.

Do what folks tell, ya huh? OK ... go to the ATM, take out as much cash as you can, put it into a stamped envelope, address that envelope to:

Iimber
25....





I happen to use, and pretty much like, ZoneAlarm Pro. One of the drawbacks of it, however, is that it is sorta geeky-tweaky to set up and configure for optimal performance. Even reading through their documentation and going through the tutorial, a non-geek with little idea of how firewalls work is likely to miss stuff. ZA's online FAQ, and their own user forum, can be very helpful, though.

Now, best, of course, is a hardware firewall incorporating a NAT router with Stateful Packet Inspection, full port control, and password-protected permissions settings ... but nevermind.

uhoh, Timber. I don't remember my ATM pin...hee hee. and that's true.

I'm so busy trying to figure out AT&T, that my head sounds like a hive.

I explained to Rog in an e-mail about stuff. I think having a local ISP is sort of a fail safe.

Now, Joe. Why do we knock on wood?

Goodnight, all.

From Florida

Letty, I hope you're at least running a current resident, real-time-scan-enabled antivirus; otherwise you all too easily could find yourself knocking, banging, and pounding with bewilderment and impotent frustration, fists, wooden objects, and whatever else comes to hand, all while muttering and shouting by turns in most unladylike manner at your suddenly yuckware infested, totally uncooperative, essentially useless 'puter.

Well Letty In Scotland if you don't want something to happen you say touch wood.

Joe, touch wood? a variation on the same theme.

Timber, Thanks. I'm really going to read and reread your post and see what can be done.

Now here's a weird one: I just got an e-mail from a postmaster that says something to the affect that my mail could not be accepted because of a virus. It was to some construction company to which I have never sent nuttin' Contained a bunch of gobble-de-gook.

Don't worry too much about a firewall right now, Letty but if you don't have one, get an antivirus post-haste. There are some free ones that work OK, but the subscription-based ones from the major vendors tend to have more frequent, and more comprehensive, updates.

O.K. timber. Will do, but I'm still confused about that construction thing.

Its likely that bounceback you got had nothing to do with you or your machine; many virii will "spoof" email addys the harvest from the Addressbook of an infected machine. The virus-laden e,ail in question could well have come from anyone's machine on which your email addy was in the addressbook. Hang tight here a second ... I'll fetch you some links to free online virus scans ... just so you can be sure.

Do this one first; its a frequently updated detection/removal tool. Its very reliable, and deals with most of the newer nasties quite well. Read the instructions, of course, but its one-click simple.

Network Associate's Stinger

Then, go to either of these, or both in turn (sometimes one will catch something the other misses)

Tend PC Cillin's Housecall

Panda Free Online Virus Scan


Here's a fairly competent free antivirus you can download, if you want to. Be sure to read the documentation, and to follow the instructions, of course. Once you've downloaded and installed it, use its update feature to make sure it has the latest files before you begin to rely on it. Make sure its updated at least once a week.

Avast! Free Home Antivirus

Timber, I will certainly do as you suggest. Hope I can get through it. Thanks again, my friend.

Cool. Just lemme know, here or by PM as you prefer, if you have questions or need help with any of that.