Opening Email Attachments

Mustang- Please..... Never, never open E Mail attachments. Always save them to disc, and then virus scan. If they are "clean" THEN and only then, should you open them. Even if you know the sender, and she promised you her first born child.

Once, before I stopped sending attachments to people, I sent something innocuous to my son, at his office. On its way there, somehow a virus was attached, and darn near threw the office into a frenzy.

I don't know much about .eml suffixes, but I will snoop around and see if I can find out something.

My motto is, "if I didn't ask for it, I don't need it!" In fact, recently I have started to blow away ALL attachments. If I think that they are important, I will send a not to the sender to please cut and paste, and send it to me unattached!

Mustang
the PPS is a powerpoint show, you either need powerpoint or a viewer. The the .eml - gotta go look that one up.

Phoenix, really liked your comment about the 'first born.' The really coincidental thing about that is one of the senders will have a first addition to her family in about two months! (Now, that is definitely something I'd want no part of.) No more 'opening' for me.

Husker, I agree on the Power Point. Phoenix once gave the link to Microsoft's download of 'view only' to another user. Took me about six weeks to check it out, but finally did and it now allows me to view these attachments.

Thanks for your help and interest in keeping this Green Horn safe.

I'd listen to what Phoenix said for sure.

What is an .eml file?

"What is an .eml file?

An .eml file is a special file that has the .eml extension. These files contain Outlook Express e-mail, and can be opened and viewed in Outlook Express. You can open an .eml file by simply double-clicking it.
You can convert a piece of e-mail to .eml format, and store it on a floppy disk, Zip disk, CD-R disk or CD-RW disk. Once the .eml file is backed up and stored, you will never lose that piece of e-mail.
In the event you accidentally delete a piece of e-mail from Outlook Express, or if you suffer a hard drive crash, you can restore the original e-mail from the .eml file. This can be done with a procedure known as "drag and drop," which I will explain momentarily.
You can also use .eml files to move a piece of e-mail from one computer to another.
Files with the .eml extension can contain only one piece of e-mail. You cannot put several pieces of e-mail into one .eml file."

but this page says .eml's could be a virus, so I'd let the computer experts weigh in before doing anything.

Experts Exchange

Ok - here's a little info - it's coming soon as a virus near us. It will not be long until a .jpg file will be able to produce a virus. Cannot really explain it but my G-2 tells me that on pictures in the near future - we'll have to really be even more careful.

Larry--huh? That's quite a link you provided to 'Jack Danniel.' I plan to make an attempt at digesting it, but don't have the time right now. First thing in the morning, with coffee in hand, also in cup, I'll go over it and see what I can pick up. Also, I hate to admit I don't have an AV program on my computer. With all this talk of viruses (virii?), I checked out the local office supply stores and one of them has Norton at $49.95 with a $10 rebate. I know I simply HAVE to get it. I'm taking some big chances not having it on equipment which cost me big bucks.

Husker--say it isn't so. My Sis sends me volumes of pictures (.jpg), so now I'll have to be careful of those too?

Huh? It has the quoted "What is an .eml file" text that is below the link, which is what some of us were wondering.

Mustang- Get yourself a virus program IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner, and keep it up to date. I have Norton, and it's a good one. I get automatic updates every time there is a new virus defintion, which is VERY often.

Anybody who uses E Mail, and does not have a virus scan is playing with fire!

Larry, my use of the expression 'Huh?' was because of the wealth of information provided in your link. Although it states I can 'double-click' on the attachment to open it, that wasn't so for me. I guess my addled brain doesn't comprehend all this technology!

Phoenix, late last night I downloaded a 30-day free trial version of Proland's Protector Plus anti-virus software. I've never heard of it, but there are millions of things regarding computers I haven't heard about. Now I'm doubting whether this was a wise move. This was the first time in ages since I 'asked' for anything to be put on my computer, and this morning when I turned it on, there was a shortcut on my desktop not there previously--to a PORNO site. I right-clicked on the desktop, and hit delete.

At this very moment, I have charge-card in hand and am on my way to pick up the Norton program I referred to earlier. I'm fortunate in that I'm near three nation-wide office supply stores, so it's not as though I have to drive miles to get to one.

After I install Norton, should I uninstall the one I downloaded last night?

Husker is right. Images can now contain viruses. In the past a virus could fake an image extention but now real i9mages can have them.

Mustang,

If a download got a porn link to your desktop you probably have other undesireables.

You should only have one anti virus software on your computer (unless you know what you are doing) so yes, uninstall any AV programs before installing a new one.

Craven is right about uninstalling the earlier one before you install Norton. If you buy the Norton, you will have the disc, so you won't have to be connected to the internet when you are downloading.

Craven- I once had a situation where my Dell was preloaded with McAfee. It was so intertwined in the registry, that the only way that I could remove it was when I reformatted the whole hard drive.

I had written to McAfee asking them how to remove their damned program, and I got a four page single spaced set of instructions!
At that time I thought I could just "turn off" the McAfee, but that was not to be. The Norton would not load until I cleaned the whole McAfee out. What a mess!

mustang - I didn't mean to be rude - I thought maybe you had looked on the webpage but hadn't gone down far enough to see the "what is an .eml file" text.

Larry, no offense taken. I picked up what you meant. (Scary, isn't it? )

Didn't see Phoenix's post until this morning. Hate to admit I purchased McAfee yesterday. (Long story why.) It, also, was installed on my computer when I bought it. Had the free service for a year. Now I'm struggling with getting it to operate properly. Seems I have a 'problem' in trying to find it on the computer. Told all of you I'm computer IL-literate, so I'll be busy with that for a while.

Thanks for all the help.

P.S. Craven, don't know how I did it, but I found the program I downloaded the night before and found the 'uninstall' which I executed.

Oh, what a tale! Store didn't have in stock the single program of 'Virus Scan', only shrink-wrapped bundled with 'Quick Clean.' ($49.99, $29.99, respectively) CSR agreed to sell both to me for $49.99, which will be $39.99 after I send in the rebate coupon.

Followed instructions for installation--black screen with white print. Spent three hours while the program went through its paces--not once, but twice! Finally shut down the computer in frustration. Decided to contact McAfee support today. When reading the FAQ page, displaying different icons, saw I had none on my sys tray. Had to assume installation didn't take place.

Took a deep breath, inserted the CD program disk. A completely different screen from yesterday came up. Followed all prompts with the final result that my 'puter is virus free. Eureka!

When clicking on the icon, it asks if I want to install 'Personal Firewall.' Since I'm a stand-alone computer, this isn't necessary, is it? Also, I doubt if I'm going to do anything with the 'Quick Clean' program. I am paranoid about installing anything on my computer--afraid some day I may try to turn it on and get a black screen and nothing more!

Again, hopefully, the experts will weigh in, but if you connect to the internet through cable, a firewall is necessary. If you connect by dial-up connection, maybe not as necessary, but those who are wise say we all should have that protection, and I have, even when I had dial-up.

this is for all of you I am no computer guru but I can get the right answers first never check mail that you dont know the source if you need to find out right click the email and go to options at the bottom of the drop box it will open a new window at the bottom of the window on the left you wil see internet hedders here you can scroll down and see all of the info on the email to and from the person sending the info the rest is up to you to accept or delete.Second there is a program that cleans out all of the junk your computer picks up surfing the internet it is called AD-AWARE it is a free non spyware program that has been tested at my workplace it does not prevent you from getting things "virsus,trojans,autodialers" and things of that sort but it will clean them out http://lavasoft3.element5.com/ here is the link. Enjoy

Up-to-date anti-viurs, firewall, and operating system are the cornerstones of consumer computer security. No machine that connects to the internet should be lacking in any of the three. Folks LET THEMSELVES get into trouble. 98%+ of 'Net-related infestations can be attributed directly to folks who "Just didn't see the need". Whether dialup or DS3, use security ... its there, its cheap, and it helps. And keep your operating system updated.
I say often that by doing so, you may be inconvenienced by problems others are having, but you are unlikely to be part of those problems.

Also, prgrams such as AdAware and Pest Patrol can be valuable adjuncts to other security ware, but are themselves alone not adequate security.

It can be dangerous out there. Watch yourself.



timber

Guess there were too many pigeons sitting on the wires yesterday. Got absolutely no incoming emails all day. Late this morning, my inbox was swamped with them!

I'm carefully reading through all the posts, trying my best to comprehend. Re: AdAware: Will do more checking on this program. Seems I had seen discussion that it's not all that is promised. I believe I saw this on LangaList. I currently have an unopened email from them and will try to trace back to this discussion. I could very well be mistaken because if it's something I'm not familiar with, I don't pay that close attention.

Thanks to all for their help! :wink:

Today I received an e-mail from someone at @cox.net. The next e-mail I got was from someone else saying that the e-mail I received earlier had been intercepted by their server and stripped of its attachment. It didn't say that attachment had a virus but I would have to assume so. This was a first for me, I've never seen this happen before.

By the way, the earlier e-mail still had an attachment in it. It was an .exe file which I never would've opened anyway obviously, especially being from someone I'd never heard of.