OT Viruses

The frequency of emails with viruses arriving on my PC has risen
sharply in the last couple of months (nearly all called W32sober,
though they are beginning to make me less than sober).

Getting them in and waiting while Norton does its thing is practically
doubling my online dialup time.

Am I alone or is this general?

Sorry OT but ...

-----------------------------
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 01 52.2 E 0 47 21.1
-----------------------------

In ,
Martin Frey typed:
The frequency of emails with viruses arriving on my PC has risen
sharply in the last couple of months (nearly all called W32sober,
though they are beginning to make melessthansober.

Getting them in and waiting while Norton does its thing is practically
doubling my online dialup time.

Am I alone or is this general?


I have a "public" email address that appears on a few websites. Some days
around 200 spams and virus laden attachments can arrive to that address. My
solution was to take out a SpamCop subscription. For around 20 UKP per year
you get spam and virus filtering before the stuff ever gets to your POP3
mailbox. For me, leakage through the SpamCop system is 2-3 emails per day,
which Norton deals with happily.

Jo

Jo wrote:
In ,
Martin Frey typed:

The frequency of emails with viruses arriving on my PC has risen
sharply in the last couple of months (nearly all called W32sober,
though they are beginning to make melessthansober.

Getting them in and waiting while Norton does its thing is practically
doubling my online dialup time.

Am I alone or is this general?



I have a "public" email address that appears on a few websites. Some days
around 200 spams and virus laden attachments can arrive to that address. My
solution was to take out a SpamCop subscription. For around 20 UKP per year
you get spam and virus filtering before the stuff ever gets to your POP3
mailbox. For me, leakage through the SpamCop system is 2-3 emails per day,
which Norton deals with happily.

Jo


My ISP (BTconnect) tags many of the 50+ mails I get each day with
*SPAM?* and Thunderbird is trained to zap various others, but I'm
still not satisfied.

I had already started learning Java and then found the JavaMail
package, so wrote a quick&dirty program to locate the tagged mails on
the POP3 server and delete them before downloading. The ISP tagging
seems very accurate so I'm happy to zap them without seeing them
first. One day I might make it smarter to get rid of those with
keywords like Rolex...

(Am I going to regret this?) If anyone wants a copy I could make it
available for free, at your own risk etc. You might have to install
the Java runtime though, and it does have to be POP3, not webmail.

JK
(drop the "notreally" for mailed replies - and don't put *SPAM?* in
the subject!!!)

In ,
John Knight typed:

(Am I going to regret this?) If anyone wants a copy I could make it
available for free, at your own risk etc. You might have to install
the Java runtime though, and it does have to be POP3, not webmail.


The advantage of the SpamCop solution is that the crap is trapped *before*
it gets to your POP3 box and so no further action, such as deleting them, is
required. And, of course, they don't have to be downloaded to be tagged or
filtered. SpamCop retains the intercepted messages for a few weeks before
binning them, just in case you want to check them.

Jo

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:17:41 +0000, Martin Frey
wrote:

The frequency of emails with viruses arriving on my PC has risen
sharply in the last couple of months (nearly all called W32sober,
though they are beginning to make me less than sober).

Getting them in and waiting while Norton does its thing is practically
doubling my online dialup time.

Am I alone or is this general?

Sorry OT but ...


Qurb (www.qurb.com). Works for me ;-)

I have a number of email accounts dotted around the place. Some get
hit wth viruses more often than others. Sometimes I get messages
telling me that emails that I've sent (only haven't!) couldn't be
delivered - despite having a fully up to date virus checker, firewall
and frequently run spyware remover.

A while back I kept getting a burst of emails from odd sources such as
NASA! I think it's a common, albeit annoying, problem Martin!

--
Pete
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk

Pete Lawrence wrote:

A while back I kept getting a burst of emails from odd sources such as
NASA! I think it's a common, albeit annoying, problem Martin!

I know its common - had infected emails coming in for years but the
frequency of late has risen sharply and I wondered if this increase
was just my luck of the draw or general.

-----------------------------
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 01 52.2 E 0 47 21.1
-----------------------------

PS Qurb costs money - isn't that cheating?

-----------------------------
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 01 52.2 E 0 47 21.1
-----------------------------

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 14:20:12 +0000, Martin Frey
wrote:

PS Qurb costs money - isn't that cheating?

Not when it works ;-) !

--
Pete
http://www.digitalsky.org.uk

PS Qurb costs money - isn't that cheating?

Mailwasher is still free I think for one email address.

Graeme



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.817 / Virus Database: 555 - Release Date: 15/12/2004

My ISP has an optional and powerful free spam screening service. I back
it up with e-mail scanning with my firewall and antivirus software. A
virus notice simply appears as a harmless 2 line e-mail. The stinking
pile of spam goes into a large folder (1000 spams) at my ISP in case I
want to check for real mails.

I also run (constantly-updated) Adaware and Spybot daily to ensure I'm
not infested with tracking bugs.

Isn't it your ISP's responsibility to block potentially harmful and
time-wasting spam? If all ISPs did so there would be very little spam.

The truly paranoid might consider that the spammers are now offering
anti-spam software.

Chris.B