"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
"madgardener" wrote in message
...

yep, but I WILL find the proper program and clean this machine.

Good idea. In terms of program which use the smallest amount of resources
all day long, your best bet is just a plain vanilla anti-virus product,
not one of the all-in-one security suites. I use Norton Anti-Virus because
my company wants me to. But, lots of people are happy with a free program
called AVG - search for it. Get it. Read the instructions for anything you
don't understand and make sure it's working.
I HAVE AVG, it runs automatically, updates all the time and is the reason my
e-mails take so long to come in and go out because it's searching for
viruses. I've had AVG now for almost 3 years...............

For spyware, you should be using two programs which only run when you tell
them to: Spybot and Adaware. They're both free. Sometimes one catches a
nasty that the other one missed, hence the reason for both. After they do
their job, you shut them off like any other software.

I have both of those and ran them last night and caught spyware but no
viruses. I've had those programs for over 4 years............upgrade them
all the time and run it constantly.

Also, to for some fantastic help with cleaning up your current problems,
go to www.securitytango.com. Written by a couple of administrators from
the Univeristy of Rochester IT department, it's helped hundreds of people.
It's quite involved, but when you're done, you'll have a clean machine.

going there now. thanks Doug.

Finally, do the following with one of the setting in Outlook Express:
Click Tools, Options, Send. In the middle is the sentence "Automatically
put people I reply to in my address book". Turn that option OFF, and don't
ever turn it on. Leaving it turned on means that even when you reply to
people you might never correspond with again, they are added to your
address book. Then, when your computer gets infected with something that
replicates itself to everyone in your address book, it spreads to people
who have no idea who you are. If you want people in your address book, add
them manually, with intent, when you're sure they're people who really
need to be there.

never been on. I manually add addresses now since coming to the newsgroup
over 8 years ago.
maddie