My computer crashed today.

First thought is, "This can't be happening to me"! In my effort to prove that reasoning correct, I reboot. First line of defense. Hmm. Still no response.

Oh no! What now? What will I do without my computer?

I call our computer techie. He tells me how to try one more thing. He adds to *cross my fingers.*

That *one more thing* does no good. Neither does crossing my fingers.

Into car, I load that sorry-looking computer while cursing it! Hi, ho, it's off to techie's office we go.

My husband comes home from work. Trying to put myself in a cheerful mood doesn't work. As I explain what's happened, I can hear him thinking, "Oh, geez, is she a mess"!

I realize how much a part of my life my computer has become. I can't live without my computer!

What do I do now? Not sure. What can I do now? Nothing. Got to face fact my computer's not waiting for me in next room! Oh, no, it is gone.

Maybe I'll get a good sleep tonight. But then I'll only have to awake in morning and remember I don't have my computer! I'm not looking forward to that.

Uh, oh. I can't sleep. Wish I was on internet. Wonder how long it'll take to get my computer back?

What normally happens is a subscriber's system is infected without them even realizing it. Their email program sends out emails to everyone in their address book without them knowing.

When I get an email that is infected, my anti-virus program, Norton Anti Virus 2002 which I have used for many years, intercepts it and gives me some options to either delete or quarantine.

The regular viruses that I see attached to these emails are:

W32.Badtrans.B@mm W32.Badtrans@mm.enc W95.Hybris.worm W32.Magistr.24876@mm W32.Sircam.Worm@mm

There are other variations of above and a couple other different ones that I receive regularly.

If there is any one thing that you should do if you spend any amount of time on Net and send and receive email on a regular basis is make sure that you have a good anti- virus program. You also have to make sure that you keep it up to date at all times. That is one of reasons that I like Norton, since it automatically updates and keeps me current with protection against latest viruses. I am not a distributor for Norton but I highly recommend it to anyone that asks me. It is not expensive. Their web site is at: http://www.symantec.com/

The important thing to remember is that you can have an active virus infection and not even know it. If you are trying to run an online business and your potential customers are getting virus attachments with email you are sending them, they probably won't be customers for too long.

With many email viruses now active around Net, you should also make it your practice not to open any attachments to an email if you don't know who it is from. Most of email viruses become active when you open attachment. But again to be totally safe you should have a good anti-virus program on your system. You could very well get an infected email attachment on an email from someone you do know since they might not be aware that they are transmitting it. An anti-virus program will give you protection you need.

The Email Hoax Problem