North Dakota State University Extension Service - Burke County |
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Tips and Tricks For Your PC |
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February 19, 2004 Virus Hoaxes Another email virus warning I've received had a link to click on to download a file to protect your computer. In this case the file you were suppose to download actually contained a virus. When I get these types of emails I go to www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html Norton Anti-virus or vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp McAfee Anti-virus and see if this has been identified as a hoax. I've only had a couple of virus warnings that were not hoaxes and they were from the computer support department of NDSU stating that a particular virus had been found in the University system and suggested immediately updating the virus definitions of our anti-virus software instead of waiting for the next scheduled update. These virus hoaxes can be as big a problem as real viruses. If you follow the advice of the email and delete files that are necessary for your system to operate you may have to take your computer to a computer service technician to restore it. Even if you just forward it like it asks, it can cause problems. If I were to forward such a message to 100 people in the county and each of them forward it to just 10 people and those 10 forward it to 10 more, etc., etc., we could flood the mail server at our internet service provider (Northwest Communications for almost everyone in the county). Many of us would probably get the same email forwarded to us again several times. Is Outlook Express Blocking Access
to Some Message? The default security setting in Outlook Express IV blocks attachments with a wide variety of file types or extensions. The purpose of this is to help stop viruses, which is a good thing. However, it can prevent you from accessing attachments which are not viruses and which you need to open. If you have a good virus protection program which scans incoming email and you have a current subscription with up to date virus definition files, you may want to disable this feature of Outlook Express. If you do not have a virus protection program like McAfee or Norton or if your subscription is expired so your virus definitions are not current, you should leave this feature turned on. To turn off this feature, open Outlook Express, then click on "Tools", then "Options". In the "Options" window click on the "Security" tab. In the "Virus Protection" portion of the window click on the box in front of "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" to uncheck it. After turning this off any messages in your "inbox" or other folders with blocked attachments can be viewed. If you don't' have an anti-virus program, turn this off only to view a specific message attachment which your are sure does not contain a virus. Then turn it back on by clicking the box again.
URL's on Web Address "http" stands for hypertext protocol. It is important to recognize the difference between "http" and "https". A website that begins with "https" is on a secure server and all information to and from that site is encrypted and cannot be viewed if intercepted enroute. NEVER enter personal date like account numbers, credit card information or social security numbers unless the web address begins with "https"! "://" is just a separator between the protocol and the rest of the address. "www" stands for world wide web. That is just one part of the internet. Although it may not always be necessary to include it in a web address, it often is. So I recommend using it if given. "ext.nodak.edu" The ext.nodak.edu is the domain name portion of the address. Until recently, domain name extensions or endings were limited to .com, .org, .net, .edu and .gov. Dot gov and dot edu extensions were and are reserved for government and schools including elementary, secondary, college and universities. Dot com extensions are commercial or individual websites. Dot org and dot net extensions were originally intended for organizations and networks but were soon available to anyone. Recently domain name registration companies have added another capability for governments which replace .gov with state and county abbreviations like "www.state.nd.us" (State of North Dakota) or add the abbreviations like "www.agric.gov.ab.ca" (Alberta, Canada Agriculture Department) Any part of an address which follows a single /, directs you to a specific file. www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu directs your browser to the site and to a pre-designated file, usually index.htm. "www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/minot/" directs your browser to the "minot" directory or folder within the ag.ndsu.nodak.edu website. Since no actual file is specified, your browser will look for a file name "index" or "welcome" within the "minot" folder. "www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/minot/agronomic/2003/0103.htm" directs your browser to a filed called 0103.htm located in a folder named 2003, inside a folder named "agronomic" inside the "minot" folder. Because folder and file names are case sensitive and very specific, I have sometimes gotten into a website by deleting everything to the right of the dot com or dot edu to get to the homepage of the site, then following the links to the specific page I wanted. Dan Folske |
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