*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of February 3, 1997 This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan focuses on Viruses and Valentines (what a strange combination)! =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Viruses and Valentines Free Book of the Week -- Internet Unleashed 1996 Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Virus info, valentines sites, y mucho mas ANSWERMAN Member web sites, daily tips, more good stuff NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Viruses and Valentines =*=*= Good news and bad news... First the good news. -.-.- Valentines -.-.- I know that St. Valentine's Day isn't until next week, but geez, why can't we start enjoying it now? For me, Valentines Day means two things: sugary candy hearts with little phrases embedded in them, and a really bad movie. Regarding the sugary hearts--you know the ones. They come about a million to a bag, and they have phrases like LUV YOU, BE MINE and YES on them. Sure, they can taste like sugar-coated chalk, but they're tradition. (Bonus! The company that makes most of these candies, Necco, is including the phrase EMAIL ME on them for the first time this year. Life is good.) And the movie? Well, my Valentine and I have another tradition -- each Valentine's Day we choose a movie that looks really, incredibly stupid and see it on the silver screen. And guess what? There are many groovy Web sites dedicated to Valentine's Day. (Treat yourself to a mouthful of candy hearts if you saw me leading up to this.) From love literature, to Valentine's Day news, to fun Web greeting cards, there are plenty of Valentines sites to get you in the spirit. You can find my collection of great Valentines sites by going to keyword AM FOCUS and clicking on the words "Valentine's Day." AOL also has a whole area dedicated to all aspects of this happy holiday -- you can get to it at keyword VALENTINES. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan's Valentines Sites Keyword VALENTINES -.-.- Viruses -.-.- Viruses are a lot less fun than Valentines. Granted, this is a grave understatement. This is like saying that jury duty is a lot less fun than a trip to Disneyland. It's a *whole lot* less fun. Viruses can be a problem for all computer users, and can be especially worrisome for Internet users. But it's easy to defend your computer against them if you are careful. A virus is a small computer program that "lives" within another program. Sort of like a flu virus can get inside of you, a computer virus can get in your computer. How does your computer get a virus? Your computer can get a virus when you run a program that is infected with it. The virus will then spread to other programs. What will a virus do to your computer? That depends on what it was programmed to do. Some viruses print weird messages on your computer screen, but nastier viruses may wipe out the files on your hard disk. Even "benign" viruses can have nasty side effects. You can only get a virus by running an infected program, with one exception (which I'll talk about in a moment). Reading a text file won't give you a virus, nor will looking at a GIF or other image file that you downloaded. Files that you download from AOL's own file areas have been checked for viruses, but that doesn't give you an excuse to not check them yourself just to be on the safe side. Who knows if files that you download from the Net have been checked? When you download files from the Internet, you have no idea where they came from, who uploaded them, or whether or not they have been virus-checked, so you need, need, need to check new software before you run it. Always download, uncompress, and check software for viruses before using it for the first time. How do you check software? With a virus-checker, of course. This is software that thoroughly examines other software for infection. You can buy commercial virus-checker software, or get free software to do the job. I'm cheap, so I go the free way. Windows users can go to keyword MCAFEE for their free software. For Mac users, I recommend a free program called Disinfectant, available from AOL's file archives. -.-.- Exceptions to the Rule -.-.- Sometimes a virus is not a virus at all. For instance, take the infamous e-mail virus. No matter what anyone may tell you, your computer can't get a virus if you simply read an e-mail message. (Two hoaxes claim that just reading a message with the words "Good Times" or "Penpal greetings" in the subject line will erase your hard drive. Impossible. You can't possibly get a computer virus just by reading an e-mail message.) Now, you CAN get a virus if you download *and run* a program that's *attached* to an e-mail message. So don't take attachments from strangers. And if you do, check them first. A unique sort of virus, Microsoft Word Macro Viruses, don't infect computer programs -- they infect documents. This is the only case I know of in which you can get a virus from something that is not a computer program. A macro virus hides in a Microsoft Word document (not Word itself) and uses Word's built-in macro programming language to distribute itself. They are a harmless but annoying macros. For free software to eliminate and protect against these viruses, go to http://microsoft.com/MSWordSupport/content/usage/macrovirus/. -.-.- Trojan Horsies -.-.- One last thing before I leave you to your virus nightmares. There's another type of nasty program called a "Trojan horse". A Trojan horse isn't a virus -- it's a program that on the outside appears to do one thing, but actually does something else. (Cool name, eh?) For instance, recently, a number of files have been circulating under the pretense of being AOL 3.5, AOL 4.0, automatic re-dialers, or some other official AOL beta software. Some of them even come with an official-looking newsletter, and are signed "Matt Converse" or "Bob Kenyon." These are also hoaxes. Most of these faux-AOL programs are designed to do the following: the program performs what is known as "key capturing," which is a fancy way of saying that it makes notes of what keys you hit and saves them to memory. The programmer expects that the victim will install the software, then immediately sign on to AOL, so that the next keystrokes will be those of the password. Once the victim has signed on, the captured keystrokes are mailed off to a mailbox that the programmer has set up to hold this information. Some of the more sophisticated versions of these programs will delete the e-mail after it's been sent. A few of the really nasty versions of these programs will do something damaging to the victim's system, ranging from infecting it with a virus, to erasing significant files. The purpose of this is to keep the victim busy trying to repair the damage while the programmer makes use of the stolen account information. If you should receive one of these files, or any file from someone that you have not asked to get a file from, don't download it! Instead, forward the letter immediately to the screen name "TOSFILES". This is the mailbox of the crack team of AOL employees who have tools to analyze the file and take appropriate action against the person who sent it. For more information about viruses and the Internet, go to keyword AM FOCUS and click on "Viruses." For still more good info, head on over to AOL's Virus Info Center keyword VIRUS. Here is are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: MCAFEE (Windows) Disinfectant (Macintosh) Word Macro Virus Eradicator AnswerMan Focus: More virus info Keyword VIRUS. =*=*= FREE BOOK OF THE WEEK =*=*= Did you know that there are free books about the Internet, on the Web? For the next several weeks, AnswerMan will be highlighting one of these online books. These books are available in digital format on the Web, in their entirety, for free. Most of these books are also available in traditional printed format, for a price. This week's pick is Internet Unleashed 1996. This enormous book, co-written by some 45+ Internet experts (including AnswerMan himself, but I'm not biased :-) has an incredible amount of information on all manner of Net-related topics. Topics include: how the Internet works, finding information, using the Internet in community and government, issues and controversies and more. To access it, go to keyword AM FOCUS and click on "Free Books" -- or click on the link below. Folks keep asking me how to download those books for reading offline. The best solution I've found is this: Windows users can use Smart Bookmarks to download the whole book for personal offline reading. (It's at keyword SMART BOOKMARKS.) I've no good answer for Mac mavens yet. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Free Books Smart Bookmarks =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every Sunday, AnswerMan hosts a live chat to close out that week's Focus topic. Here's what's coming this Sunday, February 9 at 6 PM ET: Viruses on the Internet -- We've all heard the horror stories of viruses--harmful little programs that can destroy computer data. Can your computer get a virus from the Internet? How can it get infected? Can you get a virus via e-mail? What can you do to prevent getting wiped out by a virus? Wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry? AnswerMan will answer all of these questions about computer bugs that bite, this hour. Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Feb 10 - Feb 16: MUDs and Telnet Feb 17 - Feb 23: Great web sites for Mac and Windows Feb 24 - March 2: Tax Time Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Chat and Transcripts =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved. Unlike Valentine's candy, this newsletter does not promote tooth decay. Visit your dentist regularly.