Number 221 - October 2001

Outlook Express Antivirus Tip
e-mail from Victoria Rypkema, Tacoma Area PC User Group
To avoid spreading e-mail borne computer viruses, create a new contact in your e-mail address book with the name: !0000 with no e-mail address in the details. [Ed note: The first character is an exclamation point (!), followed by four zeroes.An ASCII sort puts it at the top of your Address Book listing. ]     To do this in Outlook Express, go to Start/Programs/Accessories/Address Book. Once the Address Book is open, click the New pull-down toolbar item, then click New Contact. In the field that says First, type in !0000 and then click OK.     This contact will then show up as your first contact in the Address Book. If a virus attempts to do a "send all" on your list, you see an error message that says:	"The Message could not be sent. One or more recipients do not have an e-mail address. Please check your Address Book and make sure all the recipients have valid e-mail addresses".     If you click on OK, the offending infected message will not be sent to anyone. The infected message will then be stored in either your "Drafts" or "Outbox" folder. You may completely delete the offending message (not just send it to the "Deleted Items" folder) by highlighting the messgage, holding down the Shift key and pressing Delete, and then confirm. This way the virus is not spread and you have been alerted so that you can apply whatever remedy the situation calls for.     Courtesy of Scotterpops at PC911
Number 221 - October 2001