VIRUS ALERTT Copyright 1999,2000,2001 Gene's Computer Outlet, Frazer, Pa Virus' are created. They do not just grow in a sick computer as many think. They are created by educated and fustrated programmers with too much time on their hands as well as computer hackers. They are placed into email attachments as well as being circulated on manufacturers disks. They are spread by unaware users either on disks or by email. Infections spread unknowingly through loaned driver disks and documents. Virus' are intended to show weak software, according to hackers that have been caught. We have even found them on new formatted floppy disks in a sealed box. It is up to you to gain control of this serious problem. Sharing software with friends is the most common way a virus is circulated. Your friend may not even know it.. It is now necessary to either scan for virus or reformat /U any disks you purchase, because they are coming thru on these new disks. New Programs from superstores (floppies) have been found to contain virus because they accept returns and these stores can easily reseal them. This does not happen with CD's.. We are finding many computers that come in for service with a virus. The customer many times doesn't even know he has a virus. We are forced to check all computers that come in so we don't spread the virus from here. Some times, a computer comes in with what is thought to be a hardware problem, but the problem is actually a virus causing hardware to fail. Because of the question of where virus come from, our disks are write protected and methodically scanned on a regular basis. We do not intend on being one to spread these virus. We now find many computers with virus' on them that also have virus protection already installed. There may be no indication of any virus. Virus protection must be kept up to date more than ever. We even find more than one virus on some computers at a time. . Unless you are willing to keep your virus program updated, you are just as open to any virus as not even having protection. We have found Norton's Antivirus to be the best in our opinion at this time. There was a time when we favored McAfee but, McAfee seems to have alot of overhead slowing down your computer. Most Virus programs are available for about $49 or so, and there are even some demos on the Internet. When you get and install your program, register it. Make the DOS emergency disks. Don't think that because you don't use DOS that you will not need them. When a virus gets into your computer, you may not be able to boot into Windows. The disks you make and keep up to date may remove a virus from the DOS "C" prompt. Also do not assume that once you find the virus that you are done. You might remove the infectious part of the virus and still have damage or a graphic that it left behind. You may need to remove that graphic as well as reinstall a damaged program. As in the case of the spiril, it remains behind to amuse you and lock up your computer after the virus is removed. If you remove the file that actually generates the spiril and it reappears, the virus is not gone. This virus calls the spiril from the win.ini run statement and the name is random. Every time you remove this spiril, a new name comes back. One that I recently worked on had the name ALEAALEA.EXE. When it was deleted, the new name was AGCDAGCD.EXE. All the files were 10,000k in size in the Windows directory. Note the repeating part of the name. If you do not have a virus program on your hard drive and you get infected, you may have to do one of 2 things: remove your hard drive and install it into another computer as a slave that is also up to date on the virus protection; or reformat your hard drive and reload Windows, all drivers, and programs. Note also that you may remove a virus successfully and get reinfected almost immediately because of an email containing a virus still left on the email server such as AOL. This is quite common. Permission is given to use this information provided the copyright notice remains and that Gene's Computer Outlet is credited for it. In the case when it may be relayed by ham radio, you need only mention Gene's with out making a commercial of it.