Here’s the straight dope on Nimda (Admin backwards) from Symantec. This worm/virus doesn’t need e-mail. You can possibly get it from any IIS server under certain circumstances.
Can I join in on the beating when they find whoever did it? I just had to clean 3 infections of my company’s network and clear off all the nimda-spam from our networked drives. Irritating. 8 hours down the freaking tubes.
CnoteChris, if you are using Outlook Express, it is called “preview pane”. I turned it off a long time ago. Open Outlook Express, on the very top is the main menu bar with ** File, Edit, View, Tools, Menu, Help.** Click on “view”, then choose “layout” and look halfway down. Uncheck the box that says **“view preview pane”. **
That should do it.
Thank you! It did.
Why are you turning off the preview pane? Won’t you still have to look at the e-mail (unless you are going to delete unread mail).
Wouldn’t it be easier just to download IE 6 which I understand doesn’t have the vulnerability?
Cicero, by turning off the preview pane I can delete the email without having to open it, or taking the chance of a “bad” email accidentally opening. In my case, I get a lot of email I am not interested in reading (not spam, but some other sales stuff, I am interested in a very small percent of the stuff for sale), and I can scan subject lines and open and read only the ones I choose to and delete the rest. I am using IE 6, it still has the preview pane viewable by default. Using the preview pane automatically opens the last email, I don’t want any of my email automatically opening.
Glad it worked for you Cnote.
You can right click the e-mail and click Properties. Then click the Details tab. Finally, click Message Source…. This gives you a plain ANSI dump of the file, so you can read whatever’s in it without opening it. Edlyn and I view all our e-mail this way, even if we know whom it is from. Yes, it’s a lot of trouble, but worth it, in our view.
I didn’t find a single file with that name, so does that mean I’m not infected?
I have a lot of questions, because the updates and information sites are very confusing to me. SHOULD I download the patch-I had to junk the anti-virus software, because it kept fucking up my computer.
As the content of most messages needs to be viewed to establish whether or not they are worthwhile, disabling the preview pane has little merit. It is (in my view) far better to ensure your anti virus gear is up to date and you have installed the required patch.
To clean the virus go here http://www.quickheal.com/nimda.htm
Cicero, I do indeed keep my anti-virus program updated. In my case though, I can usually tell if I want to read an email soley from the subject line, or by the sender. I save a lot of time by deleting about half the stuff I get. I don’t need or want to open these, so they go bye-bye. The preview pane is a waste of time and space in my case, and I personally have no use for it. YMMV.
Isn’t Express the FREE version of MS Outlook. That is why it isn’t as good.
Our company sent out a patch and the patch was buggy. So thus I infected my computer by running this buggy thing.
Some of the files it was duping looked pretty interesting. I don’t have outlook express. If I did could I have read these?
And somebody had the nerve to call me paranoid. -smile-
Like Boscibo, the e-mail I get is mostly from people I know. The -knock on wood- few outside emails I get I want to delete without even looking at them, or having them even load onto my system.
To me, it just isn’t worth it to open anything I don’t recognize.
Does this virus thing affect Hotmail accounts? They have a McAfee virus detector/fixer thing as part of it but I was just wondering because as soon as you open an e-mail with a pic as an attachment you get to see the pic. I never open any .exe files regardless of who sent them in any case but from what I’ve been reading here you can catch it without doing this. I have never used Outlook so I don’t how it works.
But the problem is that you will get e-mail viruses from people you know. And lets not forget e-mails are only one vector for viruses anyway.
FYI, the definitive, detailed info on the effects of nimda as a whole is at http://www.incidents.org where they are tracking its spread and the level of network disruption. Threat level is currently Yellow Alert, and I expect it to go Orange Alert at any moment, just like it did when Code Red hit. When the threat level hits Red, the whole internet is dead.
Markxxx wrote:
They’re actually completely different, separate programs.
Outlook can handle e-mail as well as contacts, appointments, and tasks. It can be “automated” by an external program that communicates with Outlook through Windows calls. People in a workgroup can access shared folders and calendars.
Outlook Express does e-mail as well as newsgroups (Outlook can’t access newsgroups). No contacts, calendar, sharing, etc.
The programs look and feel as if they were written by two different companies, in different countries.
Tell me about it. Two days ago I had to put a good friend of mine from childhood on my ‘Block Sender’ list.
I haven’t had the heart to explain to him yet why I did it.
I did it because he seems to forward every piece of e-mail to me that he gets. Everything.
Somehow I think he thinks he’s being helpful, but all it does it make me loose respect for him each time I open up a new message from him- “Bulletin. E-mail this to everyone. Tonight we need to show Ohsamma Binn Laudin our resolve. Walk out at midnight and light a candle. A satellite will be watching and sending him… on and on and on.”
Sigh.
So I put him on my blocked list.
CurtC-
Just a small point, but using Outlook Express, I do have contacts in OE.
As a matter of fact, I prefer OE to regular 'ol Outlook (I used it at an office job about two years ago). For me, I like the streamlined nature of OE.
Outlook and Outlook Express are completely different. OE is part of Internet Explorer and displays HTML just like IE and suffers from the same characteristics. When you preview an HTML email you are just displaying HTML just like a web page.
In OE click tools / options / connections / internet connection settings change / security / and put OE in “restricted sites” (or whichever you want) to prevent it from running applets etc. Remember, OE is just an extension of IE.
Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS01-020) and patch which covers this hole were published back in March… it seems people have not installed it.
It seems 6the hole is present only in IE 5.01 and 5.5. I have IE 5.00 so I should be safe.
Outlook and Outlook Express are completely different. OE is part of Internet Explorer and displays HTML just like IE and suffers from the same characteristics. When you preview an HTML email you are just displaying HTML just like a web page.
In OE click tools / options / connections / internet connection settings change / security / and put OE in “restricted sites” (or whichever you want) to prevent it from running applets etc. Remember, OE is just an extension of IE.
Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS01-020) and patch which covers this hole were published back in March… it seems people have not installed it.
It seems 6the hole is present only in IE 5.01 and 5.5. I have IE 5.00 so I should be safe.
Will do, sailor.
Thanks.