<computerusers>
January 2002
Computer Answers, Tips & Information
- Jeff Hudson, YCAR Computer
Coordinator
DO YOU USE INTERNET EXPLORER 5.5?
Cookies are little files that
web sites leave on your computer that contain your preferences for that site,
ads you've seen online, and/or where you've been on the Internet. Cookies from a
Web site are supposed to be accessed only by that site. A new problem with IE
5.5 (and 6.0) could expose your cookies to an outside Web site. That in turn
could hand over your personal information or logon data to a malicious hacker,
giving them access to your financial or other Web accounts.
The vulnerability arrives in the form of a malformed Web site URL or in a
HTML-formatted e-mail. Anyone using IE 5.5 or 6.0 should install Microsoft's
patch. Get it here:
www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/q312461/default.asp
SIMPLE TRICK TO DETECT VIRUS
Here’s a tip that's really ingenious in its simplicity. As you may know, if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your Outlook Express e-mail address book and sends itself to everyone in there, infecting all your friends and associates. This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread, plus it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system.
First, open your Outlook Express address book and click File | New Contact. Then, type AAA as the first name. For the new e-mail address, type in WormAlert. Now, click the Add button and click Yes to “Invalid address. Do you still want to add?” alert.
Here's what you've done and
why it works: the "name" AAA will be placed at the top of your
address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to
send itself to all your friends. But when it tries to send itself to AAA,
it will be undeliverable because of the phony e-mail address you entered (WormAlert).
If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address), the
worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected.
The second great advantage of
this trick: if an e-mail cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in
your Inbox almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an e-mail telling you that
an e-mail addressed to WormAlert could not be delivered, you know right
away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get
rid of it!
SPEAKING OF E-MAIL
AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS
Q. How
do I backup my e-mail files and my address book in Outlook Express?
A. Here's what you need to do…
- To Backup OUTLOOK EXPRESS 5 e-mail files
From the Tools menu, select Options, and
then click the Maintenance tab, and select Store Folder. Highlight
the folder location and press (key combination) Ctrl-C to copy. Click
cancel twice to close the dialog box, and then go to Start>>Run,
and in the Open box press Ctrl-V to paste the folder location.
Click OK, and from the Edit menu, click Select All, and
then Copy, and close the window.
Next, right-click on an empty space on your desktop,
choose New, and select Folder. Enter "Mail Backup"
(no quotes) for the folder name, and hit Enter.
Double-click the new folder to open it, and from the Edit
menu select Paste, creating a backup of all your mail files.
- To Backup OE 5 Address Book
From the File menu, select Export, and then
choose Address Book. Click Text File (comma separated values) and
select Export.
Next, select Browse and navigate to the Mail
Backup folder you created above.
In the File Name box, type in Address Book
backup, select Save and then click Next. Now, select the check
boxes for the fields you want to export, and click Finish and select OK,
then Close.
- To Import (Restore) OE5 files
Having backed up e-mail does you no good unless you know
how to restore it. From the File menu, select Import and choose Messages.
In the "Select an e-mail program to import from" box, select Microsoft
Outlook Express 5 and click Next. Now, select "Import mail
from an OE5 store directory" and click OK. Select Browse,
and navigate to the Mail Backup folder on your Desktop. Click OK,
and select Next. Click All folders, select Next, and then
click the Finish button.
- To Import OE5 Address Book