***ALERT****Major Virus/Worm Attack Underway

There has been a major outbreak of viruses/worms. Norton Antivirus is not finding all of them at this moment. I tried attaching MacAfee Stinger which is, but it is too big. It is 721K zipped; if you need it and your maill system will accept 3/4 of a meg, email me and I will send it to you. I would suggest scanning your machine asap. Don't know how distructive it is or if it is at all, but it appears to be doing denial of service activities by emailing itself to everyone in you mail file. Patches are available at Microsoft also:

We are once again working to mitigate critical security vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, and we need your help to ensure that everyone takes the necessary steps to protect their computers.

Microsoft issued multiple security bulletins on April 13, the most serious of which are MS 04-011 and MS 04-013.

MS 04-011 contains updated fixes for multiple critical vulnerabilities in Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems. An attacker who successfully exploits these vulnerabilities has the ability to run software remotely with administrator privileges as if he were in control of the system.

MS 04-013 exposes Microsoft Outlook Express to attack from mass mail worms. Regardless whether people use Outlook Express or not, it is installed on all workstations and all workstations are vulnerable.

Microsoft Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 Service Pack 6a – Download the update .
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Service Pack 6a – Download the update
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 6 – Download the update
Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition, Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Service Pack 1 – Download the update
Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003, Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003 Service Pack 1 – Download the update.
Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 – Download the update .
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 64-Bit Edition – Download the update

Lynn

I didn't catch that Windows 2000 and plain XP weren't in the links above. Here they are:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 - Download update.

Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 - Download the update.

If you use Windows98, WindowsNT, Windows 2000, or WindowsXP, I recommend going to:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
once a month to get the latest "critical" security updates from Microsoft.

The site will automatically scan your PC and suggest updates for your computer. If you haven't recently visited the site, it will offer to install the security updates that Lynn mentions, which you should allow it to do.

The website will also suggest non-critical updates, feel free to ignore those suggestions (unless you want the latest versions of the Windows Media Player and other stuff)

After you finish updating your operating system, you should also visit:
http://office.microsoft.com/OfficeUpdate/
to get the latest security updates for Microsoft Office (you'll need to have the installation CD-ROM to complete the updates).

I recommend using Linux /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ QUOTE ]
I recommend using Linux /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm one of those linux users who stopped using windows.

I'd love to but I don't know how I'd get my work done. I interact too much with people with respect to Word docs, Publisher, Powerpoint, and other Windows specific stuff.

Ron,

Have you looked at Open Office? It can read & write Micosoft format files. Doesn't do a perfect job (has trouble with some fancy animations/transitions in PowerPoint, I think), but overall does a pretty good job...

OK, full disclosure: I work for Novell, which recently acquired SuSE, one of the major Linux distributors. We have just gone through an exercise to severely reduce our number of Microsoft licenses. The goal is to eliminate MS usage in-house, except for compatibility testing. We're not there yet, but yes I am biased in this matter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Yep, I have but nothing seems to work too well. a "pretty good job" doesn't do it for these business things. Too many versions that my folks and indpendant have, running from 98-XP make it difficult. Plus, we work with our German parent and they're not going Linux anytime soon - it is hard enough to get German/English versions of some of our software we need now - forget it in Linux.

I like Linux and have it running at our beach house as a common computer for guests. But, in my opinion it is lacking in software and requires more work to do some things that are pretty simple with windows (use your digital camera, scan docs, etc. etc.).

Linux works on my hardware. There is Knoppix linux at http://www.linuxiso.org. Its also in german so you should check it out. You dont have to install it. It boots right from a cd. You can install it if you want to. I hope this helps.