Technical Notes

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Kevin Haddenham

Kevin Blaine Haddenham was born in Texas, lived in France, and was raised in Washington State. Yes, his Dad was in the Air Force.. He attended all grades of school in Seattle and Longview, Washington and then went off to a life on the high seas as a Navy Clerical Supervisor and Firefighter, then a counselor. How did he end up working for IBM and Ross Perot? The Navy decided to send him for extensive computer training at the IBM training center, so he had a ready made job when he finally decided to exit ship life. Deciding that the big cities of Washington DC, Manassas, Virginia and Endicott, New York, were just too hectic for a boy raised in the rural Northwest, he left it all and came West for a career in Antique Restorations of all types. Specializing in very old and unique heirlooms, musical instruments and furniture, he demands the highest quality and workmanship that has earned him a reputation as the finest Restoration Artist in the Northwest. His passions also include theater in which he has played Scrooge, in "The Christmas Carol", built dozens of stage sets, did all lights, sounds and tech, designed posters, tickets, t-shirts and is truly a multi-faceted individual, with a curiosity and zest for all things creative and living. He dedicates many weekends to the creating of lovely yard landscapes and tending for numerous dogs and cats. 

1. Sending Neat E-mail. Please crop original message from replies. Leave only 2-3 lines for indentification.

2. Attachments cause problems, and are rejected by main Rootsweb before reaching list. Send these only to private mail addresses.

E-mailme with any technical problems you are having. I will gladly try to find out the answers for you.

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When posting to a RootsWeb mailing list, your message should be sent as "plain text." You should not send messages as HTML or RTF (rich text format) to a mailing list. In most instances you can control the format by adjusting the settings in your mail program.

The following instructions for formatting your mail to plain text were contributed by RootsWeb users (for which we are very thankful). If you do not find your program listed, check the help menu within your mail program. For additions or corrections to this listing, please contact the HelpDesk.

Agent/Free Agent (Forte), AOL, Blitzmail, Entourage 2001 (Mac), Eudora, Hotmail, Internet Explorer, Juno, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange, MSN Explorer, MSN-TV, Netscape, Outlook/Outlook Express, Pegasus, Pine, Poco, Star, TheBat, WebTV, Yahoo Mail
 

Mail Program Instructions for sending plain text mail and/or turning off HTML and RFT

1. Click on "Options."
2. Select "General Preferences."
3. Select "Languages."
4. Under "Usenet Text and E-mail Text," turn off "MIME.''

AOL
Version 6.0 and 7.0Shut off your signature file, if it includes HTML formatting. If it doesn't resolve the problem, change your global e-mail preferences (you only need to do this once):
1. Go to Keyword: "Preferences" (or choose "Preferences" from the "Settings" menu).
2. Click on "Font, Text, & Graphics Preferences."
3. Click on the "Reset" button at the bottom of the resulting window. Do not make any changes in the "Font Preferences" area of the window.
4. Click on the "Save" button.

Version 6.0 — For Each E-mail:
1. Compose and address the e-mail.
2. Choose "Select All" from the "Edit" menu to highlight the entire message.
3. Right-click somewhere over the highlighted text.
4. Choose "Normal" from the "Text" menu.
5. Taking care not to make any further changes to the message, send it.
or
1. Go to the top menu marked "Settings."
2. Click on "Preferences" and choose "Mail.
3. Make sure the mail options marked "show white headers" and "show addresses as hyperlinks" are not checked.

Blitzmail
Version 2.5 and Higher
1. Go to "Options" menu in the composing window.
2. Select "Send Plain Text."

Entourage 2001 (Mac)
1. Click on the "Edit" menu.
2. Select "Preferences" and then "Mail and News."
3. Click on the "Compose" tab.
4. Under "Messages," set the pull-down menus for "Mail Format" and "News Format" to plain text.
5. Click the "Reply & Forward" tab.
6. Uncheck "Reply to messages using the format in which they sent."
7. Click on OK

Eudora, Eudora Pro, and Eudora Light
Eudora Version 4.0 and Higher
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select "Styled Text."
3. Check "Send plain text only" or "Ask me each time."
4. Uncheck "Send the signature with styles."
or
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select "Styled Text."
3. Check "Send both plain and styled."
4. Use the "Clear formatting" option on the toolbar, or by clicking on the "Edit" menu then selecting "Text" and "Clear formatting."

Eudora Pro Version 4.2
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select "Styled Text."
3. Check "Send plain text only" or "Ask me each time."
4. Uncheck "Send the signature with styles."
or
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select "Styled Text."
3. Check "Send both plain and styled."
4. Use the "Clear formatting" option on the toolbar, or by clicking on the "Edit" menu then selecting "Text" and "Clear formatting."

Eudora Pro Version 4.0.2 and Earlier
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select "Styled Text."
3. Check either (or both) "Warn me when I queue a message with styled text" or "Discard styles before sending messages."
or
1. When posting a styled message use the "Clear formatting" option on the toolbar, or by clicking on the "Edit" menu and then selecting "Text" and "Clear formatting."

Eudora Light Version 3.0.6
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select the "Sending Mail" category.
3. Uncheck the box for "May use quoted-printable."

Eudora Light Version 3.0.5 and Earlier
1. Click on the "Tools" menu and then select "Options."
2. Select the "Extra Warnings" category.
3. Check the box for "Warn me" when I "Queue a message with Styled Text."

Hotmail
1. Click on "Compose," and enter the address and subject line.
2. Before composing the message, click on "Tools" (next to "Copy message to sent folder").
3. On the drop-down "Tools" menu, the last entry is a toggle switch to turn the rich-text editor on and off. If you see "Rich-text editor ON" it means you will be sending the message as plain text (it is giving you the option to turn it on, which you don't want to do). If you see "Rich-text editor OFF," click on it to toggle it to the off position.

Note: If you see a tool bar with formatting functions including bolding (B), paint cans, etc. you are not sending the mail as plain text. Go into the "Tools" menu and click on "Rich-text editor OFF" so it is in plain text mode. The tool bar will disappear when you do that.

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer 3.02 with Internet Mail
1. Click on "Mail."
2. Click on "Options" and then choose the "Send" tab.
3. Near the bottom are two choices. Choose "Q Plain Text."
4. To use HTML in individual messages (those not going to mailing lists), choose HTML in the Format menu found within each E-mail message.
Juno 1. Choose the "Edit" menu and then click point to "E-mail Message Format."
2. Click on "View."
3. Click on "Plain Text."
4. In the "Remove Formatting" box, click "Yes."

Lotus Notes
Lotus Notes R5
1. Choose the "File" menu and then "Mobile."
2. Select "Edit Current Location."
2. Select the "Mail" tab.
3. Under "Format for messages addressed to Internet addresses" select MIME Format instead of Rich Text Format.

Lotus Notes
1. Choose "File" menu and then "Preferences."
2. Select "User Preferences" and then click on the "Mail and News" icon.
3. Under "Internet message format" (or "Internet News Format"), choose "plain text."

Microsoft Exchange
1. Click on "Tools."
2. Select the "Services" tab and highlight "Internet Mail."
3. Click on "Properties."
4. In the "Internet Mail, General" window, select "Message Format."
5. Uncheck "Use MIME when sending messages" and select "Character Set."
6. In the "UUENCODE Character Set" window click the down arrow that shows next to the rectangular "window" (below where it says "specify a character set for message" text).
7. Check "US ASCII", then click "OK."
8. Click "OK" on the "Options" menu.
MSN Explorer MSN Explorer Tech support states "that MSN Explorer and MSN.com send web-based HTML e-mail ONLY and cannot be configured to send plain text." If you use MSN as your e-mail service (i.e., username@msn.com) you can go to Hotmail.com and send e-mail from there in plain text via the PASSPORT system.

MSN-TV or WebTV
1. Remove HTML signatures by going to the "Write Page."
2. Click on "Remove Signature", which is to the left of the "Send" button.
Netscape Version 6.0 and Higher
1. Select "Edit" and then click on "Preferences."
2. Click on the arrow symbol before "Mail & Newsgroups."
3. Click on "Message Composition."
4. In the "Forwarding and Replying to Messages" section, change the "Forward messages:" to "Inline."
5. In the "Composing Messages" section, uncheck "For messages that contain eight-bit characters."
6. Click on "Send Formatting."
7. In the section "When sending message in HTML format...," click on "Ask me what to do."
8. Click on "OK."
9. When in a new message screen (Compose), select "Options" in the taskbar.
10. Select "Format."
11. Click on "Plain text only."
12. Send the message.

Versions 4.5, 4.6, 4.7
1. Select "Edit" and then click on "Preferences."
2. Click on the "+" sign before "Mail & Newsgroups."
3. Click on "Messages."
4. In the "Forward and Replying to Messages" section, change "By default, forward messages:" to "Inline."
5. In the "Send messages that use eight-bit characters" section, click on "As is."
6. Click on "Formatting."
7. In the "Message formatting" section, click on "Use the plain text editor to compose messages."
8. In the "When sending HTML mail messages" section, click on "Ask me what to do."
9. Click on "OK."
10. Turn off Address Book Cards (also referred to as vCards) by:
          a. Select "Edit" and then click on "Preferences."
          b. Click on the plus sign "+" before "Mail & Newsgroups."
          c. Click on "Identity," and uncheck "Attach my personal card."
          d. Click on "OK."

Versions 4.0x - 4.4x
1. Select "Edit" and then click on "Preferences."
2. Click on the "+" before "Mail and Groups & Messages."
3. Click on "Messages" and uncheck "By default, send HTML messages."
4. Click on "More Options."
5. In the section "When sending HTML messages to recipients who are not listed as being able to receive HTML," click "Always convert the message into plain text (may lose some formatting)."
6. Click on "OK," and on "OK" again.
7. Turn off Address Book Cards (also referred to as vCards) by:
          a. Select "Edit" and then click on "Preferences."
          b. Click on the plus sign "+" before "Mail & Newsgroups."
          c. Click on "Identity," and uncheck "Always send Address Book Cards."
          d. Click on "OK."

Version 3.xx
1. Click on "Tools" and then click on "Mail Options."
2. Click on the "Send" tab.
3. In the "Mail Sending Format" area, click the check box next to "Plain Text."
4. Click on "Settings."
5. In the section "Message Format", click "MIME."
6. In the check box next to "Encode text using," select "None."
7. Uncheck "Allow eight-bit characters in headers."
8. Click on "OK."

Outlook and Outlook Express
Outlook 2000
1. Select "Tools" and then click on "Options."
2. Click on the "Mail Format" tab.
3. In the "Message Format" section, select "Plain Text" from the pull-down menu. (see Notes).
4. Click "OK."

Notes:
If you have HTML format selected in Step 3 (above), the "Send e-mail using plain text only" option on the properties sheet of your address book won't work.
Make sure the check box is unchecked (empty) in front of "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages."
Outlook Help states that you can switch message formats after starting a message, but it won't work if you use Word as your e-mail editor. It only works if you use the internal Outlook mail editor and switch between plain text and HTML formats.

Outlook 98 (Internet Version)
1. Select "Tools" and then click on "Options."
2. Click on the "Mail Format" tab.
3. For "Mail Formatting," select "Plain Text" from the drop-down box.
4. Click "OK."

Outlook 98 (Work Group Version)
1. Select "Tools" and then click on "Options."
2. Click on the "Mail Format" tab.
3. In the "Send in this message format" area, select "Plain Text" from the drop-down box.
4. Click "OK."

Outlook 97 (with Service Release 1 SR1)
1. Select "Tools" and then click on "Options."
2. Click on the "Internet E-mail" tab.
3. Select "MIME" — not "UUENCODE."
4. Uncheck the check box "Allow eight-bit characters in headers."
5. Check the "Line wrap" box and set to 80 or less (preferably 72).
6. Check that you use the "US ASCII" character set.
7. Click "OK."

Notes:
If you are using your Outlook 97 address book to send messages to the mail list, make certain you do not have Rich Text Format selected for that address book entry: Open the "Personal Address Book," double click on the recipients name, uncheck "Always send to this recipient in Windows Messaging Rich Text Format," and close the "Options" window.
The original version of Outlook 97 automatically formats all "Reply" messages in Rich Text Format. This can be corrected in any of the following ways:
1. Download and install the Office 97 Service Release 1 (SR1)
2. Download and install inetmail.exe that updates Outlook 97.
3. In the E-mail box, double-click the e-mail address. Clear the "Always send to this recipient in Windows Messaging Rich Text Format" check box. This must be done *each* time a message is sent via the Reply button.

Outlook Express
To send plain text messages to a specific address (such as a mailing list):
1. Add the address to your address book.
2. Select "Tools" and then click on "Address Book."
3. Right-click the entry you always want to send messages to in plain text.
4. On the shortcut menu, click "Properties."
5. On the "Name" tab, select "Send E-Mail using plain text only."
6. Click "OK."
or
To send plain text messages to everyone:
1. Select "Tools" and then click on "Options."
2. Click on the "Send" tab.
3. Select "Plain Text" under "Mail Sending Format."
4. Click "OK."

Outlook Express for Macintosh
1. Click on "Edit" and then "Preferences."
2. The triangle next to "Outlook Express" should be pointing down instead of to the right (otherwise click once to make it so).
3. Under the "Outlook Express" heading, select "Message Composition."
4. Select "Plain text" for the "Mail sending format" box (top left).
5. Verify "Uuencode" is selected next to "Attachment sending:" (near the middle bottom).

Pegasus
1. Click on "Tools" and then "Options."
2. Click on "Sending Mail" tab.
3. In the "When sending messages containing rich (formatted) text" section, check "Always remove formatting."
4. In the "Advanced settings" section, uncheck all four options.
5. Click on "OK."

Pine
1. From the main menu, select "S" (SETUP- Configure Pine Options).
2. Select or type "C" (Config).
3. Type "w" (Word to find:) and enter "character-" to find Character-Set. Leave as <No Value Set>.
4. Type "w" again and enter "include-" to find Include-attachments-in-reply. Leave or set the box to unchecked. This feature controls an aspect of Pine's Reply command. If set, any MIME attachments that were part of the original message will automatically be included in the Reply.
5. Select or type "E" (Exit) and type "Y" (Yes) to commit changes.
6. Select or type "Q" (Quit), type "Y."

Poco
1. If the "Style" toolbar is not showing, click on "View" and then "Show Style Toolbar."
2. To send a plain message, depress the Styled button.

Star Office
1. When composing a message, go to the "View" menu.
2. Select "Options."
3. From the "Format" menu, select "Plain text only."

To configure the format specifically for the list address:
1. Open Communicator.
2. Go to the Communicator menu and select "Address Book."
3. Double-click the entry you wish to configure (the list address).
4. In the "Card" window, leave it blank to send plain text.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

Note: Click here for additional configuration choices.
TheBat TheBat always writes in plain text. However, because TheBat is multi-lingual, users may experience a problem because of accented characters and foreign character sets. Users from non-Latin character set countries should ensure that they use the Latin character set by (for instance) specifying %CHARSET="ISO-8859-1" in their address book template for "New and Reply" messages to the list.

Yahoo Mail
1. Select "Mail Preferences."
2. Under "Version" select "always use non-frames, non-javascript version."
3. Under "Forwarding" select "forward as in-line text."
4. Under "Replying" select "include full message."

If you use a signature:
1. Select "plain text."
2. Set plain text signature as the default by:
         a. Select "Mail Preferences."
         b. Under "Signature" select "plain text."

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You need to set your mail preferences to receive attachments as inline links or as straight text. Some mail servers will interpret a digest mail as a mail message with X number of attachments. This is very frustrating for users, and should be easily fixed. RootsWeb can't help you. You will need to contact your mail system administrator for specific help in setting up your mail preferences file.

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RootsWeb passes the message in holus-bolus, no changes.  The issue is not
so much characters but more character sets (in headers -> content- type
... charset=XXXXX) and it comes down to how receiving software
deals with the character sets.

An example:
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists5.rootsweb.com
id fBNKmvS31399
:
To: NORWAY-L@rootsweb.com

One thing I've learned is that if you look at the headers and see "7
bit" you know the foreign characters won't be dealt with correctly in the
email.  If you see "8 bit" they will be.

7-bit means that it will basically display in the ANSI simple
character set [think DOS command line] whereas 8-bit means that it is
intelligent but not universally visible.

Technically 8-bit is a big no-no, but it does make things display
neatly and legibally which is always an interesting feature.

Pegasus mail says for it send settings
"Allow 8-bit MIME encodings:  If you check this control, Pegasus Mail
will generate MIME messages using the MIME "8BIT" transfer encoding
whenever you include 8-bit data in your mail. 8-bit data is illegal
in Internet mail, but is used in some countries. This is both a very
technical, and potentially very dangerous option and should only be
used if you know what you are doing. We recommend you do not check
this control except on the advice of a properly qualified person."

I daren't lapse into RFCs again, but those who are madly technically
interested, start at http://www.faq.org.

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Computer viruses are mysterious and grab our attention. On the one hand, viruses show us how vulnerable we are. A properly engineered virus can have an amazing effect on the worldwide Internet. On the other hand, they show how sophisticated and interconnected human beings have become.

For example, the thing making big news right now is the Mydoom worm, which experts estimate infected approximately a quarter-million computers in a single day (Times Online). Back in March 1999, the Melissa virus was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and a number of other very large companies to completely turn off their e-mail systems until the virus could be contained. The ILOVEYOU virus in 2000 had a similarly devastating effect. That's pretty impressive when you consider that the Melissa and ILOVEYOU viruses are incredibly simple.

In this article, we will discuss viruses -- both "traditional" viruses and the newer e-mail viruses -- so that you can learn how they work and also understand how to protect yourself. Viruses in general are on the wane, but occasionally a person finds a new way to create one, and that's when they make the news.

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When you listen to the news, you hear about many different forms of electronic infection. The most common are:

    * Viruses - A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or wreak havoc.

    * E-mail viruses - An e-mail virus moves around in e-mail messages, and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in the victim's e-mail address book.

    * Worms - A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.

    * Trojan horses - A Trojan horse is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically.

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Computer viruses are called viruses because they share some of the traits of biological viruses. A computer virus passes from computer to computer like a biological virus passes from person to person.

There are similarities at a deeper level, as well. A biological virus is not a living thing. A virus is a fragment of DNA inside a protective jacket. Unlike a cell, a virus has no way to do anything or to reproduce by itself -- it is not alive. Instead, a biological virus must inject its DNA into a cell. The viral DNA then uses the cell's existing machinery to reproduce itself. In some cases, the cell fills with new viral particles until it bursts, releasing the virus. In other cases, the new virus particles bud off the cell one at a time, and the cell remains alive.

A computer virus shares some of these traits. A computer virus must piggyback on top of some other program or document in order to get executed. Once it is running, it is then able to infect other programs or documents. Obviously, the analogy between computer and biological viruses stretches things a bit, but there are enough similarities that the name sticks.

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A worm is a computer program that has the ability to copy itself from machine to machine. Worms normally move around and infect other machines through computer networks. Using a network, a worm can expand from a single copy incredibly quickly. For example, the Code Red worm replicated itself over 250,000 times in approximately nine hours on July 19, 2001.

A worm usually exploits some sort of security hole in a piece of software or the operating system. For example, the Slammer worm (which caused mayhem in January 2003) exploited a hole in Microsoft's SQL server. This article offers a fascinating look inside Slammer's tiny (376 byte) program.

Code Red
Worms use up computer time and network bandwidth when they are replicating, and they often have some sort of evil intent. A worm called Code Red made huge headlines in 2001. Experts predicted that this worm could clog the Internet so effectively that things would completely grind to a halt.

The Code Red worm slowed down Internet traffic when it began to replicate itself, but not nearly as badly as predicted. Each copy of the worm scanned the Internet for Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers that do not have the Microsoft security patch installed. Each time it found an unsecured server, the worm copied itself to that server. The new copy then scanned for other servers to infect. Depending on the number of unsecured servers, a worm could conceivably create hundreds of thousands of copies.

The Code Red worm was designed to do three things:

    * Replicate itself for the first 20 days of each month
    * Replace Web pages on infected servers with a page that declares "Hacked by Chinese"
    * Launch a concerted attack on the White House Web server in an attempt to overwhelm it

The most common version of Code Red is a variation, typically referred to as a mutated strain, of the original Ida Code Red that replicated itself on July 19, 2001. According to the National Infrastructure Protection Center:

    The Ida Code Red Worm, which was first reported by eEye Digital Security, is taking advantage of known vulnerabilities in the Microsoft IIS Internet Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI) service. Un-patched systems are susceptible to a "buffer overflow" in the Idq.dll, which permits the attacker to run embedded code on the affected system. This memory resident worm, once active on a system, first attempts to spread itself by creating a sequence of random IP addresses to infect unprotected web servers. Each worm thread will then inspect the infected computer's time clock. The NIPC has determined that the trigger time for the DOS execution of the Ida Code Red Worm is at 0:00 hours, GMT on July 20, 2001. This is 8:00 PM, EST.

Upon successful infection, the worm would wait for the appointed hour and connect to the www.whitehouse.gov domain. This attack would consist of the infected systems simultaneously sending 100 connections to port 80 of www.whitehouse.gov (198.137.240.91).

The U.S. government changed the IP address of www.whitehouse.gov to circumvent that particular threat from the worm and issued a general warning about the worm, advising users of Windows NT or Windows 2000 Web servers to make sure they have installed the security patch.

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Early viruses were pieces of code attached to a common program like a popular game or a popular word processor. A person might download an infected game from a bulletin board and run it. A virus like this is a small piece of code embedded in a larger, legitimate program. Any virus is designed to run first when the legitimate program gets executed. The virus loads itself into memory and looks around to see if it can find any other programs on the disk. If it can find one, it modifies it to add the virus's code to the unsuspecting program. Then the virus launches the "real program." The user really has no way to know that the virus ever ran. Unfortunately, the virus has now reproduced itself, so two programs are infected. The next time either of those programs gets executed, they infect other programs, and the cycle continues.

If one of the infected programs is given to another person on a floppy disk, or if it is uploaded to a bulletin board, then other programs get infected. This is how the virus spreads.

The spreading part is the infection phase of the virus. Viruses wouldn't be so violently despised if all they did was replicate themselves. Unfortunately, most viruses also have some sort of destructive attack phase where they do some damage. Some sort of trigger will activate the attack phase, and the virus will then "do something" -- anything from printing a silly message on the screen to erasing all of your data. The trigger might be a specific date, or the number of times the virus has been replicated, or something similar.

As virus creators got more sophisticated, they learned new tricks. One important trick was the ability to load viruses into memory so they could keep running in the background as long as the computer remained on. This gave viruses a much more effective way to replicate themselves. Another trick was the ability to infect the boot sector on floppy disks and hard disks. The boot sector is a small program that is the first part of the operating system that the computer loads. The boot sector contains a tiny program that tells the computer how to load the rest of the operating system. By putting its code in the boot sector, a virus can guarantee it gets executed. It can load itself into memory immediately, and it is able to run whenever the computer is on. Boot sector viruses can infect the boot sector of any floppy disk inserted in the machine, and on college campuses where lots of people share machines they spread like wildfire.

In general, both executable and boot sector viruses are not very threatening any more. The first reason for the decline has been the huge size of today's programs. Nearly every program you buy today comes on a compact disc. Compact discs cannot be modified, and that makes viral infection of a CD impossible. The programs are so big that the only easy way to move them around is to buy the CD. People certainly can't carry applications around on a floppy disk like they did in the 1980s, when floppies full of programs were traded like baseball cards. Boot sector viruses have also declined because operating systems now protect the boot sector.

Both boot sector viruses and executable viruses are still possible, but they are a lot harder now and they don't spread nearly as quickly as they once could. Call it "shrinking habitat," if you want to use a biological analogy. The environment of floppy disks, small programs and weak operating systems made these viruses possible in the 1980s, but that environmental niche has been largely eliminated by huge executables, unchangeable CDs and better operating system safeguards.

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The latest thing in the world of computer viruses is the e-mail virus, and the Melissa virus in March 1999 was spectacular. Melissa spread in Microsoft Word documents sent via e-mail, and it worked like this:

Someone created the virus as a Word document uploaded to an Internet newsgroup. Anyone who downloaded the document and opened it would trigger the virus. The virus would then send the document (and therefore itself) in an e-mail message to the first 50 people in the person's address book. The e-mail message contained a friendly note that included the person's name, so the recipient would open the document thinking it was harmless. The virus would then create 50 new messages from the recipient's machine. As a result, the Melissa virus was the fastest-spreading virus ever seen! As mentioned earlier, it forced a number of large companies to shut down their e-mail systems.

The ILOVEYOU virus, which appeared on May 4, 2000, was even simpler. It contained a piece of code as an attachment. People who double clicked on the attachment allowed the code to execute. The code sent copies of itself to everyone in the victim's address book and then started corrupting files on the victim's machine. This is as simple as a virus can get. It is really more of a Trojan horse distributed by e-mail than it is a virus.

The Melissa virus took advantage of the programming language built into Microsoft Word called VBA, or Visual Basic for Applications. It is a complete programming language and it can be programmed to do things like modify files and send e-mail messages. It also has a useful but dangerous auto-execute feature. A programmer can insert a program into a document that runs instantly whenever the document is opened. This is how the Melissa virus was programmed. Anyone who opened a document infected with Melissa would immediately activate the virus. It would send the 50 e-mails, and then infect a central file called NORMAL.DOT so that any file saved later would also contain the virus! It created a huge mess.

Microsoft applications have a feature called Macro Virus Protection built into them to prevent this sort of thing. With Macro Virus Protection turned on (the default option is ON), the auto-execute feature is disabled. So when a document tries to auto-execute viral code, a dialog pops up warning the user. Unfortunately, many people don't know what macros or macro viruses are, and when they see the dialog they ignore it, so the virus runs anyway. Many other people turn off the protection mechanism. So the Melissa virus spread despite the safeguards in place to prevent it.

In the case of the ILOVEYOU virus, the whole thing was human-powered. If a person double-clicked on the program that came as an attachment, then the program ran and did its thing. What fueled this virus was the human willingness to double-click on the executable.

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You can protect yourself against viruses with a few simple steps:

    * If you are truly worried about traditional (as opposed to e-mail) viruses, you should be running a more secure operating system like UNIX. You never hear about viruses on these operating systems because the security features keep viruses (and unwanted human visitors) away from your hard disk.

    * If you are using an unsecured operating system, then buying virus protection software is a nice safeguard.

    * If you simply avoid programs from unknown sources (like the Internet), and instead stick with commercial software purchased on CDs, you eliminate almost all of the risk from traditional viruses. In addition, you should disable floppy disk booting -- most computers now allow you to do this, and that will eliminate the risk of a boot sector virus coming in from a floppy disk accidentally left in the drive.

    * You should make sure that Macro Virus Protection is enabled in all Microsoft applications, and you should NEVER run macros in a document unless you know what they do. There is seldom a good reason to add macros to a document, so avoiding all macros is a great policy.
 

      Open the Options dialog from the Tools menu in Microsoft Word and make sure that Macro Virus Protection is enabled, as shown.

    * You should never double-click on an attachment that contains an executable that arrives as an e-mail attachment. Attachments that come in as Word files (.DOC), spreadsheets (.XLS), images (.GIF and .JPG), etc., are data files and they can do no damage (noting the macro virus problem in Word and Excel documents mentioned above). A file with an extension like EXE, COM or VBS is an executable, and an executable can do any sort of damage it wants. Once you run it, you have given it permission to do anything on your machine. The only defense is to never run executables that arrive via e-mail.

By following those simple steps, you can remain virus free.

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Copyright 1998-2007.   All Rights Reserved Karla Mattila and Kevin Haddenham