Virus?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scottie
  • Start date Start date
S

Scottie

I am almost sure I have a virus. Outlook Express can not complete
downloading my email, and eventually comes up with a time-out error. I am
continually bombarded with viruses and I don't think Norton AntiVirus is
stopping all of them? Can someone please tell me how to sort this out? I am
using Xp-Home. I am also thinking of reformatting the drive, how do you do
that in XP as I am finding I can not install some of my hardware.
 
I am almost sure I have a virus. Outlook Express can not complete
downloading my email, and eventually comes up with a time-out error. I am
continually bombarded with viruses and I don't think Norton AntiVirus is
stopping all of them? Can someone please tell me how to sort this out? I am
using Xp-Home. I am also thinking of reformatting the drive, how do you do
that in XP as I am finding I can not install some of my hardware.
Click to expand...
Norton Antiviruses way of scanning e-mails is IMO quite horrendous.
Basically IT downloads your e-mails then Outlook Express connects to
Norton to retrieve them. In my experience any problems relating to e-
mail retrieval on systems with Norton AV installed tends to be purely
down to this and the reason why I moved away from it a few years ago.
 
Thanks Conor, I want to format my drive and start again. Can you tell me how
to do this. My computer skills are about one above zero.
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Scottie said:
Thanks Conor, I want to format my drive and start again. Can you tell me how
to do this. My computer skills are about one above zero.
Click to expand...

Hi Scottie,

I *highly* recommend that if you do not have the skills, do not attempt a
reformat on your own. In case you did not know, a reformat will erase
EVERYTHING from the hard drive or partition. Before starting a reformat,
you must have your original Windows OS disk(s) with your original Product
Key, your tcp/ip info for reconnecting to the internet, the device drivers
for your hardware, and copies of all software programs that you use. You
will also need to go to Windows Update and install all of the
patches/updates again. (Many techs have these stored on disk to save time
from having to download them all.) Reformating can be a daunting task.

--Mike
 
You
will also need to go to Windows Update and install all of the
patches/updates again. (Many techs have these stored on disk to save
time from having to download them all.)
Click to expand...

recommendation if reformatting/reinstalling:

download the latest service pack (not the express install), save it to a
cdr, and install it before connecting to the internet so as to plug as many
vulnerabilities as possible beforehand. If youre unlucky an unpatched
computer without a firewall only needs to be online for 2-3 minutes before
some other computer somewhere tries to send you something bad.

I dont use XP so others who do can discuss whether or not its wise to get
service pack 2 at this time. If not, at least get sp1 and make sure the XP
firewall (or whichever one you want to use) is set up not to accept
incomming connections.
 
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