Question:     What is a "Virus", and how does a Virus get into my computer?

Answer:        A "computer virus" is a group of computer code, called a "program" that

                        enters your computer, usually through E-mail attachments or Internet Messaging

                        programs (example: AIM -AOL Instant Messaging, Yahoo Instant Messaging),  

                        and is designed to copy itself into other programs stored in your computer.

                        Different viruses are designed to do different things, such as causing your

                        programs to operate incorrectly, or corrupting your computers memory or

                        operating system (Windows). Computer viruses can also enter your

                        computer through viewing a page on the World Wide Web, or from a floppy

                        disk or CD-ROM that has been previously corrupted by the virus.

                        Viruses can be bad, very bad, and you MUST protect your computer

                        against them.

 
Question:     How can I protect my computer from getting a virus?

Answer:        You MUST install a program called a "Virus Scanner" in your computer.

                        This program will be running in the background while your computer is

                        turned on, and will identify a virus as it enters your computer and disable

                        it so it cannot do the harm it was written to do. Think of it as a highly trained

                        professional woman and man standing at the entrance to your computer,

                        each holding a machine gun. If a virus tries to sneak in, they kill it. BAM!

                        No more virus!

 
Question:     What is "Spam"?

 

Answer:     Spam is "Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail". As such it is a horrible, insidious

                     invasion of our privacy by scumbags, Cretans, and maggot infested, vermin

                     covered, low-life swine - called "spammers". They fill our e-mail in-box with

                     ads and schemes (mostly scams) that we didn't request, don't want, and

                     have no use for! A waste of our valuable time and the bandwidth of the

                     Internet. Many people have told me that they get as many as 100 or more

                     spams a day!!  Personally, I get well over 100 spams daily.

 
Question:    How do these people get my e-mail address?

Answer:     Unfortunately, our e-mail addresses are not private or confidential. It is

                     fairly easy for spammers to get mailing lists of e-mail addresses. If we

                     request information from a web site, or sometimes just log-on a web

                     site, or order something on-line: some of these companies will sell our e-

                     mail address to spammers. Another way they collect our address is by the

                     use of "Spyware" - programs secretly placed in our computers that collect

                     information about us and send it to the spammers. Spyware can be

                     cleansed from our computer (see Spyware  in this FAQ section

Question:    Is there anything I can do to cut down or eliminate the spam I am receiving

                       now?

Answer:    Yes!   Many e-mail programs (not all) have the ability to "filter" messages

                    as they are received into our computer from our ISP (Internet Service

                    Provider) and send those filtered messages to the Trash or any mailbox we

                    create, for example, "Junk Mail". We don't have to open or read or look at

                    them, just empty the Trash (or Junk Mail box).  Gone!  Problem solved!