This is the second part of our email feature. There's lots of ways to configure your eMail settings, those covered here use MicroSoft outlook express as an example but whatever eMail client you use the principals are the same.

Stopping attachments from activating
If someone sends you a virus it will arrive as an attachment. It has to be activated (run or executed) before it can do its damage. Generally, spotting a 'true' virus (as opposed to the macro/script type) is straight forward since executable files must have a file name extension which tells your computer it's a programme. The most common name extensions to watch for are .exe, .com, .rle. So if you receive an unsolicited attachment like: something.exe be careful! Do NOT double click it! - just delete the message and empty the bin. If you see a menu like this:

The best thing to do is click cancel then delete the message. Do NOT select 'Open it' and click OK. Doing this will activate the file. If you're not sure what the file is, maybe you really need it, you can try saving to disk and then get some information on the sender or the file itself. Once again, do NOT double click the file or start it in any way until you're sure what it is.

For users of Microsoft Office and other script enhanced applications - beware of unsolicited files ending with .doc, .dot, .fmt, .htt, .inf, .ini, .ins, .isp, .jod, .mam, .mdb, .mdn, mdw, .msi, .msp, .ofn, pwz, .reg, sc2, .sch, .scp, .sct, .udl, .vbe, .vue, .wiz, .wll, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh, .xla, .xlm, .xlt, .xlv...................the list goes on and on!.

How do I create a mail rule?
So far we've been taking automation away, now for some automation you can add! - but there's some good news and some bad news...Outlook Express has some great mail rules that you can easily configure to suit your needs, mmmmm the important ones don't work :-(

I've tested Outlook Express 5 on a couple of pc's and a couple of macs. There are of course deference's between the platform versions but the basics are as I mentioned earlier, the same. I've spoken to a couple of different service providers (ISP's) with no luck. The best answer I could get was "It behaves differently depending on the mail server" - In other words, if you have a regular pop3/ smtp server, the server related options have no effect. If anyone knows better let me know!

Nevertheless, mail rules are worth checking out because once the email has been downloaded you can apply a rule set to it, hence making it easier to handle and who knows, If they work on your isp's server they might just save your bacon!

Creating a mail rule...
In this first method we're going to stop any emails that have an attachment.
A common technique by email hacks is to send their virus as an attachment which begins to work once it arrives at your inbox, the downside is - if you want someone to send you an attachment you will have to ask them to let you know when they're sending it so you can override the settings (once you've got the hang of these mail rules you can set them up to do all sorts of clever things, including accepting some and not others. For now, lets keep it simple.

Open Outlook Express then follow these three steps, select Tools, then Message Rules and then Mail. -just follow the picture below if you get lost...

In figure 4 below, we tell Outlook Express to watch for any emails with an attachment and then in figure 5 we tell it to delete it from the server - notice the box for 'Do not download from the server' is grey because deleting the attachment at the server means it can not be downloaded. Then simply give the message rule a name (figure 6) and click the OK button.

Okay, that one is straight forward, what else can we do?

Restricting download size...
This is an alternative method to the above, the advantage here is you can tell your email client to allow some but not others, the criteria being the size of the message. The theory is, if the size is low it will only allow messages with very small attachments such as for instance a word document - larger messages will be deleted at the server. The problem here is, these email virus things tend to be pretty small anyway and one might still get through. You can see from the picture below that the procedure is much the same as before, just selecting different options. Try experimenting with the settings to see if you can stop some mail and not others. TIP: send yourself and email to test it.

Anything else?

Use the Blocked Senders feature - it is very effective in some cases but useless in most since the email could come from anywhere!
Open Outlook Express then select Tools, Message Rules and then Mail. -just as we did earlier. Refer to the first picture above if you get lost...then...

clicking add will open the add sender menu, very straight forward. Anyone listed here will be blocked from emailing you. You can use a mail rule as part of your overall strategy. Make a folder within Outlook Express called something like "MyGoodMail" then you can create a mail rule that identifies your eMail comming from family, friends, famouswelsh - whoever. Set the new rule to move new mailto your "MyGoodMail" folder and bingo, you've got (most) your important mail set aside. What's left will go to your normal inbox where you can check it as you see fit.

What's next?
Well apart from reminding you that Outlook Express 5 is copyright Microsoft Corp. 1995-2000+ with bits from Hallmark Licensing Inc. not much!

I will add a disclaimer though, you are warned that this text is advisory in nature and serves as an introduction only, we strongly recommend you read the expert advice offered by your computer and/ or operating system manufacturer (companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Symantic and widely available anti-virus vendors) before taking action.

It's worth noting that the automation is there to make these applications easier for you to use, though as we've seen - at a cost, you have to take control of the mail!

For more information try these websites:

Virus, huh?
The truth about email virus
Symantec eMail virus info
Virus trigger calendar
Virus reference

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