Ok...running Win 98/Gateway/Cable Modem Using Outlook Express for email.

Computer is set up for two users. Myself and my wife's log on.

We both consistenly get emails on a daily and sometimes twice daily basis that have the "klez...." virus attached. My Norton AV always catches it, but only gives me the option to "quarrantine" it. Once I do that, I still get the email. We always just delete the email after that without ever opening the message.

Is this "Quarrantine" good enough? Why is this the only option given? Everything else is greyed out.

We've also learned that friends of ours that are in our address book have been getting emails FROM us with the Klez virus thing attached to it! I've run my AV software...Norton twice with nothing....I've tried the web link here, above under "virus info" but it doesn't work. I went to this sites AV review and downloaded the program "Antidote" and will run it tonight as it seems to take FOREVER to scan my system.


Also, If I receive an email with a virus etc... and have my email program (outlook express) configured to "preview pane".... is that bad??? Will previewing the message like that open the virus????????

I've done some research here on this wonderful site and have decided that I will be purchasing the PC-Cillen AV program eventually.

Thanks for ALL of your excellent assistance and advice!

Hi and welcome to SAF.

1. The Preview Pane basically opens your email before you do so it is in fact a very bad thing. It should be disabled. If you were getting viruses in email while you had the Preview Pane enabled chances are good your system is infected by something.

OE>Tools tab>Options>Read>uncheck 'Automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane'.

View tab>layout>uncheck 'Show Preview Pane' box.

2. Norton does not do a very good job detecting KLEZ as we've seen in previous discussions. I don't like Norton at all and would recommend you change to either Sophos or PC-cillin, both of which have proven themselves to be the best.

3. When a file becomes quarantined, it can sit there forever. It won't hurt a thing. Your other options are greyed out because 'quarantine' was your first choice (if I'm not mistaken). If you changed it in your settings to 'clean', you'll discover the second option will allow you to 'quarantine'. I'd tell it to try and clean it first, deleting the file if it can't clean it. Raise the heuristic settings to the maximum, too.

4. If you're using HouseCall for the first time, it takes a fairly long time for it to activate. If that box was blank and you didn't get an error message, you should try it again. I would get up, go get some coffee, read the paper, yell at the neighbors and beat the dog until it loads.

5. I would run StartUpLog from http://home.earthlink.net/~rmbox/Reticulated/Toys.html and post the results so we can take a look thru your startup files. This will give an indication if there is something amiss.