-=> HOWIE COOMBE wrote to ALL <=-

 HC> This is a short off topic message from a Windows XP User by the name of
 HC> Howie Coombe who is interested in hearing from anybody on the Virus
 HC> Echo who may have information on virus's that can affect a Windows XP
 HC> OS Endowed Laptop and how i may avoid it, prefferably without going
 HC> into the Internet, anyway here is the off topic bit, Merry Christmas
 HC> And A Happy New Year.

virus prevention without going on-line is going to be tough... if you're
going to use anti-virus software you're going to have to keep it up to
date... you may find a bbs that has updates regularly posted in their
file downloads section but by far downloading them from the internet is
a much more sure bet...

if you aren't going to use anti-virus software then you have a much
tougher job - you can't tell an infected file just by eyeballing it so
you have to be much stingier about what you allow to go on the laptop...
new materials (programs and often so-called data files like word
documents or excel spreadsheets or a host of other types) are your
enemies and preventing viruses without any way of telling if those
materials are infected means disallowing most new materials on your
laptop... even those from supposed trusted sources aren't necessarily
safe, as microsoft themselves have been known to accidentally distribute
infected materials... you may find this places unreasonable limits on
the usefulness of your system...

draconian, i know, but preventing viruses means avoiding infected
materials, and without using tools for identifying most infected
materials that's the only avoidance method left...

on the plus side, if you never go on the internet or connect your
computer to a network then there are entire classes of threats that you
don't have to worry about...
 
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