Virus are a fact of life on the Internet. Because of the daily threat of worms, viruses, etc., I advise all of you to buy, run, and update good quality firewall and antivirus software.

One nasty thing that some virus programs do is to copy all the e-mail addresses from the infected machine's address book. It then sends out more viruses from these new e-mail addresses that it has collected.

In the past few days, there have been some virus e-mails going out with my address on them (petekautz@lightlink.com). The subject line is often "test" or "hello".

These e-mails are NOT coming from me! They are generated by a virus on someone elses machine.

One easy way to tell these e-mails are not from me is that I NEVER send anyone an attachment without putting the phrase "(W/ Attachment)" in the subject line.

I'm sorry about this, but there is literally nothing I can do.

All ways be cautious with your e-mail and computer security. If in doubt - don't open it! Never open anything with an attachment unless you know to be expecting something from someone. When in doubt, write to them first and ask if they just sent something before you open it!

If you don't already have some, get yer'self a virtual jimmy hat for your machine in the form of some good software to protect it. You'll be glad you did.