FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  587 (30/10/07)

Q. I normally receive between 10 and 20 Spam messages every day, it’s not a big problem just a minor annoyance and they’re quickly dealt with. This morning, when I booted up my PC and opened Outlook Express I was terrified to find it was trying to download more than 500 messages. There was nothing I could do as I was expecting several important emails and it took around 10 minutes for them all to arrive. They were still being sent hours later. The common factor, apart from them apparently all having been sent from my email address, was the subject lines, which most contained the words ‘Delivery Status Notification Failure’ or something similar, sometimes in French German or Spanish. This deluge lasted around 24 hours and hasn’t happened since. I have a good quality anti-virus program and a firewall and am scrupulously careful about opening attachments but could my PC be infected? Am I under attack? What on earth is going on? 

Nigel Garfield

A. A large volume of Delivery Status Notification Failure (DSNF) messages, and their ilk, are the classic signs of a virus infection, but the good news is it’s almost certainly not on your computer. A PC belonging to someone you know or have had contacted in the past has your email details in their Address Book. Their PC has been infected by a Spambot type virus or something similar and this has been busily churning out thousands of Spam messages, with your address on them.

The messages you are receiving are the ones that didn’t get through, either because they were rejected by Spam filters or the address wasn’t valid, so they’re bounced back to you as undeliverable. The flood generally stops as quickly as it begins, usually when the owner of the infected PC is alerted to the problem, or is blocked by their ISP.

Q. I run an old machine with Windows 98SE and IE6. I have the free ZoneAlarm firewall and AVG free that scans the PC once a day. Recently AVG has been showing an infection every time it runs. In the dialogue box under it reads "Virus found Exploit" and under 'Path' it reads "C:\WINDOWS\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content… ‘

I have looked in the Temp Internet Files folder but can't see anything that matches the description. I've also deleted the Temp Internet Files before and after running AVG but it does not seem to make any difference. I have not noticed any adverse effects so far. Is this something to worry about and how do I get rid of it?

Christopher Arden, via email

A. AVG has managed to neutralise the infestation but cannot get rid of it, which makes it more of a nuisance than a threat, but they can be difficult to eradicate. The infected files are very good at hiding themselves and can resist cleaning by conventional methods but there is a way. I suggest a little freeware utility called ATF Cleaner, which does a really thorough job of clearing out the Temporary Internet Files folder and quite a few other places besides, where these things can lurk, including, Windows Temporary and Current User Temporary folders the Java cache, History and Prefetch files. It’s a good idea to switch off System Restore before you run the program (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore and click the System Restore Settings link). If that doesn’t work try running it in Safe Mode (press F8 at Startup).

Q. My young granddaughter uses my PC (XP Home) frequently and of course like to print things out. Unfortunately she uses huge amounts of paper and ink on my printer. To try to control her usage (and that of her friends) I have tried to implement Printer Permissions on her account, but can't get it to work because the ‘Security’ tab is not present in the printer properties box.

David Hind, via email

A. You are almost there. The reason the Security tab isn’t showing is because Windows has enabled ‘Simple File Sharing’ which basically means it has decided not to burden you with bothersome things like granting or denying permission to individual users. This is easy to put right, just open Windows Explorer or My Computer and click on Tools > Folder Options then the View tab. Scroll down to the bottom of he list and uncheck the item ‘Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)’. Click OK and go back to Printer Properties and the Security tab should now be visible.

Whilst this will certainly do as you want it’s a bit of a sledgehammer approach. There are other ways you could limit or control the cost of your granddaughter’s printer access. If you open your Printer’s Properties (Start > Printers and Faxes and right click on the printer icon) and click the Advanced tab you’ll see a simple time or ‘Available From/To’ setup at the top that restricts printer use between certain hours.

Most printers also have a draft printing mode that can cut ink consumption by up to 50 percent, otherwise you could try using cheaper compatible or refillable ink cartridges, and cheaper paper and encourage her and her friends to use both sides.

Q. For an improved boot up time I regularly use the Windows Hibernation mode. Frequently, however, and particularly on my laptop, after emerging from Hibernation the computer goes back into hibernation. This sometimes happens even after I have begun navigation to a program. How can I stop this? I am using Windows XP.

Ray Jackson, Poole

A. Several things can upset Hibernation mode, including having too much RAM (see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 909095) and there’s a known bug in the CD burning program Nero 6 but the one that comes closest to your situation is a glitch that forces a laptop PC waking from hibernation to resume hibernation after several minutes of inactivity. This is caused by the BIOS, which automatically clears any active wakeup signals during hibernation. This means when Windows resumes it gets a bit confused because it doesn’t know why it was woken, so to save battery power it goes back to sleep. Just start using the PC as soon as it resumes and the problem should go away.

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© R. Maybury 2007 0210