“Hi all, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus! This is the worst virus announced by CNN. I checked Snopes (URL above), and it is for real !! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP. PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!”
I usually receive one or two of these messages a month from friends and business contacts. Either I’m being asked to check them out, or they’re just forwarding them in a well-meaning attempt to help me avoid some kind of disaster befalling my computer.
This kind of e-mail hoax has been running for almost as long as I’ve had e-mail; many of the messages have retained exactly the same phrasing over the years. Here are some tell-tale signs by which you can recognise when a message is safe to ignore:
- Norton won’t be “gearing up” for it. Viruses don’t tend to schedule themselves conveniently like this. The moment anti-virus software providers are aware of a virus, they’ll dissect it and release an update for their package, which gets downloaded automatically in the background. Chances are you’ll never even know. (Check that your home PC’s anti-virus package is updating at least once a day.)
- The message recommends that you forward it to everyone you know. This is pure chain letter psychology. They’re trying to see how far they can get the message to spread.
- The message contains pseudo-technical gobbledegook: for example, a virus that “burns” your disk. The only thing your computer can burn is CDs or DVDs and even that depends on it having a CD/DVD writer as opposed to a reader.
- It contains melodramatic and meaningless advice to shutdown your computer immediately. What, and never turn it on again? It’s true that in the case of some genuine viruses this can be absolutely the right thing to do, but it’s usually followed by a call to your IT support person.
- It includes further exhortations to send the message on to everyone, just in case you didn’t get the point. In CAPITALS and in bold too.
- In case that doesn’t work, it brings in the big guns - Microsoft, CNN, and so on. People tend to associate these large corporations with authority, so the writer of the hoax is trying to bring some spurious authority to their message. That still doesn’t mean it’s true.
- Finally, it will often use the self-important phrase “the most destructive virus ever”. Oooh, scary! This fumblingly inadequate machismo masks the reality that, in fact, many viruses are a bit crap. One or two high-profile instances have caused genuine havoc, but there are many that fell at the first hurdle.
I recommend that you adopt a default viewpoint of scepticism where these messages are concerned. The best way to deal with them is generally to delete them. If in doubt, paste a few key phrases from it into your favourite search engine and see what turns up.
Many messages will tell you that their virus warning has been checked on Snopes (a useful resource for to remember) or similar sites, but of course this is rubbish. In general, Snopes and its peers will have identified the message as a hoax months previously.
I’ve recently moved onto much better tariff for my mobile phone and now have unlimited mobile broadband (HSDPA) access for a minimal fixed monthly cost. The fact that my phone can operate as an internet gateway for my laptop (when connected via Bluetooth or a cable) makes it even better. Having previously not wanted to access the internet via my phone except in emergencies, I’ve now configured it for all my online essentials and I’m very happy with it.
However, I soon found that I was having problems sending e-mail via my phone. I checked and re-checked the settings, but couldn’t see anything wrong with them. They work on my laptop, I figured, so there’s no reason that they shouldn’t work on the phone too. However, when I discovered that the same settings also failed on the laptop when it was connected via the mobile phone - yet they worked fine via any number of random wi-fi hotspots - a re-think was required.
It turns out that Vodafone blocks outgoing SMTP connections via port 25 to any servers other than its own, probably as an anti-spam measure. I was trying to use the SMTP server that my domain provider makes available to customers who can’t rely on a particular ISP - ideal for the transient, changeable nature of wi-fi access - when instead I needed to configure my mail client’s outgoing SMTP server to be send.vodafone.net instead. After I changed it, my Outbox emptied.
However, that didn’t seem like the right solution. The next time I used the laptop via wi-fi, outgoing e-mail would fail again because I would no longer be connecting via Vodafone. Back to the drawing board. I did some digging around and discovered that my domain provider’s SMTP server can also be accessed via SSL on port 465. I tested it and was pleased when it worked. That’s a solution that will stand me in good stead regardless of the underlying internet connection.
The moral of this story is that outgoing SMTP server settings that work well in one environment aren’t necessarily appropriate in another. The average home desktop PC user who only ever connects via a single broadband provider will rarely have to think about this kind of thing. However, people who are beginning to take advantage of the increasing number of cheap mobile broadband services now available will need to ensure that their settings work in multiple environments.
I’ve been freelancing as an IT and web consultant for nearly two years now. I left my full-time job of sixteen years in May 2006. I took a six-month break to review where my career had taken me thus far and where I wanted it to lead me in future.
Starting as a freelancer in late 2006 wasn’t, if I’m honest, the result of a co-ordinated plan. My original intention was to sign up with an agency and work on a contract basis for a year or two, to gain fresh experience in a variety of businesses.
However, as with my original entry into IT in late 1989, an opportunity appeared and it seemed too interesting to ignore. A couple of ex-colleagues asked me if I’d be interested in helping their business to make better use of IT and the web. I said yes.
Things have progressed naturally from there. My consultancy work has become a realistic way of supporting myself. I’ve kept a fairly low profile, but word of mouth referrals and repeat business have kept me busy. People seem to like what I do.
I’ve been on the internet since 1993. I created my first website the following year and wrote my first blog post over eight years ago. I’ve written in many places on numerous subjects ever since, but I’ve never really covered the topic of how I make a living.
The idea of writing about my freelancing experiences has become more attractive over the past couple of months. So that’s what I’m going to do, beginning today. Once more, I don’t have any particular plan. I’m just going to begin and see what happens.
So, hello and welcome to my blog. I’ll be covering anything that seems interesting and relevant: strategic planning, technical tips, knowledge management, my experiences of being self-employed - everything’s fair game. I hope you’ll find it interesting.