Elite.Net Mail Changes

The staff of Elite.net has noticed a nasty trend in e-mail over the past few months. The number of Trojan horses and viri transmitted via e-mail has increased dramatically with new nasties being created almost daily. In the past, we've tried to provide specific filtering for worms that would target windows users but because of the increased sophistication of e-mail viri, like Sircam and Hybris, we've had to filter content that will most likely affect many of our users. As a way of protecting our users we will be filtering files with the following attachment extensions: hta, lnk, js, jse, shs, vbe, exe, vbs, wsf, wsh,and scr.

Most subscribers will be asking, "How will this affect me?" Let's suppose that while browsing the web, your brother in Idaho went to tucows.com and found a really great screen saver with a name "pokemon.exe" In fact, he liked the screen saver so much, he decided to mail it to you. The mail program at elite.net notices that this is a .exe and says "I have no way of knowing what program this is. I will get rid of it." and delete the program.

"How does this help me?" Let's suppose the same brother got a virus on their computer. You are listed in his address book, so every time he sends an e-mail to anyone you will receive a copy of the virus and will continue to do so until he cleans his computer or the virus crashes it. Your computer will send copies of the virus until it is cleaned or the virus crashes it. Since a great many viri and worms are passed as a ".exe" attachment and will be filtered, you will not get the virus,

"Is there a way people sending me mail can get around the filtering?" Yes, in the example above, the brother could compress the program in to a .zip file. Zip files are not filtered by the mail program and will arrive safely. For information and a program to zip files go to winzip.com. Alternately, the file extension can be named removed or changed before it is attached. In the text of the message, your brother could write, "Change the filename from 'pokemon.xyz' to 'pokeman.exe' to run the program.

"I don't like this, who can I talk to about this?" You can call our support number or email the webmaster@elite.net