Outlook Express and/or Freeserve funny

[Andy Dee]

Well, you have two problems there. Outlook Express and Freeserve. I would eliminate both of them if I were you !

A

[p00kie]

Try unsubscribing and resubscribing.

[Bob Minchin]

Dunno about that problem but you could always start by setting your calendar and clock properly.

Bob

[Mary Fisher]

Nonsense. I'm on OE and have no such problem.

In fact I have no problems with OE and am always amused by its smarty pants detractors.

Mary

[Mike]

That better ? Seems I have something really odd going on here.

[Mike]

Thanks - but unfortunately didn't help. Hmm ?? :-(

[Set Square]

Don't know, but why does your clock think it's 3 o'clock tomorrow morning when it's actually only 10 o'clock tonight?

[Colin Wilson]

Sadly, most of the detractors have perfectly valid points.

If you want me to remind you how to switch Windows Scripting Host back on so it can run malicious code without you knowing...

[Mary Fisher]

No thank you.

I'm in control.

Mary

[Colin Wilson]

Care to spread the secret - i`ve had a hellish few days in work :-}

[Mike]

Totally OT but I know some people here are experts on this sort of thing.

All posts on this group (not currently subscribed to any others) from 26th Feb onwards show no name in the "From" column. If I enable "Show all posts" earlier ones (25th or earlier) are fine.

Anybody else seen this (i.e. it's Freeserve) ? Any other ideas before I start re-installing Outlook Express ? (other than use another newsreader :-)

[John Rumm]

That is a bit unfair, given that we did explain in some detail *why* OE has more than it fair share of detractors, before you went off on your hols IIRC.

[Mary Fisher]

I speak as I find. I repeat, I have no problems with OE.

And we don't have hols.

Mary

[Bob Eager]

I actually think that Mary's response was 'smarty pants' in its own right, I'm afraid.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Blissful ignorance. :-)

[John Rumm]

Sorry, I thought we had been through this before Christmas...

Many folks have no problem with OE, however they unwittingly *cause* them for thousands of others as a result of malicious software they end up running as a result of using OE.

I am not suggesting that this is the case with your computer, so don't think I am having a go at you personally, just highlighting that because you have "no problem with OE", it is not safe to extrapolate that to a broader class of users.

Your trip to Wales over Christmas then...

[Mary Fisher]

Your memory is better than mine :-)

And no other systems cause problems?

Well, you can protect yourself by blocking me.

A visit to a daughter's farm. Believe me, it was no holiday ...

Mary

[Grunff]

Not in the same way, and certainly not on the same scale, no.

[John Rumm]

Ah, well have a look on you hard drive, you will have a folder where you stored all the responses that you planed to read when you got back, sorry don't know what you called the folder ;-)

See:

>Many folks have no problem with OE, however they unwittingly *cause* them

In reality yes, but usually as a result of users doing something daft. The lions share of compromised systems that I see (running at several per week at the moment) got that way through IE/OE security flaws.

I am not trying to paint a black and white argument here of "IE/OE bad", "anything else good". IE/OE can be used safely with care and lots of added third party protection (and previous threads would suggest you have this). You can and will get problems with other programs, but you have to work harder at it (many compromises require ActiveX controls, and browser helper objects for example that you typically need IE to run).

Ah, well now you have hit the nail on the head. That is why the spammers love relaying spam via compromised windows boxes. 100M spams flowing from a single well connected host is easy to identify/filter/ block/blacklist/litigate against, but 100 spams from 1M different hosts can't be blocked in the same way.

(Current estimates put this route as the source of over 2/3rds of all spam, and almost all (Distributed) Denial of Service attacks).

[Mary Fisher]

Unoriginally 'DIY'. It's in the Inbox folder which in turn is in the OE folder :-)))))

need, I'm better organised than that :-)

And do you criticise their users?

And the mouse's share?

But many people seem to and that's my gripe. I believe that nobody's perfect and that if you take part in any activity you have to allow for that - and imperfect (i.e. [sorry!] human) usage of that system. Consider driving for instance.

I can't think of any to date. But perhaps I don't want to run those programs ...

I'm sure you're right. I don't understand such techtalk, being only a white haired old woman ...

I honestly believe that the more impervious a system is the more challenging it will become to those intent on violating it.

Shit happens, we clean it up.

Mary