Viruses

What is a virus?

A computer virus is a program that you run on your computer.  This particular type of program got its name because the original computer viruses did nothing more than copy themselves to other parts of your computer, or to other computers.  Although this caused some inconvenience (and actually a significant amount of downtime), those early viruses were quite tame compared to the more -- well, virulent -- strains which today abound on the Internet.  Viruses can infect every part of your computer, destroying files and bringing down entire networks.

What about using a commercial virus scanner?

Running a virus scanner on all downloaded files is definitely recommended - but this will not protect you as effectively as interLink's virus block.  Why?  Because the vandals who create viruses are always slightly ahead of the programmers who combat them - there is always a brief period between the creation of a new virus and its being added to the virus scanning software.  If you don't keep your virus scanning data tables updated constantly, you are vulnerable to every new virus that comes along - and they come along quite frequently.

What makes interLink's virus scanning so good?

First, because we keep our virus data files updated continuously.  As soon as a new virus signature is available, our server-based scanner will detect it.  Because the scanning is done on our server, virus-infected files are rejected and never even delivered to your computer.  

In addition to our server-based virus scanning engine, which recognizes and eliminates tens of thousands of known viruses, we also provide a very effective blocking mechanism which will catch even new viruses that are not yet incorporated into the virus scanner.

Viruses get your computer to run them because of the name of the file that is sent to you.  Files ending with certain codes are "known" by your computer to be executable or to be intended for a particular program on your computer.  For example, if you receive a file named "info.doc", and you double-click on it, your word processor may automatically start up and open that file.  Viruses come with many different file codes, such as ".bat", ".exe", ".vbs", and so forth.  Each of these is associated with a particular kind of execution on your computer.

interLink's virus block works in a very simple yet universal way.  Any file which can be run on your computer is automatically renamed by our filter, so that you cannot run it and therefore it cannot cause you any damage.  

What should I do if I receive one of these renamed files?

If you receive an executable file that you were expecting and you are certain it's not infected, all you need to do is rename it in order to run it as intended.  All other files can be safely deleted.  You cannot open one of these renamed files by accident, so there is no danger of even a brand new virus infecting your computer.

For example, if you receive a virus file called "nastyvirus.exe", you will instead see "nastyvirus.exe.interLink".  Since ".interLink" is not an executable file type, your computer cannot run this virus and you cannot be harmed by it, even if it is brand new and has not been updated into your virus scanner's database.

We strongly recommend that you use a virus scanner in combination with interLink's virus block.  Our virus scanner/block protects you from email viruses only, not those you might download from the Web.  Also, if you receive a file from some other source, or a file that you intend to execute, you should scan it for viruses first.

Spam

Spam, or unsolicited commercial email, or junk mail - can be extremely annoying.  Millions of pieces of junk mail circulate around the Internet every day.

Why do I receive mail not addressed to me?

Have you ever received a flyer in the mail, addressed to "Resident"?  The same thing happens with email.  The instructions for delivering email are given to our server along with the email itself.  These instructions are not part of the message and do not appear in the information  that you receive.  While there is a "To:" header in most email messages, that header is not used in the delivery process.

Spam, or unsolicited mass email, is one type of mail that you may receive even though it does not contain your email address in the "To:" or "Cc:" header.  There are other types of email that have this characteristic also.

Mailing Lists

There are thousands of mailing list services on the Internet.  These services enable groups of people to carry on conversations via email without knowing each other's email addresses.  Instead, messages are sent to the list server, and the server then broadcasts the messages to all members of the list.  If you subscribe to a mailing list, you will notice that your email address does not appear in the messages you receive from the list.

Forwarded Email

You can maintain more than one email address and have messages forwarded from one address to another.  When you receive email that has been forwarded from another address, you will notice that the "To:" header shows the original address, not the one to which it is being forwarded.

Note that if someone else forwards email to you, it will usually have your email address in the "To:" header and so it does not fall into this category.  Only email that is automatically redirected will usually arrive without your email address in the headers.

Bcc: Header

Some people send messages with "blind copies" to other people.  This may be because the sender does not want the "To:" recipient to know that the "blind" recipient is getting a copy of the message.  Or, it may be done to hide the recipients' email addresses from each other, similarly to the operation of a mailing list.  Whatever the purpose, you may receive email that has been "blind" copied to you, in which case your email address does not appear anywhere in the message.

What does interLink do about spam?

The first line of defense, which has been in place for years at interLink, is a centrally-maintained list of known spam generator sites.  These are sites which allow anyone in the world to send mail through them, and which have consistently refused to close their mail servers to spammers.  Lists of these sites are maintained regularly. We also constantly update our large database of spam originators and global spam signatures, and block them for all users, free of charge.

We are currently discarding over 75,000 viruses and mass unsolicited junk messages every day.

Can't you just stop delivering mail not addressed to me?

Always receive mail from a specific list of addresses and keep the general filter

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