hello everyone. i am very new to computers and i just bought this computer which is compaq presario with 3000 amd sempron processor and 256 mb and 80 gb and when i opened my outlook express i got email's from my isp telling me that w32/sober.o@mm was found in our_secret.zip file and i have done several scans and no one is detecting the virus. i have done norton antivirus and se personal mcafee and none have found this virus and i also have done the w32/sober.o@mm removal tool and symantec said no w32/sober.O@mm was found. i need to know what to do and how to find this file. can someone help me please. thank you so very much. nl

ISP's do not (in my experience) send emails such as the one(s) you have received (they only connect you to the internet, they do not scan your system) - are you sure that it was not a Windows Messenger pop up screen you got??

IF it was then it is likely that it was a "sales" pitch - can you confirm this and then we can tell how to turn Windows Messenger off.

I get those messages quite often in my email. What it is telling you is that someone attempted to send you an email with a viral attachment.

Your ISP aparently has an AV scan set up to check all messages before they are passed on to their customers.

The virus is NOT on your system, no need to be concerned.
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The internet is no longer a toy, it's a COMBAT ZONE!

martin you are right that my isp does scan all my email's and i just wanted to tell you that this is what the email said "warning you were sent a virus: the virus software on blah blah has reported that you were sent a virus from blah blah with the subject"Re" the email containing the virus has been removed to prevent further damage. then on the bottom of the email it says w32/Sober.O@mm was found in file: our_secret.zip what does this mean? also why is my computer so slow when starting up. it used to be really fast when i first got it. also when i put that little chip from the digital camera into the computer to view pictures it takes forever to come up on the screen and before it did it right away and one more thing is i am hardly getting any email's anymore . why is all this happening? thank you so very much for all your guys responses!!!!!! i really appreciate it. nl

Sorry it took so long to respond, Thursday is my day to race.

Let me repeat!

The virus is NOT on your system, no need to be concerned.

The message you recieved included a notification that the virus had been removed from the email before it reached you. The part at the bottom simply tells you what the name of the file was (our_secret.zip) and the virus it contained (w32/Sober.O@mm).

As far as the current speed of your machine, my first thought is spyware. FIRST, turn off System Restore. 2. Download AdAware & SpyBot Search and Destroy. Install BOTH, update them, and run a scan with both. Delete EVERYTHING they find.

Considering you are a novice, I'm emailing you an article I wrote over a year ago. Print it out and live by it.

Unfortunately the retailers and manufacturers are happy to take your money, but they fail miserably when it comes to informing you of the dangers you WILL encounter or what to do about them.

Let's just start with the 2 programs mentioned above, then we will see if more drastic measures are necessary. Links to them both are in the email.

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The internet is no longer a toy, it's a COMBAT ZONE!