I always keep my Norton antivirus software up to date. A week ago i received a number of emails with the W32.Bugbear@mm. Norton recognised this, i quarantined them and deleted them. As a precautionary measure i have run the Norton antivirus software several times to check. No problems. Even ran the 'Bugbear' removal tool. Nothing. Then a couple of days ago i went to my Outlook Express and found names and email addresses had been added to my address book whom i have never heard of! Anybody any ideas how they may have gotten there?

Do you have the option checked to add people to address book if you've replied to them? Perhaps you are sending out messages with the Bugbear virus in it without you knowing. I did have the virus sent to me and unfortunatly my computer sent it to other people. Now I've downloaded the Symantec removal tool, removed the virus, installed Norton, done a full system scan and it says it's clear, but somehow I'm still nervous that something's going on without me knowing it. Why? Because my computer sounds very busy sometimes when I'm on the net. Also I told a friend to check her computer for the virus and she says it's ok but then tells me that the computer is trying to dial up without her asking it. Isn't this a sympton?

I use an external modem with leds so I know if something is being sent or received when I do not expect it. When using a dial-up to my ISP, I also keep the "Connected ..." window on the screen somewhere so I can also see the count of bytes sent/received also and detect any activity. This does not work with internal modems and some connection software, including AOL. So to see what is going on when using other systems, I bring up the System Tool "System Monitor", and select the dial-up adapter (or communications adapter being used) and select the item to view bytes sent and received. This give me a graphic of the communications activity, so I can see if something is sending/receiving that I do not know about. In addition, I keep my own e-mail address in my e-mail list. This way if something like Bugbear gets in, I will get an e-mail from my self and know that something is wrong.