68 When reporting a virus infection (and looking for assistance), what information should be included? (Computer virus)
Description
This article is from the Computer Viruses FAQ, by Nick FitzGerald n.fitzgerald@csc.canterbury.ac.nz with numerous contributions by others.
68 When reporting a virus infection (and looking for assistance), what information should be included? (Computer virus)
People frequently post messages to Virus-L/comp.virus requesting
assistance with a suspected virus problem. Quite often the information
supplied is insufficient for the various experts on the list to be able
to help at all. Also, please note that any such assistance from members
of the list is provided on a voluntary basis; be grateful for any help
received. Try to provide the following information in your requests for
assistance:
1. The date and location (town and country) of suspected
infection.
2. The name of the virus (if known)
3. The program (or programs) and version that called the virus
by that name.
4. Any other antivirus software that you are running and whether
it has been able to detect the virus or not, and if yes, what
name it called the virus.
5. Your software and hardware configuration (computer type,
kinds of disk(ette) drives, amount of memory and
configuration (extended/expanded/conventional), the exact
version of your OS, TSR programs and device drivers used,
control panels and INITs, etc.).
6. Any "unusual" behavior that has occurred recently and any new
software (including upgrades) you have recently installed.
It is helpful if you can use more than one scanning program to identify
a virus, and to say which scanner gave which identification. However,
some scanning programs leave "scan strings" in memory which will confuse
others, so it is best to do a "cold reboot" between runs of successive
scanners, particularly if you are getting conflicting results (see C6).
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