eCurrents | June 2008

Warning! - Bounceback E-mail Technique Used By Spammers

Have you received an increasing number of e-mail bouncebacks (returned e-mails marked "Non Delivery Receipt") in your inbox? If so, you're not alone. Internet Service Providers worldwide are reporting more complaints from customers who suddenly get dozens or hundreds of e-mails informing them that "the message you have sent has failed." Most of the time, the culprits are spammers that insert gathered or random e-mail addresses into the "Sender" portion of their messages. Spammers like to spoof this information in order to sneak their messages past e-mail filters. When these e-mails are not deliverable, they may be returned to inboxes like yours even though they didn't truly originate there. Referred to as backscatter, such e-mail bouncebacks come from legitimate e-mail servers that have been fooled by the spammers.

While these messages may appear troubling, receiving such e-mails does not necessarily point to a virus or spyware infection on your machine. There is likely nothing for you to worry about as long as you're using virus protection software and updating it routinely. Simply delete the messages and ignore the irritation until this latest technique falls out of favor with spammers. Again, it is very important that you have antivirus protection installed and updated to reduce your computer's vulnerability to attacks.

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Have You Visited 3rivers.net Recently?

Every month in the space entitled "Sites of the Month" this newsletter suggests four or five interesting websites for you to visit. These sites are often entertaining and informative, but there is another one that you should check out as well. When was the last time you clicked on the 3 Rivers Communications logo in the upper left corner of this newsletter to visit 3rivers.net? If it has been awhile, you should do it today.

This site contains up-to-date product and pricing information on every service 3 Rivers provides, from High Speed Internet through local and long distance telephone, even DIRECTV satellite TV. The News section on the homepage will steer you to new products or special announcements from 3 Rivers such as the recent upgrade of our basic voice mail service (with a price DECREASE!). This section also includes Frequently Asked Questions about new developments, such as our Fiber-to-the-Premises projects. In the Products section, click on a link to dig deeper and find information on money-saving packages, instruction guides for using your voicemail and other phone features, comprehensive FAQ pages for Internet and telephone, support pages and links, service area information, and much more.

The goal of 3rivers.net is to provide you with all the information you need about 3 Rivers Communications and its services. After you've visited the site, feel free to send us an email at 3rt@3rivers.net with any comments on how it can be improved or suggestions on what additional information you would like to see.

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Ask The Help Desk - What Is A Keystroke Logger?

Question: What is a keystroke logger and why would one be used? I often come across the term while reading about computer security.

Answer: A keystroke logger is a hardware device that collects each keystroke a user types on a specific computer's keyboard and saves it as text in its own miniature hard drive. Later, the person who installed the keystroke logger must return and physically remove the device in order to access the information gathered.

By contrast, a keylogger program does not require physical access to the user's computer. Someone who wants to monitor activity on a particular computer can download it on purpose. It can also be downloaded unwittingly as spyware and executed as part of a rootkit (a collection of tools that enable administrator-level access to a computer) or Trojan horse (a program in which malicious code is contained inside apparently harmless programming or data). The keylogger program records each keystroke and uploads the information over the Internet periodically to whoever installed the program.

Keylogging has legitimate purposes such as helping parents monitor their children's activities or allowing law enforcement agencies to obtain passwords or encryption keys used in crimes. However, spammers and identity thieves also use this technology to steal personal information.

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Sites Of The Month - Great Sites To Check Out In June

Recipe for Success
http://Pillsbury.com/BakeOff - There really are cookies that taste like a million bucks, and Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, MD bakes them. She was this year's $1 million grand prize winner in the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. Get the recipe for them here, as well as the recipes for many other award-winning Bake-Off dishes. You can also sign up for free e-mail newsletters and print moneysaving coupons.

Understanding Natural Disasters
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/ - The world news has been filled recently with stories of natural disasters — the cyclone in Myanmar (Burma), the earthquake in China, a volcano eruption in Chili, and tornadoes, flooding, and wildfires in the U.S. To learn more about the causes and effects of these hazards, take a look at this site. It features NASA satellite imagery of the events along with explanations of the science involved. You'll also find links to related websites and articles about topics including fires, floods, severe storms, and volcanoes.

Summer Olympic Games
http://en.beijing2008.cn - Get ready for the splendor and excitement of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August by visiting the official website now. You can familiarize yourself with all the sports and venues, tour the sites of the Beijing area including the Great Wall, and test your Olympic knowledge by taking the daily quiz. You can also take a close look at the unique medals made of gold and jade that the winning athletes will receive.

Sightsee from Home
http://earth.google.com - If you haven't tried Google Earth yet, you're missing a very cool online resource. Google Earth lets you "fly" anywhere on the globe and gain a bird's eye view of satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings. Type in an address, zip code, city, or state and Google Earth instantly takes you there. You can even swoop from outer space to street level and leap from one building top to another. The new Sky feature lets you view images of distant galaxies and nebulae from the Hubble Space Telescope. Just download the free Google Earth 4.3 software to use these features, and enjoy an around-the-world tour without spending a cent.

Out-of-this-world Robots
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e - In theaters this month is the new computer-animated movie about a robot named Wall•E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class). The cosmic comedy is from writer-director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) and the creative geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios (Cars, Ratatouille). Don't miss this fun journey across the universe as Wall•E chases a sleek robot named EVE. In the meantime, check out the site for Build-A-Bot Games as well as the movie's trailers, Super Bowl commercial, and photo gallery.

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Short Tutorial - Deleting Bookmarked Favorites From Your Browser

Over the years, you've undoubtedly accumulated a long list of favorite websites stored under the "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" feature of your browser. As your life changes, however, you may find that some of these sites are no longer of interest to you. It's easy to remove such sites from your list and streamline your Internet searches.

To delete bookmarked favorites you no longer need or want, follow the steps below for your browser.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Internet Explorer 7 Browser and Windows XP SP2 Home Edition (if menu bar is visible)

1. With Internet Explorer 7 open, click your cursor arrow on "Favorites" on the menu bar.
2. Select "Organize Favorites..." from the drop-down menu. The Organize Favorites window will appear.
3. Select the favorite site that you want to delete.
4. Click your cursor arrow on the "Delete" button. The Confirm File Delete dialog box will appear asking if you are sure you want to send the link to the Recycle bin.
5. Click "Yes." The site will be permanently deleted.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Internet Explorer 7 Browser and Windows XP SP2 Home Edition (if menu bar is NOT visible)

1. With Internet Explorer 7 open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" located on the right side of your screen.
2. Select "Toolbars" from the drop-down menu.
3. Select "Favorites." The Favorites Center will appear on the left side of your screen.
4. Right click on the favorite site that you want to delete.
5. Click your cursor arrow on the "Delete" option. The Confirm File Delete dialog box will appear asking if you are sure you want to send the link to the Recycle bin.
6. Click "Yes." The site will be permanently deleted.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Internet Explorer 7 Browser and Windows Vista Home Premium (if menu bar is visible)

1. With Internet Explorer 7 open, click your cursor arrow on "Favorites" on the menu bar.
2. Select "Organize Favorites..." from the drop-down menu. The Organize Favorites window will appear.
3. Select the favorite site that you want to delete.
4. Click your cursor arrow on the "Delete" button. The Confirm File Delete dialog box will appear asking if you are sure you want to permanently delete this file.
5. Click "Yes." The site will be permanently deleted.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Internet Explorer 7 Browser and Windows Vista Home Premium (if menu bar is NOT visible)

1. With Internet Explorer 7 open, click your cursor arrow on the "Tools" button located on the right side of your screen.
2. Select "Toolbars" from the drop-down menu.
3. Select "Favorites." The Favorites Center will appear on the left side of your screen.
4. Right click on the favorite site that you want to delete.
5. Click your cursor arrow on the "Delete" option. The Confirm File Delete dialog box will appear asking if you are sure you want to permanently delete this file.
6. Click "Yes." The site will be permanently deleted.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Firefox 2.0 Browser and Windows XP SP2 Home Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Macintosh OS X 10.4

1. With Firefox open, click your cursor arrow on "Bookmarks" located on the menu bar.
2. Select "Organize Bookmarks..." from the drop-down menu. The Bookmarks Manager window will appear.
3. Select the bookmarked site you want to delete by clicking on it.
4. Click your cursor arrow on the "Delete" button/icon located at the top right of the window. The site will be permanently deleted.

Deleting Bookmarked Favorites When Using Safari 3.1 Browser and Macintosh OS X 10.4, Windows XP SP2 Home Edition, or Windows Vista Home Premium

1. With Safari open, click your cursor arrow on "Bookmarks" on the menu bar.
2. Select "Show All Bookmarks" from the drop-down menu.
3. Select the bookmarked site you want to delete.
4. Click your cursor arrow on "Edit" on the menu bar.
5. Select the "Delete" option. The site will be permanently deleted.

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We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Your eCurrents Team
3 Rivers Communications



3 Rivers Communications
202 5th St S
PO Box 429
Fairfield, MT 59436

1-800-796-4567 406-467-2535

(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)

©2008 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

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