It is a Rootsweb policy that virus warnings are unwelcome posts on their lists. It is also Rootsweb policy that no message be sent to more than 4 or 5 of their lists in the same message. There are very good reasons for both of these policies. If you have been on mailing lists long enough, you will recall when all the lists were on another server at Indiana University (Maiser). The lists were deluged with spam advertisinig copier toner (Hallmark, who denied involvement and who by the way still markets copier toner by spam to this day!). It essentially killed the mail server computer. After that, the lists were moved to Rootsweb. All of us tend to get the same virus about the same time. When we have the urge to post a warning about it, we have a tendency to post such to all the lists we are on, all in the same post. When all those multi-list posts hit the mail server computers all at the same time, you have the Hallmark/Maiser scenario all over again. If it is really important to you to send out such a warning/advice/whatever, you can essentially make your own personal list of email addresses to individuals (being sure not to include any mailing lists), put them all in the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: locations for the email you'll be sending. Most email programs will allow you to make such a listing in your address book with a single "name" (e.g., "everybody I know"). You will, in effect, be making your own mailing list but with the important difference that almost every addressee will be on a different mail server. You must be a bit careful in doing such, because your internet service provider may well prohibit such in their "terms of use" which you can find on their webpage. When a particularly virulent virus emerges (as is the case now), knowing all the above, I usually post an acknowledgement of the situation to the list (since list members are prohibited from doing so). This lets you know that you are not the only one getting emails with the virus. I always request that the matter not be discussed on the list. Someone (fortunately very few) always does anyway! In my warning messages, I always say that you may send such warnings/advice to me directly at jrshelby.com. I am list manager to several lists totalling over 1000 members and my email address gets sent to a large number of persons each day. As a result, I have far greater exposure to receiving infected mail than most list members. E.g., I received 4 infected emails responding to my previous "list manager comments". As a result, this means that I leave few stones unturned in terms of protection. It also means that if a new virus emerges, I usually know sooner than most. Goes with the turf. Rootsweb has done a very good job of seeing that viruses do not get sent via their lists (even if it *looks like* it came from a list, it does not). What EACH of us must do seems to remain the same: 1. Have current versions of anti-virus software. 2. Obtain the data updates to this software as soon as they are available (some automatic method recommended). 3. Perform full system a/v scans periodically 4. Never open attachments from strangers. Open those from friends only if you know what they contain. I'd suggest that you check out the options offered in your a/v software to be sure that you have everything "turned on" that needs to be turned on. If it slows your system down unacceptably, you can always go back and turn certain features off. I'd suggest that you also check out the options in your email software to be sure that everything is "turned off" that needs to be turned off. E.g., you should have "turned off" any feature to "preview" messages not yet read. If you have direct internet access (e.g., dsl or cable-modem) and use a firewall program such as ZoneAlarm, you should check to see that you have all desired protection features turned on. If you are using such high speed access and do not have such firewall software (or device), you are asking for trouble. If you receive an infected email and it *appears* to have anything to do with this mailing list, you may forward it to me (hopefully less the virus!). What I do in such cases is to remove the suspect sender from the list (if the address is a list member), tell the reason, and tell them they may resub any time they'd like but request that they verify that their pc has no virus before doing so. ...And as usual, please do not respond to this message on the list. You may respond to me directly at jrshelby.com. John Robertson