Hi Gypsy,

I've just had a duel with the BadTrans virus - just over the Christmas break, when my Internet Service Provider was having a break as well. I use Netscape 4.7, and Netscape Communicator for mail, but every time I tried to download my waiting e-mails it would crash Netscape on the first one and then I would get the virus again.

I rang the ISP at the earliest opportunity and asked them to delete the first e-mail. I haven't had any problems since then. It seems that the first e-mail was infected and my Norton Anti-virus programme was detecting it and shutting down Netscape each time - so it was doing the right thing.

I had to delete my Inbox and re-load Netscape to get the Inbox file back. I could possibly have saved the earlier e-mails in my Inbox, if I had thought of that, because it only seemed to be the latest e-mail, but then again, maybe the whole file was infected.

There is some good information on Symantec's site, and one suggestion was to change all your passwords for accessing the 'net, or for internal networks etc.

Good luck, and my commiserations. Not unlike the feeling people get when their house is burgled. I felt contaminated, my privacy invaded, and generally just edgy about the whole thing.

Helen