F4) When reporting a virus infection (and looking for assistance), what
    information should be included?

People frequently post messages to VIRUS-L/comp.virus requesting
assistance on a suspected virus problem.  Quite often, the information
supplied is not sufficient for the various experts on the list to be
able to help out.  Also note that any such assistance from members of
the list is provided on a volunteer basis; be grateful for any help
received.  Try to provide the following information in your requests
for assistance:
        - The name of the virus (if known);
        - The name of the program that detected it;
        - The version of the program that detected it;
        - Any other anti-virus software that you are running and
whether it has been able to detect the virus or not, and if yes, by
what name did it call it;
        - Your software and hardware configuration (computer type,
kinds of disk(ette) drives, amount of memory and configuration
(extended/expanded/conventional), TSR programs and device drivers
used, OS version, etc.)

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 "signatures" 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 confusing
results.


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