It seems just about no computer user can claim to be virus-free these days.

Sooner or later it is practically guaranteed that you will unwittingly open an innocent looking email and download some sort of virus like the Bugbear or the Mime virus, giving rise to what is probably one of the most common nightmares of the Western working world: computer meltdowns.

Lately, it seems as though the amount of viruses out there are actually increasing. Not so, say Bermuda's internet service providers (ISPs) - in fact, each one agreed there are actually less viruses making the rounds of cyberspace.

It just seems there are more because, with diving costs in both computers and Internet access, more and more people own a computer and are surfing the web, creating the illusion that there are more viruses when in fact there are just more users catching viruses.

Said a spokesman from Logic Communications, even the viruses that are out there seem to be less severe.

Citing the symantec.com website, Logic Customer Support Representative Jonathon Dill said most of today's viruses are actually test viruses put out there by programmers who want to see how fast the virus can be stopped. "Then they modify it, then try again, until they can launch a full and efficient attack," he said. "It's annoying but easily rectified," until the programmers come up with the `master virus' that defies anti-virus programmes, at least.

He said programmers are not getting any benefit from releasing computer viruses, therefore it appeared it was either being done as a test or just for kicks.

A spokesman from Cable & Wireless disagreed, however, agreeing there were less viruses but saying they were more severe due to greater ease of distribution - faster, cheaper Internet access.

A spokesmen from Fort Knox added they had noticed "nothing out of the ordinary" in the reports from their virus scanning server.

Spokesman Troy Simons wanted to explain that it is not the ISP which gives a computer the virus, however. He said he had had several complaints in recent weeks from customers concerned that an email sent to them by, for example, an IBL user had given them a virus which they thought was from the IBL server. "It's not the ISP, it's the computer (that the email was sent from)," he said.

Northrock sales and marketing manager Vicki Coelho agreed, saying Northrock (like most of the other ISPs) has an anti-viral solution which scans email with attachments to ensure they do not contain a virus.

More information on computer viruses worldwide can be found at www.symantec.com.