I have received an e mail from a friend containing a link which ends in .htm.
This link has been sent thro' several other people.
What is the chance of infection if I click on the url?

the url is in the form:

www.animatronics.org/ aaaaa/aaaaa./htm

You obvisouly run the risk of being infected by anthing from the internet.

What particularly concerns you about this URL?

If you have good AntiVirus/AntiSpam and Firewall software you should be fine.

MOD: Broken the link in case anyone's tempted to click on it and it is a source of infection.

MOD: Broken the link in case anyone's tempted to click on it and it is a source of infection.


there was no need mod because the aaaaaa were a substitute for the actual link.

have done a google search and it's a take off of a frank sintra song "strangers in the night"
What worried me was the fact it was" .htm "

.htm is the standard file extension for web pages. you normally dont see this in an URL becuse if you go to the root of a domain name it defaults to /index.htm

ie www.sheffieldforum.co.uk gets its homepage from the file sheffieldforum.co.uk/index.htm see for yourself:

www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/index.htm

Isn't it html?

htm and html are interchangeable.

no, thats the language web pages are written in

htm and html are interchangeable.

that and you can use it as the extension, thanks cyclone!!

.htm is the standard file extension for web pages.

Depends how the server admin has set up the server;)

Thanks. You learn something new every day. :)

.html is the proper extension to use, .htm is what you had to use when Windows couldn't handle 4 letter extensions on a filename. If you have a .htm file there is nothing special to worry about. The important part is how secure your computer is, and how much you trust the sender.

Even without any security issues you can be sent a link to a shock site

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_site (You probably don't want to read this page whilst eating, or if you are of a sensitive disposition, at all. Still having said that you might prefer to be aware that such things happen without it actually happening to you).