ashmaisv.exe gets active every time im online - think it is infected

i have avast 4.7 home edition and win xp professional. The problem is that recently ashmaisv.exe gets active every time i am online, its icon appears in the bottom right corner - i think it is infected, since my computer is uploading lot more than downloading.

Here is the result of ashmaisv.exe online scan:

STATUS: FINISHEDComplete scanning result of “ashMaiSv.exe”, received in VirusTotal at 10.09.2006, 18:12:32 (CET).

Antivirus Version Update Result
AntiVir 7.2.0.25 10.09.2006 no virus found
Authentium 4.93.8 10.06.2006 no virus found
Avast 4.7.892.0 10.08.2006 no virus found
AVG 386 10.07.2006 no virus found
BitDefender 7.2 10.09.2006 no virus found
CAT-QuickHeal 8.00 10.07.2006 no virus found
ClamAV devel-20060426 10.09.2006 no virus found
DrWeb 4.33 10.09.2006 no virus found
eTrust-InoculateIT 23.73.16 10.07.2006 no virus found
eTrust-Vet 30.3.3123 10.09.2006 no virus found
Ewido 4.0 10.09.2006 no virus found
Fortinet 2.82.0.0 10.09.2006 suspicious
F-Prot 3.16f 10.06.2006 no virus found
F-Prot4 4.2.1.29 10.06.2006 no virus found
Ikarus 0.2.65.0 10.09.2006 no virus found
Kaspersky 4.0.2.24 10.09.2006 no virus found
McAfee 4869 10.09.2006 no virus found
Microsoft 1.1603 10.09.2006 no virus found
NOD32v2 1.1795 10.09.2006 no virus found
Norman 5.80.02 10.09.2006 no virus found
Panda 9.0.0.4 10.08.2006 no virus found
Sophos 4.10.0 10.05.2006 no virus found
TheHacker 6.0.1.094 10.08.2006 no virus found
UNA 1.83 10.06.2006 no virus found
VBA32 3.11.1 10.08.2006 no virus found
VirusBuster 4.3.7:9 10.09.2006 no virus found

Aditional Information
File size: 251520 bytes
MD5: 30020c9fd8754f4099f9d868c6c87051
SHA1: 5eded8d03f844e0442fcfd94c102fe1093102896

VirusTotal is a free service offered by Hispasec Sistemas. There are no guarantees about the availability and continuity of this service. Although the detection rate afforded by the use of multiple antivirus engines is far superior to that offered by just one product, these results DO NOT guarantee the harmlessness of a file. Currently, there is not any solution that offers a 100% effectiveness rate for detecting viruses and malware.

What should i do to remove the infection?

i have avast 4.7 home edition and win xp professional. The problem is that recently ashmaisv.exe gets active every time i am online, its icon appears in the bottom right corner - i think it is infected, since my computer is uploading lot more than downloading.

It isn’t infected but you may be, with a spam bot sending out spam (not a virus) from your system. The email scanner is scanning outbound email as it should, it doesn’t initiate it you have to find the trojan that is responsible for the spam bot activity.

If you haven’t already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it, preferably in safe mode.

  1. Ewido, a.k.a. avg anti-spyware If using winXP. or a-Squared free if using win98/ME.
  2. Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition - Ad-Aware Product Comparison Chart http://www.lavasoft.de/download_and_buy/product_comparison_chart.php
  3. Spybot Search and Destroy
  4. Spywareblaster Don’t install this until you are clean.

To David’s suggestions, I just add:

  1. Disable System Restore on Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];310405
  2. Clean your temporary files.
  3. Schedule a boot time scanning with avast. Start avast! > Right click the skin > Schedule a boot-time scanning. Select for scanning archives. Boot.
  4. Use SUPERantispyware or Spyware Terminator (trojan removers).

To be sure, the better will be test full computer on-line:
Kaspersky
Trendmicro housecall
Ewido