I can’t seem to get my Avast program to scan my email either coming or going out. It used to before I switched to Windows 7. I upgraded my computer and had to re-download Avast for Windows 7 and since then none of my email has been scanned. How can I get this changed?
It would help to know which email program you are using. 
I’m using google but was before and it had no problem spotting potential viruses.
by google i guess you men Gmail, anyway that is not a mail program…
do you read your mail by logging in at gmail.com (webmail)
or do you use a program like
outlook / outlook express / windows mail / windows live mail / thunderbird …
to download the mail to your computer and read it ?
I log into to my account on google and read my mail. I tried opening an account with windows live and having it all come to my computer, including the gmail but it doesn’t check that either so I figured why have the security risk of downloading it to my computer.
avast does not scan webmail, no AV does.
However if you download a attachment it will be scanned
Gmail have already scanned the mail for you, they protect all accounts with Postini spam filter that is using twin AV engine to check for virus. McAfee/Authentium
Yahoo use Norton
Hotmail/live mail use TrenMicro
If you use a mailprogram and download the mail to your comp, then you can sett up avast to scan it…
Well then Gmail needs to upgrade their virus protection. I sent out an email from gmail and got several emails back stating their virus program caught a virus in the email I had received in gmail and forwarded out through gmail and it never caught it. >:( Luckily it in an attachment that I overlooked that was not significant to the actual email so I didn’t open it.
ehhh… am i correct if i understand you are saying that, it did not detect the attacment as virus in the beginning but did detect it later?
No it never did detect it. I was told about it from friends when their virus protection program caught it after they received my email.
OK, no security program have 100% detection
an there will always be somone that is first to find and detect a new bug…
always upload and check mail attachment at www.virustotal.com before you open
that’s interesting information, didn’t know that hotmail is using such crappy virus protection. :o
It’s not hotmail, it’s Google’s Gmail. Normally it’s really good. I’ve been using it for many years and I think this is the first time this has ever happened to me and I get hundreds of email daily. I only noticed it because I thought my program was scanning my outgoing mail and didn’t realize Gmail’s program has actually had their own virus protection and does it. Since I’ve been trying to get mine up and running I was more aware of it.
As has been said, Avast! will not scan webmail accessed on the particular web site. It will only scan it if you use an email client like Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, or others to collect the mail from the mail servers. It’s kind of redundant since every web based mail service scans the mail themselves but it can’t hurt to have an additional scan with a different database. My primary mail provider is GMX and it’s also web based like gmail and scans the mail with Norton. So far it’s only caught two infections and none have gotten through to be later picked up by Avast. You never know though, it could happen.
I forgot to say that I collect my mail with Outlook Express and have accounts with GMX, Gmail, and Hotmail.
I don’t have any mail coming to computer per say. I have my two different email accounts and they both go to gmail where I log on and read it. I figure it’s just as easy to go there and look at my mail and it doesn’t add to my load on my laptop at all or risks bringing viruses unless I download something from it then the Avast will look it over. I do wish Gmail had stationary though, I miss that feature from Outlook Express which I though think is compatible with Windows 7 anyway. I tried their Windows Live mail program and wasn’t overly impressed with it so will just continue with Gmail.