A recent post under my [user name] concerning the use of email scanner(s) by Tom Koch of Microsoft, the name of “Viral Irony”. Shortly after this post my email scanner is not showing in the system tray. I do not know why. :-\ I thought we concluded that the email scan module\provider was necessary in Avast since the standard shield did not register a scan count.
This discussion is about background scans by Windows oriented AV software and the workings of Outlook Express v.6. There seems to be a problem at MS about the use of these email scanners. Did MS turn off the this provider behind the scene or Avast? Is this good for us or bad? ???
I updated the program and still says OK, but not seeing the icon in the system tray.
There is no conspiracy by MS to switch off your email scanning. I too use OE6 and it is scanned quite happily by avast.
Not seeing an (avast email) icon in the system tray isn’t unusual as it is only there for the duration of the scan (see image, is that the icon you mean) and goes. What we have to determine is are your emails being scanned.
Does the Internet Mail provider, Detailed view Last scanned: and Scanned total: fields indicate mail is being scanned ?
The avast ’ a ’ icon should rotate when you send/receive email ?
My email which is first scanned by MailWasher Pro and then processed by Outlook Express
shows the following message in each clean email received.
(I have Scan inbound mail and Insert note into clean message selected)
There is no problem with Outlook Express or any conspiracy by Microsoft.
Mail scanner working on Thunderbird and MS Outlook here.
To see if avast! is scanning emails, check one of these points:
Is the avast icon (the special one of email scanning) be shown in the system tray (see David post about settings)?
Is your email header with the lines X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS XXXXXX-X, XX/XX/2008), Inbound message and X-Antivirus-Status: Clean? (Right click the message, choose Properties and Details)
Are clean notes added at the bottom of the email? (Internet Mail provider settings)
I am sorry, I guess it was not clear why I wrote that message and the article by MS-employed Tom Koch. I had lost my Outlook Express due to file corruption in the DBX files and had to move everthing out and into a new OEv.6 application, that is, change identities and then dispose of the old default and rebuild the database files in the new id. For some reason Avast email scanner has stopped scanning or just lost me on this machine… ???
Here is a test header of mine:
X-Message-Delivery: Vj0zLjQuMDt1cz0wO2w9MDthPTE=
X-Message-Status: n:0
X-SID-PRA: James
There is no count in the internet mail scan or icon in tray since this switch over to new OEv.6 id. It simply is not scanning.
Configure your email accounts to work without the antivirus and test them.
If everything is fine, close all your email clients (programs).
Start Menu > All programs > avast antivirus > Mail Protection Wizard
Follow the non Outlook/Exchange option (i.e., the second one).
You can choose the supported email programs and select all the accounts
(even the ones created in the future).
Configure your email accounts to use avast! as antivirus.
I gave it a whirl and OE kept throwing up errors on the polling. No icon in tray and no count on internet mail provider.
I do not understand why I would need to do this manually. That is a bit of a byte the bullet! >:( It worked originally when I first used Avast for a few months. The mail scanner only stopped recently when I switched the OE id because of the DBX corruption problem noted by Microsoft in the article. The same with NNTP scan.
With the very old Windows 98SE operating system there needs to be a reconfiguration of your mail settings in OE for avast to be able to scan your mail (this is not necessary for users of current operating systems). Without the changes made by the wizard your mail will not be scanned.
Even with the wizard if you are still able to use a free Hotmail account with OE then it uses a proprietary Microsoft access method (that is not POP/SMTP) and which cannot be scanned by avast (nor has it ever been). avast (in any operating system) can only scan unsecured POP/SMTP access - typically those using POP port 110 and SMTP 25. If you are using secure port access to your POP/SMTP email accounts then avast cannot scan those secure connections.
Alanrf, that would be my configuration at this time. I have ssl connection to the pop3/smtp and MS http. :-[
All my email is scanned at the service providers server side. I wonder why Avast email scanner was working for some time before it stopped, about 6 months? I decided to turn the email scanner protection [off] in the email scan wizard. I hope Koch is correct about the this affair… Does Avast perform a background scan of all files when opening them? If so, the I am still protected by Avast at the local level. The server side scans all email and these are big corporations like AT&T, Yahoo! and Microsoft with daily updates and current engines. :-\
But it’s not the best balance between performance and protection.
Better will be letting it on Normal and use Webshield and Mail providers as dedicated protection.
I believe that I am agreeing with Tech that the “normal” levels of the Standard Shield and Webshield will suffice.
As to your mail scanning - more and more ISP services are suggesting secured connections to their email servers. This makes users feel better whereas, in reality, this is being done largely by the ISPs to protect themselves much more than any concern for the users (no new news there I’m sure). To be fair to the ISPs it does provide greater security to those who use hotspot connections when off their direct connection to their ISP such as in Internet cafes, in airports and in hotels.
So the gradual move to secured email connections is part of the changing email world and may have been the difference between then and now for you.
avast has advised that they will provide a better mechanism within the next major release of avast (avast 5) that will allow users to manage secure connections within avast and allow the email delivered via the secure connections to be scanned. This does not mean that avast or any other antivirus can scan secure connections - it does not and will not. It means that avast will help you with a work around to to do what I just said (right now you need a free third party program called STunnel to help you manage this). Do not expect anything to help with scanning those free Hotmail accounts.
The one extra point - even with the above explanation of why your mail is not being scanned I would still strongly advise you to run the Internet Mail provider at the High setting. It will consume negligible resources on your system and, at this setting, will alert you should you have the misfortune to be infected by an email spambot infection pumping out untold volumes of spam email from your system without your consent.
I believe that I am agreeing with Tech that the "normal" levels of the Standard Shield and Webshield will suffice.
Actually he, "Tech", said standard shield normal and webshield high with email scanner [on] high is best configuration for Avast v.4.8
But it's not the best balance between performance and protection.
Better will be letting it on Normal and use Webshield and Mail providers as dedicated protection.
I have the Internet Mail provider on high. ;)
I think we are good to go here; unless someone wants to add anything… :o
Actually he, "Tech", said standard shield normal and webshield high with email scanner [on] high is best configuration for Avast v.4.8
I did not see that (as you describe it) in this thread - but it is not a major difference. I believe (from other threads) that Tech tends to advise WebShield on “Normal” - though I must let Tech speak for himself.
Well I have said in the past that these are the settings I have for those 3 providers, but I have never said they are the best, just my settings as they suit me needs and system specification.
So I don’t know if cubie is mis-quoting you for having said it and getting wrong what I said ;D
