I do not understand how the scanning e-mail function works. I have Avast v.4.7 home edition, IE7, MS Windows XP home, and Outlook 2003.
In the On-Access Protection Control, Internet Mail has the sensitivity set to normal and the scanned count is 11. I realize that this number changes everyday, but why is it only 11. I received over 20 e-mails today and sent about 20.
Outlook/Exchange indicates that “The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start.” So nothing is being scanned here. Is it correct that the scanning is done in Internet Mail and not here?
What kind of accounts do you have set up in your mail client?
I have Worldnet and Verizon. Both are Pop/SMTP. Is this what you mean? Worldnet is my default account. I tried sending individual e-mails from both addresses to both addresses. Only the e-mails sent from or to Verizon were noted on the Internet Mail panel.
Since you are using Outlook you are advised to use the Outlook plugin rather than the Internet Mail provider.
Have you enabled the plugin in Outlook 2003?
I have gone to Outlook, and Avast is in the Add-in manager panel. The box next to it was not checked, so I checked it, but this did not change anything, as there is no change in Outlook/Exchange. Is there something on Avast that I should be doing to enable this? BTW I do not use Exchange, but assume that Outlook/Exchange is also for users of just Outlook.
Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove. Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair). You must be connected to the internet while repairing.
If this does not help, can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?
I suspect that your WorldNet mail setup is using port 995 for POP and 465 for SMTP. These are secure email connections that may not be scanned by avast (or any other antivirus or entity). Hence the emails received and sent in this account will not be included when you use the Internet Mail scanner because it scans the email connections as the emails are transmitted.
The plugin for Outlook works differently. Outlook has a program interface to avast. After each message has received from the network (so now totally independent of the type of connection that was used) the message is passed from Outlook to avast to be scanned and the status of the scan is returned to Outlook before the message is committed to the Outlook message database. This is a much better solution for mail scanning since all mails can be scanned whether delivered on a secure connection or an unsecured one. Sadly, there are no standards for this yet in the email world.
I suspect that your WorldNet mail setup is using port 995 for POP and 465 for SMTP. These are secure email connections that may not be scanned by avast (or any other antivirus or entity). Hence the emails received and sent in this account will not be included when you use the Internet Mail scanner because it scans the email connections as the emails are transmitted.
Yes, that is the setup. But I still do not understand why my Verizon e-mails (110 for POP and 25 for SMTP) are being scanned by the Internet Mail scanner and not the Outlook/Exchange scanner.
I assume that if I changed to the professional version there would be no change with the Worldnet e-mails.
If you only use MS Outlook (2003, then you need to enable the Outlook/Exchange Provider/Plug-in and Terminate the Internet Mail provider.
DavidR, I appreciate your help as well as help from allanrf in answering what are probably very elementary questions for both of you.
Can I have both the Outlook/Exchange provider and Internet Mail provider enabled at the same time?
Although I use Outlook, if I have guests, they get and send their e-mails from the website of their e-mail provider. If I only use the Outlook/Exchange provider, I assume that this use of sending e-mails from the Internet would not be covered.
In addition, what happens when I send an e-mail directly from a website, i.e. the New York Times? What scanner covers this?
I believe the answer is yes but I’m not sure if the Internet Mail won’t get in there first and scan those that can pass through the localhost proxy of the Internet Mail provider. This may account for what you are experiencing, because all email coming in through the pop3 110 port is redirected through the Internet Mail proxy .
Webmail, viewed the a browser are monitored via the web shield provided they use the http protocol and port 80.
e.g. Yahoo/Hotmail are not pop3 email services (unless you pay for the pop3 service), it is web based (so the Internet Mail provider doesn’t directly protect it and nor would the Outlook/Exchange provider). Web based email is simply your email being viewed in the same way you browser the internet. The pages (that display your email) are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder, just like regular web pages and displayed on your browser screen.
The Web Shield and finally Standard Shield will scan your files (as they are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder) when sensitivity is set to High. You can get round this ‘problem’ using 3rd party applications to download the Hotmail messages through the pop3 server.
I believe the answer is yes but I'm not sure if the Internet Mail won't get in there first and scan those that can pass through the localhost proxy of the Internet Mail provider.
I think that I am going to leave it with only Internet Mail scanning my e-mails as I am not able to add the Avast Add-in in Outlook 2003. When I asked about this on the Outlook board board, I was asked why I wanted to activate any AV program with Outlook because it only causes problems. So since the Internet Mail scanner scans at least one of my e-mail accounts I should be okay with it.
The Web Shield and finally Standard Shield will scan your files (as they are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder) when sensitivity is set to High.
One more question: I already have the Web Shield sensitivity set to high but everything else is set on normal. Should I change the Standard Shield to high? And should I leave the other scanners on normal?
there is no issue with running both the Exchange provider and the Internet Mail provider. It’s really no surprise that the avast folks are clever enough to not intercept the Outlook accesses with the Internet Mail provider if the Outlook provider is active.
I was a bit confused by the Outlook provider showing the “waiting for subsystem to start”, but then I realized it reports that whenever Outlook is not running.
With the Outlook provider running, when I start Outlook 2003 it briefly shows an avast logo. When it downloads my mail, from my ISP, from Hotmail, from GMail the count of scanned messages increase in the Outlook provider (and does not change in the Intermet Mail provider).
the response from the Outlook forum is pure unadulterated garbage (or tosh as David might say).
I always run the Webshield at normal sensitivity. I believe this is the recommended level. I set the Internet Mail provider at “High” because this level is needed to detect spambot infections sending mass emailing out of your system without your knowledge. An incredibly short-sighted choice by the avast team IMO but we won’t drag up that history again.
I think that I am going to leave it with only Internet Mail scanning my e-mails as I am not able to add the Avast Add-in in Outlook 2003.
Why not, what error messages, etc. are you getting ?
You would be far better off with the Outlook/Exchange provider as that works within Outlook. Check the, Outlook 2003 > Help > About > Disabled items and ensure the plug-in isn’t disabled.
I also have the Web Shield set to High with no noticeable performance impact (but I’m only a dial-up user), I did this some considerable time ago when there was concern about firefox’s browser cache files not being scanned as they are extension less files.
I like Alan also have Intenet Mail on High for the reasons Alan mentions, but I don’t use MS Outlook.
I wouldn’t recommend setting the standard shield to High, Normal provides a good balance between performance and protection.
This is what the people on the Outlook board have always said. I was using Norton and finally disabled the e-mail part. I have enabled e-mail scanning on Avast and so far it is working perfectly.
This is it!! I did what you suggested and found that it was disabled. So I enabled it and now it works perfectly and I get my Worldnet and Verizon e-mails scanned by Outlook/Exchange.