Am new user to Avast and would like to know if it has a spam feature to it or do I need to download a special program for this. ??? My spam has increased almost 80% recently and do need to get a handle on it.
No, avast does not have anti-spam feature. You can look for free anti-spam programs here: http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/comm/fwspam.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spami.html real good free one…
i use mailwasher pro for my pop3 mail…
http://www.mailwasher.net/ which also has a free one and is real good also 
I also use mailwasher pro I have had it for years and for a one off payment I have had continuing program updates. Prior to having the Pro version I used the free version (when it supported more than one email account) and I really like this program.
As a dial-up user it really saves time having to first download and then filter/delete the spam, mailwasher deletes it from the server so you don’t have to download it all first. If you only have one account to worry about try the free version.
There is also Spamihilator, http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spami.html, http://www.spamihilator.com/.
There is also Spamihilator, http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spami.html, http://www.spamihilator.com/.same as mine above davidr-neverless both great programs :)
Probably the vast majority of ISP’s offer, usually included or sometimes at a slight extra fee, spam filtering for their POP servers. Most commonly, suspect mail gets shunted to some kind of online quarantine, although some simply delete or bounce such messages.
Mine has for years used an advanced version of Postini’s SpamGuard which is great, it lets the end-user individually set several degrees of strictness/permissiveness for each of several categories of spam (porn, get-rich-quick, etc.), or even turn filtering off entirely. Plus you can blacklist or whitelist addys yourself.
They’ve recently (and quietly, not a word about it) added SpamCop, which for my money is the pits. That simply bounces mail back to any sender who’s on SC’s blacklist, which neither you (nor even, allegedly, the ISP) has any control over. And more often than not all of YahooGroups’ servers have been blacklisted, meaning that the medical peer-support groups where I’m a mod have very frequently suspended my account because of bouncing. So I wound up shifting all my group activity (meaning about 99% of my incoming) away from my ISP over to my Yahoo addy simply so I could get it reliably.
Sorry, wandered off-topic there :-[ . I started meaning to suggest that you also see what your ISP offers.
;D Gee thanks to all for your helpful information. I had heard good things of Mail Washer some time ago and remembered the program so went ahead and downloaded to have a look see.
Have only one account so am trying out the free version. Have not had time to get into it as yet to really investigate/program MailWasher and my first question will be - if I have a question re Mailwasher should I pose it here midst users who have experienced/like the program OR go to MailWasher direct? Am not clear since this is an Avast forum board.
Again thanks for all your suggestions and also the last poster who suggested I contact my ISP for their help if any re spam. Had not thought of that.
So soon as work quits interfering with my PC life - will start in on MailWasher :-\
feel free to ask us-someone here will help you to the best of our knowledge on mailwasher 
even though this is a anti-virus forum-we cover all aspects of computer problems or at least try too :
Mail washer isn’t that difficult to set-up so if you have a question ask it.
General tip MailWasher and avast - because mailwasher acts like an email program and uses the email ports and avast’s Internet Mail providers will scan what little it downloads.
MailWasher doesn’t download the complete email to do its analysis, it only downloads the headers, a small part of the body, it doesn’t download images or attachments and it views what is downloaded in text only. Based on this I personally don’t feel that any negligible risk worth scanning duplication, but the choice is yours.
By editing the avast4.ini file, [MailScanner] section using a text editor like notepad. It is best to save a copy of avast4.ini to another location in case of any problem, you can then copy the original back.
[MailScanner]
IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe add this line if you don’t already have an IgnoreProcess line.
???OK will ask questions here re MW program. And David R - I am not too computer literate so followed your post up to the last paragraph and then you lost me re editing the ini file etc. Is this a must and why so? I don’ even know where ethe ini file is. 
Ignore process item explained here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10267#msg10267
avast4.ini file explained here: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10233#msg10233
It is not a must, mailwasher will work fine with avast without it. It is just that avast will scan the content being downloaded to MW (even though the risk is negligible) because it uses the standard email port 110 to download the small part of the email in order to establish if it is spam.
Once you click the Process Mail button MW will delete all the email that has been flagged as spam, etc. and call your email program to download the remainder of legit email, avast will scan that too. So my ‘suggestion’ is simply to cut out this duplication as the remaining email that you download with your email program will be scanned in full including any attachments.
You could do a search for avast4.ini on your system, but it lives here (if you installed avast in the default location) C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini, it can be opened with the text editor of your choice (not a word processor), I gave notepad as a suggestion as it is part of the windows installation.
Thanks to all for your time, effort and suggestions. Will study all your ideas and take if from here. ;D
Your welcome let us know if you need any more help.
A belated welcome to the forums.
Stick around and browse the forums, especially the sticky topics at the top of each of the forums, not to mention the avast help file. They provide a wealth of information to help you get the best from avast.
It is not a must, mailwasher will work fine with avast without it. It is just that avast will scan the content being downloaded to MW (even though the risk is negligible) because it uses the standard email port 110 to download the small part of the email in order to establish if it is spam.David this may make a difference for those of you on dial-up. For the rest of us, it really doesn't have any effect. :)
nondaj, welcome to the forum.
It makes a difference not having to download all the email and then sort it, as avast will have to scan all that email, mailwasher is very effective at what it does detect spam, it is very flexible and configurable not unlike avast.
Your selective quote you posted above doesn’t have anything to do with being on dial-up (I would recommend it even for broadband users) but having avast Internet Mail ignore mailwasher.exe, avoiding duplicate scanning by avast.