I have internet mail in protection control set to scan both incoming and outgoing mail but it only scans outgoing, no mistaking it. I sent test emails to myself and from another email client; it doesn’t scan them unless I reboot computer, then it scans them. But before long it stops again (outgoing consistently scans as it should). There is no filtering software being used on my mail client, OE 6, I did an avast repair and ran full antispyware and virus scans but it didn’t help. Any ideas?
Are you using any other software that is involved with your mail … like any spam filtering software?
No spam filtering software is involved with my mail program, I use Outlook Express 6. After I started my computer this morning it wasn’t scanning incoming mail but like I said, I rebooted and then it did. But now I discovered that it stopped again on its own and rebooting seems to be the only way to get it scanning again. Scans outgoing mail fine, but not incoming, it’s a mystery. Any other options? Thanks
just rebooted and this time it still wouldn’t scan inbound mail so evidently rebooting doesn’t correct the problem. something is stopping it from doing that when it used to work. tried everything I can think of, any expert advice from avast is appreciated.
Do you have just one email account on OE or multiple ones? I take you are receiving all the emails you expect?
Can you please tell us what confirms to you that scanning is not happening?
I have just one email account and I can receive all emails. I know they are not being scanned because under On-access protection control/internet mail/“last scanned:” only outgoing mail will show, the scanner icon in the lower right corner does not appear when I get an inbound mail like it does with outgoing mail and when I receive an email, I don’t get the detailed into on the bottom of the screen like I do when I send an email (I have checked ‘show detailed info on performed action’ under advanced tab/resident task setting and it’s very noticeable when it works). All this confirms to me that it is not scanning inbound mail, but mostly because it used to do all those things and now it isn’t. I haven’t changed any settings so I can’t figure it out. Also, pop3 port no. in my email program matches the one I have checked in avast, 110.
All that you have said is true but most of it is fleeting - especially if you have few messages and a high speed connection.
The real indication if a message has been scanned by avast is inside the message itself.
In messages that have been scanned by avast you will find two lines like these in the headers of the message:
X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 090122-0, 01/22/2009), Inbound message
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
In OE6 to see if these lines are there then select a message, right click on it and select “Properties” > “Detailed” tab > “Message source” button
This will open a box showing you the exact information contained in the message as received by OE6. Please look for the lines there.
Nope, no mention of antivirus or avast is there for the ones I received, but it WAS in the ones I sent and they say ‘outbound.’ That confirms for me that it is not scanning inbound mail and also since it used to show all indications of scanning and then stopped. I won’t worry too much about it because I looked up a site re: Outlook Express and it said the following, do you agree with what they say, especially the part about still being protected because the av program will still block an email virus without first scanning it? Thanks
“Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program to try and intercept (incoming and, in some cases, outgoing) messages that might contain a virus. The problem with this approach is that the antivirus software can trigger the destruction of an entire message folder when it attempts to remove a message containing a potential virus.
Because of the fragility of the OE message store structure and its propensity for destruction, this applies to just about any antivirus program that touches the OE message store. So its best to follow these instructions regardless of what antivirus program you use.
To prevent the possibility of such destruction occurring, turn off email scanning in your antivirus software. You will still be protected against infection. If you attempt to open a message attachment containing a potential virus, your antivirus software will recognize that your are attempting to infect your system, and will block you from doing so.”
Which version of Windows do you have?
Where this is true “Antivirus software invades the Outlook Express program”, there is a risk. As they say, “this applies to just about any antivirus program that touches the OE message store”. avast! email scanner uses a transparent proxy in Windows XP or Localhost redirection in Windows 98, nothing inside Outlook Express. So while there is a possibility that an individual message may be corrupted, the “message store” files are not “touched” by avast!
However, Be aware that if you run a manual scan of your PC which includes the OE mailbox files, the entire file will be quarantined/deleted on detection of malware, if you so choose.
So, you are telling us, despite your previous assertions, that not one of your inbound emails has been scanned by avast … is that correct?
I would like you to be a little clearer in the outbound message description.
I have to assume that these were message that you sent to accounts that you own and you saw them as received messages. Or are you telling me that you saw the antivirus headers in the messages saved in your “Sent” message folders?
As for your quote from a website … it is a view … a view that does not understand avast at all … and that you are free to choose to believe if you wish. I will agree to a small extent … outbound email scanning does nothing whatsoever for you. The intelligence in email scanning in avast is all about scanning your email inbound and - avast is great at understanding the flow of emails in transit and protecting you from problems ever making it to your email database.
The idiots who write this stuff miss the most important fact of all. There are thousands of email database formats and no antivirus understands them all. There is one and only one law for the transmission of email via the absolute standard of the POP3 email protocol and avast understands that - to great effect - while it is flowing.
It started a few days ago, up until then inbound mail was being scanned consistently. I made not changes to any settings but saw that it wasn’t scanning inbound; I first thought that rebooting corrected it, but it didn’t. The outbound messages I sent to myself and seen as received messages in my Inbox, do have the antivirus headers in ‘message details’ that say
‘outbound message/clean’, but I do not see antivirus headers for the same emails that are in the ‘Sent’ folder. There are no av headers for any in my inbox that I receive from others. I looked at incoming mail from a week ago and they do have that header; inbound mail is currently not being scanned and I still don’t know why. All this is not worth getting a headache over, but I didn’t get feedback to “if email scanning is turned off, you will still be protected against infection…” Thanks
This will be my last post on this topic :D; life is just too short for some things, but just a quick update. I rebooted and when I checked emails in OE by clicking ‘send/receive’, the avast scanner icon in lower right came on, like it should, and I realized it stopped doing that along with not scanning incoming mail. So I sent an email to self and voila, all indications, several that I mentioned in early posts, showed it was scanning inbound mail. But… shortly after, it failed again and has ever since. So sometimes scans incoming mail, usually after a reboot but not always, though for the most part it doesn’t.
I give up but if others are reading this, you may want to monitor all the indicators showing whether or not your incoming mail is being scanned.