Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: quinone on February 23, 2004, 08:13:28 PM
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Hi all,
new user here: installed avast! today (after two years of avg) because of positive remarks towards it on the mozilla.org forum. Two questions though:
1: I have two different smtp servers and four different pop servers. In the mail protection wizard, I can only specify *one* pop and *one* smtp server that avast! will check on. I already checked one other pop account, and yes, avast didn't saw any virus in a virus-containing email. The account - appearantly - isn't checked, because it isn't specified in MPW. I already read (through the search function of this forum) that many people have multiple pop&smtp servers running through avast!, but I can't figure out how :( Anyone, anywhere?
2: AVG was a charming piece of coding because of a: low mem&cpu usage and b: was very passive (did run, but almost unnoticed). I already ticked 'constant connection to internet' so that it stops pinging (I think that's what the second blue icon in the systray was about), but I still doubt about the actual mem, cpu and inet usage. Especially the memory usage is somewhat bizarre (total amount of 22 mb). Can someone give something of a comparison between AVG and avast! Even better: why should I use Avast! instead of AVG? I'm using it now because it's the only free virus scanner that integrates with Thunderbird, but I still prefer modesty above safety (I don't open any attachements of anyone if I suspect anything, and AVG always noticed the files that were contained if I tried to open them from the place where I saved them).
Summary: convince me of why I have installed Avast! :D I know it's arrogant, but I need to be convinced that I'm using the most proper tool for the task that it has to do. Otherwise I'll keep doubting all the time, and I want to be sure that what I use for antivirus is the best there is for my situation.
Kind regards,
Inge
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1: I have two different smtp servers and four different pop servers. In the mail protection wizard, I can only specify *one* pop and *one* smtp server that avast! will check on. I already checked one other pop account, and yes, avast didn't saw any virus in a virus-containing email. The account - appearantly - isn't checked, because it isn't specified in MPW. I already read (through the search function of this forum) that many people have multiple pop&smtp servers running through avast!, but I can't figure out how :( Anyone, anywhere?
Just run the MPW you will be able to choose 'all' accounts (even those that will be created in the future...). Do not mess the 'standard' pop/smtp server with all your emails accounts. You'll be protected in all of them. I have almost 10 with different smtp and pop servers, all protected by avast.
2: AVG was a charming piece of coding because of a: low mem&cpu usage and b: was very passive (did run, but almost unnoticed). I already ticked 'constant connection to internet' so that it stops pinging (I think that's what the second blue icon in the systray was about), but I still doubt about the actual mem, cpu and inet usage. Especially the memory usage is somewhat bizarre (total amount of 22 mb). Can someone give something of a comparison between AVG and avast! Even better: why should I use Avast! instead of AVG? I'm using it now because it's the only free virus scanner that integrates with Thunderbird, but I still prefer modesty above safety (I don't open any attachements of anyone if I suspect anything, and AVG always noticed the files that were contained if I tried to open them from the place where I saved them).
Summary: convince me of why I have installed Avast! :D I know it's arrogant, but I need to be convinced that I'm using the most proper tool for the task that it has to do. Otherwise I'll keep doubting all the time, and I want to be sure that what I use for antivirus is the best there is for my situation.
Kind regards,
Inge
Stop doubting now >:(
You have the best av, the best forum, the best protection, the best configuration... Let's talk seriously ...
About the second icon (the 'i' ball), it's the VRDB (a database for recovery in case of infection...). ;D
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Ok enter info into Mozilla Mail client like this for each accaount:
POP: localhost
User: your_username#pop.something.com
Pass: your_password
SMTP: localhost
User: your_username#smtp.something.com
Pass: your_password
Hm about second question...
I've tested many antivirus programs and only three (3) have qualified to be easy to use and efficient.
BitDefender,Pc-cillin 2004 and ofcourse Avast!.
Avast! can be confugured to work as YOU want not how developers want it,small and regular updates,many options on how to get rid of a viruses,and most important outstanding tech support (just try to ask something at Symantec ::) ).
Oh and i shouldn't forget awesome skins ;)
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Ok enter info into Mozilla Mail client like this for each accaount:
POP: localhost
User: your_username#pop.something.com
Pass: your_password
SMTP: localhost
User: your_username#smtp.something.com
Pass: your_password
Do you mean to say that I should change the current pop and smtp info (for instance: pop.tiscali.nl) into 'localhost', and that the specific pop and smptp server that should be used is entered in the user screen? I don't have any experience with a virus scanner 'around' my email client, so maybe this is just plain normal stuff, but I'm kind of unaware about it.
Hm about second question...
I've tested many antivirus programs and only three (3) have qualified to be easy to use and efficient.
BitDefender,Pc-cillin 2004 and ofcourse Avast!.
Avast! can be confugured to work as YOU want not how developers want it,small and regular updates,many options on how to get rid of a viruses,and most important outstanding tech support (just try to ask something at Symantec ::) ).
Oh and i shouldn't forget awesome skins ;)
Let's put it another way: on my current amd xp palomino 2000+ with 512 mb ddr on a a7s333 with win2kpro + sp4, will it bring performance down much? Because I use this rig for making music, as little resources as possible should be taken by backgrond software.
Inge
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Lets make it so ;)
POP: localhost
User: quinone#pop.tiscali.nl
Pass: your_password
SMTP: localhost
User: quinone#smtp.tiscali.nl
Pass: your_password
Avast! has some unique features to scan as fast as possible and to use as low resources as possible. I don't see the difference on my system (check my signature) and i have everything set to High sensitivity.
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So far so good :D
Will report later if anything unusual would strike me. Thank you for the wicked-fast response! :)
Inge
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last question concerning email scanning: everything works now (it even detects viruses), but email scanning annoys me because of two reasons:
1: the extra temporal icon in my systray
2: the *huge* yellow/red layer that pops up whenever a virus is encountered.
Can these two be solved? I hate layers that bounce through my screen, and the extra systray icon tends to ask attention from the corner of my eye.
Just interested :)
Inge
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Extra temporal icon? Which one do you mean? The one with letter "i" ? Or the one which shows only when you get new mail?
The second is quiet obvious,because it warns you that a virus was detected. If you really really hate it,than lets wait for someone from Alwil (i don't have an idea where to turn it off) ;)
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Extra temporal icon? Which one do you mean? The one with letter "i" ? Or the one which shows only when you get new mail?
The one which shows only when I get new mail. I hate moving things, especially in my systray, and *especially* if I can't decide myself wether to turn it of or on.
The second is quiet obvious,because it warns you that a virus was detected. If you really really hate it,than lets wait for someone from Alwil (i don't have an idea where to turn it off) ;)
I understand the importance of letting me know that a virus has been detected, but it looks like the bloody circus has entered town whenever a virus pops in (and with getting the email of a quite often visited site and a quite often used domain for email addresses, I get *a lot* of viruses).
Inge
ps: before dear beloved writers or colleagues of Avast! start thinking that I'm a perpetual annoying little bastard: yes and no. Yes, because I like to get the best out of the software I use, and no, because in the end I'm just a satisfied customer who seeks to find as much joy and identity in his virusscanner as he wishes.
ps2: congratulations so far for this forum. Your response time is even bigger than down at mozilla & sudhian. Thumbs!
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Hey quinone, no problem, we sort of anticipated that there'll be such "annoying little bastards" among our users ;) ;) ;D
To turn off the "layer", add the following to the [AAVM] section of <avast>\data\avast4.ini:
ShowVirusTag=0
Tu turn off the Internet Mail tray icon when receiving mail, add the following to the [MailScanner] section of <avast>\data\avast4.ini:
ShowTrayIcon=0
A reboot may be required for the changes to become effective.
Hope this helps,
Vlk
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LOL avast4.ini is like a tresure. There is so many extra commands that we don't know about ;)
Oh you can enable/disable that mail icon in Mail Protection Wizard too.
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Thanks for both answers. I've already disabled the icon in the mail preferences, and I am still thinking about editing the avast4.ini for disabling the layer. The problem of disabling that one is that I won't have any clue left of wether or not an email is infected.
The 'on-access protection control' -> 'internet mail' -> 'customize' gives the possibility for a 'silent mode', in which (in heuristics) it could simply tag infected emails in their subject (after which I could decide myself to open them or not). In the tab 'advanced', I've enabled 'silent mode' (with 'general answer -> yes', whatever that may be), and in 'heuristics', I've enabled 'silent mode -> mark it in subject field'. These are the only settings I could think of to enable the silent mode (I was hoping that silent would imply no yellow layer), and how it would simply add a tag to infected emails. Or is silent mode something else?
Questions questions questions...be afraid :)
Inge
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In short, Silent mode means: no questions. I.e., it should've also been called unattended mode as it is guaranteed that no user response will be required no matter how tough the situation is.
This doesn't mean that no stuff will be drawn on the screen, though...
I hope that explains it a bit.
Vlk
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Or make these layers transparent,so they won't be so disturbing.
Add TagOpacity under AAVM section,like this:
[AAVM]
TagOpacity=XX
XX means the level of transparency.
100 is fully visible and 0 is fully transparent.
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0 is fully transparent
...i.e. completely invisible, I should add. ;D
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In short, Silent mode means: no questions. I.e., it should've also been called unattended mode as it is guaranteed that no user response will be required no matter how tough the situation is.
This doesn't mean that no stuff will be drawn on the screen, though...
I hope that explains it a bit.
Vlk
Okay, yes, that explains. And the tagging of emails? Can that be done (as the configuration sort of indicates), or am I misguided here?
Inge
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But is this transparency thing working in versions before 353 (beta) ?
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Okay, yes, that explains. And the tagging of emails? Can that be done (as the configuration sort of indicates), or am I misguided here?
The INI thing I described in my previous post only affects the yellow-red on-screen "layer". Nothing else. So if you have the Internet Mail provider set up to add tags to infected mails, that functionality will stay unchanged.
But is this transparency thing working in versions before 353 (beta) ?
Nope, it has been added about a week ago.
Thanks
Vlk
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Okay, yes, that explains. And the tagging of emails? Can that be done (as the configuration sort of indicates), or am I misguided here?
The INI thing I described in my previous post only affects the yellow-red on-screen "layer". Nothing else. So if you have the Internet Mail provider set up to add tags to infected mails, that functionality will stay unchanged.
Er...I'm afraid I didn't explain properly. The thing is that the subject of my emails does *not* get tagged with a message when it is infected, eventhough I configured Avast! to do so. How comes that? Did I miss on a parameter that needed (un)checking?
Inge
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Quinone, more information about the avast4.ini file you can see here (http://www.avast.com/forum/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1647). Hope you can enjoy the avast! capability of configuration 8)
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Thanks. Bookmarked it. I recently started playing with the user.js files of thunderbird and firefox, and opening up your configuration files for users seems a very friendly and open way of offering your software. Nice one!
Inge
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Inserting info to the subject works only for heuristic check. Virus info is added to the end of the mail text.
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Inserting info to the subject works only for heuristic check. Virus info is added to the end of the mail text.
Just did a complete help-file reading, but it says nothing about the option 'silent mode -> choose action' in the heuristic tab. When is heuristic check being performed? So far, all virus-infected emails that enter my mailbox are detected (with the yellow/blue layer popping up), and I don't have to answer anything (because silent mode is on). Eventhough, the subject title does not get additional info saying that there is a virus detected inside the email (and *that's* the thing I would like ::))
Inge
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As vojtech said, this is currently impossible to configure.
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As vojtech said, this is currently impossible to configure.
Oh...didn't comprehend that from his answer ::)
Good, then I'll leave the yellow/blue layer to keep me informed about found viruses in email. I guess subject-tagging (such as mcafee does if I'm not mistaken) is planned for the future? We have it at work, and it's quite, er, relaxing :)
Inge
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Kick ass ;D The subject tagging works with the latest version, so I edited the .ini file to remove the layers. Avast is turning out to be more and more flexible for my setup. Good work, chech republic field commanders!
Last question (for now ;)): I have an adsl connection, meaning that my computer isn't connected to inet before I made this connection. I've enabled 'my computer is permanently connected to the Internet' though, because I don't want Avast to ping every 40 seconds. The problem of this combination is that I always get the red 'there was a problem...bla bla' layer above my systray once my computer has booted, because it can't find the connection that should be there. Can this be changed, and if so: where in the avast4.ini file can I disable this message? I always connect my computer anyway, so it's of no importance to me to read this message (assuming that problems on the server-side of Avast! itself are almost never-appearing).
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Kick ass ;D The subject tagging works with the latest version, so I edited the .ini file to remove the layers. Avast is turning out to be more and more flexible for my setup. Good work, chech republic field commanders!
Last question (for now ;)): I have an adsl connection, meaning that my computer isn't connected to inet before I made this connection. I've enabled 'my computer is permanently connected to the Internet' though, because I don't want Avast to ping every 40 seconds. The problem of this combination is that I always get the red 'there was a problem...bla bla' layer above my systray once my computer has booted, because it can't find the connection that should be there. Can this be changed, and if so: where in the avast4.ini file can I disable this message? I always connect my computer anyway, so it's of no importance to me to read this message (assuming that problems on the server-side of Avast! itself are almost never-appearing).
I suggest you disable the 'Show more information about...'. You'll see it's really annoying... Believe, avast! will be there doing its job.
To disable the blue panel (or red if it is an error): see avast4.ini file forum (here (http://www.avast.com/forum/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=1647)) at section [AAVM] and value: SuppressUpdateErrorInfo=1 to suppress update error message (not the update itself).
Hope this help. ;)
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Technical, it's better to solve the cause then the consequence. I mean, instead of suppresing the read box (which has its meaning), it's better to make the updater work!
There is a parameter in avast4.ini that tells avast how long to wait after the computer is woke up. It's in the [InetWD] section and is called
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=Xx
As its name suggests, it expects the number of seconds to wait before attempting to update. The default is 30 but it may not be enough for all the DSL stuff so you can try increasing this e.g. to 60 (1 minute). That should be enough.
Anyway,
I've enabled 'my computer is permanently connected to the Internet' though, because I don't want Avast to ping every 40 seconds.
Wait a moment, did you really think that avast is pinging our servers every 40 seconds even if the connection works??? No, we're not such idiots to effectively DDOS our servers like this!!! ;D Of course, the ping only takes place when the previous DIDN'T work (i.e. the connection is not available -- or someone is blocking the ping packets)...
Vlk
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Technical, it's better to solve the cause then the consequence.
Ok, when you decide to teach us the secrets of avast4.ini file :(
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Aight! Thank you! Did as you suggested, and increased the wait period to 60 seconds (and removed the line to supress the warning field).
Kind regards,
Inge
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Ok, when you decide to teach us the secrets of avast4.ini file
I'm sorry to say that but it's really no secret knowledge of Wudan ;D
Technical, I know you'd love to have a complete list of all the INI entries, but it wouldn't be such a fun then, would it?
I'm just kidding ;) - the thing is, the entries are being added continuously and are not being documented in a central location. That may be a mistake but right now it works like that.
We have some internal document describing most of the settings, but definitely not all. It has a similar extent as the one you posted previously somewhere on this forum - but in your case, it was gathered using rather spelunking techniques, wasn't it?
Vlk
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May I ask the privilege to receive an email with one 'undocummented' parameter just discovered? I mean, by anyone from Alwil ::)
By this way, I can keep that list (forum) of avast4.ini file updated.
In other words, if you change or discover a new parameter, can you remember me? ;)