Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: jolo on July 07, 2008, 11:15:33 AM
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::)I have used Avast! home for at least 2 years, both on my XP system and my upgraded PC with Vista Ultra 64bit (and new MB).
I have been using it for quite a while with Vista Ultra 64 personally.
I have found it to be the most reliable anti-virus product I have ever used in the 15 plus years I have been in IT. This is my home PC and avant! is the first one I haven't had to pay for, yet is the most reliable (in my experience).
Before I make a comment back to the "senior member" and the "Administrator" of the Vista 64 Forum http://www.vistax64.com/ (http://www.vistax64.com/)
I would like to get some solid information.
I think the Administrator gave incorrect information and advice. PLEASE help me respond.
Here is the question from a "Senior member of the Vista forum"
"Hello everyone,
A silly question. Is it ok to let Avast scan my internet mails ? Should I terminate that ?
Reply from the Administrator:
If your using Windows Mail, then I would terminate that one. Windows Mail is very sensitive to 3rd party programs poking around in it and can cause the stuck message problem. You will still be protected by Avast's other shields from viruses.
Hope this helps,
I certainly don't think there was any bad intent in the answer and I would like to help other members of the forum out and let them know the effectiveness of Avant!.
Here is the exact address of the thread. Probably one would have to join the forum to see it (or certainly to reply to it).
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-mail/166191-avast-internet-mails.html (http://www.vistax64.com/vista-mail/166191-avast-internet-mails.html)
Thanks in advance for your help,
Jon
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I replied there ...
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The advice to disable email scanning has, I think, been widely suggested for all email and all AV programs.
See a justification, for example, at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm
Perhaps an interesting debate will take place here?
My regards
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I can't believe someone calls himself a technician and wiser asking to disable antivirus scanning...
You need to set Standard Shield to High to substitute the provider but the better balance into performance and protection is Normal level. So the user loses performance to have the same protection.
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I thing the Original poster needs to change the Topic Title as Avant is a browser and avast! as we all know is an anti-virus ;D
As darth_mikey said in the other topic.
There are times when Experts say the strangest things without fully understanding the product they are advising on, ex (the unknown factor) spurt (a drip under pressure) ;D
The whole idea of the email scanner is to intercept infected emails before they get on your system, where the removal of them is a) more difficult and b) could end up corrupting or deleting your mail box file rather than just an infected email with the potential loss of many emails.
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Howdy Guys,
Its strange how the posts have been taken out of context, for starters they allow the members to set there own custom tag line. I have set mine as ʛٯᴙᵁ while t-4-2 has set his one as "Senior Member" he is not necessarily a senior member nor am I possibly a guru ;)
Shawn (Brink) the Administrator was giving a generic response about 3rd party plugins and how they "might" cause problems, he advised him that turning off e-mail scanning will still protect his computer from malicious code via resident scanning protection and the others provided by Avast..
I dont think Shawn did give "incorrect information and advice" unless Avast does not protect your computer from malicious software after switching off e-mail scanning...I was also under the impression turning off email scanning would not be a problem because resident protection would pickup the same malicious code as e-mail scanning when its launched?
Does Avast use a different definition file for scanning e-mails compared with resident protection and should I turn it back on or does turning off e-mail scanning still protect my computer via resident protection?
I also dont see anywhere where they advise not to use Avast?
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That is the key word how they 'might' cause problems, which jolo would never know if he don't try.
There are many forum members who do use the avast email scanner with Windows Mail with no problems, certainly none that I have seen in these forums. If it were a problem I would expect to see multiple topics reporting a problem.
Whilst the standard shield is another line of defence it is better to prevent an infected email getting on the system if possible, rather than try to extract an infected email from a mail folder database file.
The email scanners scans the inbound email in a localhost proxy and if an infected email is found it can be discarded or moved to the chest before it get to your inbox or other folder if a user has filters in action.
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If jolo had actually been bothered to read around our site, he would have found that Avast is our No1 recommendation for an antivirus product.
z3r010 - Admin
Vistax64.com
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It would be nice if he actually joined us here too, instead of light the blue touch paper and retire ???
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I dont think Shawn did give "incorrect information and advice" unless Avast does not protect your computer from malicious software after switching off e-mail scanning...I was also under the impression turning off email scanning would not be a problem because resident protection would pickup the same malicious code as e-mail scanning when its launched?
If the Standard Shield sensibility is at High. Which is not the default. avast has providers and a very huge configurability and flexibility. People need to know the product very well to make suggestions.
Does Avast use a different definition file for scanning e-mails compared with resident protection and should I turn it back on or does turning off e-mail scanning still protect my computer via resident protection?
Set your Standard Shield accordingly. But you'll lose performance doing so. The email scanner does its specific job at lower cost (resources used).
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If the Standard Shield sensibility is at High. Which is not the default. avast has providers and a very huge configurability and flexibility. People need to know the product very well to make suggestions.
Cheers ;D Ill play around with it when I have some free time, Im sure If brink had time for Avast he could make better recommendations about its use too ;)
Shawn (Brink) the Administrator was giving a generic response about 3rd party plugins and how they "might" cause problems
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Hello Everyone,
Brink here from http://www.vistax64.com/
Avast is my number one recommendation for a antivirus program as you can see in the FIRST section in the link below and many others. It is the one I personally use.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/62560-windows-mail-problems.html
As you and many people out there may know that Windows Mail is very sensitive to any 3rd party programs that scan the email in it. Just read the microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail newsgroup. For some people they will never have a problem, but for others it causes the stuck message problem or worse. Sometimes you will be fine for a good while and then the problem will just occur when the antivirus program tries to block a message when it may have worked fine before.
This has nothing to do with Avast in particular since the usual culprits were Norton and McAfee. Even they seem to be getting the bugs worked out in their newer versions. I have not head of problems like this with any other email program though. That is why I recommended to turn off the email scanning option in Avast to be on the safe side and prevent the problem from happening if the person was using Windows Mail. Email scanning is a great feature but it is redundant. Since Avast will still protect you with the other Shields if enabled, it does not justify the risk of having problems if your using Windows Mail IMO.
I'm afraid that I do not know why Avant was mentioned in the post below by Jolo unless it was a typo for Avast.
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-mail/166191-avast-internet-mails.html
Brink,
Admin Vista Forums
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I don't see what Avant has to do with the problems email scanning occasionally causes in Windows Mail.
In most antivirus programs that scan email, any problems caused in Windows Mail are rather slow to appear, often taking months for any problems to become visible. Therefore, just one person's experience with a certain antivirus program using email scanning without problems isn't enough to prove anything.
At least avast! allows you to use a custom install where you tell it to leave out the parts that scan email. Therefore, I often recommend the use choose either avast or one other antivirus program that allows such a custom install for Windows Mail users who have to abandon a Norton, McAfee, or Trend antivirus program due to the problems they cause in Windows Mail. A few other people at
<http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.vista.mail> do this also for the same reason.
Anyone wanting to test this might need to use an email server with a significantly higher percentage of messages containing viruses than usual, since I've seen some people report that the problems are most likely to show up when an antivirus program scanning email decides that the email message must be blocked or at least takes longer than usual to decide this.
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Interesting discussion!
Email scanning is a great feature but it is redundant. Since Avast will still protect you with the other Shields if enabled, it does not justify the risk of having problems if your using Windows Mail IMO.
Brink,
Admin Vista Forums
Not completely redundant because avast! uses different techniques (e.g. heuristic analysis) for scanning email than it does with the Standard Shield. Having said that, Windows Mail is a special case because messages are stored as individual files rather than one big compressed file meaning that an on-demand scanner should only quarantine/delete the infected message leaving the other intact, so turning off email scanning is less of an issue.
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Brink, welcome aboard... Sorry for my bitter earlier post. I'd rather ask to the few users with problems that come here in forum and get help to have Windows Mail working with avast than disabling the email scanning. I've used Windows Mail for almost one year and no problems or bad interactions with avast.
I think avant is a typo in the first post.
Oh, I agree with Vladimyr.
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A topic solely created to talk about someones advice given on another forum is bullshi*
Why should a Topic be allowed to talk about an individuals advice to another person on another forum??? Its ludicrous...
This is offensive to Brink and its offensive to the VistaX64.com forum to say we Advise not to use Avast and should be either renamed or deleted...
I say its insulting to have an entire topic devoted to talk about his advice he makes on his forum...
Am I missing something or do the admins and moderators here accept this kind of trash talking about an single individual`s comments on another forum?
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Brink, welcome aboard... Sorry for my bitter earlier post. I'd rather ask to the few users with problems that come here in forum and get help to have Windows Mail working with avast than disabling the email scanning. I've used Windows Mail for almost one year and no problems or bad interactions with avast.
I think avant is a typo in the first post.
Oh, I agree with Vladimyr.
That's ok Tech. Everyone has different opinions and that's what makes the world go round. ;)
I would agree with Vladimyr about the Internet Mail module.
I personally did not have a problem with it running with Windows Mail for me either, but I have seen others have for whatever reason. For this reason and by the request of t-4-2 at that post (http://www.vistax64.com/post-bin/166191-avast-internet-mails.html (http://www.vistax64.com/post-bin/166191-avast-internet-mails.html)), that is why I made the recommendation if he was using Windows Mail.
I suppose it's best just not to use Windows Mail to avoid these type of problems with email scanning from any antivirus program.
Brink
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Am I missing something or do the admins and moderators here accept this kind of trash talking about an single individual`s comments on another forum?
You are at the third post and talks as loud as being the moderator.
I have apologized to Brink due to my first post.
But I disagree this thread is a kind of trash, on contrary, we're seeing how other users react, we're trying to make clear the avast configuration and features...
Brink, I'm not a x64 user and I'm far from being an expert on email issues.
Maybe Alan, another avast experienced user, could drop some light here. He's an expert on this things.
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Hi Avast readers and writers,
I have W98SE and Outlook Express and in addition to Avast I have AVG 7.5 (for a little longer), Comodo BO clean and Mail Washer and a-squared Free and I use Dr.Web on-line before downloading any program. I also have the Outpost free firewall.
Until about a month ago (when coincidentally I started using Avast's free version) I used AVG's email protection and I had daily problems with email corruptions (although Scan Disk usually fixed them) - so I stopped using it and my problems disappeared.
Also, Comodo seems to work perfectly except with Outlook Express; so I unload it when I download or send emails.
I am delighted with Avast and I have considerable confidence in its effectiveness but I only use its Standard Shield and its Web Shield and I rarely use its off-line scanner as I don't expect to find anything - and it doesn't find anything.
My regards
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dmex
Somewhere within your apparent burning outrage lies the essence of a relevant point. However the counter to it is; Why should a thread that has become an interesting and respectful discussion, regardless of any misunderstanding by which it was begun, be stopped now?
The moderators may or may not behave as you or I would do but that is their responsibility, not mine.
Of course if you really do want thread-quashing moderators, there's always the AVG Free forum. ;D (Hi Randy :-*, Al :-*)
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I personally did not have a problem with it running with Windows Mail for me either, but I have seen others have for whatever reason. For this reason and by the request of t-4-2 at that post (http://www.vistax64.com/post-bin/166191-avast-internet-mails.html (http://www.vistax64.com/post-bin/166191-avast-internet-mails.html)), that is why I made the recommendation if he was using Windows Mail.
I suppose it's best just not to use Windows Mail to avoid these type of problems with email scanning from any antivirus program.
Brink
I'm using Vista Home Basic (32-bit of course), Windows Mail / IMAP with avast! 4.8 Home (including Internet Mail provider) and have had no problems so far. Has anyone reported similar problems with IMAP?
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Please guys calm down. There's absolutely no reason to get emotional here.
Thank you.
Vlk
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There is very little reason to devote much energy, thought or emotion to Windows Mail in Vista.
It is a dead-end product. It was produced as an Outlook Express replacement for Vista but almost as soon as it saw the light of day it was abandoned.
It's development team went on to produce the real Outlook Express replacement which is Windows Live Mail. (I suspect that there is a group in Redmond whose sole purpose in life is to create as many similar and confusing product names as possible).
Since I am not a Vista user I have done no testing of Windows Mail. My Vista users are all on current versions of either Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail and I have no problem reports of email scanning by avast with either of those products.
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There is very little reason to devote much energy, thought or emotion to Windows Mail in Vista.
It is a dead-end product. It was produced as an Outlook Express replacement for Vista but almost as soon as it saw the light of day it was abandoned.
And here I was thinking I was right up-to-date moving from "Internet Mail & News" to "Windows Mail"! ;D