How do I know about my protection

[rraberbach]

I am a new Avast user. The installation seemed to go well and the Virus database update appears to be working.

1) How do I know if I am protected against a specific virus -- e.g., the new My Doom worm?

2) I used to have Norton and it would routinely quarantine bad e-mails (unfortunately my husband communicates with a lot of people who seem to have infections). Although, my e-mail protection appears to be set in Avast, I don't get any visual cues to alert me that Avast is actively doing anything to mail messages (I had expected something similar to the Norton quarantine). QUESTION: Assuming that my husband is still getting some infected messages, should I be seeing  something to know that Avast is working???

[Jarmo P]

Although, my e-mail protection appears to be set in Avast, I don't get any visual cues to alert me that Avast is actively doing anything to mail messages (I had expected something similar to the Norton quarantine). QUESTION: Assuming that my husband is still getting some infected messages, should I be seeing  something to know that Avast is working???

http://einstein.norman.no/scripts/cwisapi.dll?Service=Eicar
From that link you can have Norman antivirus (still my backup on deman scanner) to send you the harmless Eicar test virus.
Avast should alert you if you don't have any ISP email protection.

[Lisandro]

1) How do I know if I am protected against a specific virus -- e.g., the new My Doom worm?

You can trust in avast strengh with ITW (In The Wild) viruses... Or you can search in the VPS history in the website: http://www.avast.com/eng/vps_history.html

2) I used to have Norton and it would routinely quarantine bad e-mails (unfortunately my husband communicates with a lot of people who seem to have infections). Although, my e-mail protection appears to be set in Avast, I don't get any visual cues to alert me that Avast is actively doing anything to mail messages (I had expected something similar to the Norton quarantine). QUESTION: Assuming that my husband is still getting some infected messages, should I be seeing  something to know that Avast is working???

To see if avast! is scanning emails, check one of these points:

1) Is the avast icon (the special one of email scanning) be shown in the system tray?

2) Is your email header with the lines X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS 0XXX-X, XX/XX/2004), Inbound message and X-Antivirus-Status: Clean? (Right click the message, choose Properties and Details)

To see the Standard Shield and other protection:
1) Is the 'a' blue icon swirling?
2) Right click the icon once and see what are the 'last scanned files'...
3) Use eicar virus test.

3) Are clean notes added at the bottom of the email? (Internet Mail provider settings)

You can test the security of your email system here: http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/