problem with aswCmd.exe

[vogueboss]

Hello,

When I scan a directory wich contains some viruses with cmdQuick.exe, it detects them, but when I use aswCmd.exe, it doesn't find any.

Here are the commands I used :
aswCmd.exe "c:\program files\hmailserver"
no results

aswQuick.exe "c:\program files\hmailserver"
it shows the warning virus detected

If somebody can help me,
Thanks,
Yannick

[igor]

aswCmd.exe has many parameters, e.g. to set a higher sensitivity of the scan, or to turn on the scanning of archives. By default, it doesn't scan many archives. I suggest to check its help.

aswQuick, on the other hand, uses the maximum possible sensitivity (scanning all known archives) by default.

[Vlk]

To do a thorough scan with archive unpacking enabled, try something like

ashCmd.exe /a /c /t=A <path_to_scan>


Thanks
Vlk

[dsparks]

I too have a problem w/ aswCmd.exe.

I use it in our email server product called "DeskNow".
( http://www.desknow.com )

It requires the desknowdata folder to be excluded from normal anti-virus scanning. It also requires that the command line scanner be setup to scan each email that it receives. I'm following their suggestions accordingly. Now, when the commandline scanner is invoked it generates a "0" because the directory is excluded from within the program settings itself.

Viruses end up getting through.

Is there a way to disable the exclusions for aswcmd?
If I don't exclude desknowdata folder in program settings, then desknow throws errors during regular scans.
Also, if I do exclude the desknowdata folder, desknow still throws errors because of the resident protection....but thats a different issue.

I'm not saying DeskNow product is using this efficiently but they do list the following companies software as working A-OK with their recommended setup:
Symantec, Clam, AVG, F-Secure, McAffee, etc...

So I am unsure about what to do... in the meantime our workstations have the burden of scanning all mail once it reaches them. Which I do not like. I want it blasted at our email server.

Keep in mind I am only running a license of Avast Server edition on this email server. It was our first purchase of your product. We have another brand on all the workstations in the domain. I am interested in converting those too... but if I can't protect our email server from emails?

[igor]

I don't think you can disable the global exclusions for aswCmd, but I believe you could set the exclusions for the specific tasks only, and create a special task (without the exclusions, of course) for aswCmd.

I'm not sure if the whole setup couldn't be done anyhow better, however... what error does DeskNow report for "regular scans"?

[dsparks]

OK... I ended up figuring out what I needed to do. It gets a bit confusing between the On-Access protection exclusions, task exclusions, and the global exclusions.

Here is what I posted on their forums for others who may be running Avast! also.

I GOT IT!

yay.. I was getting really worried about viruses, especially since we were attacked last Tuesday by a new one.

Anyways, here's how to setup Avast! Server Edition to work with DeskNow (this might also apply to Avast! Home/Professional Edition with some minor differenences - but I don't know for sure):

1) Install Avast! Server Edition
2) Rt-Click Avast Icon in Tray and Open the On-Access Protection window and Terminate the Microsoft Exchange/Outlook Protection Service.
3) Scroll down to the "Standard Scanner" service ...click "Customize" and open the "Advanced" tab. Add desknowdata folder to this exclusion list
4) Close the On-Access protection Window - although you may want to disable the Internet Email service also - depending on your preference, but during my tests I had it running and it did not "seem" conflict with Desknow.
5) Right Click tray icon again and click "Start Avast anti-virus" ... now this is what is really different from Home/Professional and Server Edition. In the server Edition find the "Scan All Disks" Task in the Task folder and add desknowdata folder to the exclusion list. You can then only use this task when running any disk scan. You can make others, but you have to add desknowdata folder to each and every task that could potentially scan this folder. The reason for this is that if you add the desknowdata folder to the global Exclusion list (found in "program settings") it will prevent the command-line scanner from working properly with DeskNow!!

I think this about covers it. I receive NO internal errors anymore and all my test viruses were caught. I can also continue running On-Access Protection for other items and scan the disks every day automatically.

Any input or comments from others would greatly be appreciated.

To sum up the issue I had:
 The On-Access protection was ignoring the global exclusion (obviously as the exclusion screen states) and DeskNow was throwing errors as attachments to emails were caught by Avast and deleted before DeskNow could scan them.
After disabling the On-Access protection I was seeing my test viruses go through fine as if the aswcmd wasn't working (result code 0).

Ultimately, my problem was that I used the global exclusion in the first place!!!.... instead I should have NOT entering in the global exclusion list and defining everywhere else as needed.

All solved, but I was a bit confused at first as to what is "excluded" and where to enter it! I appreciate any comments or suggestions regarding my instructions to others. If I set it up better, that would be great.

[igor]

Sounds OK, that's basically what I meant
I can see it's actually not necessary to create a special task for aswCmd (when the list of global exclusions is empty). Glad you solved it.