Now my only remaining question is whether or not Avast is still protecting my e-mail. The way I read it, I got the impression that e-mail protection is through the avast server (127.0.0.1) and not truly resident in my computer. That can't be right, can it?
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/But since I stopped it from shoving those settings in, the message on the avast console says that for outlook exchange and internet mail "The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start". Any way to get around this?
Open the About box in Outlook, and click Disabled Items. Make sure the avast plugin is not on the list...
The message "The provider is waiting on the subsystem to start" will be shown there until you open MS Outlook The plugin will be enable automatically.
But, are you sure that the Internet Mail provider (for OE) is showing the same message?
If you have Windows 98\Me, the change of the login settings is normal while using avast. See
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=display;board=2;threadid=7913;start=0#msg64228