Pete said:
Noel...how does this work. I have sent myself testing e-mails just
recently (and many times in the past) and I have never seen any
advertising in the e-mail I receive. I am using NAV 2004. I guess I
should shut if off anyway, along with the incoming like you say, although
I always thought it was a little extra safe to check the incoming (even
though autoprotect will pick anything up like you said)...Pete
WRT incoming mail - this can lead to a false sense of security, as the email
is scanned on delivery - and if the user turns off updating on the AV, then
if the file was not recognised on download, then it ain't never gonna get
recognised the AV hasn't been updated to include the defs for the particular
malware the email contained ("I scanned it on download, and it was OK - why
did my machine wipe all my files?")! (remember that NAV is installed in
time-limited form to what amounts to the majority of new PC's!!)
NAV may not be one of the companies that use the opportunity of scanning
outgoing mail to advertise (probably on the basis that they think they have
a total grip on the market - which hopefully will change!) - but any
outgoing email from a PC can be (and in some AV's is) automatically 'signed'
as clean before it leaves the sender's machine.
There are a number of problems with this approach
1) some vendors (including Grisoft) attach the 'this email is virus free'
data in such a way that the form of the email is significantly change - so
If I was to send you a plain-text email, it would in fact arrive as an HTML
email!
2) the assurance of being 'virus free' is worth exactly the paper it is
written on - Nothing! - since there can be any number of steps between
emission of the email from the sender's PC, and receipt at the target PC.
3) receivers of emails 'signed' by AV companies tend to take less
precautions with the received email than they would do with the same email
received from a known source, but an unknown attachment - and the
'signature' itself could potentially be part of a virus!
I could go on - but I hope that you get the gist of my argument?
ANY virus scan of anything is dependent on two things - the cleverness of
the scanner, and the time at which it's scanned.
The best time to scan ANYTHING is the second before you use it - with
definitions generated and downloaded immediately prior (leaving aside the
'efficiency' of the scanner itself!)
--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)
Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj
Please read on how to post messages to NG's
