Should I scan my Email for viruses?The plain and simple answer is no. And here's why;
To make it much safer when opening Emails set OE to read all messages as plain text. That way any nasties that are coded into the message will not run unless they are in an attachment and yes I am aware that HTML messages are much prettier. Which do you prefer, Safe or Pretty? The most important rule is don't open attachments or messages that you are not 100% positive are safe. If you want to read an HTML message and do it safely then SAVE the message as an *.eml file and then double click it to open in OE. In that case your on demand anti-virus scanner will check the file before it opens. Norton (Symantec) now acknowledge that auto-protection of email is not
necessary. The following is copied from their support site:
As for McAfee, the problems are too numerous to even think about. You would be tired before you finished reading them. McAfee now says it is not necessary for Outlook Express users to use
Email scanning. Here's what they have to say about it: McAfee have admitted there is a problem, and is referring its users to MS MVP Steve Cochrans rescue utility called DBXtract There have also been MANY confirmed reports of McAfee's email scan and auto-update programs corrupting Outlook Express's data folders (*.dbx) causing massive loss of email, particularly the inbox folder. If you still feel that you must use this program, ensure that Outlook Express is NOT set to go directly to your inbox when opening. If you are already using McAfee VirusScan and you are experiencing
problems with Outlook Express then see this page for help. If you are using Dr. Solomon's NetGuard then the odds are that you are having problems. When you attempt to send or receive messages using Outlook Express, you may receive either of the following error messages:The connection to the server has failed. Account:
'127.0.0.1', or The connection to the server has failed. If you then view the Internet Accounts dialog box, you may see a new news account and a new mail account both named "127.0.0.1." These new accounts may now be configured as your default mail and news accounts. If you try to alter these settings, your changes may not be saved, and the "Access the Internet using a proxy server" setting in Microsoft Internet Explorer may automatically be enabled when you restart your computer. You can work around this issue, by restoring your original mail and news accounts as your default accounts. To do so, follow these steps:
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