O.K.

Here's the full-throated rationale as to why we should supposedly shut off
using our anti-virus program to scan emails and news messages...

Thereby stripping off one layer of our protective shields...

Let's see if it holds water.
--
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Vires et Honor
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Why You Don't Need Your Anti-Virus Program to Scan Your E-Mail

We will explain why we stand by this and why many experts stand by this as
well.

First, email is a just [sic] a file. A file like any other files. [sic]

When I see careless, clumsy mistakes like that early-on in a piece of
technical writing I'm immediately suspicious as to the overall technical
quality and reliability as well. -- DSH

Email whether you read it or not, is stored on your hard drive.

Malicious files attached to an email are located on your hard drive. To an
anti-virus scanner it does not matter whether the offending file arrived by
email, arrived by file-sharing,, or arrived by download. It is all the same
to it.

But I want to KNOW WHAT TRIGGERED THE ALARM and take IMMEDIATE ACTION AS
APPROPRIATE. -- DSH

Any good up-to-date anti-virus will prevent you from opening a malicious
worm or virus no matter how it arrived. Until and unless you click the
attachment the virus or worm will not execute. And if you're using
Outlook Express, and you have kept it updated with the latest patches
from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ it will not execute merely
by looking at your email.

Lots of QUALIFICATIONS and EXCEPTIONS [IF, UNTIL, UNLESS, UPDATED] in that
paragraph. I want to get RID of the ruddy thing WHEN it arrives -- not have
it LURKING on my hard drive. Can't this guy get that simple fact through
his head? -- DSH

Our advice is sound. Email scanning might have been useful years ago, but
not anymore. We're not sure it ever was. Six or seven years ago one could
wander the Internet and open emails rather freely. Viruses were rare and the
number of people using anti-virus programs was small.

With the Internet Boom of 1999 came an influx of millions of new people
using the Internet and millions of new potential targets for those who have
nothing better to do than to ruin other people's fun. So worms, Trojans,
and viruses became numerous, but still few used good anti-virus protection.

Yes, so that was a Recipe For Disaster. -- DSH

Email Scanning by any anti-virus is not recommended because the harm and
delay that scanning can cause don't justify the minimal (if any) benefits to
be derived.

Where's the PROOF for those blind ASSERTIONS? NONE is provided. -- DSH

One of the biggest problem [sic] caused by email virus scanners is
corrupted Outlook Express DBX (data) files. If these files become corrupted,
whatever mail you have stored in them will be unreadable.
----------------------------------

So you:

1. BACK them UP frequently.

2. COMPACT FREQUENTLY -- several times per day -- and immediately after you
delete messages.

3. Keep beating on Microsoft to develop a program with all the virtues of
Outlook Express -- PLUS:

a. WLM Message Store

b. Spellcheck

c. Bells, whistles and titivation [including getting rid of the pansy
colors and restoring the option of the Views Bar] to follow.

d. Spend less time on the ruddy CALENDAR and MORE TIME on these far more
important improvements.

DSH

As Geoff Hannington as previously pointed out...
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Email virus scanning is the number one cause of corrupted DBX files; and
hence the biggest cause of unrecoverable email. Other problems are minor but
they're a nuisance: Aggravating delays in sending or receiving email being
among the top nuisances.

None of these has proved to be a problem for me ---- but follow the
precautionary steps outlined above -- belt and suspenders approach. -- DSH

Many others do agree with us on shutting off email scanning in your
anti-virus program. The following article by Tom Koch, a Microsoft MVP
explains it best. Mr. Koch details not only why you should turn off your
email scanner but how Outlook Express works, as well as other interesting
and little known Outlook Express facts. Here is an excerpt from his [sic]
excellent article by Tom Koch:

"...When encountering the symptoms of DBX corruption, many people
immediately fear that their computer is infected with a virus. As surprising
and ironic as it may seem though, the most common cause of DBX corruption is
not a virus, but rather anti-virus programs that are configured to scan
incoming or outgoing e-mail. Even the most well-known anti-virus programs
have exhibited this problem from time to time. To lessen the risk of such
corruption you should disable the e-mail scanning module in your anti-virus
program. This is usually easy to do by looking at the user-configurable
options in the anti-virus program. It is not at all necessary to scan e-mail
for viruses to protect your computer.

Now before you dismiss me as mad, let me explain why e-mail scanning is
unnecessary. Almost every anti-virus program for Windows installs by default
a system scan that runs in the background every time Windows starts. This
scan is necessary to protect your computer. If you receive a virus in an
e-mail attachment, the virus cannot do anything at all until you actually
open the attachment. ..."

See
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/...orruption.mspx to
read the rest of this article.

The most important thing, and we cannot emphasize this strongly enough, is
to use a good, reputable anti-virus program (AVAST and AVG are two good free
ones) and keep it updated daily! An anti-virus program which is not updated
is worse than none at all. It will return false-positives and ignore real
threats. So, above all, keep your anti-virus program up-to-date. And NEVER
open an attachment directly from your email. ALWAYS save it to your desktop
(or another easily accessible folder) and scan it with your anti-virus
program before opening it. Another thing we cannot emphasize enough: Keep
your Microsoft Windows current. Either turn on automatic updates or visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ at least once a week.

NO -- DO IT DAILY. -- DSH

Finally, we recommend that weekly you visit http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
weekly, just to be sure that no virus or worm has made its way around your
anti-virus program. A second opinion never hurts and it's good insurance
policy that provides you with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that
you're anti-virus has indeed been doing its job.

http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

So does EMAIL SCANNING -- INTELLIGENTLY APPLIED.

Tom Koch is advising consumers to disable one of the PROTECTIVE SHIELDS they
have on their computers.

BAD ADVICE.

CASE ELUCIDATED ABOVE NOT PROVEN.

KEEP YOUR GUARD UP...

BUT...

Follow The Safeguards Above re Outlook Express -- and migrate to a better
program as soon as Microsoft gets off their duffs and produces it...

Or suffer along with WLM for a few more months until they get their act
together.

Hopefully, some of these 5,000 Microsoft employees who will be laid off are
the ones who have screwed up WLM so badly.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Microsoft-stuns-with-profit-rb-14131144.html
-------------------------------------------------
BIGGEST JOB CUTS EVER

Microsoft's staggered elimination of 5,000 jobs -- 1,400 immediately and the
rest over 18 months -- amounts to about 5 percent of its estimated 96,000
work force, the biggest reduction ever by the software maker. Other cost
cuts include travel and marketing budgets, and the roster of independent
contractors.

"Clearly business conditions are worse than people were expecting," said
Richard Williams, analyst at Cross Research. "This is a substantial amount
of jobs cuts. Microsoft has never had a layoff like this in my knowledge and
it's sending a signal that the times are definitely changing."
--
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Vires et Honor
Veni, Vidi, Calcitravi Asinum