Virus Filtering FAQ

A virus or trojan is a small computer program that has harmful intentions. It can delete files, spy on your typing to capture passwords or credit cards, and give a criminal access to your computer.

The most common way to get a virus is by email, or by downloading a suspicious program from the Internet.  You might receive one because your email address was stored on someone's computer that became infected.

The best way to avoid computer viruses is to install an anti-virus program.  For Windows computers you can obtain a free anti-virus program from Grisoft: AVG Free Edition.

Be sure to keep your anti-virus program up to date by using the built-in update feature, or by visiting the website of the manufacturer.  If you choose to purchase an anti-virus program, be sure to renew any subscription charge or your anti-virus will no longer work (usually every 1 to 2 years).

In addition to your anti-virus program, we automatically scan for and reject email containing a virus or suspicious file type.

We use industry leading anti-virus software to scan for malicious email during an SMTP connection.

This means messages containing a virus or other suspicious attachments are returned to sender, rather than being filtered.  Suspicious file types include those which end in the following three letters:

• .exe
• .sys
• .ocx
• .pif
• .bat
• .scr
• .lnk
• .com
• .reg
• .vbs
• .cmd
• .dll
• .wmf

We also reject email containing password-protected ZIP files.  These files cannot be scanned by anti-virus programs, yet criminals send these files with well-worded messages asking recipients to open them with a supplied password.

This service is free and comes packaged with every email account. Check out our Email Traffic Stats if you want to see the latest tally of viruses blocked by our VirusControl.

Please contact our Technical Support team.

These files cannot be scanned by anti-virus programs, yet criminals send these files with well-worded messages asking recipients to open them with a supplied password.

Like most ISP's, we have decided to block password-protected zip files to protect our customers.  If you wish to send a password-protected zip file to someone, please use a service such as:

http://www.yousendit.com

or

http://www.megaupload.com