Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q. Is my email censored by emScan?
A. No. With emScan, your email is processed and scanned automatically. No one reads your email, and you have control over your own filter settings.

Q. If I do not want the junk email filtering, can it be turned off?
A. Yes. You have complete control of the junk mail filters and how aggressive emScan will be when looking for spam -- including the ability to turn off the junk mail filters should you choose to do so. However, we recommend that you do not turn off the junk mail filters. With the filters on you will still be able to receive all email sent to you, but emScan will automatically quarantine any email that is suspected to be junk mail. You can always check your Message Center at any time to view quarantined email. Plus, if there is a message in your quarantine box that you want to deliver to your in-box, simply click "deliver" and it will be sent through. You will even be asked if you want to add the sender of that message to your Approved Senders list. emScan is secure, simple to use, and a powerful weapon against the growing problem of junk email.

Q. If I turn off the junk email filtering, is virus protection also turned off?
A. No. We do not allow you to turn off virus protection. Since email viruses could spread rapidly from your computer if it becomes infected, it is in the best interest of the Internet community if virus protection remains on for all of our customers.

Q. How often should I check my quarantine box?
A. That depends on the settings you choose, your comfort level with the service, and the importance of email in your daily activities (such as a business versus a home account). In the first few days we recommend that you visit your quarantine box regularly -- at least once a day. There may be some valid email that you regularly receive from sources such as opt-in mailing lists that emScan will quarantine. If this is the case, you can easily add any of those addresses to your Approved Senders list, and no future email from that address will be quarantined. Once this is done, there will be less chance that valid email will be blocked. You can also adjust the overall settings of the main filter and the category-specific filters. The more aggressive the settings, the more junk email will be quarantined, but the greater the chance of a "false positive" (valid email that is quarantined). Once you have your Approved Senders list and filter settings the way you want, and are familiar with the kind of email that is quarantined, you should be able to check your Message Center less often. However, emScan can potentially block valid email from any source at any time if the content is such that it exceeds one of the filter thresholds. For that reason, we still recommend that you check your quarantine box every few days. You will be sent an automatic reminder every five days.

Q. Are there default settings set up when my emScan box is created?
A. Yes. Settings are defaulted to a moderate level on all categories except sexually explicit. Because pornographic junk mail gets the highest number of complaints from our customers, that category is set to the maximum level as the default. These default settings do a good job of balancing the need for spam blocking with the desire to limit the number of false positives. You can adjust the threshold settings for any of these categories up or down at any time.

Q. What happens when a virus is sent to my email address?
A. If the virus is transmitted via email, and it matches a known pattern, then the email will be quarantined. Any time a virus is quarantined you will receive an email that lists the sender's address, the subject, and the name or type of virus found. There will also be a link to your Message Center, where you can see the full headers of the message and view the content (assuming it is safe to do so). If the particular virus can be "cleaned", then you can choose to have the message delivered to your in-box.

Q. Are there viruses that emScan will not block?
A. emScan can only block known viruses that are transmitted by email. While most viruses today are transmitted via email, you will still be vulnerable to viruses from other sources such as an infected diskette or CD, or by downloading a file through a method other than email, such as FTP or HTTP (from the Web). For this reason, we strongly recommend that you also have virus protection software installed on your local computer, and that you keep the virus definitions up to date. Also, there is always a small possibility that you could be one of the first people to receive a virus via email. There is a lag time between the initial outbreak of a virus and the implementation of an update to the pattern file in the virus protection engine. In this case, no virus protection solution will be helpful, other than good common sense and caution (such as not opening suspicious attachments). Our virus protection is constantly kept up to date through worldwide virus tracking centers. As malicious viruses break out and mutate, updates to the the virus recognition software are made, allowing us to identify them and render them harmless. Although this service will protect you from virtually all incoming email-borne viruses, it is important to know that this service, and others like it, cannot guarantee that your system will never be infected. The best anti-virus solution is a multi-level approach, including good common sense and precaution on your part.

Q. Who provides the emScan virus protection engine, and how often are the virus definitions updated?
A. Virus protection is provided by McAfee, and virus definitions are updated every 15 minutes.

Q. What happens if a known virus is received from an address or domain in my Approved Senders list?
A. Viruses will be quarantined even if the email address of the sender is in your Approved Senders list. This is a necessary precaution, since email viruses usually replicate by mailing themselves to every email address in the address book on the infected machine, without the knowledge of the computer owner. If someone in your Approved Senders list gets infected with an email virus, there is a good chance that your email address will be in their address book.

Q. Should I add into my Blocked Senders list the addresses from junk email that is quarantined?
A. This is not necessary, and is most likely a waste of time. Most junk email has a forged name in the FROM address, and spammers change these forged addresses regularly in order to get around systems that filter based on the FROM address. Since emScan blocks email based on the content of the message, it will most likely catch new spam from the same sender, even if they change their address. The best use of the Blocked Senders list in your Message Center is for when you do not wish to receive email that comes in regularly from a specific source. For example, if you get added to a mailing list for a political campaign, and you cannot determine how to be removed from their mailing list, you can add the specific FROM email address or the entire domain to your Blocked Senders list. Once you do that, any email from that source will be quarantined, regardless of content.

Q. I get a lot of junk email where the domain in the FROM address is the same as mine. Should I put my domain in my Blocked Senders list?
A. This is not a good idea. Again, most junk mail has a forged name in the FROM address, so the spam is usually not really from someone at our ISP. If you put our domain in your block list, then any valid email from us or other customers of our service will be quarantined. You should also not put the domains of other major ISPs or email providers in your Blocked list, since this will also quarantine all email from them, even if it is valid. When in doubt, only block specific addresses and not entire domains.

Q. I have several friends with addresses at AOL and Hotmail. Should I put the domains aol.com and hotmail.com in my Approved Senders list to make sure their email never gets quarantined?
A. It is also not a good idea to allow in all email from other ISPs or email providers. If you do this, then any real spam from AOL, Hotmail, or other ISP will bypass our filters and go to your in-box, as well as any spam with a forged AOL or Hotmail address (which is quite often done). If you want to be sure that email from specific individuals is never quarantined, then you can add their whole email address to your Approved Senders list. Of course, if the domain is for a smaller organization that is not an Internet provider, then adding just the domain should be fine. For example, if you regularly receive email from several people at a local company or organization, then it should be okay to add that domain to your Approved Senders list, since the chance of any spam coming from an email address at at that organization would be unlikely.

Q. Do commercial Web Accounts or dedicated connections receive the emScan service?
A. At this time, emScan quarantine boxes are not available for Commercial Web accounts, or for dedicated connections that have their own mail server.