Quick Links

• What is a virus?
  
• What is Virus Blocker?
  
• What are the most common types of viruses?
  
• How do I turn Virus Blocker on?
  
• What happens when Virus Blocker identifies an infected message?
  
• Is there an additional charge for Virus Blocker?
  
• Will Virus Blocker replace my current anti-virus software?
  
• What will happen to my email when mail forwarding and Virus Blocker are both turned on?
  
• Can EarthLink turn Virus Blocker on without notification?
  
• Will Virus Blocker scan outgoing emails?
  

• What is a virus?
  
  A virus is a piece of programming code that is designed to infect a computer, and in most cases, will spread to other computers. Some harm data on your computer. Other viruses use your computer to harm others, and some just cause general annoyance. Viruses can be transmitted via attachments in email, file downloads, local area networks, or other forms of computer media.
  
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• What is Virus Blocker?
  
  Virus Blocker is part of a suite of applications (including Pop-up Blocker, spamBlocker, and Spyware Blocker) created by EarthLink to help protect your privacy and enhance your Internet experience. Virus Blocker stops viruses that are transmitted through email before they can be downloaded onto your computer.
  
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• What are the most common types of viruses?
  
  The most common viruses do one of two things. One type, such as the Klez virus, infects common email programs, and emails copies of itself to everybody in the address book, or any email addresses that it finds in the inbox or sent items. Another common virus type infects the operating system, and broadcasts information to various sites all over the Internet. Viruses like this can significantly slow down local networks, individual connections, or even large ISP systems.
  
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• How do I turn Virus Blocker on?
  
  Just to go to https://webmail.hosting.earthlink.net. Once you login, go to Email Maintenance. You can then change your Virus Blocker settings on your profile.
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• What happens when Virus Blocker identifies an infected message?
  
  If the virus can be removed from the email without affecting the rest of the email message, Virus Blocker will remove the virus and then send you the remainder of the email, along with a not at the top of the message explaining what has been done.
  
  If the virus can not be deleted from the email, but the virus detected is not considered to be highly dangerous, the message will be quarantined and you will receive an administrative message explaining what has been done.
  
  If you have antivirus software installed on your computer, you may want to download a quarantined message. You should be very careful when reading messages that have been quarantined, there is no way to guarantee not being infected from reading a quarantined message.
  
  To download quarantined messages:
  
  1.Sign in to https://webmail.hosting.earthlink.net using the email address that received the infected message.
  2.On the Email Maintenance page, disable Virus Blocker
  3.Check the box to move quarantined messages into your Inbox.
  
  If we find an email that was created by a virus, we will automatically delete it. When this happens, you will receive an administrative message explaining what has been done. Keep in mind that some of these messages may have come from someone you know. If this happens, make sure to inform the sender of what happened and advise them to have their computer checked out.
  
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• Is there an additional charge for Virus Blocker?
  
  No. Virus Blocker is provided free of charge to all EarthLink customers to keep you safe and help minimize the risks associated with internet usage.
  
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• Will Virus Blockerreplace my current anti-virus software?
  
  Virus Blocker is not intended to replace your current anti-virus software because it is unable to scan your computer for viruses. It can only identify viruses that are sent to you through email. While email is the leading source of viruses, there are enough other ways to become infected to justify keeping some type of anti-virus software installed on your computer and up to date.
  
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• What will happen to my email when mail forwarding and Virus Blocker are both turned on?
  
  A. If you chose to keep a copy of received messages in your EarthLink mailbox, then only clean messages are sent to your forwarding address. Virus notifications will not be forwarded, but will be saved in your EarthLink mailbox.
  B. If you choose not to keep a copy of received messages in your EarthLink mailbox, then only clean messages are sent to your forwarding address. All other infected messages (including those that might have legitimate files) are deleted and no virus notifications are forwarded to you.
  
  We recommend that you keep a copy of received messages if you are going to use both mail forwarding and Virus Blocker.
  
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• Can EarthLink turn Virus Blocker on without notification?
  
  Yes, if there is a large-scale virus outbreak, EarthLink can turn Virus Blocker on for all customers to make sure that everyone stays protected. When this has been done, customers who already had Virus Blocker activated will continue to be protected in the same manner as before. Virus Blocker will simply delete messages infected by the specific virus causing the outbreak for customers who did not have Virus Blocker activated. These users will not receive an administrative message that this has been done. Once the outbreak is over, Virus Blocker options will revert back to its original settings.
  
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• Will Virus Blocker scan outgoing emails?
  
  No. Virus Blocker only scans incoming emails to help you avoid getting infected with a virus. If your computer is already infected with a virus, and is sending infected email, it is best to depend on a good anti-virus program for detection and clean-up.
  
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