well as far as i know it could either be veiwing the email or running the attachment that would cause an infection
 
i don't think that jsut haveing the email in the inbox would infect you but i could be wrong
 
i image that it also somewhat depends on vulnerabilities within your mail client itself.

Depends on the virus, but if you have preview enabled and you come across an email with HTML enabled that has a hostile ActiveX control, then yes you could get infected. The safest bet is to view everything in txt mode (there's a reg key for this) and to pay attention to whatever attachments you get. Also, might as well disable the preview mode so that all you see is the subject.

Quote:Depends on the virus, but if you have preview enabled and you come across an email with HTML enabled that has a hostile ActiveX control, then yes you could get infected. The safest bet is to view everything in txt mode (there's a reg key for this) and to pay attention to whatever attachments you get. Also, might as well disable the preview mode so that all you see is the subject.

and get nav corp
this will cure all your virus problems

obviously using an anti virus is a good protection,i was just wondering what happens without one.
 
preview is definitely off.so if i get an infected mail in my inbox,but i don't touch it..........what happens ?

If you never view it, and don't open its attachments, you should be just fine. I have never heard of any virus that could infect the system just by being downloaded - that would be a pretty serious flaw in the mail client! It's just like if you download an infected exe... It's not dangerous until you run it.

thank you.....that is very very reassuring..!!!
 
i do use norton anti virus that scans my mail.....but it is good to know that if it misses one mail,i can still count on my judgement before openning a suspicious mail and thus preventing infection.
 
thanks.

Quote:thank you.....that is very very reassuring..!!!

i do use norton anti virus that scans my mail.....but it is good to know that if it misses one mail,i can still count on my judgement before openning a suspicious mail and thus preventing infection.

thanks.

you shouldn't have to worry
but make sure and keep nav up to date

For XML capable email, it is possible to be infect by just viewing an email without running any files attached. But, there is still a last line of defense, since you saw something coming in with unknown or suspicious header info(and possible subject and senders), you could just exit immediately the email program, goes offline promptly, reopen the eamil program, then manual delete the email by using a right click on the item, without open it, you can then connect to the net again to perform such offline operation, Outlook is able to delete it without even download it beforehand. Check also the leave mail on server after download is cleared in internet option in windows also.