The thread mentioned above was started by Mykeprime in July 2012, FYI. Not sure why I can't post anything on it. At any rate, I read everything there and still can't figure out if any of my email is getting scanned by Norton, for the following reasons:
(1) I'm not so tech-savvy. (Might as well get that out right away--AND apologize right away for how absurdly long this is.) Oh yeah: I've had Norton 360, version 21.2.0.38, for 3-4 months on a Windows 7 Home Premium laptop using IE9, and before that had Norton Internet Security 2013.
(2) I've had a number of EarthLink email addresses for eons. Based on SendOfJive's 7/15/2012 p.m. reply on the aforementioned. thread, I tried to determine if EarthLink's incoming (POP3) port is the requisite 110...but all I can find on their site is "EarthLink's incoming (POP3) email server is based on your email address...pop.earthlink.net"--i.e., no port number. (EarthLink's outgoing [SMTP] email port number is 587.) What's more...
(3) Whenever I'm away from home, which I currently have been for more than a year, traditionally I've checked my EarthLink messages via their Webmail feature, not their Email, because I've never been able to figure out how to do otherwise on any computer other than the one @ home on which I started the account. Dick Evans wrote that "[Windows] Live Mail is web based so your Norton program will not be able to protect you. It can only protect what is on your system." I don't understand what he means by "your system" [see (1) ], but I'm guessing that whatever he's saying applies equally to EarthLink Webmail? However...
(4) On the plus side, I also have a newish Outlook 2010 account, and I configured it to check my EarthLink mail. In other words, when I log on to Outlook.com, I have access to 4 inboxes, 1 for Outlook + separate inboxes for each of my 3 EarthLink addresses. And I used incoming/outgoing ports 110/587 when I configured it. So that means everything's good, right? Especially since RoloX2 said, "I don't think Norton integrates with Windows Live Essentials e-mail client. It does integrate with Outlook and Outlook Express"? However...
(5) RoloX2 went on to say, "...however, if you use the Hotmail Connector with Windows Live...I don't think Norton can scan e-mail retreived that way." I don't use Windows Live and have no idea what a Hotmail Connector is...but I do log on to Outlook.com via a Hotmail address!: When they forcibly switched all Hotmail users over to Outlook a couple of years ago, they said we did not have to change our addresses from "@Hotmail.com" to "@Outlook.com," and I chose the path of least exertion and didn't change mine. But maybe what Rolo said about retrieving Windows Live mail via a Hotmail Connector is irrelevant, since I'm on Hotmail in name only, am otherwise effectively on Outlook (and have nothing to do w/ Windows Live)? However...
(6)EarthLink very considerately (!) checks my EarthLink mail with its spamBlocker and its anti-virus program before forwarding anything to Outlook, and it hangs on to anything malevolent, in its Known Spam and Virus Blocker (quarantine) folders, for a few days before automatically deleting it. The problem is, spamBlocker occasionally gets a little carried away and hangs on to messages that are not malevolent, in fact that once in a while are important--which means I still have to log into EarthL Webmail 1-2x/wk simply to peruse Known Spam and rescue anything that doesn't belong there! ...But hopefully y'all will say it isn't worth worrying about these handfuls of messages that I retrieve outside of Norton's sphere of influence, since EarthLink has already scanned them so zealously? And so maybe I'm still all good, Norton-wise (even though I have email initially opened by non-Norton-protected EarthLink and have a Hotmail address)? And maybe you think I never had anything to worry about, vis-a-vis the previous thread? My final However:
(7) The creator of the prev. thread, Mykeprime,was concerned, he said, because he "used to get [virus] alerts from the [Norton] email scanner fairly regularly but it hasn’t picked anything up since the end of January according to the security history." I have virtually every Norton 360 setting on, including Email Anti-Virus, and I've always done likewise with Norton Int. Security . . . but I have NEVER gotten a Norton anti-virus alert! And whenever I go to Tasks--> Check Security History--> Show _____, (a) the Firewall Activities, Intrusion Detection, and Resolved Security Risks tabs have plenty of news of, eg, successful invasion thwarting (on websites I've visited, not via email), but (b) Scan Results ALWAYS says "0 Total Security Risks Detected"; (c) AntiSpam never has nothing to report except its own definitions updates; (d) Identity rarely has anything to report except update downloads & routine uses of Antiphishing definitions (but no reports of its detecting any phishing); and (e) Sites Reported to Symantec and Email Errors ALWAYS say, "There are currently no items to view for this category." So can you blame me for being concerned that none of my email has ever gotten screened by Norton?! What am I doing wrong?! ...Or what, in my illiterate but hypercautious way, am I doing right?!! THANK YOU, anyone who's still reading this, even if you don't have a solution!!