Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: dell boy on May 31, 2009, 08:53:26 PM
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sorry if this is a stupid question but how do i know if they are scanned and how do i know the result from it being scanned? i put settings to insert message but i dont see any.
i changed to avast from avira because it has email scanning and no popup but i dont know now.
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To see if avast! is scanning emails, check one of these points:
1) Is the avast icon (the special one of email scanning) be shown in the system tray?
2) Is your email header with the lines X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS XXXXXX-X, XX/XX/2008), Inbound message and X-Antivirus-Status: Clean? (Right click the message, choose Properties and Details)
3) Are clean notes added at the bottom of the email? (Internet Mail provider settings)
You can test the security of your email system here: http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/
Which is your email provider? GMail? Does it use SSL connection?
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erm i use hotmail, on windows live mail and the header, the contents or the bottom of the message say nothing of the sort about clean/infected/avast or anything and i havent seen any special icon spinning only the i and the a(spinning)
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Well, I did not ask your operational system... but I suppose it's Vista or XP.
I think other more knowledge people can further help you. I'm not sure how Windows Live Mail works, maybe it does not use pop3/smtp connections (like email programs) and it just use something like "webmail". If so, WebShield will scan the traffic and Standard Shield the files being processed.
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just checked the email security test whatchamacallit and windows live mail blocked them all, but avast never said a word, and no spinning icon in system tray, i dont know whether this is good or not because it caught the viruses but avast didnt check them.
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ah yes its vista and i dont know much about windows live mail but i thought it was pop3 but i dont know anything to be honest but i would like to get this sorted, thanks for your help, where could i find more expert helpers who know about this stuff?
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where could i find more expert helpers who know about this stuff?
Wait for them... maybe Alanrf is the guy. Maybe David or Polonus know...
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If using Hotmail as web mail only (not pop3 account) with windows live mail which is an email client that can convert the web-mail content into its own special inbox, etc.
This is because it uses the MS proprietary DeltaSync conversion software and no other application has access to this proprietary software (other than MS email clients, Outlook, Windows Live Mail, possibly OE).
So effectively it isn't using the POP3 protocol, but a proprietary protocol that avast 'can't' scan.
So unless you have a POP3 Hotmail account and it is being downloaded conventionally using port 25 (not SSL) and POP3 protocol, avast can't scan this (nor can any other AV).
When MS executes the promised demise of WebDav (now complete) you will not be able to use Hotmail with OE any longer and the only mail client that will work with Hotmail will be Windows Live Mail (the replacement for OE). Neither avast, AVG, etc. will be able to scan Hotmail there since it is accessed by the new proprietary MS protocol DeltaSync - the replacement for WebDav.
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ok i appreciate that avast is doing what it can, but am i safe like this? because hotmail blocked the virus tests, but avast didnt scan them.
how can i set this up so avast can?
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Read my post agaion, you can't get avast to scan it unless you are using a POP3 Hotmail email account.
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yes ok, but how can i change my setup so that my emails are scanned by avast without changing my email address, use online emails instead of windows live mail? im just asking.
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As I said you can't because unless you have a hotmail pop3 account, which doesn't use the MS proprietary DeltaSync conversion software and no other application has access to this proprietary software.
This is outside of the control of avast and all you can do to change that is by using a pop3 email account.
Using only web mail, e.g. viewing it with your browser, the Web Shield would scan the html content and any attachments you save to your hard disk, should be manually scanned.
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ok thanks, if say for instance i got a new email address, but i wanted to use windows live mail, whats ones could still be scanned by avast? or is it WLM thats causing the problems?
sorry i dont know much about this.
i heard gmx is good, would that be scannable on WLM with avast?
also another question, do you think the hotmail virus scanning engine is sufficient? it found the test viruses in the GFI test
thanks
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would it help if i used say, thunderbird with this same email address? just curious
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Let's try to cover the main issues here.
You seem mostly interested in your Hotmail account. Hotmail is not your common or garden email account.
Let's just touch on non-Hotmail accounts before coming back to Hotmail.
For regular email accounts that provide you with POP/SMTP servers there are two possibilities:
1) you are allowed by the mail servers to use unsecured ports (typically 110 for POP and 25 for SMTP). Then avast can scan these emails (and insert "clean" messages id you wish)
2) you are (more and more frequently these days) required by the mail servers to use secure connections (more for their benefit than yours to be honest) but this means that the present release of avast cannot scan the emails delivered this way. They can be but it requires that you configure and run a free third party program called STunnel that manages the secure connections and still allows avast to scan the emails safely and securely within your own system.
So let's get back to Hotmail.
Microsoft wants you to use Windows Live Mail (WLM) with your Hotmail account. With WLM you get, with any Hotmail account, an IMAP like experience where it synchronizes all all your folders on the server with WLM. As you have been advised it uses a proprietary Microsoft protocol called DeltaSync. This is, as David described, the secret successor to the old WebDav protocol that manages "http" enabled Hotmail accounts that work with Outlook Express (and despite the comment by David is, in fact, still alive and kicking despite being under sentence of demise as some at yet to be specified date). The reason MS makes all Hotmail accounts work with WLM and DeltaSync is, surprise surprise, because this is a much less expensive load on their Hotmail server farm. As you have been advised avast does not now and cannot in the future scan emails delivered in WLM via the DeltaSync protocol.
At the same time the Microsoft folks don't want too much trouble over their proprietary access method and all those nasty antitrust objections. So after they rolled out WLM and got as many folks as possible to use WLM and Hotmail they then also rolled out regular POP/SMTP servers for Hotmail (again - after a gap of many years). So you can now use POP/SMTP servers in many countries (the UK for one) to access your Hotmail account with any email client (including WLM). However, they do require that you use secured connections to access their POP/SMTP servers (please see case 2 above for POP/SMTP servers). So, to scan Hotmail now you would need to use Hotmail's POP/SMTP servers and use the STunnel program mentioned above.
avast is planning to deliver this year release 5. Within release 5 they have advised the function of STunnel to manage secure email connections and allow avast to scan the emails delivered on them will be provided within avast itself. That means if you can wait a little longer and you use the Hotmail POP/SMTP servers for your Hotmail account in WLM (rather than the "http" connection) then avast will be able to scan the Hotmail messages.
Other options:
There are functions that convert Hotmail accessed via the Web interface to POP and even some that will provide SMTP conversion for Hotmail.
I will not go into these in detail unless you want to after reading the above information. Suffice to say that I get my Hotmail delivered daily in Thunderbird via the Thunderbird Webmail add-on that allows me to read my Hotmail accounts, send to my Hotmail accounts and have them scanned by avast, including downloads from custom folders on Hotmail too. Oh, they do the same for my Yahoo accounts as well.
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thanks for making it a bit clearer, all this jargon isnt easy to follow but thanks, so how might i go about changing this server to a pop/smtp, does just downloading this stunnel do that or is it more complicated.
thanks in advance
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you say insecure, is that a bad way to use it? or is it ok when avast scans;
will i be as safe when using the wlm scanner other than avast.
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With Hotmail you are never going to be allowed to use a non-secured connection ... so this is not really an issue.
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WLM has no scanner involved ... it is just a plain old email client running on your system. Hotmail does scan emails within itself.
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so if i download this stunnel, i will have avast scanning them yes? or do i need something to change it to pop/smtp server?
sorry im a bit slow
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Well ... let's put it this way ... changing your Hotmail account in WLM from DeltaSync to POP/SMTP will reuqure creating it all over again. yuo would need to download and install STunnel and configure it and your Hotmail account in WLM to work together.
It is not really difficult but it can be confusing.
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Do you use any custom folders in Hotmail?
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dont really know, just have windows live mail, and btw thats not the standard windows mail, because hotmail doesnt work on it, so i downloaded windows live mails and i just use the standard inbox/outbox/junk etc
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Well, there is a problem right off. You see the POP protocol allows you to only see mails from the Inbox on the server and you cannot download any mail from the Junk folder. So you would have to go to the Web interface to check if any mails went to the Junk folder.
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This is straying a bit from scanning with avast and for me it is about 3am and time for bed.
I am sending you a personal message to further this discussion if you wish. Please look for it in the "My Messages" section at the top of the forum screen.
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Well ... let's put it this way ... changing your Hotmail account in WLM from DeltaSync to POP/SMTP will reuqure creating it all over again. yuo would need to download and install STunnel and configure it and your Hotmail account in WLM to work together.
It is not really difficult but it can be confusing.
I'll say its confusing.
I tried to go through the rigmarole of setting up STunnel just after my ISP made the switch to SSL and gave up.
Hotmail has good virus checking so I'm not worried about anything bad there and I would NEVER open any attachment that I see in my Junk Folder.
I use PopPeeper to check my accounts and I can delete whatever is ready to be viewed including spam and other junk:
http://www.poppeeper.com
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ok so i got thunderbird running with hotmail how do i set it so it can be scanned by avast? can anyone knowledgeable help
thanks
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Same deal, as Alan mentioned Hotmail's POP3 service requires that you use SSL (secure encrypted) email connections and it doesn't matter a jot if you use WLM or Thunderbird or any other email client, avast currently can't scan SSL traffic.
So you would need to set-up STunnel to act as an interface to enable avast to scan this email traffic, see links below.
Whilst these mention gmail, the principal is the same I believe, unfortunately I can't be of any practical help, as I have never had to set this up, my email is standard POP3 protocol not SSL.
Gmail and Avast Providers (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=14854.msg125401#msg125401)
Redirecting multiple SSL accounts (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=12258.0)
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may i ask what email you use?
and considering i am not much of a computer genius do you think this will be easy?
i wont be able to do much for tonight because vista sp2 is installing and apparently itll take an hour
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It is in my signature, OE6.
I can't answer that question as I have never had to do it, some in the forums found it easy enough, other had problems with it and you have had one such response from YoKenny in the topic.
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but alanrf says i can have avast scan it with thunderbird and no stunnel, i have emailed him we'll see.
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I have sent you the setup instructions for Thunderbird and its Webmail add-ons to have avast scan your Hotmail messages.
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Alan what is that, a thunderbird add-on then ?
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yes david,i had to download a couple add-ons and im gd, avast scans incoming, ive emailed him on how to set outgoing.
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Just for anyone stumbling on this thread in the future.
Today users of the WebDav protocol with Hotmail are being advised that this protocol will not be supported or available as of 1 September 2009.
As of that date Hotmail accounts in regular email clients, including Outlook Express, will need to use the free POP/SMTP servers provided by Hotmail. Users of Microsoft Outlook (2003 onwards) may download a "connector" that will allow them to use the newer proprietary DeltaSync protocol for Hotmail. Microsoft recommends for general users Windows Live Mail (note this is not the same product as Windows Mail originally shipped with Vista) which will allow the use of the DeltaSync protocol with any Hotmail account.
Just with a thought to the future. Folks wanting to have the upcoming avast version 5 scan their Hotmail emails will need to use the free POP/SMTP servers of Hotmail to make this possible (even with Windows Live Mail) - avast 5 will not be able to scan Hotmail accounts set up to use the DeltaSync protocol.
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Thanks Alan.