Am I protected with Thunderbird?

[callinger]

I have XP home and Avast 4.7, I seem to read conflicting things about whether I am automatically protected with Thunderbird e-mail or if I have to configure something manually. Any info appreciated.  -Chris

[alanrf]

Welcome to the avast forum.

Regular POP3 mail accounts are automatically protected by the Internet Mail provider of avast for XP Home users.

In fact avast does not know or care whether you use Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Eudora or any other standard POP3 client.  avast intercepts the use of the POP3/SMTP well known mail ports that all these clients use.   

There are a couple of "but ifs". 

If you use a mail connection (such a GMail) that requires the use of an encrypted connection (and usually different ports) then by the definition of "encrypted" that email connection cannot be scanned by avast. 

The other one is the use of third party programs (MrPostman, YPops, Hotmail Popper, FreePops, Thunderbird's WebMail extensions) that convert Webmail accounts - Hotmail, Yahoo etc - to a POP3 stream to be downloaded to Thunderbird are not scanned by default.

If you are using one of these functions then let us know and we can advise on the steps needed to have this mail scanned by avast. 

[ProgramASPnet]

alanrf,

Could you please post the steps you advise for those of us using Thunderbird w/ the WebMail extension?  I have recently switched to Thunderbird to be able to connect to the multiple hotmail accounts that I have.  Since Outlook no longer allows access to Hotmail accounts, Thunderbird has been my best option to date.

Thanks,
-Kirk

[alanrf]

ProgramASPnet,

welcome to the forum.

I assume that in the main Webmail extension and in Thunderbird you are using the default ports of 110 for receiving Hotmail messages (POP) and port 25 for sending them (SMTP).

In that case getting the messages scanned by avast is achieved in the Internet Mail provider by:

Click on Customize > Redirect tab > Uncheck the "Ignore local communication" box > OK > OK

 

[ProgramASPnet]

Your assumptions are correct, the ports are set at their defaults 110 and 25.

Looks like that checkbox was unchecked by default on my install so all is well.

Thanks for clarifying it for me!