If AOL mail does, as you report, use port 587 for outbound mail then it it almost certainly is using TLS and therefore, by definition, cannot be scanned by avast (or anything else).
Hi. Thank you very much for your reply. I just got the port 587 info from an AOL tech and I also see it reported elsewhere in this forum in this link:
http://members.aol.com/adamkb/aol/mailfaq/imap/I am not a hi-tech guy, and it certainly seems that I am missing something. Please let me see if understand things correctly. When an AV program says it scans the most common Email protocols, HTTP, IMAP, NNTP, SMTP, and POP3 traffic for example, and AOL says its incoming mail is IMAP and outgoing mail is SMTP, said anti virus program still isn't scanning AOL email unless a person reconfigures their AOL Email so it isn't web based? Is that it? How about scanning attachments?
On another note, I have recently seen an AV program published by AOL available at Cnet download.com, Softpedia and other reputable software download sites, but not listed on AOL's own proprietary web pages. This AOL branded program at download.com is actually a slimmed down version of Kaspersky 6.0 AV that is rebranded with the AOL name. So once again, if I am understanding things correctly, even this AV software with AOL's own name on it, which says it supports all the most commonly used Email protocols, including HTTP, IMAP, NNTP, SMTP, and POP3 traffic, would not likely scan my AOL Emails and attachments?
Finally, if an AOL user chooses to download the AOL Safety and Security Center directly from AOL proprietary web pages, they will be able to install an AOL AV powered by Mcafee. (I don't know whether it is a regular or slimmed down version of Mcafee.) So once again, is it probable that even this AOL/Mcafee AV, which is downloaded directly from AOL, would not scan my AOL Email and its attachments?
I am an AOL user trying out Avast, which looks like a nice robust program. I would like to have the comfort level of knowing that my Emails and Email attachments are scanned at my user level and by a program that I choose. But from what I am gathering from your comments and the link that I found here and referenced above, is that neither Avast AV, the AOL/Mcafee AV available directly from AOL, nor the AOL/Kaspersky AV available on the net are likely to actually scan AOL Emails and its attachments since AOL email is allegedly web based Email and these Emails are being scanned by AOL at a server level. Is that correct? Is there a distinction for attachments? Won’t Avast AV and these other AV programs that I mentioned at least scan my AOL Email attachments? I doubt that web based Email would necessarily be scanning attachments at a server level, but what do I know.
Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks for your help!!