4.5 scans all email accounts

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Greetings. Just updated to Avast 4.5 Home, build 4.5.523. First thing I noticed was Avast wanting permission to connect to remote email servers. This is new, as I use a local email server which collects all remote mail, then I had Avast set up to check whenever a mail client pulled from that server. That way I only got one Avast popup notification for each mail. Now, however, I’m getting three: one for the remote server pull, one for a utility which scans and edits incoming mail on the local server, and one when my client pulls the mail from the local server.

So… is there any way to go back to speccing only pulls from my local mail server to be covered by Avast? As it is the pop notifier is a nuisance. I’m under XP Home.

Thanks for a really great prog.

Paul

2

You can revert to the 4.1-style mail scanning by placing the following line to the [MailScanner] section of the file \data\avast4.ini:

AutoRedirect=0

Cheers
Vlk

3

Paul,
avast! should not be automaticly scanning connection to localhost. So whenever your mail client (or some ‘utility which scans and edits incoming mail on the local server’) connects to 127.0.0.1 it should not be intercepted by avast!.

Please check the avast4.ini file, in Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA folder.

Find the section [MailScanner], the option ‘IgnoreLocalhost’ should control this behavior. It should not be there at all, or it might be there in the form ‘IgnoreLocalhost=1’.

This way, only connections leaving your PC would be scanned - that is when your local SMTP server pulls the mails from remote host.

Please recheck this and let us know if it helped.

Of course, you can also switch the feature completly off - as Vlk suggests.

Lukas.

4

If it is just the popups that annoys you, set Avast to run in silent mode.

5

This seems to have the effect of turning off the mailscanner? Suddenly my client no longer can tap into it. Darn, this is confusing.

6

I much prefer Avast to scan localhost rather than the remote servers. My filters, implemented by my local mail server, are very powerful, and I’d rather nuke the garbage before scanning the rest; much more efficient that way. Last thing I want to do is scan mail that I then will toss anyway.

Paul

7

No, I love the popups. They are the ideal minimal mail notifier! It’s just that I don’t want them in triplicate.

thanks,
Paul

8

I also notice now that the tray icon is grayed out. Scanner Control applet says Internet Mail: “The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start”. That’s got to be why my mail client can’t tap in.

Paul

9

Sure enough, I commented out that new line in the .ini file, stopped and restarted the Avast mailserver module, and my client is pulling mail again.

But once I have mail, I’m sure I’ll be back to triple notification. :slight_smile:

10

the AutoRedirect=0 just stops the catching of all outgoing connections. It does not stop the mail scanning service and you should be able to use it normaly as in ver. 4.1 (if you direct your mail clients to localhost - or run Pop Wizard (avast4\ashPopWz.exe).

Please check, that the “avast! Mail Scanner” service is running. You might also start it manualy by the command:

net start “avast! Mail Scanner”

Also you might have some port conflicts with your local mail server. (not very probable thou, as you upgraded from working setup). Please check this thread (among others) for help on how to change listening ports. http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=9019

Lukas.

11

Dang. Now it appears to be working perfectly. I don’t know why, but originally when I tried to run the PopWiz before I posted here, the Manual option was grayed out.

I restored the new line in avast4.ini, then ran the Wiz. As long as it holds through rebooting, I’m in biz. Thanks much. Love Avast.

Paul