I believe I understand how this is all working now but I would like to confirm.
-The email account that is unencrypted get scanned by Avast, providing I have the Avast Mail Shield Settings set to "none: & ports “110 & 25”, which also correspond w/ the mail client settings, is that correct?
-The email accounts that are encrypted get scanned by Avast, providing I have the Avast Mail Shield Settings set to “SSL” & the ports set to “995 & 465”, BUT the corresponding mail clients settings need to be set to “unencrypted” & the ports to “110 & 25”, correct?
So, is my mail actually still encrypted? If so, I assume that Avast basically acts as my mail client or, in other words, filters the mail from my mail client, encrypts it, & then connects to my mail server. Is that about right?
And, if I set my mail client to “encrypted” & the ports to “995 & 465”, then Avast wouldn’t be scanning my emails at all, correct?
I look forward to your response! I am a bit confused as to how all of this works. Thanks.
-The email account that is unencrypted get scanned by Avast, providing I have the Avast Mail Shield Settings set to "none: & ports "110 & 25", which also correspond w/ the mail client settings, is that correct?
Yes
-The email accounts that are encrypted get scanned by Avast, providing I have the Avast Mail Shield Settings set to "SSL" & the ports set to "995 & 465", BUT the corresponding mail clients settings need to be set to "unencrypted" & the ports to "110 & 25", correct?
Yes
So, is my mail actually still encrypted? If so, I assume that Avast basically acts as my mail client or, in other words, filters the mail from my mail client, encrypts it, & then connects to my mail server. Is that about right?
yes avast is doing the SSL jobb
And, if I set my mail client to "encrypted" & the ports to "995 & 465", then Avast wouldn't be scanning my emails at all, correct?
I appreciate the detailed response. I realize that my questions may have seemed almost unnecessary but I just wanted to be sure that I understood correctly.
There have been many times where I thought I knew what was happening only to later realize that I was wrong!
So If I read this correctly and don’t change the settings on my mail client (actually Opera’s M2) will Avast scan my mail as I open it with Opera using the Resident Protection? (FIle Shield?)
If this is the case then as most people say the Mail Shield can be turned off… if you don’t want to scan the mail before you open it with your mail client.
when/If you open a mail attachment avast! will scan it…you see the orange avast ball turning every time you do something, means avast is watching every move you make…
It is never advisable to open an attachment directly from the email, always save it to a location on your hard disk. This serves two functions it doesn’t trigger it to be run immediately and the act of saving it to the HDD would cause the File System Shield to scan it.
However, seems to be a bit of a contradiction here, unless I am misunderstanding ???
So, are attachments scanned if they are not opened?
Pondus said: yes if you use avast mail scan
Yet it sounds as though DavidR might be saying otherwise.
Also, I may have learned something new…DavidR, are you saying that if I save an attachment w/o opening it, that an infected attachment will not released on my system? That I would actually need to open the attachment, whether from the email or the HDD for it to actually run?
Go to PROFILE then Modify Profile then Forum Profile Information then Signature: and put information about your system just like my signature and DavidR and Pondus about your system just like my signature so that the helpers can offer pertinent advice.
I run Windows XP on a couple of machines that use Avast. Not sure how revealing info about my processor, HDD, other AV/AS, etc will help in answering my question though.
Not sure I understand your point YoKenny. Obviously I have something to learn. I actually said “I may have learned something new…” & then asked a question, which implies that I did not know the answer. Why not help out & answer my questions instead of instigating a problem? Sorry, don’t see the point.
Look, I am just trying to get some basic answers here, that’s all. Don’t want to get into a high school pissing contest. We were all doing just fine here from what I can tell. The info you are requesting is irrelevant, which is why I see no reason to dig it up.
So, back to my original questions…if anyone would like to help out, I would appreciate it. If not, that’s ok too
I’m not saying anything of the sort, all I’m saying is it is unwise to run/open an attachment directly from the email. Whilst avast should scan email attachments upon receipt, but I am a trusting sort (NOT) and you never know what it is that you are trying to open (attempts can be made to try and mask what it is in the attachment.
By saving the attachment to the HDD you aren’t opening/running it, it is inert until it is run, but you still have to exercise care. If there is any sort of weird file name, two extensions, etc. (attachment_file_name.exe.txt) or lots of spaces (attachment_file_name.txt .exe), avast may alert on these spaces.
But you are a) able to scan it using avast and or upload it to virus total if there is any doubt about the email origin (easy to fake the from email address). For me if there is any doubt about the origin (I would have deleted it in my anti-spam program), or if it came from a mate I would confirm they had sent it and what the attachment was. A healthy dose of suspicion will protect you against a lot of the tricks/scams out there.
I have long been extremely weary of attachments, even from people I know & I agree with everything you said.
Maybe I am slow but I am still a bit confused…
I always thought that if an attachment was in fact malware of sort, that saving it , WITHOUT opening it could also allow it to run. Do you agree or disagree with that?
I still do scan all attachments after saving them however.
Also, Pondus said that Avast scans all attachments, even without opening them.
So, if I am understanding all of the opinions correctly,
-AVAST will scan all attachments
-Just in case AVAST misses something, save it, scan it, then open it
-And, even if the above is happens, you never know
No simply saving an attachment doesn’t run it. Malware has to have either a command to run; usually the registry or another file which knows where it is (and it won’t know where ‘you’ decide to save them). Or they have to trick the user into running/opening it, called social engineering, curiosity. Something like returned email failed delivery (people open the attachment to see why) or the very familiar UPS Invoice or unable to deliver, etc. etc. Without that happening it would sit there like a lump of concrete, inert, until someone/thing opens/runs it.
How do you think avast runs a scan like the right click scan, you right click on the file and select Scan, there is a bit of user and a bit of registry command avast to scan that file. The file that does the scanning is ashQuick.exe which sits inert, until something commands it to scan, malware isn’t too much different.
I always scan attachments (use the right click scan on them) after I have saved them.
