Hiya,
How do I get Avast! to scan emails that ePrompter downloads?
Thanks,
Jorolat
I suggest you check these threads - http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=3495.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=11295.0
Or a forum search for hotpopper as this is a similar email notifier.
Or check out this thread for lots of options you can set through the avast.ini file. Understanding avast4.ini file
I had not heard of eprompter so I just installed it, put it through its paces and ran some network traces on it.
It turns out that the only similarity to Hotmail Popper (Hotpopper) is that they both retrieve mail.
I’m guessing that DavidR may have confused Hotpopper with Pop Peeper which does seem to have considerable similarity to eprompter.
Hotmail Popper is a Webdav->POP3 and SMTP->Webdav conversion program (email proxy) specifically for Hotmail and assumes that a mail client is being used. It is very easy to ensure (as I do) that Avast scans the POP3 and SMTP streams.
eprompter is a combination standard mail client with built in HTTP mail conversion for certain Webmail applications. It is also a Windows tray application that regularly checks email accounts and advises you of the number of new messages on each account. It can then retrieve the mail into its own client, reply, delete mail from the server etc.
When accessing standard POP3 accounts it uses the standard ports to access the mail and so that mail is, by default, scanned by the Internet Mail scanner.
On its HTTP mail conversion it performs normal HTTP transactions to retrieve the raw mail from the mail store of Yahoo, Hotmail, Lycos etc and transfers the converted mail into its own local mail store on the client.
Since this is not a Webmail->POP3 conversion there is no way for Avast to intercept and scan those messages in the Internet mail scanner.
Pulling in the raw messages, at least in the Yahoo case, avoids virus scanning of the messages on the Yahoo system. I did not check the format of the mail file of eprompter. If it is encrypted then viruses could be stored that would not be detected by Avast and could be onward transmitted if sent out again as Webmail by eprompter.
Just one other difference with Hotmail Popper, eprompter’s efforts to retrieve Hotmail have been broken since Hotmail’s last set of system changes about a week ago.
Jorolat, which port number does ePrompter listen?
For example, you can configure MailWasher and Spamihilator to listen POP3 ports (110, 120… whatsoever).
If you add this port number into avast settings (Redirection), won’t the Internet Mail Provider scan the mail there?
Tech,
up to you if you wish not to believe me but …
eprompter behaves like a simple mail client and does not listen on any port.
Any POP3 mail requests by eprompter use port 110 and will be scanned by Avast by default.
The issue is that webmail is not and cannot be scanned by Avast when using this product.
Exactly alanrf… I use Pop Peeper and it also uses port 110, except when I’m receiving my gmail e-mails through SSL (Secure Socket Layer) plug-in through the port number 995… but gmail still is not being checked by avast! (we all know that avast! doesn’t support SSL). Exactly same situation with my Hotmail e-mail account, except Hotmail doesn’t use SSL, but I’m just mentioning it, because it’s a WEB mail and it’s also not scanned by avast!..
I guess, we have to include our human factor in here and try to be little bit more cautious and logical… don’t open e-mails that you don’t have a clue who sent them to you… same story with e-mails containing suspicious attachments. Anyway, no one will ever send us money or something valuable ;D through the e-mails, so hoping that there will be something interesting inside anyway, is pretty naive… always better safe than sorry. 
Cheers !
Sasha,
you have a very valid point about gmail. I don’t have a gmail account and (although I saw it is included in the products that work with eprompter) I confess I just didn’t want to include the extra issues of secure email with Avast into the discussion.
I have to say that I am not sure about the state of messages in the Hotmail message store. I don’t know if their virus scan is prior to storing messages or when the message is retrieved via the browser or Webdav.
I know for certain that in Yahoo viruses are allowed into the message store. They may be caught when accessed via the browser but Webmail converters of the raw message source can, for sure, deliver viruses to the local client mail store. That’s why I have stressed in other threads that users of Webmail->POP3 converters (FreePops, MrPostman, Ypops) really must make sure that the POP3 stream generated be scanned by Avast before delivery to their client of choice.
Alan
Thanks for the explanation about eprompter Alan.
It was not so much confusion on the hotpopper, pop peeper, but a lack of knowledge of exactly what ePromper did.
I’m not sure you’re saying or not that this is impossible.
In fact, there is a workaround.
avast!, right now, is scanning my inbound and outbound gmail account.
I have clean notes on it and the X-Antivirus headers.
Tech,
you are right.
eprompter is a regular mail client (with a few other functions tacked on) and all mail accessed as “regular” POP3 accounts will be scanned by Avast by default.
It recently announced that it supported gmail accounts. In doing that it recognized a new “type” of account “Gmail”. Since it defines mail accounts by type “POP3”, “Hotmail”, “Yahoo”, “Gmail” I assume that determines the means of access and the ports it will use for accessing the account. The GUI does not seem to allow any deviation from the “standard” ports for the type of account.
I assume that for Gmail they are using the same SSL access as other clients do. Given that is the case then the method that you and others have employed to allow Avast to intercept and scan the mail stream for Gmail should also work with eprompter (provided that does not require any deviation from the “standard” ports used for gmail access).
Using eprompter’s built in Webmail access (for Hotmail, Yahoo etc.) prevents Avast scanning of the messages before they are added to eprompter’s local mail store.
Earlier today I was able to “fool” eprompter to use a third party program (FreePops) to access Hotmail messages instead of using its own built in Webmail access. By doing that, eprompter functionality still worked but the Hotmail messages were scanned by Avast before being added to the eprompter local mail store. The same method would also work for Yahoo.
So, while it take a little effort, there are ways to make most of the mail accessed by eprompter subject to scanning by Avast.