Does anyone know how to configure Avast to monitor Mozilla Thunderbird like it does for outlook?
It works the same as it does for outlook. The only difference is it is a plug in for outlook so you see the banner when outlook loads. Thunderbird email is checked through Internet Mail in avast and no special configuration is needed.
Are you using XP/Vista?
Which is your email provider (@what?)? Does it requires SSL (protected) connection?
Thunderbird doesn’t do free mail except gmail and won’t scan that with avast
I have a POP3 account with my isp which it does
i am using windows xp sp3 and gmail as isp
Well gmail isn’t your ISP, but only your email server/host/account.
I believe there is an add-on for thunderbird which can download your gmail and avast can I believe scan that when the add-on does that. I can’t be much practical help as I don’t use thunderbird.
Gmail requires you to connect to its servers (both for POP and SMTP -ie receive and send) via secure connections. In the current production version of avast you need the help of a third party program (STunnel) to help you get mail delivered on secure connections scanned by avast.
Outlook (by that I mean Microsoft Outlook not the now outdated Outlook Express) has a special interface with which avast (and other antivirus products too) works to scan all emails no matter what the type of server connection. In this it is vastly superior to Thunderbird or any other standard mail client.
For Thunderbird there is a Webmail add-on (formerly call extension) that accesses GMail via the Web interface and converts Gmail to a POP/SMTP stream that can be scanned by avast (without further software intervention). If you want more information on this let me know.
It is expected that avast 5 (which is likely to be generally available before the end of this year) will be able to provide a way to scan emails delivered via secure email connections without the use of third party software - so you may just wish to exercise some patience.
Hi alanrf,
Is this just POP - not IMAP?
If it could do IMAP, can I have a link please?
It could be useful until V5…
-Scott-
See http://www.google.com/search?q=thunderbird+webmail+add-on for more links than you can shake a stick at ;D
http://webmail.mozdev.org/installation.html, scroll down and you will see one for Gmail, don’t know if it does IMAP though.
Thanks
It seems that it only does pop, and I don’t like it (downloaded EVERY email I had last time I used it) IMAP is much better…
I guess I’ll have to wait for V5 then…
-Scott-
Avast works beautifully with Gmail through Thunderbird, but I have intermittent problems getting mail from my Earthlink account, which is also coming through Thunderbird.
At times filtering is quick and smooth, but often the Avast Earthlink check keeps churning and then times out.
I looked in Internet Mail/Customize/Redirect, and see values of 110/25, which don’t correspond to either Thunderbird/Gmail (995/465) nor Thunderbird/Earthlink (110 yes, but 465). I tried adding POP and SMTP values separated by comma, but that created more trouble.
Suggestions? Thanks, Janos
Well adding the 995/465 to their respective ports will only screw the pooch as currently avast can’t handle the secure ports and it will fail. If Earthlink requires SSL/TLS then what happens id the secure ports aren’t monitored by avast so they bypass the proxy and scan.
Are you using the thunderbird add-on for gmail though ?
If so then that add-on converts the gmail to POP3 and allows avast to scan it and that is probably why it works.
You could set-up your earthlink account to forward your email to your gmail account.
Thanks Alan,
any detail you might have for the Thunderbird add on would be appreciated. I have set up Thunderbird for IMAP but if avast works in POP/SMTP then I’m not averse to going back to this for the added av security
nigel150166,
I could just give you the simple link … but I felt challenged by another poster in this thread to say why can you not keep your IMAP GMail in Thunderbird and have your mail scanned by avast too? I think it can be done fairly easily (even in the current avast) but I have to test it before proposing a work around. Please give me a day to test it or swallow my words.
I agree with you and spg SCOTT that the IMAP offering from GMail/GoogleMail is to be preferred.
There is also virus scanning performed by them so the lack of an extra virus scan by avast is not a major stumbling block. The availability
of avast 5 and its enhanced email scanning is not far off and you may well decide just to wait for avast 5.
Nevertheless, as a “workaround” - I do not claim this as a solution - you can keep the GMail IMAP account in Thunderbird as the account you use on a regular basis and still have avast scan the mails from the account for you. This may also have some appeal to any users of older operating systems that will not be able to use avast 5.
How? You can simply use the Webmail add-ons for Thunderbird to read emails from the GMail web server, convert them to a POP stream that avast can scan alongside the normal IMAP account in Thunderbird. The POP account in Thunderbird would only exist for the purpose of scanning the messages.
The steps involved.
- In avast
Go to the Internet Mail provider > Customize > Redirect tab uncheck the “Ignore locoal communication” box > OK > OK
- In Thunderbird
From this site http://webmail.mozdev.org/installation.html download and install in Thunderbird the main Webmail and GMail extensions. Restart Thunderbird.
- In Thunderbird
Create a new account with the account type Webmail. Enter the details of your GMail IMAP account. Wherever you are asked for your userid enter it in full as youruserid@gmail.com (or googlemail.com if that is appropriate for you).
When completed please take a look at the server settings of the account before downloading any mail. You should make them look like the image below (just click on the image to make it more viewable).
- In Thunderbird
Create a message filter for this Webmail account that simply moves every message downloaded and scanned to the trash folder. This is to
avoid filling space on your system with messages that have been scanned and for which you have no further use in this POP account.
That’s it. What will happen?
The first time - as happens, by the rules, with all POP accounts - is that all emails on the server will be downloaded and scanned by avast. So if you have a lot of messages on GMail it may well take a while.
Thereafter, on each start of Thunderbird the POP account will only scan all the new messages. If any messages is recognized by avast as a
problem it will tell you the details of the message. You would need to memorize the message information (subject etc). Since the IMAP account does not download the message (by default) then you have the opportunity to delete (or further check) the message avast finds a problem with on the GMail server before you download it.
There you go, it works - I have tested it with my own GMail IMAP account.
Not to everyone’s taste - if any further explanation or help is needed let me know.
One more caveat.
By the rules of the POP protocol messages can only be downloaded from the Inbox of the mail server. So please be aware that any messages that had been moved to other custom folders by rules in an IMAP account would not be seen by the Webmail GMail extension “POP Server” function (as the extension is written at the time of this posting).
i think i might be thick, i cant work this out. if i enter all my imap settings then go to server settings to match the picture:
i have the the server type as imap mail server instead of the POP3 as in the picture. there isn’t much point going on further if i cant get that bit right as it doesn’t seem changeable!
maybe it’s best if i wait for v5
thanks for the suggestion though ???
alanrf,
I wasn’t at an avast pc for a week or so, so I couldn’t test it, but now I have
Thanks, it worked exactly as expected
I am now getting the ‘scanned’ note in the messages.
(just have to get used to it ;))
-Scott-