I have started using outlook express with my gmail account and am wondering since it is not scanned by outlook/Exchange module.
I tried to set it up for internet Module and couldn’t, i was wondering if Standard Shield etc would pick up any viruses in the email once opened.
Please be gentle with me as i have tried and tried but i can just not get the hang with computers. (idiot )
I would love to set outlook express to have it scanned before i opened any email with outlook.
I tried to follow instructions but couldn’t figure it out.
At the moment i check my gmail account through gmail then save what i want in Outlook express.
i use outlook express and incredimail which are pop3 accounts and the outlook/exchange program control is not for that…my works by going to internet mail and click on customize…advanced…click on show detailed…and click on show tray icon and i have to click on timeout for internet communication(for mine too work…if it IS NOT checked…mine WILL not work)and i’ve also increased the timeout number to 600…you should see a little blue icon flash when mail is incoming and outgoing and detailed off to and from is it going??? ;D…i’ve been to your country…beautiful…good day mate!!!
The Outlook/Exchange module only works with Microsoft Outlook it does not work with Outlook Express.
GMail (normally) requires that set up your email client to connect to it using a secure connection (SSL for receiving mail - POP3 - and TLS for sending mail - SMTP). By their very nature secure connections are intended to be not scannable by anyone including antivirus products. So very simply - you cannot set up for avast to scan your GMail connection to Outlook Express. (There is a work around I’ll mention later).
If you use GMail with Microsoft Outlook then the messages from GMail will be scanned by avast via the Outlook/Exchange module.
The workaround I mentioned if you really want to use Outllok Express and scan your GMail with avast requires a third party program called STunnel.
The Stunnel program allows you to run the secure connection that Gmail requires but STunnel then allows you to transfer the email to Outlook Express inside your system in a way that avast can scan it. You can find more about STunnel setup by searching for it here in the forum.
However, STunnel does require some setup and is probably not an “easy” program to use.
Just one last point - GMail does internal antivirus scanning of email. They started doing this in late 2005. Given they are already scanning your mail I think it is probably an unnecessary effort to set up STunnel to get it scanned again if you want to receive it in Outlook Express.
But while not wanting to be disloyal to avast I note that AVG now provides a mechanism within their product for allowing users to terminate email SSL sessions and transfer the email to the client via a scan by the email antivirus scanner without the use of STunnel. Since STunnel is really not something “easy” for everyone to tackle this might be something the avast team could provide too.
I am sure they are already thinking about a better way to do it.
I did ask about this a few weeks ago when I first installed Avast, but was told that the Gmail scanning at source is ‘good enough’. I did not, and still do not, really accept this. But I’d rather stick with Avast than return to AVG, as the Web Shield is first rate.
I would like to thank every one for there valuable in input, very much appreciated.
Still i am wondering if the (Standard Shield) would detect a virus if it appeared in outlook express not scanned before it is opened.
Etc I have opened my email of course avast has not scanned it before i open it, but now i have opened it will the (Standard Shield) now pick up if there was a virus in the email.
When you read your email and open a message what happens will depend on the type of message you open.
If it is plain text - it is displayed - nothing else will happen.
If the message is made up of html content (as much of today’s email is) then it will go out to the internet to get all the pieces (advertisements, images, even some small application code pieces) that make up what you see on the screen. For most mail clients avast will scan the retrieval of these pieces to ensure that they are free of viruses as they perform the http accesses.
If the message contains an attachment and it has been retrieved via regular POP3 (we discussed secure email connections earlier) then avast will have already scanned the attachment. Whether avast scanned the attachment or not on download, as you read the attachment it will be scanned by the Standard Shield to look for any virus contamination.
In my opinion, reading emails in OE firstly in plain text is a must, unless you know your sender and/or source very well. You can always click on the ‘show html’ button afterwards.
Alan, I have the STunnel stuff saved, but I’m too chicken to try it, heh.
greenhatch … I took a look at Stunnel and decided “I will look at it again later … maybe next year”.
As to your advice on the way to view to emails in OE … I cannot disagree with the “safety first” approach. While I am not trying to “sell” it I use Thunderbird and it has a pretty good way of “learning” what is junk and it automatically applies your approach to anything it suspects is junk mail.
Because OE used Internet Explorer to display html email it is vulnerable to the same IE exploits, so I would say it could be better. Since I’m on dial-up I usually download my email and read it off-line so I’m a little less vulnerable, I don’t have the Preview Pane on by default, just the list of emails so any email coming in isn’t automatically displayed (by IE).
I would probably move to Thunderbird in a heartbeat if would only move the email folders to a location of my choosing for better and easier backing up. Yes it allows for the user assigned location, but it doesn’t move the existing folders.
Thunderbird did a reasonable job of importing my OE email folders (some emails in the wrong folders), so there I had some 100+ email folders and sub folders and when I chose my storage location, bang back to the default email folders set-up, inbox, etc. no listing of all those emails that had been imported. So I would still have had to retain OE just to look at my archived emails, etc.
I don’t know if this situation is still true, it has been a while since I last trialled it.
;D…i’ve been to your country…beautiful…good day mate!!!
;D