SSL scanning

I was wondering if there was anything I could do to get Avast to scan emails coming from a SSL connection. I know it will scan non ssl connections by default.

Thanks for all help

M. Brown

That is the whole point of having ‘Secure’ email to keep prying eyes out.

In the current 4.8 version avast can’t handle scanning SSL email without the use of a third party application such as STunnel. However from avast version 5, this will be possible. Version 5 is due for release around July this year.

It also depends on what email client you are using which you don’t mention ?

Using Thunderbird because I also have to encrypt some e-mails to certain people I communicate with due to policy. In addition, the encryption works best with Thunderbird and not MS Outlook or MS Outlook Express.

I am slowly moving away from a lot of MS products and only use ones that I am required to run.

Begin Edit
You mention about version 5…is there any way I could join the beta test, etc?
End Edit

Thanks

M. Brown

The beta test hasn’t started yet I don’t believe.

how would one become part of the beta team?

I’ve only heard speculations, but I think they’re only going to offer the beta trials to “evangelists.”

I could be totally off base here though. Wait until one of the developers or someone on the Alwil team tells us, I really don’t have a clue.

Who is your email provider? A search will find setups for Avast! 4 and Stunnel with various email providers to provide scanning of incoming and outgoing SSL email with Thunderbird and others. You will need to install Stunnel and the OpenSSL library, configure your email program to access them via Localhost, and set up a fairly straightforward stunnel.conf configuration file to direct the traffic. Stunnel Gmail is probably the most common configuration used, and it is fairly simple to adapt to other email providers.

At least, the alpha will be reserved for the evangelists users, as far I know.

If you were using either MS Outlook or The Bat there are avast plugins for those which means that they are effectively working within the client and can scan secure email. Otherwise it would require STunnel for the short time left on avast 4.8.

Normally when a beta is released it is notified on the forums, so keep your eye out. The version 5 release is going to be a relatively big change from 4.8 and will require a reinstall rather than just an update. The beta builds are generally very stable with avast, almost like many applications would call RC versions, so these are usually open to forum members.

However, this time round there is likely to be an earlier pre-beta and that will be limited to Evangelists. I don’t know if this will include any others until the proper beta release which given a normal time line of a July release, then I would imagine 3-4 weeks before there may be a beta. This is obviously speculation on my part as nothing is set in concrete and would depend on how the pre-beta trial went.

So you don’t actually have to sign-up for the beta, just keep an eye out on the forums.