Configure Avast Home to use SSL Ports in Outlook Express

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=36542.msg306395#msg306395

Hoping that works, but if not he states,
"Now, if someone makes a change to the redirect ports in the InternetMail provider of avast to force avast to scan port 995 connections thenit will cause the connection to fail.  So please check in the"Redirect" tab of the Internet Mail provider that the POP box does notcontain port 995."

Although,
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=10428.0
talks about some possibilities.

Hi mtz1of4

Thanks for the suggestions, but I have had no success using every possible permutation of the settings suggested in the Avast forums.  The suggestions reqired:

- Installation of Stunnel
- Starting it as a service
- Configuring its *.conf file
- Modifying Avast's *.ini file
- Modifying the Outlook Express account settings

Essentially the settings tell Outlook Express to use standard ports rather than the SSL ones, and you configure the account's pop and smtp fields to use the LocalHost (127.0.0.1).  STunnel collects the email from the secure ports, but Avast scans the email at the local unsecured level.  I recall that a number of AntiVirus applications used to automatically configure Outlook Express accounts in much the same way when you configured the AV product to scan pop3 and smtp email.  I had already tried various settings like this before I read about Stunnel.

Their suggestions rely upon the installation of STunnel:
http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html
and starting it as a Windows Service (stunnel -install).  That's easy enough to do and to change quickly for the different variations of suggested settings.

It is suggested that people install OpenSSL, but Windows XP already seems to have the same files (C:\Windows\System32\libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll) as installed by OpenSSL.  Stunnel adds a copy of libeay32.dll to its program folder along with another SSL DLL.  I have tested with the DLL's in place and without, but there's no difference.

I have configured the stunnel.conf (text-based configuration file) using every suggested setting from the forum postings, plus many of my own.

I modified the file:
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini
in a number of different ways as suggested, plus a number of my own settings, and have also tried adding the alternative Port numbers in Avasts's own "Internet Mail Scanner" settings under the "Redirect (Ports)" tab.

I have tried every possible setting I have seen suggested, plus some of my own, in the Outlook Express account configuration.  It's easy enough to do this by exporting an *.iaf file for each different configuration and then importing each in turn to test.

Sadly none of the methods work for googlemail.

The only possibilities I can think of that are causing it to fail are:

- googlemail may not be the same as GMail
- the forum users have Avast Pro (paid for and registered) and not Avast Home (Free)

Thanks for the link and for trying to assist.  I'll hang off for a few days to see if anyone who has used Avast Home successfully like this adds any comments, but it looks like I'll have to await Avast Home version 5 (promised to work with SSL Ports), or I'll consider something else.

Regards

Bill

Sorry so far.

Wow, didn't know 5 might have that.

Yeah, that seems to be the holy grail promise that die-hard Avast users are clinging tenaciously to and are prepared to wait.  I've looked at the differences between the Pro and Home versions, and the paid-for version currently runnin parallel to the free one doesn't seem to offer SSL Internet Mail settings without the hit and miss use of third-party Open Source software.

To be honest, that's a bit disappointing, especially given the fact that I was on the verge of buying a license so that I had some scheduling options, an enhanced user interface, and the option for silent installations.  Apparently AVG Free version 8 supports SSL Internet Mail, but I discovered that AVG Free 8 absolutely refused to allow me to turn off the Resident Protection on-access file scanning when I needed to, so that's no good.

I would rather stick my face in a bucket full of cow plop and breathe in sharply than go back to Norton AntiVirus again :-(

Cheers
Bill

oh, you said the N word.

:-)  Shame on you.  :-)

I have the Pro Avast. Just to support a good company.

Bill, Did you check to see if you could turn off the AVG resident in the Paid version?

Hi mtz1of4

I've decided to bite the bullet and put the latest release of AVG Free to the test.  So far it seems to be running OK and I have managed to have it scan pop3 and smtp mail over SSL ports.

Thanks for your input.

Sometimes the answer is "no, you can't", and this is the correct answer that I didn't really want to have confirmed in the end.

Thanks Bill,

Sorry, but I'm sure you'll like AVG. I've heard good things about it.