Antivirus for IMAP?

I recently changed from POP to IMAP my three OE installs,but i had not paid attention to the fact that both Antivir Premium and AVG 7 Free-which i run in my two machines-dont look after IMAP folders the same way as in POP: both have Email Scanners which take care only of POP. (or at least this is what i know,as i am 100% sure only about AVG,whereas for Antivir i couldnt find out and a letter to their support was not replied yet,if ever).
This way i have both AVs which listen to a completely useless port.
Yesterday i tried some eicar tests anyway and of course,both AVs quickly catched the quasi-virus as soon as i clicked on it, so ,even without a Scanner i think i am moderately satisfied.
Question is: do any additional software or measure exist to take care of scanning emails in place of the lost control?
Anyone knows any antivirus which instead can take care natively of IMAP folders?

 

If you are using MS Outlook, EMON from NOD32 will scan all incoming/outgoing email regardless of the protocol used.

 

avast! supports scanning of IMAP.
Note, however, that some IMAP features (downloading messages by small pieces) make the scanning rather hard (i.e. the scanning may not be possible in that case).
Not all e-mail clients use such features, though (I believe Thunderbird does, unless you turn it off) - so I think it should be OK for OE.

 

Marcos, thanks,i'll certainly consider using Nod32, even though this might mean setting aside a paid and beloved software like Antivir,which always served me well,never faulty-apart from occasional FP because set on MAX Heuristics.I dont believe too much in established Tests and bulletins,where Nod is always excelling in detections,but i know its very good.


gigaman,thanks to you,too,and yes i'll use OE in spite of my using Firefox as browser because i had a few probs with Thunderbird setup in the past, so i guess there is no problem of 'small pieces'. The problem could instead reside with Avast,which would take the place of AVG Free in my less powerfull (256MB RAM only)pc: i run AVG there cause its very light and from what i read in the past Avast is definetely more resources -consuming than AVG.
If i remember correctly,moreover, Avast uses a sort of proxy which would certainly have an adverse effect on the existing Sygate firewall .
Am i right?
It's surely a pity not being able to use one of the last free AVs.

What i am trying to understand is : are these antivirus Email Scanners really needed? Are they really doing a great ,absolutely necessary job,or just surfing with the protection of a Email Scannerless antivirus is just the same?
Three years ago i opened a message in a Hotmail account with a raging virus which had perfectly replicated a previously sent message ,but, even without any dedicated scanner the then AVG 5 instantaneously blocked it and red-alerted,deleting the virus a few seconds from my clicking the message header.
Even in my present awkward state,i found out i am protected from most threats and the eicar tests fail 'on click'. Add to it that Antivir is first class in detecting not only viruses but also trojans,like BitDefender, and that AVG just upgraded. So...........i really dont know.......

 

Why should it? You can certainly configure it to work correctly.

 

Avast with web and mail scanners enabled works fine with Sygate on Windows98se .

Cheers,
nicM

 

gigaman, probably i was not very clear,what i meant was the well known loophole - proxy problem of Sygate,which lets any application out if a proxy is used, and from what i understood in the past, Avast does use a proxy,isnt that so? This no matter how you configure.
(surely i could change Sygate with Kerio 2.1.5....)


nicM,glad for you! but i run XP. Are you trying to tell me it is less resources-consuming than i think it is or it was ?

 

Well, maybe it is possible to configure what programs' connection avast! will redirect. Or, if not, you can switch it to the old Win9x behavior, with no transparent redirection - where avast! listens on a specific local port and redirects in to a single target address (so you have to configure your e-mail client accordingly).

 

This would be a really good idea,gigaman,i'd know how to set a specific local port, but i cannot entirely grasp what you mean by reconfiguring my OE to a
"single target adress". Can you please explain?
I visited the Avast site yesterday and i think i will surely have a try with it,replacing the equally free AVG.




nicM, i saw a few very well done posts of yours about the G-Data trial you ran last month, i'm surprised you didnt mention this double AV to me ,given the fact it seems to support IMAP scanning. Is it because you found any fault,was it slowing down your machine or you didnt like it in any way?
It would be a pity as i was harbouring the idea of changing my Antivir Premium with the Kaspersky-BitDefender double in my more RAM-endowed pc.

 

Hi poirot,
Don't forget you can use Avast without network plugin, if you expect issues with Sygate. It's slightly heavy on Windows98, but very light - one of the most light - on XP for me. I didn't test it along Sygate on XP, however.

Yes, sorry, I didn't think to advice Avk to you...but sure I only can advice it : I run it on one of my computers (the trial was to test on another computer), and I'm very pleased with it!! Think I'm gonna buy it a second time .

Yes it could be an option for you; it's NOT slowing down my computers indeed (XP), although I wouldn't install it on my old windows98. The best would be to try it yourself, and see how it runs on your setup. I didn't test it with Sygate, but you can disable Avk proxy if needed (what is making AVK more light in the same time), while keeping the mail scanning module; what I'll do on the second computer I'll install it on.

Cheers,
nicM

 

thanks for your reply nicM, i got all the (right) messages,and what you say will definetely put me on the Avk-G-Data trail.
I personally detected how BitDefender is and was good,and Kaspersky has a very good press, so i was eager to eperiment.
thanks also to gigaman,with the help of you both i was able to make up my mind and i decided to buy the G-Data antivirus and i already registered & downloaded Avast for my other pc.