Howto: Setup Thunderbird with Avast Antivirus

Hello again, this is a guide for all of you using the best e-mail client Thunderbird with Avast Antivirus. The guide is originally a blog post from avast forums but it was a bit confusing so I’m trying to make it a bit more understanding.

The problem
In order to make Avast scan the incoming and outgoing emails with Thunderbird there is some settings and setups to do. Because Thunderbird encrypts the emails using SSL or TLS Avast cant scan them for virus and other damaging code. To make this work, thunderbird has to be set to send and receive unencrypted so Avast can scan them and then we need to encrypt them once again.

Todo this…
We need 2 programs,

• OPENSSL, download here
  http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html
• STUNNEL, download here
  http://www.stunnel.org/download/binaries.html

Then, unpack and install OPENSSL and STUNNEL wherever you want.

Now we need to make some config changes in stunnel, goto the map you just installed stunnel in. Rightclick on stunnel.conf and open with notepad, if you dont know how to do this you could create a new text document.

Type;

client=yes

[gmail-pop3s]
accept=127.0.0.1:11110
connect=pop.gmail.com:995

[gmail-smtps]
accept=localhost:11025
connect=smtp.gmail.com:465

This is the settings used for gmail. You can use your ISP custom settings as well by changing smtp and pop. I will go through this guide using gmail.
Save this document as stunnel.conf

Now doubble click on Stunnel.exe (the icon that looks like a network map). Now you should be able to see the same network-map in the right corner of the screen. Double click it to view the Log to see if there is any errors, it should look something like this:

Config Avast
Right-click on the avast logo in the right corner,
Choose On-Access protection control
Goto Internet Mail
Click on the Customize button.
Goto Redirect.

Enter these ports:
POP: 110,1110,1120,11110
SMTP: 25,215,225,1025,11025

Uncheck “Ignore local connection”
It should look something like this:

Now avast is setup and we need to make the final touches in Thunderbird.

Thunderbird settings
In thunderbird, goto Tools / Account settings

Server settings for POP is:

• Server: localhost
• Port: 11110
• Username: Your gmail accountname
• Never use secure settings.

Server settings for SMTP:

• Server: localhost
• Port: 11025
• Username: Your gmail username
• Never use secure settings.

Thats it!
Now thunderbird should be able to send and recieve emails. If you are using any anti SPAM software, check out the blog post on avast forum for information of how to implement that.

Here is some related links:

• Avast antivirus v4.8
• Avast forum post
• www.stunnel.org
• OPENSSL
• Thunderbird

Avast antivirus v4.8

On the 29th March alwit software released Avast antivirus v4.8.

This interested me a lot because the new release updates include:

- Anti-spyware protection
- Anti-rootkit protection

You can see the whole list here, avast.com, the good thing is that this also is avalible for the free release that supports Windos Vista x64, and that is whats makes this update very neat. No other well knows antivirus companys has this support yet for theire free release, eaven if this has been a greatly requested feature for a long time. Not including these two features – as I see it, has always been the way to make the customers buy the complete versions of the software.

Anyhow, there is a lot of company’s developing free anti-spyware tools, but the “do not include all features” trend is all over that industry too.

As for me I have always wanted a free anti-spyware software with real-time scanning, but haven’t found any good software with Vista x64 support for free yet, until now.

But what about the other free anti-virus softwares?
Yeah, well.. The free version of avg for example supports Vista x64, it also supports scanning email through thunderbird or other email clients, when avast only support email scanning through Outlook (this is not really true because you can config avast to search email with other email-clients like thunderbird but it’s a bit more advanced setup). AVG only delivers antivirus scans in their free-edition, and they got a free anti-spyware software for download. But then you suddenly got 2 programs to update and scan with and thats just not the way a good anti-virus software should be nowdays.

my Conclusion
Though there is a lot of antivirus developers to choose from and a lot of them is really good, this last update v4.8 for Avast takes avast into another league in free anti-virus software. Well, for me this is the only choice right now on a Vista machine in order to get the complete protection. However you should always use a firewall, say comodo’s and other spyware software and rootkits software additional to your anti-virus software.

Avast is now up and running perfectly, I hope yours does too :D
If not, download your copy of avast, avast.com.