I believe that a seperate scanner like declude indeed does catch the virus _before_ it reaches the mbx file so this problem would not exist. But what do I know? lol
Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Blank" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2004 8:27 AM Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] [IMail_Forum DIGEST] > At 03:22 AM 4/25/2004, you wrote: > > >BTW, some people with anti-virus programs to sell for iMail don't want me > > >to tell you this, but the standard Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate Edition > > >client (or their server Anti-Virus "client") works fine to kill viruses on > > >the iMail server because ** every incoming email gets converted to a file > > >** by iMail. The client just has to be set to scan ALL files, and to > > >clean, (and if clean fails) then quarantine infected files. > > > >That's like saying "Don't buy a car; buy a bicycle! It can go anywhere a > >car can go, and more!". :) > > > >Specifically, your trick should work in cases where E-mails that are > >downloaded via web messaging (where IMail will decode the attachments > >before they are downloaded). But, it will not work for E-mails downloaded > >via POP3 or IMAP (since IMail doesn't decode them). > > > >Worse, if an on-access virus scanner happens to a virus in an .mbx file, it > >will typically delete the entire .mbx file -- potentially deleting hundreds > >or thousands of legitimate E-mails with it. That's a very big risk to be > >taking. > > > >And, other issues include very slow responses from the server, and > >confusion over completely blank E-mails. > > > >There is a reason why there is a market for mailserver virus scanners. <G> > > > > > > -Scott > > Re: the .mbx file - you are 100% correct. Or course, that's only if the > virus isn't caught at the file level before it's incorporated into the > .mbx, and the .mbx is subsequently scanned after the virus definitions are > updated. It happens only Very rarely these days but yes, I'll concede it > DOES happen. > > Can't this happen with other mailserver virus scanners (in fact, I've seen > it happen!). To be an improvement, a dedicated anti-virus solution has to > have a way to deal with the **infected part** of the .mbx. If it can't, > the .mbx does has to be quarantined or deleted, no? > > In practice, what I'm doing is working pretty well. > > Slow responses have not proven to be a problem of any kind. > > -Paul > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
