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Archiver > TMG > 2002-05 > 1020617692


From: Wade Oram <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT - anti-virus "superstition"?
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 17:54:52 +0100
References: <LOBBKOOEANNIIOJMJAELAEJKEAAA.earbar@netway.com><5.1.0.14.0.20020504063811.009f9aa0@pop.sprynet.com><5.1.0.14.0.20020504212852.009ff6e0@pop.sprynet.com><009b01c1f416$51e981c0$f79bf243@reed><00df01c1f450$a3fccfa0$b9b20150@oemcomputer>
In-Reply-To: <00df01c1f450$a3fccfa0$b9b20150@oemcomputer>


In message <00df01c1f450$a3fccfa0$>, Caroline Gurney
<> writes
>Just to stir the pot a little <g>.
>
>Having read so many posts on so many lists about how much better Pegasus &
>Eudora are than OE, last week I finally decided to download them & try them
>out.
>
>I was unable to get Pegasus to work at all with my NAV e-mail protection &
>could not be bothered to jump through the hoops necessary to sort it out
>(joining mailing lists etc).
>
>Eudora seemed more promising. No problems with installation & I was pleased
>that it copied all my folders & messages over from OE. However, I found the
>operation of the program itself cumbersome after OE. It took much longer to
>download mail. Every timed I moved to a new folder it opened on the taskbar
>& I had to manually close it again. I also could not see how the
>arrangements for previewing & opening messages differed significantly from
>those in OE.
>

The lack of support for operation with NAV email filtering is not
necessarily dangerous when using email clients other than Outlook/OE.

It all depends on the way that the email client itself works. I have to
say at this point that I don't know whether Pegasus represents a
security threat or not - I have never used it and I have no knowledge of
it.

However, I do use another email client - Turnpike - which is little know
outside of the group of people that are/were Demon Internet (UK)
subscribers, but is never-the-less available to anyone although its not
(quite) free (~15 UKP).

This email client does not less you run program attachments without
first saving them to a file. It uses its own rendering engine to render
HTML mail which is guaranteed not to run scripts.

As a result, the consensus is that using NAV (or any other anti virus
program) to filter mail on its way to Turnpike is pointless (although it
can be done) since any viruses will be detected when attachments are
saved by NAV or any other anti virus software (including those that do
not include email filtering).

If the same can be said about Pegasus as I have said about Turnpike,
then the lack of integrated support for NAV email filtering does not
represent a security risk.

P.S. I do not mean this to be a recommendation for Turnpike. I am well
aware that people used to OE do not in general get on well with
Turnpike. For example, posting is strictly text only - there is no way
to generate HTML mail.
--
Wade Oram

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