How to Configure Thunderbird to work w/AVG anti-virus?

[dkdavis]

I'm using Thunderbird 17 and AVG anti-virus free edition 2013. AVG is trying to scan incoming e-mails for viruses, but can't, since the connection is encrypted. Sonic tech support couldn't help me to set it up to do this. Does anyone have experience with this?

The ports that AVG says to enter in the settings are not the ones Sonic recommends. I don't want to screw up my e-mail, but I also don't want to get a virus via e-mail!

Thanks!

[virtualmike]

Basically, you would configure AVG with the mail server settings for retrieving mail from the Sonic.net servers. You then change Thunderbird to retrieve the email from AVG.

Each time T-Bird tries to retrieve mail, it will contact AVG, which will in turn contact the Sonic.net servers.

I use Thunderbird with another anti-virus, and I don't bother to check the email messages. I do have my anti-virus set to inspect the attachments whenever I try to open them.

[dkdavis]

Thanks. I'm not sure exactly how to do all this. I'm not sure how to ask Thunderbird to check e-mail from AVG. Maybe that is what AVG meant when they gave me port #s that were different from the ones Sonic said to use.

So you don't worry about getting a virus from just opening an e-mail (with no attachment)?

[virtualmike]

I'm not sure how to ask Thunderbird to check e-mail from AVG. Maybe that is what AVG meant when they gave me port #s that were different from the ones Sonic said to use.

That's what I picked up from the parts of the documentation that I read.

So you don't worry about getting a virus from just opening an e-mail (with no attachment)?

Not with Thunderbird. To get infected with a virus, something has to launch an executable. T-bird does not automatically launch attachments (whereas the old Outlook Express did under some circumstances). You can configure T-bird to display attached images inline, but that's it.

[dkdavis]

Okay, that's helpful. Thanks for your thoughts on this.

[virtualmike]

You're welcome!