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Does anyone know if I can prevent Thunderbird from downloading attachments until I request them from the server? Here lately, I've been getting a lot of virus attachments from spam. Thunderbird detects that they're spam and removes them for me, while McAfee catches the virus and deletes it, too, but it's really getting on my nerves at this point. Additionally, I'm a sitting duck for any new, unknown email virii that I'm not already protected against. Obviously, I don't want that kind of vulnerability present, so I'd like to just keep all attachments on the server and delete them from the server instead of downloading them and then deleting them. Any help? Thanks.
Compguy Pete
03-16-2005, 10:49 AM
I use a program called Mailwasher... It works great!
However it doesnt look like they have a free version anylonger. Take a look it's well worth the cost of the program.
http://www.firetrust.com/products/pro/
Whoa, man. You're talking about paying for an email client. I don't think that's something I'm prepared to do. Not right now. Perhaps in the future when I make a web developer firm that consists of more than one individual that will be a cost-effective solution to monitoring, managing, sending and receiving emails, but for personal use I don't think I'd be willing to invest $37 in an email program. I'd stop using Thunderbird before I pay $37. ;) I was just hoping that Thunderbird already had that option available, or perhaps there was an extension to do this that I hadn't already found. Either way, thanks for the idea. :)
Compguy Pete
03-16-2005, 11:18 AM
Well its not an email client... it's more of an email previewer and filter.
The bounce and blacklist features are priceless.
ray326
03-16-2005, 09:51 PM
The short answer is "no". Any email client will have to download the message before it can examine it.
MstrBob
03-16-2005, 09:53 PM
Speaking with no knowledge of such things, is it really that much of a danger if the attachment is downloaded? It can't do anything unless its executed. As long as you aren't opening these attachments, you should be fine, right?
Originally posted by MstrBob
Speaking with no knowledge of such things, is it really that much of a danger if the attachment is downloaded? It can't do anything unless its executed. As long as you aren't opening these attachments, you should be fine, right?
In order to delete the email (the easiest way, anyway), you have to open the email. I think it's automatically executing them because I have the "display attachments in message" option set. I'm going to disable that and see if it works.
ray326
03-17-2005, 10:34 PM
In the preferences you can turn off Java and Javascript in messages and you can tell Thunderbird to display messages as text or basic HTML. Also if the messages are recognizable spam then TB can deal with them without you having to open them.
Originally posted by ray326
In the preferences you can turn off Java and Javascript in messages and you can tell Thunderbird to display messages as text or basic HTML. Also if the messages are recognizable spam then TB can deal with them without you having to open them.
Yep. I found that it doesn't matter whether or not you open the email. McAfee detects the virus as soon as the file is downloaded, deletes it, and notifies you that it removed a malicious object from your computer. I have JavaScript and images disabled (except for people who are in my collected addressbook). Making it not display attachments as inline didn't make any difference, by the way.