BitDefender Configuration Help

[Stephie in KC]

I have been a long-time user of NAV. But when I upgraded to 2004, nothing works. At least my email is not getting scanned. I didn't have this problem with 2003. I didn't have to configure anything; it just worked on its own. After two weeks of messing around with it, I'm done. I have been trying a few other AV products and found BitDefender to be highly rated. But, once again, my email is not being scanned. (I know this because of the EICAR test). Can someone help me configure this program? Or do I need to take a pass and try another.

Thanks in advance

[Eric]

Hi Stephie & welcome to Poco Forum.

I have been a long-time user of NAV. But when I upgraded to 2004, nothing works.

Concerning NAV take a look at this here. There you'll also find a lot of free AV's and suggestions.

I have been trying a few other AV products and found BitDefender to be highly rated.

I know, because I used it too.

But, once again, my email is not being scanned. (I know this because of the EICAR test). Can someone help me configure this program?

Did you open the Console to see that email scanning, registry detection & resident shield is checked?

I know BitDefender doesn't have to be configured to scan email, because when you check the above options, it hooks into every email client. Are you using the Free version, Standard or Pro?

It could however be possible to an incomplete uninstall from NAV.
NAV is one of the worst AV's to remove from your system. So even if there are traces left in the registry, it could cause conflicts with BitDefender.

Or did you upgrade recently to SP2? If you did, then be sure to take a look here
Here's also an interesting topic about Bitdefender at Wilders Security Forum.

I hope this helps you find out what's wrong.


Good luck.

Edit: cleaned up the link

[Stephie in KC]

Thanks Eric - I thought I had deleted all of NAV 2004, but found a few traces of it left. Got ride of those and everything is running fine.

[Eric]

When installing Bitdefender for the first time, you don't have to do anything.
Everything is set to scan your emails and all the rest.

Here's a picture on how to configure BD manually, if something went wrong.
So please check the settings by double clicking on the red ball in the Systray and Enable Settings. This should fill all the checkboxes. In case it doesn't, do it manually as instructed below.



I hope this helps anyone solving problems with BitDefender.

[Cloudy]

Well I know this is an old discussion but I wanted to add my experiences here.

I also use BitDefender for a few years and it NEVER scanned my emails. That's because I use an Anti-Spam service that get's the mail from my IS's server had only provides me with the non-spam messages through IMAP (they also support POP3 but I prefer IMAP since that way there is a backup of the mail on the IMAP server incase I loose the email on my PC).

Anyway since BitDefender (the latest one being BitDefender Total Security 2009 and also the beta of TS 2010) only scans default ports (25 for outgoing and 110 I think for incomming POP3) it doesn't scan my emails no mater what client I use.

Also because me ISP (Belgacom Skynet) is one of the many providers who are blocking port 25 for outgoing email (except when you use their SMTP server) my outgoing emails are also not scanned by BitDefender (I need to use port 2525 since my Anti-Spam service automatically puts the people I send an email to in the white-list which makes it easer for them to reply and not be catched by the spamfilters).

anyway, since I noticed PocoMail 4 allows the user to select an A/V program to scan emails I guess it might be possible to scan by selecting BD from there (if only I knew what binary to select to have PocoMail 4 scan the emails).

[Tomas]

I also use BitDefender for a few years and it NEVER scanned my emails. That's because I use an Anti-Spam service that get's the mail from my IS's server had only provides me with the non-spam messages through IMAP

Antispam usually shouldn't be guarantee that email is free from viruses, unless it's a combined service (antispam + antivirus).

anyway, since I noticed PocoMail 4 allows the user to select an A/V program to scan emails I guess it might be possible to scan by selecting BD from there (if only I knew what binary to select to have PocoMail 4 scan the emails).

That's an old feature from the times when there was no real-time scanning. It should still work today. Check http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=240 or search for "bitdefender command line", that shall help with the executable.


This whole antivirus thing also comes down to personal preferences. I now run an antivirus perhaps once in three months, I'm completely relying on the firewall and on "human check". (I had good antiviruses, that still didn't catch some problems back then, and they were only slowing down everything.) Not that I would recommend that in general, but I'd recommend to consider whether the background file scan alone isn't sufficient for your purposes.
Because if email will be scanned using a command line and then it will be scanned by the file background scan again, it seems like a double layer of protection but it's also double the chance that some problem happens, and it's a yet another system slowdown.

[Cloudy]

I also use BitDefender for a few years and it NEVER scanned my emails. That's because I use an Anti-Spam service that get's the mail from my IS's server had only provides me with the non-spam messages through IMAP

Antispam usually shouldn't be guarantee that email is free from viruses, unless it's a combined service (antispam + antivirus).

anyway, since I noticed PocoMail 4 allows the user to select an A/V program to scan emails I guess it might be possible to scan by selecting BD from there (if only I knew what binary to select to have PocoMail 4 scan the emails).

That's an old feature from the times when there was no real-time scanning. It should still work today. Check http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?showtopic=240 or search for "bitdefender command line", that shall help with the executable.


This whole antivirus thing also comes down to personal preferences. I now run an antivirus perhaps once in three months, I'm completely relying on the firewall and on "human check". (I had good antiviruses, that still didn't catch some problems back then, and they were only slowing down everything.) Not that I would recommend that in general, but I'd recommend to consider whether the background file scan alone isn't sufficient for your purposes.
Because if email will be scanned using a command line and then it will be scanned by the file background scan again, it seems like a double layer of protection but it's also double the chance that some problem happens, and it's a yet another system slowdown.

Thanks for the reply.

I'll have a look at that BitDefender forum, but you are probably correct, there is a very low chance that a virus get's passed the anti-spam service and using common sense in opening (not opening) attachments is also a good idea

[Eric]

I'll have a look at that BitDefender forum, but you are probably correct, there is a very low chance that a virus get's passed the anti-spam service and using common sense in opening (not opening) attachments is also a good idea

It's always good to use common sense and not only relying on your antivirus, which makes mistakes now and then.
That not only applies to BD, but also to every other antivirus/suite out there.

Every protection you put on your PC will have a certain impact.
It's up to you to find what's running well with your configuration.
Some like a layered defense (like I do), others use other means to protect themselves.

FYI:

IMAP e-mails are not scanned from BD as they are located on a remote machine - the mail server. However, when you try to open an infected attachment from an e-mail (assuming you are using an IMAP account) you are protected. (before you open the attachment it is downloaded to the TEMP folder on your hdd and BD detects it.