On 28-Jan-03 DB Troll wrote:

I would like to use F-prot to scan mail for viruses, would someone please tell me what app I need to use to do this. TIA David

A simple solution is to visit http://www.f-prot.com and download the F-prot program for Linux (free for personal use) and also the virus signature files (two zipped packs). Then install them. After that, you have to think about how to use them. In the past I tried Amavis filtering incoming mails via a "sendmail" fixup, but found that this was very very slow because each mail was filtered at the moment it was downloaded, then stored in the incoming spool, before the next mail would be pulled in. This led to very long on-line dialup times -- a couple of dozen mails would take several minutes instead of a few seconds to come in. As it happens, I use XFMail whose default mailbox format is "MH" in which each mail is a separate file, identified by a number. I can then download mail in one quick go, and it goes straight into either the "inbox" folder or (if using rules) into some other folder under ~/Mail. It is then very straightforward to run the virus software on the "~/Mail" or other folder, and this is how I currently use F-prot, which searches recursively by default. I practice I only run F-prot at all if I see a mail that looks suspicious (e.g. when I first saw a "Big-Boss" mail), or if receiving Windows Word/Excel attachments from people, or other attachments that I think may need checking. Any virus found is listed with the path to the file containing the guilty mail message. If you want to use F-prot to check incoming mail as it arrives, I can't help with details! Hope this helps, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 28-Jan-03 Time: 10:57:35 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------