jimras Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 Having a big argument with my brother.My contention is that if you run an Email program that does NOT have or use a preview pane, you won't get any infection from Emails that might have viruses or other such programs attached to them. My argument is that if you don't open the Email and just delete it. you will be safe. Of course, I'm also running an anti-virus program and I have a firewall, too.He says I can still get infected, anyway. OK, experts, what do you think?jr Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xxkbxx Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 Having a big argument with my brother.My contention is that if you run an Email program that does NOT have or use a preview pane, you won't get any infection from Emails that might have viruses or other such programs attached to them. My argument is that if you don't open the Email and just delete it. you will be safe. Of course, I'm also running an anti-virus program and I have a firewall, too.He says I can still get infected, anyway. OK, experts, what do you think?jrGut feeling - I side with your brother Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 Don't use preview pane and don't open suspicious emails with attachments. The preview pane automatically opens emails in the order they are received. If an infected one is sent it will open it and could initiate the malware contained. Some anti-virus programs scan emails on arrival but some infected .zip files in email cannot be detected until unzipped. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fubz Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 I love to live on the wildside, nothing really important on my comp, and its fun reformatting every once in a while Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 There is malicous code that can be sent through email (especially if you allow inbound emails to contain HTML) that could infect you via the preview pane. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
medab1 Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 I love to live on the wildside, nothing really important on my comp, and its fun reformatting every once in a while Never use Preview Pane in Outlook Express.Viruses can automatically install from an iframe or other method.I use Gmail & Yahoo Mail now after bad experiences with Outlook Express.Be very careful using the news reader in Outlook Express.Newsgroups are full of viruses.Fixing a virus problem isn't fun to me.Rather tedious,if I may say so.Just a NOTE to virus makers--You know,...You have good computer skills.You are smart.Why not do something good with your intelligence & skills?Try writing a good simple to use image editing program with an intuitive user interface?Write a program that allows editing PDF files for free without copyright infringement on Adobe?Maybe you just want attention or are pissed off at the world.If you want attention,being nice will get you positive attention.If pissed off,doing something nice is lots better than doing something nasty.You may not get anything for doing something nice,but you will feel better inside.You can sleep better at night.Think about it.Please... Thank you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimras Posted February 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 Well, basically, you guys are saying what I thought.IF you don't use a preview pane and IF you don't open any Emailsthat MIGHT be a problem, you won't get infected.That's what I thoughtI think I win the argument. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rhema7 Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 I'm fairly sure you are not 100% safe even with the preview pane off.It is just a precaution to turn it off it will keep you relatively safe.So I don't think you have won. I maybe wrong maybe someone can back me on this or shoot it down either way. Lets start a poll! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
martymas Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 (edited) ive had my preview pane turned off for years i learned that from techtv it seems the theory is with the preview pane turned on in the bottom pane your mail is opened by default but with the pane turned off you can right click it save it then scan it and it must work for me i havent had a virus in years .tho i agree with preston it isnt a hundred percent but it helps my contention is you get what you deserve when you surf wrongmarty Edited February 26, 2006 by martymas Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheTerrorist_75 Posted February 26, 2006 Report Share Posted February 26, 2006 I'm fairly sure you are not 100% safe even with the preview pane off.It is just a precaution to turn it off it will keep you relatively safe.So I don't think you have won. I maybe wrong maybe someone can back me on this or shoot it down either way. Lets start a poll!I haven't been infected by an email in the last 5 years since I started to disable the preview pane and not opening emails with attachments that I didn't ask for. Panda also is doing a great job in scanning the emails as they arrive plus using Opera I now get a warning box about emails wanting to set a cookie. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Tony Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 Having a big argument with my brother.My contention is that if you run an Email program that does NOT have or use a preview pane, you won't get any infection from Emails that might have viruses or other such programs attached to them. My argument is that if you don't open the Email and just delete it. you will be safe. Of course, I'm also running an anti-virus program and I have a firewall, too.He says I can still get infected, anyway. OK, experts, what do you think?jrIts some what true. I use OE6 and and I have minimized the preveiw pane. But all my emails that come throught there is scanned with 2 AV's..... 1 from my ISP and the other from my comptuer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcl Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 (edited) I'm fairly sure you are not 100% safe even with the preview pane off.It is just a precaution to turn it off it will keep you relatively safe.So I don't think you have won. I maybe wrong maybe someone can back me on this or shoot it down either way. Lets start a poll!You're correct. The problem isn't the preview (or even opening the email) but the way in which the email is interpreted. In theory the interpretation of the email is orthogonal to the display: the app might interpret it in the background and trigger the payload without showing you anything, or it might show you the raw email without interpreting it. In practice I doubt there any email apps that run whatever they see for no reason but it's definitely possible. I can imagine a too-clever spam filter doing it. Edited February 27, 2006 by jcl Quote Link to post Share on other sites
JDoors Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 ... My argument is that if you don't open the Email and just delete it. you will be safe. ... I'm on your side. Until the code is acted upon (interpreted by the preview pane for example), it's just a file. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tictoc5150 Posted February 27, 2006 Report Share Posted February 27, 2006 (edited) Agreeing with a few others on this....if the code isn't executed, it's not a problem.In practice I doubt there any email apps that run whatever they see for no reason but it's definitely possible. I can imagine a too-clever spam filter doing it.Not to say that JCL's point isn't valid though.As a windows user I learned to disable the preview pane and still do that out of habit in linux. Good habit to not trigger any beacons in html email anyway. Edited February 27, 2006 by tictoc5150 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dragon Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 and to help keep spam down, even if you did opt in for the delivery like their email may say. do the following:don't use the link on the email to "remove your email address from their database" just put it in your message filters to delete it. Some ISP's also have the option to add the email to their junk mail filter. thats what mine does. so I add the address to their junk mail filter and it deletes it on arrival or bounces it back, as a "bad address" or it had delivery failures.set your email program, using message filters again, to only allow email from souces you list to be delivered to your computer. Another step I use from my ISP provided filter system. as well as using the one in thunderbird or OE.disable the "send return receipt automatically" feature in your email client. all of them have it. I would rather see the little pop-up box that says "the sender has requested a return reciept." that way if you are a person who feels he needs to open every email, at least you aren't unwillingly telling them that you opened it.It used to be a case of being told don't open email from anyone you don't know, now with all the viruses and worms out and about, you're almost afraid to open email from someone you do know. It's no wonder people are starting to drop their internet connections. Why pay anywhere from $10 to $60 for spam/malware infestation just to read a message from Aunt Gertrude in Tucson when you live in Phoenix? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
medab1 Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Why not just use Yahoo or Gmail & let them filter out the spam & viruses? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dragon Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 Why not just use Yahoo or Gmail & let them filter out the spam & viruses?In my case it's because unlike my Yahoo account, at least my thunderbird email system will go ahead and delete the junk mail from my spam mail when it gets my email from my allowed accounts. plus this way my email is avialable on the computer for viewing in offline mode, you can't do that with yahoo or gmail, you have to have a live connection and the browser open. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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