IncrediMail Security

[nChrist]

Does anyone know of additional security problems that IncrediMail involves because of the heavy addition of graphics and sound to mail? I recently had IncrediMail on my system and had several crashes. I wondered if they had anything to do with IncrediMail.

Thanks in advance for your information and advice.

 

[HesMyAll]

I have IncrediMail as my default email. The one thing I do know is that my antivirus will not scan email in IncrediMail. Of course I found this out after getting two viruses.
I don't know if the crashes had anything to do with the IncrediMail. Did it start happening right after you installed IncrediMail? If so then the program is probably causing the crashes. It might also depend on which OS you are using.
Hope you can get it figured out.

 

[PuppyforChrist]

I too have Incredi Mail as my defalt e-mail account. I have never gotten a virus through it cause I don't open e-mails that seem unfamilar to me. I'm pretty sure those crashes couldn't have been from Incredi Mail. Maybe you should do some virus scans and check it out.

 

[nChrist]

I have IncrediMail as my default email. The one thing I do know is that my antivirus will not scan email in IncrediMail. Of course I found this out after getting two viruses.

I use Norton to scan all E-mail, but it did miss it entirely. My OS is Windows 98. I do know that IncrediMail uses some sort of proprietary file format with an extension of ".eml". That may be a hybrid of HTML or who knows what. I bought IncrediMail and I'm trying to decide if I want to install it again. If virus scanners won't scan it, I'll have to wait. Thanks for the information.

 

[nChrist]

I too have Incredi Mail as my defalt e-mail account. I have never gotten a virus through it cause I don't open e-mails that seem unfamilar to me. I'm pretty sure those crashes couldn't have been from Incredi Mail. Maybe you should do some virus scans and check it out.

I use Norton with the latest definitions. It didn't find a virus, but my system kept crashing until I uninstalled IncrediMail. I also scanned for trojans and worms with no results. It's a shame because I really like IncrediMail. I appreciate the information. Maybe I'll try it again and see what happens. If you don't mind me asking, how long has IncrediMail been your primary mail program?

 

[HesMyAll]

If you scanned for viruses and found nothing and uninstalling IncrediMail stopped the crashes, its a sure bet that the IncrediMail was causing it.

 

[PuppyforChrist]

Well I've been using Incredi Mail for a few months now. I'm not sure when I made it my primary mail program, but I know it was several months ago.

 

[nChrist]

Well I've been using Incredi Mail for a few months now. I'm not sure when I made it my primary mail program, but I know it was several months ago.

Thanks. Maybe it has something to do with your E-mail provider and how good their virus, trojan, and spam filters are. Maybe I'll get brave and try it again.

 

[Unimatrix]

When you say crash do you mean something along the lines of:

Memory Access Error: Invalid memory location 0x000000 (or whatever?) at AxD4561AC

Something like that, or just lock up your PC?
_____
Aaron

 

[Noddingdog]

IncrediMail? Security?

 

[Noddingdog]

(above is surely an oxymoron)

 

[nChrist]

When you say crash do you mean something along the lines of:

Memory Access Error: Invalid memory location 0x000000 (or whatever?) at AxD4561AC

Something like that, or just lock up your PC?
_____
Aaron

The computer would freeze while opening messages in IncrediMail. The keyboard no longer worked, so Ctrl-Alt-Delete wouldn't allow you to end the task. I didn't get any error messages at all. I had to turn the power to the computer off to continue doing anything, and the freezes continued off and on in other applications whether I used IncrediMail or not. I scanned the entire computer for virus, trojan, and worms several times with no results. The problems didn't stop until I uninstalled IncrediMail. I might add there were several hundred entries in the registry that uninstall didn't remove. I had to remove those manually. I'm not sure that I knew what to look for in the registry entries, but I didn't see any obvious entry that called a program not associated with IncrediMail. I did find it unusual that one program would require hundreds of registry entries.

 

[nChrist]

IncrediMail? Security?

I get the message. I assume that you know quite a bit that I don't. I am using Outlook Express again, but I've read about all kinds of security problems with it also. I didn't find any security related material about IncrediMail or I wouldn't have purchased it.

What E-mail program do you recommend that offers reasonable security?

 

[Unimatrix]

OE and then Norton Antivirus for me, along with my own proggie I made


"I did find it unusual that one program would require hundreds of registry entries."

...doesn't sound safe.


It sounds as though it runs a seperate process in the background even when the program wasn't running which has got a bug in it. If you had music or something playing and it locked up did the music stop also or start playing dodgy?

 

[nChrist]

It sounds as though it runs a seperate process in the background even when the program wasn't running which has got a bug in it. If you had music or something playing and it locked up did the music stop also or start playing dodgy?

Everything froze, including music, graphics, keyboard, "cntl-alt-del", etc. It was basically dead as a rock with the last screen frozen. The only thing allowed was to turn the computer off.

I currently use Outlook Express, Norton Virus, and McAfee Spam with pretty good results and only a very rare crash.

 

[Unimatrix]

Hmm....that's strange. Your PC crashed randomly even if this program wasn't running, but when you uninstalled it it was okay

If the computer didn't stop crashing even when you uninstalled it I'd give a 95% chance of hardware conflict. But since that isn't happening the only thing I can suggest is that your PC hasn't been cleaned properly for a long time. When did you last put XP (or before) on?

 

[Noddingdog]

I get the message. I assume that you know quite a bit that I don't. I am using Outlook Express again, but I've read about all kinds of security problems with it also. I didn't find any security related material about IncrediMail or I wouldn't have purchased it.

What E-mail program do you recommend that offers reasonable security?

Outlook Express has been patched for several vulnerabilities such as the notorious "preview frame" vulnerability, it might be worth getting these if you haven't already done so. I personally use OE to get mail from my anonymous accounts and haven't had any problems yet. Incredimail may offer patches although I haven't checked. Hope you get the prob sorted out.

 

[PuppyforChrist]

357 - go to www.downloads.com I have downloaded something that will check Incredi Mail for viruses. It's called Mail Cleaner. Try that.

 

[nChrist]

Thanks to All,

I really appreciate the help. I am now using Outlook Express, allow plain text only, scan with Norton Anti-Virus before getting the mail, and I don't open attachments. My problems are down to almost nothing. I also installed McAfee Spam killer that really gets rid of most junk, more as it learns.

Someone asked if I had used XP at one time. Windows 98 and DOS is all that I've ever used on this machine, and all of the Microsoft Updates for the OS are current. I really appreciate the suggestions. I'm going to read some more about security and see what else I might need to do.

Thanks again.