Gmail Has Launched Antivirus Service your mail is now scanned for viruses

[Quatrux 4]

oh, i had no idea it does not let send any file which has and .exe extension, this is really "over protective" they better would get the mime type and scan the file for viruses.. what happens if you archive the .exe file ? or even archive it with a password :)and renaming .exe to .something-else is really annoying in my opinion :S

[fotisp88 0]

i own a gmail too. its one of the best email providers. the bad with the antiviruses is that they dont let u send an exe file. it would be good if you could sent programs but, anw its a nice email provider, better than others.

[Shadow X 0]

Hasn't Gmail always had an antivirus service? Because whenever I try to send or receive .EXE extension files, it says couldn't send or this file is potentially unsafe? But if not, then this would be a good step for Gmail and Google. More people will start to trust it and might start using it over other email clients such as Yahoo or Hotmail.

Gmail on the other hand is being "way over protective".

I don't think I agree with you nightfox. Gmail is just doing what other email clients are or should be doing. By being "way over protective" they are doing their job and helping out more people.

Gmail should just unblock all EXEs and actually scan them to be a better service.

But I do agree with you on this nightfox. I hate it that I can't send or receive these type of files. It's not just these extensions. Gmail also can't send or receive database that have been made by Microsoft Access, i'm not sure why though. I agree that they should be scanned, because in the end it's up to the user to decide whether or not to download the files.

[finaldesign1405241487 0]

But I do agree with you on this nightfox. I hate it that I can't send or receive these type of files. It's not just these extensions. Gmail also can't send or receive database that have been made by Microsoft Access, i'm not sure why though. I agree that they should be scanned, because in the end it's up to the user to decide whether or not to download the files.

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Ok, a simplest solution would be to test this stuff right now. I have few programs, that Antiviruses don't like too much, It's a type of software that have some specific alogorhytms for dismantlein software aplications and such, and quite a few antiviruses found them to be trojans or some kind viruses... I will try now to send that file to myself... and see what happens. Btw. it's *.exe (excutable) file, and Im using Mozilla Thunderbird to send it via GMail, and I also have Avast Antivirus which is disabled.

...Ok I sent that mail now, and Gmail responded with:

An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: 5.7.0 Illegal Attachment...

So, no EXE files. Let's try with ZIP compression. Ok, so Gmail gives again the sam error code as above.

I will try now with RAR compression. ... And again out of luck, the same error code occurs form Gmail.

And what is the solution? You will have to use compression and set a password. It's the only way you will able to send *viruses* or EXE files (that are not viruses but antivirus software declare that they are). So, compress files into ZIP or RAR archive and put a password there... Actually password in copressed file locks the file for reading, so basicly antivirus can't get to the file, and passes it. Like this:

And just last *notice*, you will must rename the compressed file like I did, you can see that in picture, rename it to SOMETHING.ZIP_ or SOMETHING.RAR_ or similar stuff.

[YudzzY 0]

and i thought virus scanning was included.. hahaha.. i'm surprised, and good they are improving.. but what i wanted from gmail is: an automatic message when the recipient reads the email! i would love that!!

[plot 0]

an auto reply? im pretty sure they have that. any ways virus scanning took a while to get, it should have been one of the first things they released, at least it isnt like hotmail and leaves a big message at the end

[Neverseen 0]

good idea to scan emails for virus presence, especially nowdays when there's so much dirty mails sent here and there everyday. thumbs up for gmail

[Grafitti 0]

It is a nice feature, but Yahoo! Mail wins in the "Anti-Virus" category, and Gmail gets an "D-".

Yahoo will allow you to send .exe files, even if they are in a ZIP file to begin with. If the EXE was a virus, Yahoo! Mail (using Norton AntiVirus) would delete it from the email. Now if it was a regular non-virus program, it would be permitted to be sent.

 

Gmail on the other hand is being "way over protective". I work a lot in Visual Basic .NET and I like to give my friends betas of software I have written. Gmail is my primary email client, but since they block ALL exe's (without even scanning them) I have to have my friends download the EXE or waste a CD and burn it on it for them. Gmail should just unblock all EXEs and actually scan them to be a better service. It's the only reason why I don't like Gmail.

 

[N]F

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that's one of their major drawbacks, but there's a quick and simple way around that. you don't even need to password the archive, just rename the extension to something else, and it lets it through without any problems. I still scan all mail that comes in, whether it was previously scanned by gmail or yahoo or what have you.

[yordan 10]

AAArgh! I've just been trapped. I wanted to send my program to my sister, and gmail told me "forbidden, dangerous, etc..." I just renamed the extension, but then I had to send a second mail saying "rename program.dat to program.exe".Really not comfortable.

[BitShift 0]

since i use linux ..i dont care about viruses ..and even if i do get some virus ..and i am sending it via gmail...i should be allowed to send it out..i mean warn me all u want ..but dictating what i can send and waht i cannot send is not good.
i appreciate the effort where google wants to curb destructive and criminal activities..but lets say ..if gmail were to dominate email in coming years. and it doent let people send things like music and vidoes , and encrypted documents (well you can always fool the system..but the system can always be atleast two stpes behind..and not let the general population do stuff) ..i think google should reverse theri decession ..and just warn about viruses.

That is a really pathetic way to look at things. Thats inconsiderate for the people who can be affected by viruses and you should not be sending viruses through public smtp servers.

Any mail company has every right to dictate what you can and cannot send on their servers using their service. Take it to court if you want but they own the servers and you agreed to some kind of document when you signed up for your mail account that you would not send certain types of attachments and other rules. They might not let you send music because they do not want you sending illegal music over their servers, and they do not want to let you share innapropriate videos either.

If you want to be so disrespectful about other peoples security, and towards Google and their interests to stop any viruses from infecting their systems then you can complain all you want but the rules are there for a good reason.

I host my own ftp and mail server that my friends and I use, along with my Computer Science class at school. We do use it to share encrypted stuff, since we are learning how to do all that right now, and even are making our own viruses, but at the same time we have strict lessons on ethics.

I'm not trying to blam you or anything but your perspective on the subject is extremely inconsiderate for other people on the net.

[yordan 10]

..i think google should reverse theri decession ..and just warn about viruses.

I like gmail because of their efficient anti-spam engine and I appreciate them protecting my PC from viruses.We are in OpenSystem field. People who don't like gmail policy should feel free to choose another provider who would be more permissive.

[webintern 0]

Maybe I am missing or misinterpreting something here. Is the announcement about GMail just implementing an anti-virus scanner or about it using it to filter files to be sent out? If it is the former, then I am rather surprised that Google had not built this into their system any earlier. This is practically a de facto feature of any major e-mail service. If, on the other hand, the announcement was about the latter, then I applaud their efforts to minimize the spread of viruses.Sending files via e-mail can be a conscious (malicious hacker) or unknown (spyware, unknowingly infected file) event. In either case, the file should not be transmitted to other users. Now for whatever reason, if the user really wanted to give the virus-infected file to a willing friend, then there are file sharing services that the sender can use. But how often are people willing to receive files with viruses in them?On a different note, GMail was penetrated by spammers a number of months ago. Even for e-mail addresses I never publicized, I had junk mail in them. So, I suppose it would be great if GMail beefs up its anti-spam technology. Spam mail can be so annoying.

[beatgammit 0]

Virus protections is practically essential these days whenever data is transferred over the internet. We cannot trust our anti-virus programs on our computer to catch everything, and every extra measure is important. I have used Gmail for a year or so and I have loved it much more than any other email service I have used (I have used my internet provider's standard one, hotmail, yahoo, gmail, and a few others like netdragons and my college's). This is just one more reason to love Google. Google has declared that it is dedicated to controlling the world's information, and now it is showing evidence that it cares about the security of the world's information.

[beatgammit 0]

It is a nice feature, but Yahoo! Mail wins in the "Anti-Virus" category, and Gmail gets an "D-". Yahoo will allow you to send .exe files, even if they are in a ZIP file to begin with. If the EXE was a virus, Yahoo! Mail (using Norton AntiVirus) would delete it from the email. Now if it was a regular non-virus program, it would be permitted to be sent.

Gmail on the other hand is being "way over protective". I work a lot in Visual Basic .NET and I like to give my friends betas of software I have written. Gmail is my primary email client, but since they block ALL exe's (without even scanning them) I have to have my friends download the EXE or waste a CD and burn it on it for them. Gmail should just unblock all EXEs and actually scan them to be a better service. It's the only reason why I don't like Gmail.

[N]F

Google is very new to email, so they cannot be expected to be the best in everything right away. The virus scanning is just the first step. I remember the days when Yahoo blocked exe's when they first introduced virus scanning (and I am not that old, only 18). Google will, undoubtedly, add exe scanning to their Gmail service once they find a really good way to do it. They are not going to enter that arena until they have top notch virus scanning software. That is the difference between Google and other vendors. Other vendors just want to get their product out there with as many features as possible and will improve it later. Google, on the other hand, puts their products out there with a high quality standard. They may not be the most fully featured to begin with, but they improve over time (look at Google Finance or Picasa or Google homepage). Google is all about offering quality pieces of software, instead of a whole slew of less than stellar chunks.

My guess is that in the next couple of years, we will see the ability to send exe's, dll's, zip's and pretty much any other format we want. As for now, I guess we must just send the source code and have the user on the other end compile it. I love Gmail above every other email client and I suspect they will continue to grow their services as time goes on.

[unimatrix 0]

This is cool for all the windows users of the world, but I'm using Mac OSX and not really all that worried about viruses yet. But other mail services have been doing this for years. In fact, the people I still know that just use Juno because all they want is email get Norton antivirus free through the service.