Product Information
Avira GmbH
Avira AntiVir MailGate
8
2.2
Modules and Operating Mode of Avira AntiVir MailGate
Avira AntiVir MailGate is an SMTP scanner, which scans all incoming and outgoing
emails, including attachments, on your UNIX mail server for viruses/unwanted
programs (see figure below). The program has a high scanning speed and is easy to
configure.
Apart from SMTP, Avira AntiVir MailGate supports the Sendmail Milter interface.
This store and forward agent divides the work between two programs:
SMTP daemon
The SMTP daemon receives the emails and stores them in the spool directory. This
program can run as an independent server using port 25 (SMTP) or it can be
started by the Internet superdaemons
inetd
or
xinetd
.
Scanner and
Forwarder
daemon
The forwarder daemon reads the emails stored in the spool directory, decodes any
attachments and then starts scanning for viruses and unwanted programs.
Depending on the result of the scanning process, clean emails are forwarded, while
infected emails are blocked in the spool directory (
rejected
).
According to the configuration made in
avmailgate.conf
, the program also blocks
suspicious emails, such as password-protected archives and fragmented emails, in
the same directory. In the same configuration file you can define rules for the spam
filter.
You can scan the queue on-demand using the Queue Manager
avq
(for scanning the
spool directory, see
Queue Manager avq
– Page 56).