Please try this Secure Email Beta product and give us your feedback.

[Guest]

[Opus Dei]

As I understand this The user has to download and use COmmodoSecure Email?

I thought this was the differnce between CSE and standard PKI Secure email
I thought with CSE if a user did not have CSE they  had the ability to decrypt the message.

In my initial test emails with your previous beta I could send to users with any type of PKI software on their PC and they could read these emails.
 from my understanding below these emails were signed but not encrypted is this correct.

If they had been encrypted they would have been promted to download CSE and install it?

If this is the case I will probably still be shy about trying CSE  as I don´t want to require anybody install any software on their system to do business with us.
Thanks
OPUS

How it works… receiving – Installing SecureEmail using Outlook, Outlook Express or Thunderbird:
1)   The encrypted e-mail is received.
2)   The recipient installs Comodo SecureEmail.
3)   SecureEmail checks to see if the recipient has an e-mail certificate.
a.   If the recipient does not have an e-mail certificate then SecureEmail will not be able to download the single-use public and private key until they sign up for a Comodo e-mail certificate.
b.   If recipient already has an e-mails certificate
i.   SecureEmail connect via SSL and client authentication, authenticating to the recipients e-mail address
ii.   If the authentication is successful then the single-user certificate and private key are downloaded securely.
iii.   The e-mail is decrypted with the private key and then encrypted (depending on SE options) for the recipient’s permanent e-mail certificate.
iv.   On the next Send and Receive SecureEmail will prompt the user to send their permanent e-mail certificate to the sender so from this point forward, permanent PKI based certificates will be used for communications.

If there are any questions thus far let me know.

I hope this helps

[Melih]

As I understand this The user has to download and use COmmodoSecure Email?

I thought this was the differnce between CSE and standard PKI Secure email
I thought with CSE if a user did not have CSE they  had the ability to decrypt the message.

In my initial test emails with your previous beta I could send to users with any type of PKI software on their PC and they could read these emails.
 from my understanding below these emails were signed but not encrypted is this correct.

If they had been encrypted they would have been promted to download CSE and install it?

If this is the case I will probably still be shy about trying CSE  as I don´t want to require anybody install any software on their system to do business with us.
Thanks
OPUS

when a secure email sent.. the receiver can simply forward the email to an email address provided in the email and they will receive a link. once they click on this link, they can read the email.
so they don't have install anything if they don't want to.

Melih

[lindsayh]

Is it available for any platform besides Windows?

[Melih]

Is it available for any platform besides Windows?

not yet I am afraid.
Melih

[nickchan]

Hi -

I have a Compaq Laptop running MS Vista and Office 2007. I am using MS Outlook 2007 as well as webmails - gmail and hotmail.

Having gone through a number of email security programs, I finally decided to try signing up for a free Comodo Email Certificate, which refused to be downloaded by IE even after setting it to trusted and installing the activeX  Angry. Tried downloading with Firefox and lo..it installed! But it was not to be as even though the message said it was installed, but in Outlook it was nowhere to be found! Angry

Finally I installed Comodo Secureemail beta (I did not at first 'cos the site did not say it worked with Vista) and in terms of ease of use I must say that  Comodo Rocks....when it works...

The cert finally installed ok. I followed the settings instructions (both for SecureEmail and Outlook) and no matter what I settings I tried it was still sending email in clear text.

No email interception by SecureEmail, no dialog boxes, nothing.  Finally, the only way I could send signed and encrypted messages was by setting outlook trust center settings to sign and encrypt emails.    Embarrassed

And I can't get it to work with webmail and single use certificates!  Thinking

To top it all off, now whenever I startup SecureEmail Configuration, I get a pop up box titled "configure" and the message "The parameter is incorrect."

I don't know what's wrong. Are my settings incorrect? Is it a beta problem? Does it work properly with Vista?  Is it an Outlook 2007 problem? How do I get single use certificates to work? Grrrrrr....somebody please help...

[Comodo_Shane]

Hi nickchan

We’re sorry to hear you have had some problems with CSE.

nickchan: “I have a Compaq Laptop running MS Vista and Office 2007. I am using MS Outlook 2007 as well as webmails - gmail and hotmail.”

Currently, CSE only supports POP/SMTP/IMAP not webmail.  In addition we are working on a version that supports SSL connections, which gmail uses, so gmail isn’t supported yet either, although we have an SSL beta in testing that has shown promising results so far.

nickchan: “Having gone through a number of email security programs, I finally decided to try signing up for a free Comodo Email Certificate, which refused to be downloaded by IE even after setting it to trusted and installing the activeX  Angry.“

This could be IE settings, or security settings in Vista although it’s a little tricky to say without seeing the exact error you were receiving.

nickchan: “Tried downloading with Firefox and lo..it installed! But it was not to be as even though the message said it was installed, but in Outlook it was nowhere to be found! Angry”

Firefox has a separate certificate repository from Windows and Outlook.  To use a certificate in Outlook which you installed into Firefox’s certificate repository, you need to export the certificate and most importantly, the private key, from Firefox to a pkcs#12 and install that into the Windows certificate store.  At this point CSE will be able to use the certificate, but if you want to use Outlook without CSE, then you have to setup Outlook to use that certificate for your e-mail account via Outlook’s options.


nickchan:  “The cert finally installed ok. I followed the settings instructions (both for SecureEmail and Outlook) and no matter what I settings I tried it was still sending email in clear text.”                                             
Where you able to see your certificate installed via Outlook?

nickchan:  “No email interception by SecureEmail, no dialog boxes, nothing.”
CSE won’t be able to intercept web mail or gmail unless it’s being used over a non-ssl pop/smtp/imap connection.


nickchan:  “Finally, the only way I could send signed and encrypted messages was by setting outlook trust center settings to sign and encrypt emails.    Embarrassed

This is standard Outlook operation and nothing to do with CSE.  To make Outlook encrypt, you have to setup your own certificate and you also have to install a certificate for each contact you wish to encrypt for. 

SE is intended to remove the complexities and complications of understanding public key encryption and setting up your e-mail clients.  Currently it does this well for the protocols it supports, which again are POP, SMTP and IMAP.  CSE has a protocols tab where you can setup what ports to scan for each protocol.  If the correct ports are not set, CSE won’t intercept and encrypt your e-mail.

nickchan: “And I can't get it to work with webmail and single use certificates!  Thinking”
Could you supply more about your mail settings?

nickchan: “To top it all off, now whenever I startup SecureEmail Configuration, I get a pop up box titled "configure" and the message "The parameter is incorrect."

Are you running 32 or 64 bit Vista and is it a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Outlook?
We’ll be uploading a new version of CSE very soon that will have SSL support too that you could try if you wish.

“I don't know what's wrong. Are my settings incorrect? Is it a beta problem? Does it work properly with Vista?  Is it an Outlook 2007 problem? How do I get single use certificates to work? Grrrrrr....somebody please help...”

A lot of the issues seem to be maybe that you’re not using non-ssl POP, SMTP or IMAP for the connection to the mail server.  Could you supply a bit more info about your connection and port settings?

Are you running any e-mail monitoring anti-virus programs?

[nickchan]

Hi Shane - Thanks for the quick reply. My replies below in red:-

Hi nickchan

We’re sorry to hear you have had some problems with CSE.

nickchan: “I have a Compaq Laptop running MS Vista and Office 2007. I am using MS Outlook 2007 as well as webmails - gmail and hotmail.”

Currently, CSE only supports POP/SMTP/IMAP not webmail.  In addition we are working on a version that supports SSL connections, which gmail uses, so gmail isn’t supported yet either, although we have an SSL beta in testing that has shown promising results so far. - Fantastic. I have very high hopes that Comodo will support webmails like Gmail. I know its still a beta, and I can wait for version 1.0 which will hopefully support webmail.

nickchan: “Having gone through a number of email security programs, I finally decided to try signing up for a free Comodo Email Certificate, which refused to be downloaded by IE even after setting it to trusted and installing the activeX  Angry.“

This could be IE settings, or security settings in Vista although it’s a little tricky to say without seeing the exact error you were receiving. - Er.. too late to say now. Let it pass.

nickchan: “Tried downloading with Firefox and lo..it installed! But it was not to be as even though the message said it was installed, but in Outlook it was nowhere to be found! Angry”

Firefox has a separate certificate repository from Windows and Outlook.  To use a certificate in Outlook which you installed into Firefox’s certificate repository, you need to export the certificate and most importantly, the private key, from Firefox to a pkcs#12 and install that into the Windows certificate store.  At this point CSE will be able to use the certificate, but if you want to use Outlook without CSE, then you have to setup Outlook to use that certificate for your e-mail account via Outlook’s options.- Hmm....sounds so much simpler to install CSE! LOL! In the end I did export the certs via Firefox and install it into Outlook's Trust Center, which is what I am currently using now on account my CSE installation isn't working for me  .


nickchan:  “The cert finally installed ok. I followed the settings instructions (both for SecureEmail and Outlook) and no matter what I settings I tried it was still sending email in clear text.”                                             
Where you able to see your certificate installed via Outlook? - Not until I manually installed it (see above)

nickchan:  “No email interception by SecureEmail, no dialog boxes, nothing.”
CSE won’t be able to intercept web mail or gmail unless it’s being used over a non-ssl pop/smtp/imap connection.
- I use Outlook to download from / send through 4 different mailboxes/ email addresses. All are using POP connection. Even my gmail is downloaded/ sent by Outlook via POP connection. No joy.

nickchan:  “Finally, the only way I could send signed and encrypted messages was by setting outlook trust center settings to sign and encrypt emails.    Embarrassed

This is standard Outlook operation and nothing to do with CSE.  To make Outlook encrypt, you have to setup your own certificate and you also have to install a certificate for each contact you wish to encrypt for.  - I know that. In the end this was the only way I could use the Comodo mail cert to encrypt my emails! Thats why I want to get CSE going!

SE is intended to remove the complexities and complications of understanding public key encryption and setting up your e-mail clients.  Currently it does this well for the protocols it supports, which again are POP, SMTP and IMAP.  CSE has a protocols tab where you can setup what ports to scan for each protocol.  If the correct ports are not set, CSE won’t intercept and encrypt your e-mail. The ports being used are Incoming: Ports 110 for 2 addresses and 995 for the other 2. Outgoing is 26 and 587 respectively.

nickchan: “And I can't get it to work with webmail and single use certificates!  Thinking”
Could you supply more about your mail settings? - What settings do you need to know? Can I email it to you? Please give me your email address.

nickchan: “To top it all off, now whenever I startup SecureEmail Configuration, I get a pop up box titled "configure" and the message "The parameter is incorrect."

Are you running 32 or 64 bit Vista and is it a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Outlook? - 32 bit Vista, Is there a 64 bit version of Outlook?
We’ll be uploading a new version of CSE very soon that will have SSL support too that you could try if you wish. Absolutely!

“I don't know what's wrong. Are my settings incorrect? Is it a beta problem? Does it work properly with Vista?  Is it an Outlook 2007 problem? How do I get single use certificates to work? Grrrrrr....somebody please help...”

A lot of the issues seem to be maybe that you’re not using non-ssl POP, SMTP or IMAP for the connection to the mail server.  Could you supply a bit more info about your connection and port settings?

Are you running any e-mail monitoring anti-virus programs? - Yes. Kaspersky Internet Security 7

To rub salt into my wounds, I tried introduced my biz partner (in the same co) also running 32bit Vista + Outlook 2007 and his installation worked like a dream! Single use certificates, hassle free setup of certs etc! Grrr! So it looks like Comodo is on the right track, but I just cant get mine to work... 

[Comodo_Shane]

Hi nickchan 


nickchan : Fantastic. I have very high hopes that Comodo will support webmails like Gmail. I know its still a beta, and I can wait for version 1.0 which will hopefully support webmail


The problem here isn’t really Comodo supporting webmail, it’s the webmail provider themselves.  If an encrypted e-mail is sent to a web mail account (that doesn’t support S/MIME, which they don’t) the recipient won’t be able to read the mail since the web mail does not have facilities to decrypt it, there’s no support for it with webmail providers so far.  If the recipient reads the encrypted mail inside the web browser, then they’ll just see an encrypted mail.

If the web mail can be accessed via POP/SMTP then CSE can do this decryption/encryption during the POP/SMTP communications before it gets to the e-mail client.

GMAIL is an exception to most web mails, it has the ability to allow plug-ins.  There is a FireFox SMIME plug-in for GMAIL currently available that would, when the recipients cert is setup in FireFox, allow them to read encrypted and mails.  But of course they have to view the mail in FireFox, and will have to setup the certificate and plug-in on each PC they want to use to see the S/MIME encrypted mails.

nickchan: I use Outlook to download from / send through 4 different mailboxes/ email addresses. All are using POP connection. Even my gmail is downloaded/ sent by Outlook via POP connection. No joy.
GMAIL isn’t just POP/SMTP it’s POP/SMTP over SSL.  As the release post says, SSL isn’t supported yet, so CSE will not work with GMAIL. 

nickchan: The ports being used are Incoming: Ports 110 for 2 addresses and 995 for the other 2. Outgoing is 26 and 587 respectively.

Are your other accounts over SSL too? The one on 995 seems to be.

Can you check the protocols tab in CSE to make sure that CSE is actually monitoring the ports you have setup in your e-mail client for POP and SMTP?  Remember CSE will not work with SSL turned on. 

The reason for this is that CSE monitors the network traffic so that it can support as many e-mail clients as possible, rather than specific plug-ins for each e-mail client because there aren’t too may e-mail clients that support plug-ins.  When SSL is on, the traffic is encrypted from your e-mail client to the server, and CSE just can’t read it at the network level, until the next version that is.  I’ll post it up in a day or so.

If you e-mail me directly I will find the source of the problem which is that CSE for some reasons isn’t detecting the ports.

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