Hi everyone
I’ve tried to make sure these are things that everyone can do using standard OS facilities, and thus true work-arounds not ‘hacks’. Hopefully in line with comodo T&C then. (Tell me Eric if not and I will remove). Some can be made smoother using third party utilities, but these are not essential.
None are in any way guaranteed, or even tested. They work for me but they may not for you. Use them at your own risk. I have only used them with Outlook 2003 and Windows XP SP3.
I’ll keep on updating this list as extra things occur to me, & with clarifications, cautions, & any improvements you suggest. If others have ideas or disagreements please post as replies, but please do not suggest hacks (eg edits to .exe files). The moderator, Eric, may not be amused.
1. CAS downloads all emails stored on server (if you have any) on installation. On installing set CAS to disabled, and after installation go into CAS and disable all accounts. Then enable CAS, and enable the accounts you wish to enable. (Note that if you then disable accounts again the emails on the server will be downloaded).
2. CAS icon disapears. Log-off then log-on as same user, for more permanent fix Google XP dissapearing taskbar icon bugs or similar. (Too many bugs and fixes to enumerate here). Alternatively create quick launch toolbar shortcut to CAS32.exe.
3. CASproc.exe instances remain open and accumulate over time. Don’t press send receive repeatedly in the emails client, partic when CAS is processing emails into quarantine. (If send/recieve is automated, reduce frequency to say 10 mins). To resolve existing problem without reinstallation disable account, then replace corrupt .Qdb by an empty .qdb file - length 1kb. Qdb (quarantine database) files are in Application data\comodo\comodo antispam). Just create a new account email to get an empty file, and rename it with the name of the account that has a corrupt Qdb file. (The empty .qdb file will show you the format required, which must be exact). Then re-enable account. The corrupt .qdb file will probably be indicated by its larger than normal size for the number of emails in quarantine. NOTE: risk of losing emails here, though when I did it it just seemed to re download jammed emails from server.
4. CAS causes Outlook 2003 to crash if used for a long time without closing Outlook. Restart Outlook 2003 at least daily (or more frequently if you are using CAS to monitor lots of email accounts, and/or sending and receiving very frequently). Maybe use a batch file & sheduled task to do this - I have - this utility will automate elegant closes: ITPro Today: IT News, How-Tos, Trends, Case Studies, Career Tips, More. Alternatively windows taskkill command can be used with some risk of data loss - eg in open draft emails.
5. CAS can cause a blizzard of ‘mail delivery failures’ on first installtion, by sending challenge messages to distribution lists. Diable CAS when you install it, and do not re-enable until you have build comprehensive white lists. Alternatively use mail processing rule facilities to process mails that have things like ‘delivery failure’ in the subject AND ‘antispam’ in the body into a separate folder.
6. CAS provides limited facilities for automated buiding of whitelists, and so may send too many challenge emails. To build a more comprehensive whitelist, export email account details from your sent item folder to a spreadsheet. Use spreadsheet analysis facilities to crate a list of unique email accounts. Sortby domain and check that list does not contain any domain variants - mydomain.net and mydomain.co.uk on the authentication list will cause corruption during the import process. Use wordprocessor search and replace facilities to process the list into the (very simple) .bwl format. You can create an example .bwl file by exporting an existing authentication list.
Please note that there is no solution to the ‘Editing the challenge email (ASA)’ problem that does not involve a hack, and this is prohibited under Comodo T&C - see discussion here: https://forums.comodo.com/antispam/personalise_the_asa-t23944.0.html
Hope this helps
Mouse
