Is it possible to change the ASA?
DesM
Hi DesM, welcome to the forums. Good to have you here!
Can you elaborate a little bit on what you mean or what you’re trying to change?
Dave
Yes you can. Go to Advanced settings and then you will see under the ASA settings there is a tick box/ button to select and alternative ASA message, if you click on the button a pop up will apear to enter your text.
Andy : )
How do U personalize the ASA in DUTCH ?
Andy have you checked whether the issued message actually changes when you do this? I did, and it didn’t. But I may be doing something wrong…
I have the choice from two English options non is suitable for Dutch old folk
Think Andy is saying that if you click on the button to select an alternative message then you get a pop-up, which you can edit in any language. However I tried something like this before and it would not change the message actually sent. CAS not installed currently so I cannot check.
Found the solution for Vista.
Go to your Comodo folder in your Program Files and than to the CAS folder, There is an ASA folder with the two English files.
-Copy one and past this in the same ASA folder.
-Rename this to for example Dutch and click right for properties
-Select in the above window the one with the less properties and change this to full access.
-Open the file with a tekst editor and change the text but leave the code alone, also between the %%.
-The text is twice written in the file so change it twice.
-Save the file and choose it in your CAS program under the Advanced button.
Interesting workaround.
Hopefully the upcoming release will include an option to specify your own ASA message.
E
Unfortunately it does not work…
I thought that these were the files that were used but thats not the case. It will not use the new file even when you choose it … ;(
Yes that is what I found.
Indeed I found that editing the pop-up windows does not work either - though is possible that I have not found the right sequence to force it to save the change. If you fool CAS ino sending an ASA message to yourself or a friend after editing the message, you find the message does not change.
Examining the appropriate .exe file with a disk sector editor suggests why - the messages are compliled in.
Having siad this, there is a terrible hack - you can replace the compiled in ASA in the exe file with one of precisely identical length using a disk sector editor. I have tried this, and it does work, but have decided not to use it as it would be against Comodo T&C. However this is a very dangerous things to do unless you have experience with disk sector editors. You can trash your disk oh so easily as a result. So, not recommended.
Well lets hope Comodo makes this section soon editable so usable for non English users and receivers…
This is a terribly important thing which needs to be added/changed in CAS.
The default message is downright embarrassing. It’s not my personality to send out a message like that. After 32 years in the IT industry as a trusted consultant, there are a lot of people out there who follow my advice blindly…
…and one of the reasons is that everthing I say or write (when it comes to this sort of thing, at least) is very professional and reasoned and throught-through… and never sounds like an enthralled teenager or a back-door marketing message like the default ASA sounds like.
It is IMPERATIVE that CAS have the ability to send-out a customized ASA. IMPERATIVE!!!
And soon.
I created a custom message and gave it its own filename (but still with the “mhtml” filename extension) and put it into the ASA folder. From that point on, whenever one goes into the part of CAS where one can select the alternative ASA, sure enough mine is listed there as a choice, alongside the “PersonalFriendly” and “Short-ThirdPerson” choices.
But, alas, choosing mine does nothing. As earlier posted herein, the ASA is obviously hard-coded into the program file.
And, by the way, using a sector editor is not the way to edit the hard-coded ASA in the program file. The way to edit it without risking screwing-up the hard drive is to use a HEX editor. There’s a huge difference between a sector editor and a HEX editor. The former edits the disk, as a physical thing. The latter edits a file. The former risks damaging the disk. The latter risks only damaging the file… which one could easily back-up first just in case.
I, for one, would not hesitate to edit the hard coded ASA in the program file… Comodo license agreement be danged! Of course, part of the reason I wouldn’t feel bad about it would be that I would still make it clear to the recipient that it’s Comodo’s product, and I’d still include the web link to it… so Comodo would still get its marketing value from it. The only thing I’d change (and I’m going to… been thinking about it even before I read this thread) in the hard-coded ASA would be the teenaged breathlessness of it… and the obviously-written-by-a-marketing-person feel to the language.
This, as I said at the beginning of this post, needs to be addressed by Comodo ASAP. I’ve read the other postings in these threads about this not working, or that not working… and all of those things need to be addressed, too. But this is huge. It’s a dealbreaker, actually. If I can’t get the language of that ASA softened-up so that it sounds more like something I’d write, then I won’t be able to use this product…
…and I REALLY want to use it! I need it… BAD! [grin]
The basic framework for being able to add a custom ASA is obviously already in the program… else that whole business about being able (allegedly) to select alternative ASAs wouldn’t be there. And the fact that I can create my own “mhtml” file, and that it shows-up in CAS on the list of alternative ASAs means that someone at Comodo must have intended for that feature to actually work.
Is it possible that Comodo put the alternative ASA into the more recent releases before it was actually ready to include that feature? If so, then all the programmers would have to do is the rest of the work to make it so that it’s functional. Leave the hard-coded ASA in for those who want to use it…
…but please make it so that we can create our own “mhtml” file and put it into the ASA folder and then, when/if we select it as an alternative ASA, CAS will actually USE it!
Please! I’m beggin’ ya’, here! [grin]
I know it can be frustrating. There are currently only two options for the ASA message. I know that having a customizable ASA message has been in the Wishlist for sometime now. There will be an upcoming release of CAS (Rumoured to be this month) though we’ve not had much indication of it’s features.
Fingers crossed.
P.S. Everyone please refrain from discussing hack’s as it’s against forum policy.
Eric
Sorry Eric - did try to point out the risks, and the T&C.
Just to underline the risk, and in partial reply to penultimate message, please be warned that some products advertised as hex editors may allow both disk and file editing. In my opinion you really need to know your stuff to choose them and use them safely.
Mouse
Just wondered if you could get some clarification re whether there is soon to be an update, and post or ask Juanua to post the information.
This would help with user’s frustration, which arises from the fact that this is poetentially a GREAT peice of software, let down by a few bugs and a few function issues.
Not a problem… Just a friendly notice really…
I’ve PM’d the Devs but no response yet.
Actually, I think the warning was more aimed at me… the one who said he would not hesitate to do it. And the point is well taken… however, I still maintain that if I did it, my actions would be defensible under the circumstances… especially considering that the pro-Comodo promotion part of the ASA would remain. But that ASA is going out under my name. I get to control its contents. Comodo seems to agree, else what appears to be the beginnings of the user’s ability to create a customized message would not exist; and, moreover, whenever (and I trust it will be “whenever,” and not “if ever”) Comodo finally finishes the work on that part of CAS so that it actually works, then the need to hack will have been eliminated. Another option would be for Comodo to edit its default-and-can’t-be-changed ASA so that it’s less gushing and commercially enthusiastic… more detached, straightforward and professional.
Agreed… both as to the different forms in which a HEX editor may come, and also as to the need to be careful… and for the reason you cite. Just to be clear, when I mentioned a HEX editor as oppsed to a sector editor, I meant strictly that: A HEX editor… be it in the form of a single-purpose HEX-only editor, or just the HEX editor part of a dual-purpose HEX and sector editor. Regardless, one should not fiddle with either unless one knows what one is doing. Thinking about it, I can imagine a situation in which even a HEX editor could be dangerous to the entire system and not just the file being edited. It’s a stretch, but theoretically one could accidentally change something in the binary part of the file being edited in such a way that the behavior of the file, and not merely some message which it echos to the screen, could be changed; and if said file is executable, then the potential for harm should be obvious. So, yes, great care, in any case, is called for.
Hi Desm:
The upcoming release in May, CAS2.7, will bring the feature that user could edit part of ASA message to make their own ASA message in any language.
Just part of it? If so, then maybe I’ll always have to hack it. Too bad.
That said, if the only thing we can’t edit is the little tagline where Comodo anti-spam plugs itself (and gives the URL to itself) at the very end; and as long as that little tag is subtle and professional and businesslike and doesn’t gush with adolescent, overly-commercial enthusiasm (and it’s short), then it wouldn’t be so bad if we couldn’t edit just that tag part…
…that is: As long as 100% of the rest of it, including subject line, is ours to edit.