Hi, this is my first post.
I've just got a new laptop, running Windows 7 64bit, and as I've always used Thunderbird, I naturally installed it as my email client. However, I discover there is no email integration with NIS. Could someone advise me... are my incoming emails still 'protected'?
I had a look round a few threads here and it mentions the ports that Norton watches [25 and 110?] but my various email addresses all seem to use 995 and 465 instead. Could you tell me if I should add those ports to the list? Would there be any detrimental issues arising from doing that?
Apart from those two questions, I'm pretty happy with Norton so far.
Many thanks in advance for help and advice.
Hi portiadacosta
Welcome to the community.
You are correct when you say that NIS does not support email scanning for Thunderbird, the non standard SMTP/POP3 ports (e.g. 587,995 for SMTP and 465 for POP3 ) are now supported (with the 2012 version) but not for Thunderbird.
Ergo adding those ports to the protected ports list will not enable NIS 2012 email scanning in case of Thunderbird.
I don't think adding the ports will cause any detrimental effect, it will simply make no difference whether you add them or not.
The only time NIS would take action would be if it found a virus and then it should alert you via Auto Protect.
You may find this article useful in the context of your question.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Email_scanning_-_pros_and_cons
" One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name. "
Hi portiadacosta,
Norton email functions do not support SSL encrypted connections so you will be unable to use these features due to the ports you are using. You cannot add these SSL ports to the Protected Ports list - they will not be accepted. Nevertheless there are some things you should know about how Norton works, and how you are still protected. Some background:
AntiSpam filtering and email scanning are independent of the email client, so all messages can be scanned as long as ports 110 and 25 are used, even if you are using Thunderbird. Antivirus scans work just as well when using Thunderbird as they do with any other email client. Similarly, AntiSpam will filter messages and tag suspected spam with a [Norton AntiSpam] notation in the subject line. Because Thunderbird is not supported as an integrated email client, these messages, even though tagged, will end up in the Inbox rather than the Junk folder. The simple workaround is to manually create a message rule in Thunderbird to move all messages with [Norton AntiSpam] appended to the Junk folder or to a Norton AntiSpam folder that you create yourself. In short, the Norton email features work regardless of the email client you use, but in clients that do not integrate you will have to make some manual rules to manage spam in a way that replicates client integration.
Do not be concerned about losing these protections due to your port configurations. FIrst, email antivirus scanning is a non-essential layer of protection that you can easily do without. Norton Auto-Protect will detect and remove any threat that would have been caught by email scanning, so there is no additional risk entailed by eliminating email scanning. Secondly, in regards to spam detection, Thunderbird has its own Junk Mail (spam) filtering feature which is very, very good (so good, in fact, that some of us use it instead of the Norton component).
Many thanks for the replies and the reassurance regarding protection via the Auto Protect function. I agree that Thunderbird has a good anti spam function. I also receive most email through my Gmail and Yahoomail addresses, and both these also screen out spam very well, so I don't receive very much [touch wood!]
As long as I am safe without the 'email integration', I'm happy.
Should I tick both your answers as solving my question, because I appreciate both your answers. 
ps. do you think it's possible that future releases of NIS might include Thunderbird on the list?