Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: marinus on May 20, 2008, 10:25:24 PM
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Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Avast 4.8 Home edition
I'm new to Avast (made the switch from Symantec), and I'm experiencing some problems with sending mail.
I can't seem to figure out what the problem is.
It's only with outbound mail. I've tried switching scanning of it off, but it doesn't help.
Funny thing is that it happens only with bigger mails. If the mail is only a few lines (a few kbs) it goes, but if it's bigger it doesn't.
There's no specific error message, but there's the yellow triangle with the exclamation mark indication that something's wrong. It says "Warnings" in the status column of the tasks and Local Area Network in the connection column.
The mail sticks in the Outbox, causing it to be resent and resent and resent and it IS sent and delivered.
I'm running Windows firewall, Symantec was completely removed with the Symantec Removal Tool, so I don't think that's causing any problems.
When I switch off the Outlook/Exchange in Avast, the problem seems to be solved.
ashMaiSv.exe is running in the processes, Windows Firewall is not blocking Avast.
I tried the search on the forum, and found similar items, but I couldn't find a working answer to this issue.
Does anyone have any idea? Any help would be appreciated.
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Can you tell us a little more about the account (please do not disclose any personal details)?
Is this a regular SMTP account sending on port 25? Is the account set up to use a secure connection to the server when sending mail?
Have you made any changes (apart from unchecking the scanning of sent mail) to the avast Internet Mail provider?
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It is a regular SMTP, port 25, not sending through a secure connection.
I set the Heuristics to silent with mark in the subject field. Other than that and the unchecking of the scanning of sent mail I haven't made any changes.
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The Outlook/Exchange provider is a plugin only used by MS Outlook and has no role to play in receiving/sending email with Outlook Express. It is not clear how stopping that provider could affect sending from Outlook Express.
If you do not user MS Outlook then you can safely leave the Outlook/Exchange provider terminated.
If you leave that provider off is the mail from OE sent consistently without problems whatever the message size?
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It's becoming mysterious... I love when someone is trying to discover mysteries...
Good luck Alanrf ;)
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If you leave that provider off is the mail from OE sent consistently without problems whatever the message size?
ARGH! No, it's not consistent. That one time I switched it off must've been a lucky shot then!
It won't send anymore.
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It is not clear how stopping that provider could affect sending from Outlook Express.
I rather feared that would be the case.
Is the system you are using to send the emails using a wireless or wired connection?
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It's wireless. And a strong connection.
I figured that that might be the problem, but I checked for time-outs, which hasn't been the case.
The emails are sent normally, they just get some kind of error which makes them stick in the outbox.
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For this account in OE in the "Servers" tab ... at the bottom (Outgoing Mail Server section) is the box "My server requires authentication" checked or empty?
Is your wireless connection to your base station secured (ie do you use WPA or at least WEP for the connection)?
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Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)
Windows XP Pro SP2
Avast 4.8 Home edition
Funny thing is that it happens only with bigger mails. If the mail is only a few lines (a few kbs) it goes, but if it's bigger it doesn't.
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The mail sticks in the Outbox, causing it to be resent and resent and resent and it IS sent and delivered.
Well, I'm not sure that this is an Avast issue. On this machine running XP Pro SP3 and NOT running Avast, yesterday for the first time since forever I had a similar problem with Outlook Express. Small mails went through (I ran some tests), but all of the larger one got hung up on the server, gave me Outook error messages (OX800CCC19) and then sent the emails REPEATEDLY, over twenty times.
From what I've read this could be caused by a corrupt database file in Outlook Express (Pop3uidl.dbx), so I tried closing Outook Express, deleting the file, rebooting and re-opening OE which generated a new file, but that still did not solve the issue.
This happened with Hotmail so I was tempted to think this might have been something screwy with their mail servers yesterday...
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Thanks for that update but I have to doubt that it is related to this problem.
Hotmail in OE uses the WebDav protocol to connect to the Hotmail servers. WebDav is a specialized form of HTTP (and proprietary to Microsoft) and is completely different and separate from the SMTP protocol that the original poster here reports using.
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Indeed it's something else than the Hotmail.
Aside that, the problem still persists.
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And the answers to my last questions please ....
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For this account in OE in the "Servers" tab ... at the bottom (Outgoing Mail Server section) is the box "My server requires authentication" checked or empty?
I have 12 POP3 accounts running in OE and they all behave the same. The box is empty.
Is your wireless connection to your base station secured (ie do you use WPA or at least WEP for the connection)?
It's secured with WEP.
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And you have problems only with the SMTP sending of one of those accounts or all 12?
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Thanks for that update but I have to doubt that it is related to this problem.
Hotmail in OE uses the WebDav protocol to connect to the Hotmail servers. WebDav is a specialized form of HTTP (and proprietary to Microsoft) and is completely different and separate from the SMTP protocol that the original poster here reports using.
Sorry, I had missed that. But from what I've read, large files can corrupt the OE database and then I would think it would not matter if the next mail being sent uses SMTP or not because the local database has been corrupted and all subsequent large mails will hang. I'm still placing my money on this being OE related somehow.
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If it were something as as simple as database corruption it would affect all messages in the data structure and would not discriminate against large messages while transmitting small messages normally - as reported by the poster.
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marinus,
can you conduct a test please?
Can you go to the Internet Mail provider, click "Customize" and select to the "Redirect" tab.
In the SMTP box please remove port 25. Click "OK". Then please Terminate the Internet Mail provider and then Start it again.
This will remove avast from playing any part at all in the sending of your outbound mail. Please see if you can consistently send the large emails without problems and let us know.
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Sending with all 12 gives the error.
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Was that a response to my previous question or does the error persist even when you have conducted the test I proposed?
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Sending with all 12 gives the error.
I'll bet that it is your ISP that prevents sending large attachments.
Do you get an error code? (I did not see if you posted an error code)
http://www.nthelp.com/50/Outlook_error_codes.htm
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If you read the original post then the poster reports that the messages do eventually get sent.
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This occurred only after I uninstalled Symantec and installed Avast.
I've sent files of 60-100 megabytes by email before, without any problems.
And like alanrf says, I stated already that the messages ARE sent.
Attached a screenshot of the "error message" that I get after sending.
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To remove Symantec from your system did you just use the uninstall software option or did you use the special Norton Removal Tool to ensure that it really was removed?
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It is way past my bedtime and I am calling it a night.
Norton products are notoriously difficult to remove and the remains of them can and do seriously interfere with the working of the next anti-virus product you install and even still affect products that it was previously monitoring.
If you have not run the Norton Removal Tool (find it here: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 ) then I suggest:
1) Download the avast installation file again if you have not kept it
2) Run the Norton Removal Tool
3) Uninstall avast
4) Perform a fresh re-installation of avast
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I ran the Norton Removal Tool, as I mentioned in my first post.
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Sorry about that, I did look again but, as I said, it was very late for me.
If you have followed the test request I asked for then avast is totally uninvolved in the sending of your email. The removal of port 25 is the equivalent of completely turning off the Internet Mail provider for outbound mail.
If the problem still persists you can try (I would suggest just for one account at first) increasing the connection timeout value in the advanced tab of the properties of the account in OE.
If that fails to rememdy the problem then you can use the options in IE to log your SMTP connection and see what issues the OE log reveals.
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I kicked out OE and put up Thunderbird (been running that on my laptop already and had planned it already for awhile for my desktop), uninstalled Avast and reinstalled it and after that it worked. But it still doesn't work in OE. I've tested it there afterwards, and it still refuses. So there must be some kind of problem in OE. Can't bother with it anymore, though.
Thanks alanrf, for the time you put in this. Much appreciated.
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Interesting.
avast cannot tell the difference between OE and Thunderbird (it does not know that you use either of them). avast works just by intercepting the calls to ports 110 (for POP), 25 (for SMTP) and 143 (IMAP). Every email client has to follow the strict email protocol rules precisely so avast just works for email by monitoring those actions.
I use Thunderbird as my mail client and the folks I support all use it too. We have run it with avast for several years now without any problem interactions. I hope you will have the same experience.
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Thanks for that :)
Let's see how it goes. I'm sure if I run into problems, I'll be back ;)