Problems sending mail with attachments

[DavidR]

Oops, I've either got to read further back or change these glasses Ahh that reminds me I have got to pick up my new glasses tomorrow.

Alan, how does the SendInBlockingMode=1 tweak speed up the outbound transmisson of the message blocks by avast?
I assume this would be good for dial-up also?

[alanrf]

Back in May another user (hgratt) noticed that he was not getting the optimum transmission of email on his very high speed connection.  The sending of his email (using the Mozilla mail client if I recall) was slower when being scanned by avast than when not.

I got interested and did some testing and found that with OE the difference with/without avast was very small but that using my mail client Thunderbird (also a Mozilla product) that the difference with/without was pronounced.  It seemed that the Mozilla products transmitted email much faster than OE or than avast itself. 

Vlk got interested and took a look at the code in avast and declared it old and not up to avast standards.  It was rewritten and was speeded up dramatically.

However to remove all delays between block sends and utilize high speed links optimally Vlk decided that the ini setting would be needed.  With that setting avast  monopolizes the system a bit more to get the message sent as fast as the upload link will allow.  Given the speed differences between dial up and the higher end of  some cable and dsl offerings I do not think this setting would do much for a dial up user.     

[DavidR]

Thanks Alan for the clear explanation.

[lotsofjunk]

I made the following changes and the large attachment will now send with scanning outbound on.  I also added another large attachment and it worked also. 

Thanks for the help and great product.

First for avast:

edit the avast4.ini file in the avavast4\data folder.

In the [MailScanner] section add a line:

SendInBlockingMode=1

and save the file.

For Thunderbird timeout:

You can do this by creating (or adding to) a file called user.js in your Thunderbird profile folder.  Add the lines:

// Increase pop3 timeout:
user_pref("mail.pop3_response_timeout", 90);

[alanrf]

Good to hear that it seemed to help.

Thanks for the feedback and welcome to the avast forums.

[DavidR]

A belated welcome to the forums.

[Lisandro]

Edit the avast4.ini file in the avavast4\data folder.
In the [MailScanner] section add a line:
SendInBlockingMode=1
and save the file.

Can avast team confirm this new avast4.ini setting?
How 'large' should be the attachment to prevent scanning?

[DavidR]

I'm not sure if the size is relevant (just that you are getting timeouts with some "large"attachments) as there could be other issues at work also which could have an effect, causing this with "smaller/medium" attachment sizes. The other points to consider as Alan mentioned it is really to help those with Thunderbird and using Fast/broadband connections.

[alanrf]

Tech,

you already included that ini setting in your sticky back when it was first discussed.

One extra point that that bothered me is cleared up.

The latest release of Thunderbird (currently 1.5 RC1), which is being used by lotsofjunk has changed its default connection timeout from 45 seconds to 60 seconds.  This explains the log posted showing a connection termination after one minute. 

David, doing the math on the log posted - the large file being sent had just about completed sending when Thunderbird terminated the connection.  So,  optimising the use of the uplink speed may have been enough, but even so there will still be a limit of what can be sent within the connection timeout of the client.

In a related piece of news the latest Thunderbird release also has the ability to modify the connection timeout in the interface.  For anyone serching for this at a later date:

Tools > Options > Advanced  .... under the General tab see the connection timeout  box (timeout value is in seconds).

[DavidR]

Thanks Alan, that latest piece of news about being able to use the interface to change the timeout setting will be a welcome relief for those using Thunderbird once it is released fully.

[Lisandro]

Tech, you already included that ini setting in your sticky back when it was first discussed.

Where? I can't find it...

[alanrf]

Tech,

in your mail scanner section.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10267#msg10267

[Lisandro]

Tech,

in your mail scanner section.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg10267#msg10267

Oh... God...
The version in my computer is different from the one posted... I have to check all over again... Oh... hours...