Getting a pop-up window every minute??!!

[lynnejohn]

lukor,
     
          The email protection is off in zonealarm (always has been). When you say to "turn off the transparent mail scanner", are you saying to go back to the old configuration of email program where there was some funky address for the pop servers?

Thanks,
             John C.

[chris18]

I have only recently installed Avast Home v4.5 on my PC having used eTrust EZ Antivirus previously This has been troublesome for some months and I've given up with getting support.

Came across the thread whilst browsing and I'm getting the same pop-up from time to time. In my case it's MailWasher Pro 4.1 that's quoted. I have it set to check for incoming email every 5 minutes.

I think in my case that it's connected to the fact that if the incoming mail server on an account can't be polled for some reason i.e the server fails, then the pop-up appears.

I'd like to stop it happening if possible but ONLY provided it doesn't jeopardise my protection.

[lynnejohn]

As an update to my last post. Set the AutoRedirect=0 and used the PopWizard
(ashPopWz.exe) to configure Thunderbird. To my amazement the problem was still
there (I thought for sure it was the  transparent mail scanner.) Is there an older
version of avast I could run to see at what version of software release the
problem appears?

John C.

[Lisandro]

Is there an older version of avast I could run to see at what version of software release the problem appears?

No, there isn't... Only the last one is available for download...

[chris18]

I have placed Mailwasher.exe in Exclusions and I have set Mailwasher NOT to include the accounts which usually give me connection timeout problems but I am still getting the Connection Timout Pop Up window appearing on a regular basis for Mailwasher.Exe

When I check Mailwasher I'm not getting any indication that any accounts are being timed out.

This is getting very frustrating.

[Lisandro]

I have placed Mailwasher.exe in Exclusions

What did you do? Include mailwasher.exe into the exclusions lists or exclude it 'just' for the Mail Scanner (into avast4.ini file)/

I have set Mailwasher NOT to include the accounts which usually give me connection timeout problems but I am still getting the Connection Timout Pop Up window appearing on a regular basis for Mailwasher.Exe

Did you increase the timeout of your email client (account properties) and avast timeout (Internet Mail provider settings)?
 

When I check Mailwasher I'm not getting any indication that any accounts are being timed out. This is getting very frustrating.

Are you receiving the timeouts or not...? I'm confused here...?!

[chris18]

I have placed Mailwasher.exe in Exclusions

What did you do? Include mailwasher.exe into the exclusions lists or exclude it 'just' for the Mail Scanner (into avast4.ini file)/

I have set Mailwasher NOT to include the accounts which usually give me connection timeout problems but I am still getting the Connection Timout Pop Up window appearing on a regular basis for Mailwasher.Exe

Did you increase the timeout of your email client (account properties) and avast timeout (Internet Mail provider settings)?
 

When I check Mailwasher I'm not getting any indication that any accounts are being timed out. This is getting very frustrating.

Are you receiving the timeouts or not...? I'm confused here...?!

I included Mailwasher in the exclusions list. I have not amended the avast4.ini file.

In Internet Mail I selected Customize>Advanced and in Silent Mode selected with general answer Yes (OK) just to see if this made any difference.

I have not adjusted the Timeout Internet for Internet communications(s) from the default of 120 secs although I was thinking of trying this.

At the moment all my accounts in Outlook Express are set under Advanced as Server Timeouts of 1 minute (short).

Mailwasher was set by default to check for new messages every 2 minutes but I have extended this to 10 minutes to see if that helps.

I have several email accounts and one email provider in particular does periodically have server timeout problems. When this happens Mailwasher  gives a server timeout error.

Between my last entry and your reply, Avast was flagging up the Internet Connection timeout error every minute or so. As soon as I cleared one message by clicking OK the next one came up.

When I checked Mailwasher this did not show any timeout errors for the troublesome server accounts. I had in any case excluded them from being polled automatically by Mailwasher so this should not have been causing any timeout problem.

Since clearing the last Avast error and writing this reply, the system seems to have settled down again as I am not receiving any warnings from Avast.

As Mailwasher only displays messages that are stored on the email server, nothing is downloaded to the hard drive until I select Process Mail, at which time Mailwasher will delete or bounce any spam on the server and then start Outlook Express. Only when I select Receive All with Outlook Express download messages to my drive, so it's only at this stage that the messages need to be scanned by Avast.

I assumed that by including Mailwasher in the exclusions list this would stop Avast scanning Mailwasher and get around any timeout problems.

I am incidentally on ADSL so my Internet connection is always on.

[Lisandro]

In Internet Mail I selected Customize>Advanced and in Silent Mode selected with general answer Yes (OK) just to see if this made any difference.

The answer Yes in Silent Mode keeps the virus in the file or into the message (attach) and continue the scanning. You can't configure 'delete the infected file' in the Home version. The default answer No will send the file (email) to Chest.

I have not adjusted the Timeout Internet for Internet communications(s) from the default of 120 secs although I was thinking of trying this.
At the moment all my accounts in Outlook Express are set under Advanced as Server Timeouts of 1 minute (short).

Can´t you increase these timeout to the limit of 600 seconds?

Mailwasher was set by default to check for new messages every 2 minutes but I have extended this to 10 minutes to see if that helps.

I assumed that by including Mailwasher in the exclusions list this would stop Avast scanning Mailwasher and get around any timeout problems.

The solution is simple. You must exclude the MailWasher process from the automatic virus scan.
Find your avast4.ini (generally C:\Program files\Alwil Software\avast4\Data\avast4.ini) and in the section [MailScanner] add (or edit) the following key:

[MailScanner]
IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe

Multiple process names can be separated with commas.

This way, not the executable will be on the exclusion list but only the mail communication of the ignored process will be bypassed of scanning. This brings no other exceptions - file access is of course scanned. In version 4.5, with the transparent mail scanner of avast!, not only mail clients could be monitored but also all communication to certain ports.

If you believe in MailWasher (of course!) and you exclude it from scanning, no mail scanning on it's connection will ever have any other effect that timeout message. The timeout message is there for the situations when sending or receiving of large mail may look like timeout and you would like to wait a bit longer in stead of just silently terminate such a connection.

[chris18]

The answer Yes in Silent Mode keeps the virus in the file or into the message (attach) and continue the scanning. You can't configure 'delete the infected file' in the Home version. The default answer No will send the file (email) to Chest.

Can´t you increase these timeout to the limit of 600 seconds?

The solution is simple. You must exclude the MailWasher process from the automatic virus scan.
Find your avast4.ini (generally C:\Program files\Alwil Software\avast4\Data\avast4.ini) and in the section [MailScanner] add (or edit) the following key:

[MailScanner]
IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe

Multiple process names can be separated with commas.

This way, not the executable will be on the exclusion list but only the mail communication of the ignored process will be bypassed of scanning. This brings no other exceptions - file access is of course scanned. In version 4.5, with the transparent mail scanner of avast!, not only mail clients could be monitored but also all communication to certain ports.

If you believe in MailWasher (of course!) and you exclude it from scanning, no mail scanning on it's connection will ever have any other effect that timeout message. The timeout message is there for the situations when sending or receiving of large mail may look like timeout and you would like to wait a bit longer in stead of just silently terminate such a connection.

Thanks for the info I will implement the changes you suggest and report back after a few days.

I orginally installed Mailwasher because I was periodically getting hit by a lot of spam. Recently my main email ISP has introduced a spam filter and most spam gets trapped by that. However, Mailwasher is still useful for being able to trap any that slip the filter giving me the chance to manually delete any emails I don't want to download.

Apart from the Timeout issue I have to say I'm very impressed with Avast.

Provided the timeout issue is resolved and there are no more "niggles"  I would consider buying the Professional version but at GBP 29.69 this is much dearer than my old EZ Trust anti-virus which only cost me 5.58 GBP per year (This was a special price offered to users of the earlier FREE version) and as a pensioner I have to consider the cost benefit to me of anything I buy.

[Lisandro]

However, Mailwasher is still useful for being able to trap any that slip the filter giving me the chance to manually delete any emails I don't want to download.

It's always useful to use a spam killer application 

Apart from the Timeout issue I have to say I'm very impressed with Avast.

They try to do a good job 

I have to consider the cost benefit to me of anything I buy.

You can ask for a discount: sales (at) avast.com
Good luck 

[DavidR]

I too am using Mailwasher (Pro) and have been using the [MailScanner] - IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe solution. You won't have to wait weeks to check it out, just check the 'Scanned Count:' in the Internet Mail provider and you will see the count only increases for the email that you download, not the checking of emails on the mail server by mailwasher.

[chris18]

I too am using Mailwasher (Pro) and have been using the [MailScanner] - IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe solution. You won't have to wait weeks to check it out, just check the 'Scanned Count:' in the Internet Mail provider and you will see the count only increases for the email that you download, not the checking of emails on the mail server by mailwasher.

Thanks for the input

I've looked at the On-Access Scanner and the Sacnned Count=0. Am i looking in the right place. If not, where do I find the "Scanned Count" you refer to?

Technical

Thanks for the update.

So far so good since making the change yesterday, no pop ups.

[DavidR]

Just ensure that you are looking at the mail provider, see image.

[chris18]

Just ensure that you are looking at the mail provider, see image.

Hi

Thanks for the info, I was looking in the right place.

Everything seems OK at the moment, still no pop-ups!

[Datagg]

Just as an additional note, the connection timeout error only seems to happen when Thunderbird starts an email check via its "email check time" (I have it set to 10 mins.) If I run the email check via the "Get Msgs" button,  I never get the timeout. You can also tell that you are going to get a timeout message in that the avast email scanning icon (lower right toolbar in windows) just seems to hang. After the timeout window appears and you decline to continue waiting from the pop up, the icon goes away.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

I had this problem a long time ago with a spam program I had on comp. The solution then was to set the time the mail was checked differently for each account.  It was then a error, that all were being looked and downloaded at the same time. I set them for 2 minutes apart and then the error went away. 

Im unsure if this is your situation, yet it reminded me of one of mine in the past...