Latest Avast and hotmail in outlook express ?

[indoor-footballer]

Since updating to the latest avast, it's taking about 10 mins to read
hotmail emails in my outlook express - any ideas on how to solve it
much appreciated.

Sev.

[lukor]

Hi,
do you use Win NT based or Win98/ME system?

[Darookan]

Same problem here. All this began after update to lastest PRO version (4.6.652).

I'm Using W2k SP4 fully updated (all WindowsUpdate patches till today), with a Sempron 2400+ with 256MB RAM. No firewalls or other relevant resident program.
My OE has IMAP and Hotmail accounts. IMAP works fine, but Hotmail takes too long to download a short (3kb) message.  Only the header is downloaded fast.

I also had some problems with a CLIPPER 5.0 program that I use. When rebuilding the indexes, it stops with "unrecoverable error: physical memory exausted" I tried to put the program folder in avast's ignore list, but the problem solved only by stopping all the services by the option below "About Avast!" in the systray.

Is there any way to get back to previous version (Mar2005)??

Thanks in advance.

[Lisandro]

Darookan, I can't help you that much with Hotmail as I never used it.
Hotmail is scanned with McAfee, isn't it? Does Hotmail starts a particular process or just the Outlook Express?
Can you test MS Outlook (full) to see if the same happens?

About Clipper (you seem to be an 'old' programmer  , I've used Clipper in the past too...), remember that Standard Shield has its own exclusion list and the path is read as text, I mean, C:\Progra~1\ is different from C:\Program files\

There isn't a possibility to get back to previous version but, let's try to fix your problem...

[Darookan]

Thank for the fast reply, technical!!!

Well, about Hotmail and McAfee all I know is that the McAfee scanner acts on web-based mail ONLY. it does not seems to scan Hotmail accounts syncronized in Outlook Express (if they do, they would surely put a banner at the footer of the message, as they do in webmail mode, I think). The OE accounts for hotmail works much like the IMAP accounts (but probably using different ports): you can syncronize the headers or the entire messages each time it connects to the server.
I'm sorry, but I can't try it on MS Outlook at the moment (I don't have it installed).

Yet about the clipper proggie, I'm sorry but I think I didn't make myself clear: when I said "I tried to put the program folder in avast's ignore list", I meant the "exclusion list" you just stated. The path to that folder has less than 8 chars (I added "C:\FOLDER\*.*" to that list), so I think it was not the problem. I also tried to stop each avast! service separately to see wich one was causing the problem, but it just really stopped when I clicked that option in systray just below "Aboout Avast!". Unfortunately, it stops my protection too.

I'll be around if you need more details.

Thanks again.

[Lisandro]

Thank for the fast reply, technical!!!

Fast? Be used to! You're on avast! forums 

Well, about Hotmail and McAfee all I know is that the McAfee scanner acts on web-based mail ONLY. it does not seems to scan Hotmail accounts syncronized in Outlook Express (if they do, they would surely put a banner at the footer of the message, as they do in webmail mode, I think). The OE accounts for hotmail works much like the IMAP accounts (but probably using different ports): you can syncronize the headers or the entire messages each time it connects to the server. I'm sorry, but I can't try it on MS Outlook at the moment (I don't have it installed).

avast! can work with IMAP accounts... but I'm not sure Hotmail works like that (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=13086.msg110545#msg110545). Hotmail has its own protocol if I remember well. Hotmail/Yahoo is not a pop3 email service (unless you pay for pop service), it is web based (so the Internet Mail provider doesn't directly protect it). Web based email is simply your email being viewed in the same way you browser the internet. The pages (that display your email) are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder, just like regular web pages and displayed on your browser screen.

The Standard Shield will scan your files (as they are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder) when sensitivity is set to High. You can round this 'problem' using 3rd party applications to download the Hotmail messages through the pop3 server (PopHotmail, for instance).

Yet about the clipper proggie, I'm sorry but I think I didn't make myself clear: when I said "I tried to put the program folder in avast's ignore list", I meant the "exclusion list" you just stated. The path to that folder has less than 8 chars (I added "C:\FOLDER\*.*" to that list), so I think it was not the problem. I also tried to stop each avast! service separately to see wich one was causing the problem, but it just really stopped when I clicked that option in systray just below "Aboout Avast!". Unfortunately, it stops my protection too.

You must stop one provider by time... But, did you change the default avast! settings? Specially, behavior blocker?
Can you make a link to your clipper.exe and edit the RAM (memory) values for the program, enlarging them?
Do you have (or had in the past) Norton installed in your computer?
Do you have ProcessGuard or PrevX installed?

[Darookan]

 

Hotmail has its own protocol if I remember well. Hotmail/Yahoo is not a pop3 email service (unless you pay for pop service)

Umm.... I have Yahoo pop3 service in my home's OE for free, and you can specify a MSN (I'm not sure but I think Hotmail works too) pop server if you wish to download messages permanently to OE... You should check that out... 

Web based email is simply your email being viewed in the same way you browser the internet. The pages (that display your email) are downloaded into your Temporary Internet folder, just like regular web pages and displayed on your browser screen.

I think we are going into different directions... I'm not talking about the web based Hotmail service (the one you can access by Internet Explorer), but  a feature in OE that allows you to use a Hotmail account just like a IMAP account. I recommend you to test it by creating a bogus Hotmail account and set it up in OE. 

You must stop one provider by time... But, did you change the default avast! settings? Specially, behavior blocker?
Can you make a link to your clipper.exe and edit the RAM (memory) values for the program, enlarging them?

Well... To run a DOS program in W2k you need to configure its own environment (autoexec, config, etc)... after that, you need to specify these settings in the proggie's shortcut. Optionally, you can specify the amout of memory to use (under 640k, XMS/EMS, etc). I aways let it in Auto mode, since Windows will use all the available memory under 640kB. Exceptionally, this messages occurs only when the avast's is running, and it stops only when I click on "Pausar proteção de acesso" (yes, I'm your neighbour  ). if I try to stop each service at a time (using "Parar provedor" menu in systray), the problem still happens.

Do you have (or had in the past) Norton installed in your computer?

I have Norton SystemWorks 2004, but not the NAV (just the Utilities section, in fact), and I rarely use it...

Do you have ProcessGuard or PrevX installed?

Never heard of these... are they any good? I have and ocasionally run Spybot and Ad-Aware SE Pro, but nothing stays in memory (as a process, I mean).

Let's work it out!

[Lisandro]

I have Norton SystemWorks 2004, but not the NAV (just the Utilities section, in fact), and I rarely use it...

NAV could block 16bits applications if it's not correctly uninstalled.

Never heard of these... are they any good? I have and ocasionally run Spybot and Ad-Aware SE Pro, but nothing stays in memory (as a process, I mean).

ProcessGuard and PrevX protects new startup, registry, process entries, etc.
Just that they could be the origin of the problem.

Bem-vindo (welcome) 

[Darookan]

NAV could block 16bits applications if it's not correctly uninstalled.

NAV was not uninstalled (nor even installed) on this system.

I have a kind of "taskman enhancer" called TaksInfo (very good indeed: it lists various details of a process) and I learned that when I stop the process "avast! service GUI component" (ashDisp.exe), the problem stops. Probably is not something about the other services in fact (mail, p2p, etc), but about this service (the GUI service). 

Anyway, this problem with the Clipper application is not as serious (I dont use the program more than once a day, and I can survive by stopping avast for a few minutes) as the Hotmail one. Please see what you nice guys can do about OE and Hotmail.

Thanks for all the attention. If you need more details or info, I'll be pleased to help.

Obrigado (Thanks) 

[alanrf]

Technical,

Perhaps I can offer a little clarification. 

You seem (sometimes) to equate Yahoo and Hotmail as the same kind of offering since both offer free e-mail accounts on the Web. 

They are (pretty much) the same if you access them via a browser to view e-mail messages. 

They are (pretty much) the same if you use a third party program (such as FreePops, which supports both) to retrieve the mail via HTTP transactions, convert it to a POP3 stream and deliver the mail to an e-mail client.

Beyond that they work very differently.

If you pay for a Yahoo account I believe you are offered standard POP3 access to download that mail to an e-mail client.

If you have a "grand-fathered" Hotmail account (ie one created some time ago and kept active) or if you pay for a Hotmail account then you may access the email using Outlook Express or Outlook (versions later than Outlook 2000 - which does not work). 

There is no direct POP3 access to Hotmail supported any longer (of which I am aware). 

Accessing from Outlook Express and Outlook is provided via a special variant of HTTP called HTTP-DAV (also known as WebDav).  In Outlook Express it provides an IMAP like experience for accessing a Hotmail account - I have never tested it with Outlook.     

Outlook Express accesses Hotmail via the HTTP-DAV transactions just as any other HTTP transactions - so typically using port 80.  In my system the Webshield appears not to get involved in this traffic. 

If port 80 is proxy'd in some way that involves Webshield then these transactions could get intercepted by Avast. 

Just a final note ... you cannot create any new "free" accounts on Hotmail that are permitted access via OE or Outlook.  So we may see people complaining that Avast is the cause of their inability to access Hotmail.

[Darookan]

So we may see people complaining that Avast is the cause of their inability to access Hotmail.

alanrf, I'm not trying to create a new Hotmail account in OE. I have these accounts for years on my PC's and aways accessed them via OE. I'm sorry to inform, but my "inability" started solely when I upgraded the previous version of avast! (Mar2005) to the lastest (Apr2005), about one week ago.

I also need to say that my home PC was not upgraded (still has the Mar2005 Version) and is working fine. 

If you pay for a Yahoo account I believe you are offered standard POP3 access to download that mail to an e-mail client.

Another remark: I know this is not about this topic, but I have a Yahoo POP3 account in my home PC and it works fine too. And I didn't pay a dime for it.

Thanks in advance.

[alanrf]

Darookan,

my comments were just intended as clarifications for Technical.  I was not trying to ignore that you and some other users here are experiencing a real problem in accessing Hotmail from OE and I am sorry if I gave that impression. 

You did suggest to Technical that he try setting up a free account in Hotmail to test out the OE access - I was pointing out that you cannot do that anymore. 

As to Yahoo, I was being short sighted and forgetting that free POP3 access is still available in some Yahoo domains.  The main point was that Yahoo is accessed via POP3 and is not accessed via HTTP-DAV.

[Darookan]

I am sorry if I gave that impression.

I'm the one that should apologize alanrf, I didn't mean to flame you. 

In fact you are right: there's really a long time you can't create new Hotmail accounts via OE, but (at least here in Brazil) you still can create a free Hotmaill account via the Hotmail web page and then add it to OE using its wizard.

Your description about how OE handles Hotmail accounts was handy too. I opened OE and tried to download a hotmail message there... while it was "waiting" for the message (indoor-footballer mentioned about 10 mins, but it takes less here, about 5 mins) I ran netstat and found that the process accessing the Hotmail server was "ashWebSv.exe". Any clues? Maybe a timeout?

Hope it helps. 

[Lisandro]

I ran netstat and found that the process accessing the Hotmail server was "ashWebSv.exe". Any clues? Maybe a timeout?

Just a guess:
If you add the line:
IgnoreProcess=ashWebSv.exe
into the [MailScanner] section of avast4.ini file, and boot, will it work?
See details into 'Settings' in my signature 

[newmansion]

If you stop the on-acess protection, the e-mails download right away from hotmail into OE.
Start it back up and hotmail hangs and hangs.  What did Avast do with 4.6.652  ?   :'(