Well...
While this problem is not fixed, I had to disable the WebShield process in order to download my Hotmail messages in OE.
But I'm concerned about how unsecure my pc is without this service running.
I saw many people posting messages in this thread that are not about this problem especifically, even advertising applications that are not related to it (corruption of OE databases is definetively NOT the subject here).
Also, the matter msn-nor-hotmail-does-not-provide-pop-services should be discussed in an off-topic thread, where I would be happy to join in and put some ideas too. What I mean is that we all should concentrate in try to find objective paths to help the avast! team to help us out
BTW,
alanrf: I'm having the same problem in BOTH MSN and Hotmail accounts (I have about 2 Hotmail and 1 MSN account, all of then active and in my OE). Despite what others may say, you're right: Both use WebDav (or HTTP-Dav as you use to call), but only the server addresses are different.
Post Update:
A little later tonight, I decided to update my home pc to version 4.6.652 just to verify if the problem occurs in XP too. It does. I took another look at the network acivity with a netstat-like program I have and got this when OE "waits" to download a Hotmail message body:
Process PID Local IP Local Port Remote IP Remote Port State Proto Path
Unknown 0 192.168.1.5 1336 64.4.30.253 80 TIME_WAIT TCP
Unknown 0 192.168.1.5 1328 64.4.30.253 80 TIME_WAIT TCP
Unknown 0 127.0.0.1 1325 127.0.0.1 143 TIME_WAIT TCP
ashMaiSv.exe 496 127.0.0.1 12119 LISTEN TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Utilitários\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
ashMaiSv.exe 496 127.0.0.1 143 LISTEN TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Utilitários\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
ashMaiSv.exe 496 127.0.0.1 110 LISTEN TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Utilitários\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
ashMaiSv.exe 496 127.0.0.1 25 LISTEN TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Utilitários\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe
ashWebSv.exe 3280 127.0.0.1 12080 127.0.0.1 1335 ESTABLISHED TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Utilitários\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe
msimn.exe 3560 127.0.0.1 1204 LISTEN UDP C:\Arquivos de programas\Outlook Express\msimn.exe
msimn.exe 3560 127.0.0.1 1335 127.0.0.1 12080 ESTABLISHED TCP C:\Arquivos de programas\Outlook Express\msimn.exe
Surely there are more lines in my log, but I put here only the relevant ones. If you nice guys take a look at the last three lines, you can see the WebShield and OE acting. Would this be a loopback?? Just a guess...
About the "Unknown" processes, I believe its my Sygate Personal Firewall tunneling the requests to outside (64.4.30.253 is the Hotmail server IP). I can do another test with this disabled, but I don't think its the case, since my office PC does not have a firewall and the problem is the same.
Needless to say, I had to stop the process again...
Hope it helps