Author Topic: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem  (Read 42243 times)

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MFB

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2005, 03:29:29 AM »
Whoa there, don't run AVG with avast!  Get rid of AVG cause those two Anitivirus never get along.   :o

hgratt

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2005, 03:35:22 AM »
Whoa there, don't run AVG with avast!  Get rid of AVG cause those two Anitivirus never get along.   :o
[/quote

I had uninstalled Avast, rebooted and then installed AVG.

Thanks,
Harvey

MFB

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2005, 03:37:00 AM »
Whoa there, don't run AVG with avast!  Get rid of AVG cause those two Anitivirus never get along.   :o
[/quote

I had uninstalled Avast, rebooted and then installed AVG.

Thanks,
Harvey

Oh I see, but for me, Running AVG is like 100xworst than avast! and AVG conflicting each other.   ;D But if you feel happy with AVG, then fine I'll respect your choice.   :)

hgratt

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2005, 03:40:36 AM »
Rather than uninstalling Avast try this:

On the Internet Mail Scanner:

Customize > Redirect tab

Change the SMTP port to a something like 15025

Select OK

Terminate and restart the Internet Mail Scanner.

Now try your test.

I've just being doing some scanning - I'll write it up in another post.


O.K, I did as you suggested and it worked - no real difference between having outbound scanning enabled or disabled - speeds are still somewhat slower than they should be 75-80KBS vs. 90-92KBS. Still not sure why - maybe an Internet issue, we'll see tomorrow.

Could you explain the port change that you gave - why does it work? Any negative issues?

Thanks,
Harvey
« Last Edit: May 17, 2005, 03:43:20 AM by hgratt »

MFB

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #19 on: May 17, 2005, 03:44:55 AM »
Rather than uninstalling Avast try this:

On the Internet Mail Scanner:

Customize > Redirect tab

Change the SMTP port to a something like 15025

Select OK

Terminate and restart the Internet Mail Scanner.

Now try your test.

I've just being doing some scanning - I'll write it up in another post.


O.K, I did as you suggested and it worked - no real difference between having outbound scanning enabled or disabled - speeds are still somewhat slower than they should be 75-80KBS vs. 90-92KBS. Still not sure why - maybe an Internet issue, we'll see tomorrow.

Could you explain the port change that you gave - why does it work? Any negative issues?

Thanks,
Harvey

What modem are you using? DSL?  Turn off your computer and unplug the DSL modem for 45 seconds and plug it in again and turn on your computer.

Offline alanrf

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #20 on: May 17, 2005, 03:45:41 AM »
I just did some tracing of the file activity involved in the sending of the message to which I referred in my post above. 

The message is apparently sent in fairly large blocks by the mail client.  These blocks are redirected to Avast which files them to a temporary
file.  Attachments increase in size when they are encoded so that filing took
8 seconds. 

Then for 151 seconds Avast was reading the file in 4k chunks and then, I assume sending each 4k chunk on to the network (and perhaps waiting for an acknowledgement).

On reading in the same message back in the network delivers in fairly large chunks which are passed to Avast and filed.  Avast then reads the file and scans it in 4K chunks before it is passed to the mail client.  since that is internal to the machine it is much faster than outbound and took only 5 seconds for the same message just sent out. 

It looks to me as though the Avast folks should look to making the transmission of the scanned message much more like the transmission from the mail client, ie much fewer and larger blocks.

Since this message can be read and scanned in 5 seconds Avast can do a much better job of making the transmission time a closer approximation of that which can be done by the client when Avast is not involved.

hgratt

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #21 on: May 17, 2005, 03:53:12 AM »
Rather than uninstalling Avast try this:

On the Internet Mail Scanner:

Customize > Redirect tab

Change the SMTP port to a something like 15025

Select OK

Terminate and restart the Internet Mail Scanner.

Now try your test.

I've just being doing some scanning - I'll write it up in another post.


O.K, I did as you suggested and it worked - no real difference between having outbound scanning enabled or disabled - speeds are still somewhat slower than they should be 75-80KBS vs. 90-92KBS. Still not sure why - maybe an Internet issue, we'll see tomorrow.

Could you explain the port change that you gave - why does it work? Any negative issues?

Thanks,
Harvey

What modem are you using? DSL?  Turn off your computer and unplug the DSL modem for 45 seconds and plug it in again and turn on your computer.

I'm using a cable modem not DSL. I don't think that is an issue since I get good up and down speeds when I use a speed test site.

Thanks,
Harvey

hgratt

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #22 on: May 17, 2005, 03:56:07 AM »
I just did some tracing of the file activity involved in the sending of the message to which I referred in my post above. 

The message is apparently sent in fairly large blocks by the mail client.  These blocks are redirected to Avast which files them to a temporary
file.  Attachments increase in size when they are encoded so that filing took
8 seconds. 

Then for 151 seconds Avast was reading the file in 4k chunks and then, I assume sending each 4k chunk on to the network (and perhaps waiting for an acknowledgement).

On reading in the same message back in the network delivers in fairly large chunks which are passed to Avast and filed.  Avast then reads the file and scans it in 4K chunks before it is passed to the mail client.  since that is internal to the machine it is much faster than outbound and took only 5 seconds for the same message just sent out. 

It looks to me as though the Avast folks should look to making the transmission of the scanned message much more like the transmission from the mail client, ie much fewer and larger blocks.

Since this message can be read and scanned in 5 seconds Avast can do a much better job of making the transmission time a closer approximation of that which can be done by the client when Avast is not involved.

Not sure if you saw my previous reply. Why did changing the SMTP port work? Are there any negative effects to keeping the port number you indicated?

Thanks,
Harvey

hgratt

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #23 on: May 17, 2005, 04:16:06 AM »
Upon further reflection - does using an SMTP port number that is NOT 25 mean that no scanning is done on the outbound file regardless of the box being checked?

Harvey

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #24 on: May 17, 2005, 04:28:56 AM »
Upon further reflection - does using an SMTP port number that is NOT 25 mean that no scanning is done on the outbound file regardless of the box being checked?
Harvey, I was trying to read the thread but it's too long for me now... I start late...
Well, if you use any other port than the default ones, you should set them into the 'Redirect' tab of the Internet Mail provider settings (or MS Outlook plugin). Can you follow me? Do you need help in other specific point?
The best things in life are free.

Offline alanrf

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #25 on: May 17, 2005, 06:26:00 AM »
Harvey (and any other readers),

in the redirect ports tab, if port 25 is specified and the Internet Mail Provider is active then the outbound mail traffic is still intercepted by Avast.  Whether that traffic is then scanned is determined by the "scan outbound mail" checkbox in the SMTP case.         
 
This is true for all the intercept ports in Internet Mail Provider.  Should one wish to have the provider active and "opt out" of having a particular class of traffic intercepted (for example NNTP) then it is necessary to ensure the the real port used is not specified to Avast.

At present, I believe that you have identified a real performance flaw in the SMTP scanning of Avast.  I shall be interested to hear the response from the Avast team. 

In the great scheme of things though, having my email take a bit longer to be scanned outbound I can live with.  Especially at the price point I pay for Avast which is, I believe, a great product. 

I am not a bigot on these products. If you check the e-mail forum of AVG you will find a "sticky" under my userid.  I did test it a while back and I got my e-mail to be scanned. 

I honestly believe that the email scanning is easier in Avast.  On one thing I regret I cannot defer, the support in this forum and the direct participation and assistance of the Avast development team cannot be matched by AVG.
   
 
 

MFB

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #26 on: May 17, 2005, 06:30:02 AM »
I never been to a AVG forum, but I'm sure thier support team is somewhat helping othersas well.  :)

Offline alanrf

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #27 on: May 17, 2005, 06:56:51 AM »
The purpose of the AVG support forums is the same as those of Avast and I have made a contribution there.

However, if you have never visited then I'm sure your faith is well justified, despite the fact that participation in the AVG forums by the developers is very rare. 

« Last Edit: May 17, 2005, 08:33:56 AM by alanrf »

Offline lukor

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #28 on: May 17, 2005, 09:14:20 AM »
Not sure if you saw my previous reply. Why did changing the SMTP port work? Are there any negative effects to keeping the port number you indicated?

Thanks,
Harvey

It has a slight drawback - the SMTP scanning is not working AT ALL. Unless of course you are connecting to TCP port 15025 which is rarely the case.

Offline alanrf

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Re: Avast 4.6.652 Email Problem
« Reply #29 on: May 17, 2005, 09:20:03 AM »
Lukas,

your comment is somewhat disengenuous if you read the thread.  He wanted to conduct a test with Avast not intercepting the traffic, I told him how to do this and I made it very clear that this was a method of not intercepting SMTP traffic. 

Perhaps you can come back and advise us of the team's finding on the basic point of this thread ...  that this user has identified a performance flaw in the way Avast transmits the SMTP traffic after scanning the data.

Will you also confirm (truth in advertising) that selecting the "do not scan outgoing messages" does not stop Avast from intercepting the traffic on the port specified or defaulted in SMTP in the Redirects tab?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2005, 09:25:59 AM by alanrf »