avast!: Connection timeout

[o1eal]

Thanks for the replies. I still have not been able to get to his house, and will post back when I am able to look at it myself, and get more specific answers to your questions.

I must say, I'm a little leery of changing the .js file as you suggest, without understanding a little better what this relationship between Thunderbird and Avast is. I don't want to try to fix a problem that's not the one we're having.

DavidR: If it IS Thunderbird that's having the problem, why is Avast reporting it instead of T-bird?  If it's a POP problem, why is it reported on port 25 (SMTP)? Any ideas?

Thanks,
-Pete

[DavidR]

As far as I'm aware not being able to see his screen, it would first be the email client that reports a timeout and gives the option to wait. You/he can test this by extending the connection timeout in avast or ignore timeouts. Not being a Tbird user but the timeout as far as I'm aware covers outgoing and incoming email.

why is it reported on port 25 (SMTP)? Any ideas?

Any information like the error message.

If he is sending an email with a large attachment it is quite possible that whilst it is being scanned the connection timeout warning will pop-up.

We need more detailed information or we are working in the dark. Not to mention working through you instead of direct. I'm offering a suggestion that has worked for others with Tbird, your choice and it can't do any harm.

[o1eal]

David, all very helpful info. I did a lot of googling, and though I can't find anything definitive, it does appear that the POP setting in Thunderbird probably covers outbound SMTP traffic as well, as you say.

I'm going to start him off by disabling outbound virus scans, and see if that resolves his problem. Then we can take it from there.

Much obliged,
Pete

ps. Here is a link and a bit of text that seem relevant, the better results from my google hunt...for the benefit of anybody else trying to research this stuff...
----
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Modify_Thunderbird_settings
----
(I forget the source for the text below)

39) If you're using Thunderbird in Proxy Mode, get a lot of spam and Thunderbird keeps timing out, you can add the following line to the Thunderbird 'prefs.js' file:

user_pref("mail.pop3_response_timeout", 600);

The number [600 in this case - we trap a lot of spam] is the time in seconds Thunderbird will wait before timing out.  This line must be added when Thunderbird is NOT running.  The 'prefs.js' file is located in a subfolder of the Library/Thunderbird/Profiles folder [ours was named default.yr1] on Mac OS X.  On Windows it was in the
\Documents and Settings\Application Data\<username>\Thunderbird\Profiles\default.tkl
folder [you must have 'show hidden files' turned ON to see the 'Application Data' folder].  We figure UNIX and Linux users know what they are doing and can find it on their own.

NOTE: from what I read elsewhere, it is better to put this command in "user.js" than "prefs.js". user.js is read after prefs.js, and overrides its settings. It's intended for user settings, not global settings.

[alanrf]

Nice to see that you have just confirmed what DavidR told you about how to change the timeout setting in Thunderbird (which is also in a number of other threads here if you cared to search).

I have yet to see scanning by avast be responsible for timeouts in either sending or receiving mail with Thunderbird.  Timeouts can occur if you are sending or receiving  a very large message (usually large attachments) on a slow connection - the overhead of avast actually scanning the message is very small.

NOTE: from what I read elsewhere, it is better to put this command in "user.js" than "prefs.js". user.js is read after prefs.js, and overrides its settings. It's intended for user settings, not global settings.

That is the standard recommendation because it at least it gives you a log of the overrides you have made.  However the contents of the user.js file are just copied by Thunderbird into the prefs.js file and will stay there until Judgement Day. If you ever want to remove the overrides they must be removed from both the user.js and prefs.js files.

However it is bit academic to talk about changing Thunderbird until you have been able to see the timeout messages being reported by avast.  If it is reporting explorer.exe sending SMTP (as with the originator of this thread) then I think you need to be asking an entirely different set of questions.

[o1eal]

Alan-

Thanks for the info, you make several points that are very helpful.

As to confirming David's point: expert or not, he made this point "as far as he's aware." For the sake of anybody reading this thread in the future, that seems to me worth confirming. Also, I have done a great deal of searching, and (at least to my rather inexperienced approach), a definitive answer on this point has proven quite elusive.

I can see how my posts would be a bit frustrating, and I'm sorry for that. When I said this issue was "similar", I wasn't sure whether it's similar to the original problem or Darth Mikey's, and I should have made that clear from the start. I am still unsure on this point - all I have to go on is the first part of the text of the Avast error, not including the originating program's name.

At any rate, I am grateful for the information both of you have provided, as it has tied together the bits and pieces I've found on the net quite nicely. If and when I have the opportunity to look into the problem more closely, I'll have a much better grasp of what to look for and/or try, thanks to your insights.

Thanks again, and I'll report back if I find anything relevant.

-Pete

[darth.mikey]

Hi guys!

Just to avoid some confusion i don't know if i said this here or in another thread but the error messages i was getting was related to javaw.exe and as far as i can tell that's not an email program, and the reason for this javaw.exe running all the time on my machine is a nice bittorrent client called Azureus which works trough Java  Anyway increasing the timeout in avast! seemed to have worked for me but that still doesn't explain why this is happening 


Cheers


Mikey