com.avast.proxy and Mac Mail

[REDACTED]

Using Avast Free on a Mac Running El Capitan,using Mac Mail to access both Gmail and other IMAP mail accounts......

I have given up trying to contact Avast using their telephone support.

Since installing Avast, EVERY time I launch Mac Mail, com.avast.proxy completely saturates my bandwidth, taking ALL bandwidth for up wards of 20 minutes. Mac Mail reports that it is downloading what I can only assume is all my mail again.

Now again I can only assume that Avast is scanning my mailboxes but to completely cripple my bandwidth like that is atrocious.

Can someone from Avast please tell me why this is happening and what resolution there is for it.


Regards

[tumic]

Hi,
Looks like a bug either in avast or in the mail client. The normally Avast mail shield scans only traffic,
that is produced by the mail client, it does not fetch any messages from the server at its own. To
say more about the issue, we would however need much more technical info than such a vague
description. The minimum would be:
- What mail client do you use (exact version)?
- What email account is causing the issue?
- Are there any related messages in the system log file?
If we can not reproduce the issue, there is no chance we can do anything about it.

[REDACTED]

Hi Tumic,
I seem to suffer the same issues with El Capitan / Mac Mail / Avast Free.
My problems:
1) When I get messages from my accounts: it not only takes a very, very long time to download the mails, but it also only downloads the headers - not the mail bodies. Selecting the bodies does initiate a "Download messages" but nothing happens.
2) When I switch off "Mark Mail Headers" (...not knowing what I was doing...) in Avast Settings of Mail Shield, the bodies download as well.
3) But then it only gets new messages right after the Mac Mail app has initially started. After the initial download it refuses to download more messages (I waited up to ten 10 minutes before restaring app)...

Here are my system information: OS X El Capitan 10.11.2, Mail Version 9.2 (3107), Mail host: mail.hover.com

Avast related messages in system log (extract):

Nov 25 17:28:12 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.249: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:28:12 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.248: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:28:12 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.246: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:28:12 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.247: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:28:12 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.244: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.2: Connection refused
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.13: Connection refused
Nov 25 17:30:17 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.3: Connection refused
Nov 25 17:30:25 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 2a04:f540:1::b93f:930a: connect(): No route to host
Nov 25 17:30:58 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Defective IMAP response!
Nov 25 17:30:58 server com.avast.proxy[391]: * 34 FETCH (UID 27347 MODSEQ (61369))
Nov 25 17:31:34 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.23: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:31:34 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.20: Operation timed out
...

more..

Nov 25 17:41:43 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.253: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:41:43 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.251: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:41:43 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.250: Operation timed out
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:03 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving PID: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:04 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.2: Connection refused
Nov 25 17:44:04 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error retrieving connection address: getsockopt(): No such file or directory
Nov 25 17:44:04 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.18: Connection refused
Nov 25 17:44:04 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Error connecting to 192.168.0.13: Connection refused
...

This just continues permanently.

Hope this helps to solve the issue.
Tnx

[tumic]

Hi,
Thanks for reporting. The problem are this two lines

Code: [Select]

Nov 25 17:30:58 server com.avast.proxy[391]: Defective IMAP response!
Nov 25 17:30:58 server com.avast.proxy[391]: * 34 FETCH (UID 27347 MODSEQ (61369))Your client/server apparently uses an IMAP extension (RFC 4551) that we do not support at the
moment. I will add support for it to avast and let you know when there is a program update
(most probable there will be a beta first) so you can test it.

[tumic]

Hmm, technically the server should not send this messages as it does not promote the CONDSTORE capability.
And if it would, Avast would disable it anyway. Is "mail.hover.com" the only mail server you use, or do you use
another mail server as well?

[REDACTED]

Thanks for looking into it.
Yes, mail.hover.com is the only active (enabled) mail account that I currently use.