Confusing popup from Avast

[Gospacho]

I am using Avast 4.6.753.0. Recently I have been getting popup messages relative to "Internet Connection Timeout.

The most recent:

"Internet connection timeout elapsed.
Continue waiting? (with a yes/no option available for selection)

This information is also included in the popup: (explorer --> 65.83.225.184.27)"

Other popups have include information on what appears to be my email accounts.

Any suggestions on what is causing this and who to correct it will be much appreciated.

Regards,

Gospacho

[Lisandro]

Are you using any spam killer application?
Are you seeing this message while receiving or sending email?

Is your proxy settings correctly (IE > Tools > Options > Connection > ... proxy)
If you disable Internet Mail provider, can you send emails?

We need more info to help you better...

[DavidR]

It would appear that you have malware on your system, unless you were trying to connect to the internet using explorer (which I doubt). I also think that the IP info you cave is incorrect 65.83.225.184.27 as there are only 4 groupings in an IP address and the last indicates the port, this too I think is incorrect as it isn't on that is monitored by avast's email scanner. I think it is likely to be 65.83.225.184:25.

A screenshot would be helpful.

I don't want explorer.exe connecting to the internet (I use a browser for that) so it is permanently blocked by my firewall, you do have a firewall don't you ? if so what ?

What were you doing when this popped up ?

Download the program applicable to your OS (?) and run it, Ewido Security Suite If using winXP, or a-Squared free if using win98/ME, preferably in safe mode.

[Grandpa81799]

OK...this is not a reply, but I have a very similar problem. And maybe in helping Gospacho I will get help too. Mine is similar but a lil diff. I get the following:

Internet connection timeout elapsed. Continue waiting?
(IMApp.exe -> 206.190.53.11:110

Then I have a "Yes" and a "No" radio button.

I am running Win200
email client: IncrediMail
Firewall: ZoneAlarm
I run Avast, Spybot and Ad-Aware regularly.
I am usually doing nothing for quite some time when this "warning" pops-up
I alway have Yahoo IM, msn IM, Opera, IncrediMail and WMP running when I boot up.
I am using Verizon DSL

Hope this information will be useful in determining the cause and possible solution to this annoyance.

Please let me know if you need any other info to determine the solution to this.

Beast regards,
Michael

[DavidR]

I think we can stop worrying about Gospacho as he hasn't replied in over 8 days.

This is totally different as your IncrediMail executable is IMApp.exe, so I'm assuming you got this timeout warning when you were trying to download email ?

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/IMApp/

However, if you weren't checking for email or you don't have it set-up to check every xx minutes, then it may be something else (not so nice).

Did any of the emails have large attachments, if so avast will take time to scan those and during that time there may be no activity between your email program and the email server, so it throws up a timeout warning. If this is the case then you should extend the timeout delay in your email program. Sorry I don't use IncrediMail so I don't know this.

[alanrf]

It is a little unusual to be accessing IMAP mail on port 110.  The standard port for IMAP is 143 (port 110 is the standard port for POP3).

IMAP connections are maintained for the duration of an email session so whatever timer is set in avast for email is likely to be triggered if you really are accessing an IMAP account on port 110.

Double check that you are using the right port for your IMAP mail account or that you have the right setting (should it really be POP3?) for the account.

[Grandpa81799]

OK...lets see...

I have IncrediMail client check for mail every 5 mins

I was not downloading mail or an attachment (large or small) when I get the error message

I am using port 110 as all my email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, Verizon, and gmail) are POP3. I am not using IMAP accounts.

Does any of this new information narrow down the cause and effect? And how I may correct it?

Thanks again for any and all help.

Regards,
Michael

[DavidR]

It is a little unusual to be accessing IMAP mail on port 110.  The standard port for IMAP is 143 (port 110 is the standard port for POP3).

Alan its not an IMAP connection, but IMApp.exe (the IncrediMail executable) connecting to the IP address on port 110.

@Grandpa
The main thing it to establish that the connection is in fact being made by incredimail and not some form of malware using it.

Disable the automatic checking for email and periodically do a manual check and see if these timeouts occur, if so let us know and perhaps increase the timeout settings in incredimail.
If this timeout occurs when you have disabled the auto check for emails, then download Ewido and run that in safe mode.

However, no matter what I would get Ewido to add to your defences and run it, that won't hurt at all.

[Grandpa81799]

Great!!! Thanks for the help. I wil try your suggestions and get back with the results.

Appreciate all the help. Thank You!

Michael

[DavidR]

No problem, welcome to the forums.

[Grandpa81799]

I want to thank both for your help. I finally have tracked down the culprit. It was the Yahoo mail server (or at least one of them). It seems there is a little trouble from time to time where the server will not respond and it takes IncrediMail 3 mins to time out so I just increased the timeout in Avast! and all is well now.

Again thank you for all your help.

Regards,
Michael

[DavidR]

Thanks for getting back to us and saying what the problem was, this may well help others in the future.

[alanrf]

I noticed that same day others also reporting timeouts when connected to yahoo mail servers here.

Just goes to reinforce my thought that the avast Internet Mail provider has yet to be of any use to anyone in reporting a timeout on port 110 - just getting itself in the way of the job of the mail client.   

[mattlarry]

i've been having a similar problem with these connection timeout popups but slightly different

I am running Windows XP
email client: none, i just use hotmail through their website
Firewall: Windows
I run Avast, Spybot, a-squared, ewido
These popups begin appearing 5mins after i start my computerand occur every 30secs unless i end the process taskmanager says they are related to (ashMaiSv.exe)
I alway have msn IM running when I boot up.

spybot doesnt detect any problems, a-squared and avast run for about 2 minutes then quit themselves with no explanation, ewido did better, it got to 40% and detected lots of problems (a lot were just tracking cookies). the timeout messages say:

Internet connection timeout elapsed. Continue waiting? (taskdir~.exe -> xb.mx.aol.com:25)

with yes/no buttons, but the xb.mx... bit varies massively the list i'm keeping runs to about 30 different addresses at the moment with references to yahoo,vsea,glyphics,outblaze (i can give the full list if necessary) but the bit after the colon is always 25.

i'm pretty stumped with this one as i didn't ask to run avast mailscanner as i don't use outlook or anything like that

any help would be massively appreciated, since this has started happening my computer is quite unstable

[alanrf]

mattlarry

welcome to the avast forums.

The avast popup is telling you that a process "taskdir.exe" is connected to an external smtp server for an excessive period. 

The most likely explanation for this set of events is that your system is infected with a trojan (Trojan.Abwiz.F) that is now sending out spam emails without your approval. It may be also sending out your personal information. 

See description here:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.abwiz.f.html

and a google search for "taskdir.exe" will help you to locate to locate cleanup information.

See also this link here in the avast forum:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20144.msg168890#msg168890