AVAST, Exchange, SMTP outbound

[fmcmurray]

Happy New Year.

I have a client who is getting ready to retire a win 2000 server with exchange 2000 installed. They agreed to let me install a trial version of avast on the box in order to test the viabililty of Avast with a possible purchase once the new server arrives in the next 2 weeks. I found that if I have the Internet Mail Provider turned on and allow scanning of outbound SMTP mail, I get the following strange behaviour: no email will send to any hotmail addresses, email will not send to other domains on the same local network, read receipts to any domain will not be sent.

The server was rebooted on Saturday and the avast server went live at that point in time. I currently have the outbound smtp scan disabled. The program version is 4.7.676. The VPS is 0666-1.  WIndows 2000 sp 4, Exchange sp3

Any thoughts?

[The_J_Man]

  I am having the same issue with Hotmail.  Emails flow freely to other domains, but when a user sends to hotmail.com the emails just set in the que until a failed delivery notification is sent to the sender. 
If I disable the Avast! Exchange plugin the emails go without issue.  I can find no notification in the event viewer related to this. 

I took a snapshot of the system tray notification that appears when this occurs.


We are running SBS 2003 R/2 with Exchange SP/2.

Please help!

[igor]

I believe the "Internet Mail" residnet provider shouldn't be running on the system... try to stop it, please.

[The_J_Man]

  I know this may sound stupid but i am not sure where to find that option.  I have the standard system shield active, Exchange 2000/2003 and the MS SMTP addons running.  Is this an option from within them?  I looked through the help but could not find it.

Sorry in advance if it is right in front of my face.

Thanks

[igor]

Internet Mail is one of the providers (like Standard Shield). So, it is not running?

[The_J_Man]

No, it is not even an one of the options on the server.  Could it be running and not show as a provider?

[vojtech]

Check the 'avast! Mail Scanner' service. If it is running, stop it and set it to manual startup.

[fmcmurray]

When I log into our exchange server, the outlook/exchange provider says that it is waiting for a subsystem to start. If I disable the mail scanner then the internet mail service also says that it is waiting for a subsystem to start. How can I tell if my exchange server is protected?

[Lisandro]

When I log into our exchange server, the outlook/exchange provider says that it is waiting for a subsystem to start. If I disable the mail scanner then the internet mail service also says that it is waiting for a subsystem to start. How can I tell if my exchange server is protected?

The Internet Mail Provider is an avast! resident provider and it is not just the corresponding service. If you have Internet Mail running and stop the "avast! Mail Scanner" service, you disable the scanning of e-mails, but you don't turn the provider into "stopped" state (rather "waiting for a subsystem to start"). Similarly, if Internet Mail is stopped, you cannot start it just by starting the "avast! Mail Scanner" service.

[vojtech]

The 'Outlook/Exchange' provider protects Outlook mail client. If you don't use Outlook, you should terminate it.
The 'Internet Mail' provider protects other SMTP/POP3 mail clients. If you don't need it, you should terminate it too.
Exchange server is protected by 'Exchange 2000/2003' and 'MS SMTP 2000/2003' providers, so check their status.

[The_J_Man]

The Internet Mail Provider was not showing up as a provider in the Avast provider window.  But the Avast Mail Scanner service was running.  I stopped it and set it to manual and SHA-BANG!  the emails were flowing to all domain without issue.   Thank You!

I have just installed this on another SBS2003 R2 and i was concerned that the Mail Scanner service might be starting the same ways so I logged in and checked it.  It was not.   But i am not quite sure of why there would be a difference between the two servers because i installed with standard/default options on both....... well now that i think about it I didn't install Avast exactly the same on both servers.  On the first SBS I installed Avast on, I put the Standard Avast Server client on ....and then went back and installed the Exchange and SMTP plug-ins after a reboot because I forgot to select the plugins during the install.  This must have been the reason for the Mail Scanner service having been in the Started/Automatic state on the first server.  

On the new server that had the Mail Scanner service configured correctly (Stopped/Manual)  I installed Avast and the Exchange/SMTP plugins at one time.  

Am i correct in my thinking?

By the way, I am now officially moving my clients to Avast!  95% are running Symantec and they are not happy with the cost or the slowdown.  I think you guys have a great product!  Keep up the good work!

[rufustech]

Hello,

Discovered this problem on a server with newly installled SBS suite.  Found that even though the "Avast! Mail Scanner Service" was set to Manual, it was started on the server. Any idea as to how this could happen?

Another question: My user who complained of the problem with e-mails not getting through said that the contacts were deleted from her Outlook Contacts after the message failed.  Anyone heard of this sort of behavior?

Thanks!

[vojtech]

Discovered this problem on a server with newly installled SBS suite.  Found that even though the "Avast! Mail Scanner Service" was set to Manual, it was started on the server. Any idea as to how this could happen?

The service is started by the 'Internet Mail' provider. If you don't want it running, disable the provider.

Another question: My user who complained of the problem with e-mails not getting through said that the contacts were deleted from her Outlook Contacts after the message failed.  Anyone heard of this sort of behavior?

Maybe some Outlook feature ? Avast certainly doesn't delete contacts.