Avast 4.7 And Outlook Attachments

[b2barker]

I am using Avast 4.7.1043, Outlook 2003 (11.8169.8172) SP3 on XP SP2.

After uninstalling my old AV software and installing Avast I have a number of people I send mail to reporting attachments converted to winmail.dat files. The recipients use non-Outlook mail clients (a few Lotus Notes, another with a HTML interface). Any Outlook recipients don't have a problem. Googling this I get the recommendation to send all my mails as plain text.

Is this a common issue, and there anything I can set in Avast and then go back to HTML mails without making a mess of attachments?

TIA

[alanrf]

Are you using the Internet Mail provider to scan your outgoing mail or are you using the avast plugin for Outlook? 

The avast plugin for Outlook is the recommended option for use with Outlook.

[b2barker]

Mmmm my work mail server (Scalix) may scan, I am not sure. I do know others here don't have the same problem, as I am currently sending my attachments to others in my office, who then send them to those I have problem sending them two.
I just checked Outlook and the Avast plugin is enabled

[alanrf]

I have just done some testing with Outlook 2003 sending a simple zip file through my ISP's SMTP server to a non-Outlook client and the messages arrive just fine.  Any particular attachment type that causes the problem?

One other though occurs to me though ... this may not be an apples to apples comparison. You mention your work mail server ... are you sending your messages out through an Exchange server at work? 

[b2barker]

Originally it was Word docs, but same issue with PDF or ZIP

My work mail server is a Scalix linux server, so not Exchange.

Thanks for your help so far

[alanrf]

I just sent you a personal message in the forum - please see your messages at the top of the forum display.

[b2barker]

Test message sent. Attachment looks OK from my Webmail address

[b2barker]

After a fair bit of testing and an awesome effort by alanrf, my problem was found to be an incompatibility between Scalix and Avast plugins. Turning off the Outlook/Exchange provider, or leaving it on and unchecking scanning of outgoing mail by this provider fixed the issue. The latter being my permanent solution.
I understand the Internet Mail provider will continue to provide outgoing mail protection, but even if it didn't, if it can't come in it can't go out 

Thanks again to alanrf for his efforts

[alanrf]

Thanks to b2barker for the patience to work through a lengthy series of tests. 

A an extra point worthy of note was that the incompatibility between the avast and Scalix plugins exhibited the same problem referred to in this thread http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=26949.0 and that the option of turning off the outbound scanning in the avast Outlook plugin (Customize > Scanner tab) overcame the problem.  This solution leaves the user with avast providing essential scanning of inbound mail at the lesser expense of forgoing outbound scanning.

b2barker has a number of Scalix plugins activated for his Outlook client.  We did not establish the specific plugin causing the problem. 

The problem exhibited itself as messages being sent as plain text along with a winmail.dat file attachment contaning the rich text version of the message and the message contained scalix message separators.  Many receiving mail clients are unable to display the proprietary format of the winmail.dat file.  When the avast plugin was not scanning the outbound mail the messages were sent in the normal multipart/alternative format with plain text and html alternative sections.

As noted by b2barker we did test with the Internet Mail provider.  For anyone experiencing this type of incompatibility who considers the outbound scanning absolutely essential then the Internet Mail provider may may be used (rather than the Outlook plugin) if the connections to the server are simple POP/SMTP unsecured connections.