Turning scanner off / system tray?

[Triz]

I just registered my free home edition of Avast. I've been using the unregistered version with no problems until now, except that - oddly - with Avast on, email will come in, but it won't go out. I've been getting around this my right-clicking on the Avast icon in my program tray to stop it when I am ready to send something, sending, and turning it right back on again. I'm not sure if there is another, better way to do this, but it was very easy!

Somehow, though, during the registration process, I lost my Avast icon from my program tray. The appearance of Avast looks different also, but I can live with it - I can't live without being able to send email though! Any suggestions? I am sure I am being quite stupid about the system tray icon, but I am so frustrated and really don't want to have to uninstall.

Thanks in advance!

[Lisandro]

Which was your old antivirus? How did you uninstall it?
Which is your firewall?
Which is your email program?
Which is your email provider? GMail?

[Triz]

Ummm .... Windows firewall, Sympatico email provider, using Outlook Express. I have AVG still on but it hasn't had a problem with Avast until now (how funny that the problem is sending, not receiving mail!).

Thanks again!

[Lisandro]

But AVG is the problem... two antivirus conflict, sooner or later.
AVG Remover download here: http://www.grisoft.com/ww.download-tools

[DavidR]

Ummm .... Windows firewall, Sympatico email provider, using Outlook Express. I have AVG still on but it hasn't had a problem with Avast until now (how funny that the problem is sending, not receiving mail!).

This is more by luck than design, you only have to browse the forums to see the times when two AVs conflict or even remnants of a previous AV left behind after an uninstall can cause some serious issues.

This conflict can be from almost benign, to duplicate scanning slowing your system, to conflict causing things not to run or freeze, to the worst your system failing to boot.

[Triz]

Ughhhh .... fine. And thank you all. I will try it. I am a big believer in two bandaids are better than one, but I will *try* to narrow down my favours.

[Triz]

Well, that didn't stop the actual problem of me not being able to send email while Avast was running. However, it restored the icon to my system tray, so I can turn Avast off and be completely unprotected since I'm now without AVG AND Avast while I send email. I *guess* that is a plus. In fact, it is a plus; if I can't send email, my computer is useless to me, so thank you very much for the help.

Truly. Thanks! (not being sarcastic)

[DavidR]

Reading through this topic again - I suspect that the problem is that Sympatico uses SSL but it uses the standard ports for non-encrypted SMTP traffic, port 25 ?

Currently avast doesn't handle SSL over port 25 (version 5 will) but for now you will need to do something else, see below.

- SYMPATICO SSL & PORT 25 -
Essentially this is to stop it scanning outbound sympatico emails (the bottom quote is probably the easiest and best):

Sympatico (Canada) have been upgrading their users email to use SSL in their connections.  I ran into a problem after upgrading where I could not send emails using Outlook Express 6.  The error message was as follows:

The server does not support a SSL connection. Account: 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx', Server: 'smtphm.sympatico.ca', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '250 OK', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): Yes, Server Error: 250, Error Number: 0x800CCC7D

I spend a bit of time with Bell Sympatico support determining the problem.  After they confirmed I had all the settings correct, they asked me to turn off AVAST.  When I did, the error message stopped and the email could be sent.

Rather than leave Avast turned off or removing it, I went into the settings for On-Access Protection Control and selected Internet Mail.  Using the Customize button, I selected SMTP and unchecked Scan Outbound Mail.  Once I did that I found I could send emails without having to turn off Avast completely.

Is there any other setting I could have done so I could use Outlook Express with Avast to scan outbound emails?

There is another similar option that can be useful if you have multiple accounts configured in Outlook Express or Widows Live Mail and want to prevent Avast from scaning the outgoing emails from Sympatico only. Under the "Redirect" tab, specify "smtphm.sympatico.ca:25" as the Ignored address.

[Triz]

Thanks David! Unchecking "scan outbound mail" under internet email - smtp has resolved the problem. 

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

Yes disabling SMTP scans will work, but (there's always a but), you loose an element of your security. The Internet Mail provider when set to High can give your first indication if an undetected/hidden trojan spambot is sending email from your system.

These spambots don't use your email client, but their own and avast would intercept that standard SMTP traffic. So making the adjustments as suggested in the 2nd Quoted text only excludes the specific sympatico ssl traffic on port 25.

[YoKenny]

Triz, I use Sympatico as well and had the problem with the switchover to SSL email a while back and now look forward to avast! V5 that will support SSL email but I do have a Layered Approach to system security so it would be real hard for infected emails to escape from my system.