Scanning Incoming E-mails

[stumpypete]

Just upgraded to 5.0.396 of Avast free. Running Windows XP, with standard windows firewall. Using Outlook Express 6.0. When the Scan Inbound E-mails box is ticked then I get the good old 0x800CCC0F error in Outlook. When I switch off the firewall, I get the same error. Tried it with Mozilla Thunderbird and that fails too

When I take the tick out of the box, everything works fine. So somehow the scan inbound email switch is preventing my e-mail client from connecting to the server. Any ideas?

[TwoShoes]

Does your email account require ssl connections and are you using POP3 for incoming mail?  If so for both, in your email account in Outlook express under the advanced tab use 25 for the SMTP port and 110 for the POP3 port and then uncheck "This server requires a secure connection (SSL) for both SMTP and POP3.  Then in the avast User Interface Go to the Mail Shield  --> Expert Settings --> SSL Accounts and add an entry for both POP3 and SMTP.  In the Host Name only put in the domain name (i.e. gmail.com, or whatever you need) and not your user name and the @.  In the Port entries, enter the port numbers your SSL account requires.  Hope this helps.

[stumpypete]

Does your email account require ssl connections and are you using POP3 for incoming mail?  If so for both, in your email account in Outlook express under the advanced tab use 25 for the SMTP port and 110 for the POP3 port and then uncheck "This server requires a secure connection (SSL) for both SMTP and POP3.  Then in the avast User Interface Go to the Mail Shield  --> Expert Settings --> SSL Accounts and add an entry for both POP3 and SMTP.  In the Host Name only put in the domain name (i.e. gmail.com, or whatever you need) and not your user name and the @.  In the Port entries, enter the port numbers your SSL account requires.  Hope this helps.

Tried all that already I'm afraid. I see there are other posts in the forum with the same problem. Server doesn't need SSL, and using POP3 for incoming.

[spg SCOTT]

Hi stumpypete,

...Server doesn't need SSL, and using POP3 for incoming.

Does this mean that there is no need for SSL, it is not used by the email service?

If so, maybe you can change the setting in avast! from SSL to none...

-Scott-

[olddog]

stumpypete

Try this.

In Outlook Express, under Tools/Accounts select your account, then click on Properties. Click on the advanced tab. Set 25 for the SMTP port and 110 for the POP3 port and make sure the box for "This server requires a secure connection (SSL) in unticked for both SMTP and POP3. Click OK, then close, then exit Outlook Express. Don't try to send or receive mail at this time.

Bring up the Avast main screen, select Real time shields, then mail shield, then expert settings, then SSL accounts. Highlight any entries in there and delete them, one at a time. When they are all gone, click OK to exit back to the main Avast screen, then exit that.

If you have a self teaching firewall like Zone Alarm that asks for clearance for your email client the first time you send/receive emails after the firewall has been installed, delete any permissions in the firewall relating to outlook express.

Now reboot the computer.

When it is back up running, start outlook express and try a send and receive on you specific account. When the firewall asks for permission, make the acceptance permanent.
You will find that the SSL settings for Avast's mail shield will regenerate on their own, even though in your case you are not using SSL.

Let's know whether that solves your problem.

[stumpypete]

Why all the discussion on SSL? My ISP doesn't require an SSL connection, it is switched off in Outlook. So as far as I can see all the comments on SSL are irrelevant.

[spg SCOTT]

My suggestion was that it could be that avast! is trying to provide SSL wrongly, and I was suggesting to turn it off... (ie to change it to none)

[olddog]

My suggestion was that it could be that avast! is trying to provide SSL wrongly, and I was suggesting to turn it off... (ie to change it to none)

Having had exactly this problem, which I suspect was due to corrupted settings in the mail shield. I suggested the method that worked for me, which was to remove the SSL entries altogether. The reboot is important because a number of us have found that some setting changes in Avast5 don't seem to take effect until a reboot has occurred.
 
It would be no big deal for stumpypete to try both of our suggestions and if one or other works, does it really matter if they seem irrelevant. It's his choice of course.

[stumpypete]

Sorry guys, didn't mean to sound short with you! Apologies.

My frustration is that I have tried all that, rebooted etc....One thing I do notice is that every time I reboot Avast seems to put in a spurious SSL connection. I use Freedom2Surf as my ISP. Every time I delete and reboot, Avast sticks a SSL connection to freedom2surf.net. My Email is on F2s.com but the reappearance of the SSL connection seems suspicious.

[spg SCOTT]

Ok, so if you go to the mail shield settings and change the encryption to none, does it work?

Left click avast! tray icon --> real time shields --> mail shield --> expert settings --> ssl accounts --> change the relevant 'encryption' value to none.

[DavidR]

<snip>
Tried all that already I'm afraid. I see there are other posts in the forum with the same problem. Server doesn't need SSL, and using POP3 for incoming.

Well my settings pretty much match yours as I use XP Pro SP3, Outlook Express and none of my email accounts require SSL connection, and they are all received as normal (no changes to OE accounts) and email can be sent without problem.

I did an install of 5.0.377 over 4.8.1368 without problem (some did with .377) and an update to 5.0.396 and I haven't had to modify any Mail Shield, SSL Accounts settings, see image.

[stumpypete]

Setting the bogus SSL account to port 110 rather than 995 seems to have solved it! Thanks for the ideas it got me there in the end

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

A belated welcome to the forums.