Avast failing to scan Thunderbird mail

[4u1e]

Hi

In recent versions of Avast I've not been able to get it to scan my Thunderbird e-mail. This problem was happening with the most recent version of 4.1 and is still happening with 4.5 (installing 4.5 was the only solution I could see proposed in other postings from people with the same problem).

No messages in mail, nothing in the header to indicate message has been scanned, mail scanner lists zero messages scanned (I therefore conclude that my mail is not being scanned ).

Scan inbound and outbound is ticked in control centre, as is the option to include a message in clean mail.

My default pop and smtp servers are listed in avast4.ini - although these are not used for all of my accounts.

Any ideas??

Windows 98SE
Thunderbird 0.7
Avast 4.5Beta
[Edited for spelling and sense!]

[Eddy]

Send yourself the eicar test file, and you will soon know if Avast scans the mail or not.

[inthewildteam]

Works fine for me with two machines, one using avast! 4.1 home and the other using avast! 4.5 beta although it's scanning Win M.E. (I know   I know) and XP Pro os.

T/bird is up to 0.8 now btw (stable) try updating it and post back.

[conazus]

did you run the Mail Protection Wizard??

4.5 is a breeze with Tbird..    

Just set Tbird up as you normally would with your mail settings...  then run the Mail Protection Wizard..

Also click on the blue     a     ball and make sure that you have the Internet Mail Shield enabled.

[inthewildteam]

Mea culpa,

better qualify my last post

M.E with ver 4.1 (manual T/bird stup)

XPPro with 4.5 beta (avast! mail wizard)

both using T/bird 0.8

[techie101]

4u1e,

The easiest way to determine if Avast is scanning email is to open an email and watch the A ball.  If it rotates, it is scanning the email

Thunderbird works fine with the latest version 4.1.501 Home.  However, it sometimes needs to be manually configured.

As Connie suggested, run the Mail Protection Wizard again to insure that Avast is given the chance to properly configure the system, then go in and check the POP and SMTP configuration in Thunderbird to insure that they are correct.

Right click on your user account name in TB and choose properties.  Go to Server Settings.  POP should be set to port 110 and server address set to 127.0.0.1

At the bottom of the same menu, open up Outgoing mail settings.  SMTP should be set to port 25 and server address 127.0.0.1

BOTH usernames should be configured something like this:
username@anymail.com#incoming.isp.com for POP3.

username@anymail.com#outgoing.isp.com for SMTP

The Red entry is your username.  The Blue entries are supplied by your ISP.

It is only a configuration problem, nothing more.  Follow the instructions and you should be up and running fine.

Let me know.

 

[4u1e]

Hey - thanks for all the replies!

Yes, I have run the mail protection wizard.

No 'blue ball activity' upon opening an e-mail btw and takes no notice whatsoever of the eicar file - until I save it, at which point it goes mental! (In a good way.) I make that five different confirmations that mail is not being scanned - case proven, your honour.

Upon further consideration, I think my problem is slightly different to what I originally thought. I recently 'upgraded' to Windows 98SE. (The only reason for doing so by the way, was the need for full USB support - everything else I needed worked fine in Windows 95 ).  I don't think since then I've actually had mail scanning working, but I've been fiddling around with other stuff and only got round to checking properly yesterday. I won't bore you with all the details, but the situation as of today is that if I run the wizard in 4.5 I end up with settings as described by Techie101, but when I try to pick up mail I get the error message shown in the attached file.

To get mail collection I have to set up Tbird 'as if Avast wasn't there' (i.e. actual pop, smtp and user names settings in the account settings). I thought I had seen this recommended as a fix for such problems elsewhere in these forums - but of course it just means that I've bypassed mail scanning!

So, my question now becomes - What is that error message, and does anyone have a way to fix it (other than my current not-very-clever one of not scanning my e-mail)?

Thanks again for your help!

[Eddy]

With the new mail scanner in 4.5 you only have to setup the mail in Thunderbird as if Avast isn't there. No need to use the 127.0.0.1 trick.

[4u1e]

Well, yes - although I would point out that the guidance provided says that it only does so for NT, 2000 and XP. Not 98. Which is what I'm on.

Hence my confusion over whether it did or not.

However it seems that it does in fact work for 98 - or at least it has reset all the server connections to 127.0.0.1 with the appropriate username#popservername.

Which leads me to the problem described above - with the 'correct' settings I get that error message.

Ideas?

[techie101]

Allright....your explanation was fine.

From the error message, it seems that there still is a problem with the SMTP configuration and "permissions".

Does our ISP server use authentication?  You must find out and insure that your configuration matches the server demand.

Also, are you using a firewall?  Are you allowing Avast outoing connections?

Avast works fine with W98 and SE.  I have a machine loaded with both and have no trouble.  I have not used the new 4.5 version yet as it is not in release as yet.
(I don't think so....Still Beta I believe.  Last full release was 4.1.501).

The new 4.5 will "examine" the mail client and set it up accordingly without the changes that were previously required which should make installation and upkeep easier.

Anyway, let me know how you progress.

 

[Lisandro]

4u1e, although with 4.5 version we have an automated scan of the emails, it's only for NT systems (2000/XP). On Windows 98 I suppose the configuration should remain the same as before, with avast 4.1.

Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove
Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair).

[4u1e]

Just to close this one down (I hate it when I'm looking for solutions to problems and the thread finishes without saying what the answer was!):

I turned off the mail protection for a while because I didn't have time to chase through all the details (I was going to do a fresh install of Tbird and Avast).

However, the other night when I got the update to Avast 4.5.523 and tried out the mail protection wizard again it all worked fine and I'm running with mail protection again. Phew!

I've updated to Tbird 0.9 in the meantime as well, so I guess one or the other of the updates sorted the problem.

Thanks again for the help.

[Lisandro]

Just to close this one down (I hate it when I'm looking for solutions to problems and the thread finishes without saying what the answer was!):

You did not answer my questions and guesses    

[4u1e]

I know - sorry.

Weeeeell, the auto setup does seem to work with Windows 98, even though there's no claim from Alwil that it will (bonus!). The setup details for each account are the same as they would be if I'd gone through and set them manually for each account (as described above by Techie101) - this is as it should be, yes?

Didn't try the repair, Technical (Sorry - I got sidetracked onto other things ) - but thanks for the reminder that it's there!

Re Techie 101's questions:
Firewall - yes, but outgoing connections allowed.
ISP authentication - could have been that, but the problem started well after I last changed ISP, so it shouldn't have been really.

Anyway - thanks again all.