Problem with avast and outlook express

[jerkin]

I run the free avast program on my desktop using XP and outlook express 2003.  A few weeks ago I noticed I wasn't receiving email.  I turned off the incoming email scanning in Avast and it worked fine.  Yesterday I tried sending email to my laptop and it didn't go through, tried several times to no avail.  I turned off the outgoing email scanning and it is working again.  I searched the site but found nothing relevant, someone had problems with all their email but my hotmail works fine, it's just outlook express.  I have the paid version of Avast on my laptop, also with XP but Outlook 2003 and it works fine.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[DavidR]

If your accounts use SSL, secure encrypted traffic then there may be a problem as avast can't get into the secure port to scan and then forward.

However, if that were the case you would normally be getting an avast notification about it not being able to scan these secure connections. Are you getting any errors, if so what are they ?

See - avast! 6.x, 7.x: SSL Problems The Mail Shield may not scan some e-mails - see https://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=842. Whilst this is an old article and mentions avast6 it is relevant for avast7 also.

Note: You mention outlook express 2003 there is no outlook express 2003, so you are mixing MS Outlook 2003 and outlook express version 6 (which is the latest), so which are you having the problem with ?

[jerkin]

I get no errors and the emails just disappear, they are not stuck in my outbox, I don't know where they go as it appears that they were sent but I never get them on my laptop and I sent 2 other ones to colleagues that never got them.

I clicked on help on the OE toolbar and it says version 6 but this computer is old, I got it when XP first came out so I'm not sure how it would have the latest version.  I don't even think I ever installed SP3 on it, just SP2.

Outlook 2003 is on my laptop running the paid version of avast, I have no problems with that computer.  The problem is on my desktop with Outlook Express running the free version.  Hope I cleared that up.

I have been running this computer with the free avast and OE for years and haven't changed anything recently so I'm not sure why this happened, first with the incoming mail and now with the outgoing several weeks later.  I will go read the link you sent now and see if it helps.

Thank you.

[Pondus]

is the problem gone if you turn off the mail shield?

I don't even think I ever installed SP3 on it, just SP2.

Support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 ends on July 13, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean31

List of fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 3
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946480

[jerkin]

Yes, when I turn off the shields the problem goes away.  First it was the incoming a couple weeks ago and now it's happening with the outgoing.

[Gopher John]

WinXP SP3 can be downloaded from http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/0/d30e32d8-418a-469d-b600-f32ce3edf42d/WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe. 316.43MB in size.

WinXP SP3 US CD ISO is at http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/e/9/ee9d0116-c9fe-4fc2-b59c-406cbfb6d515/xpsp3_5512.080413-2113_usa_x86fre_spcd.iso.  544.86MB download.