Avast! 5, Mail Shield useless, not doing its job properly

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

What is the purpose of having a Mail Shield, if this Shield is not doing its job? The Mail Shield is creating more problems than the benefits that it claims to provide.

Now I have this Alert message:

An error occurred sending mail: The mail server sent an incorrect greeting: Cannot establish SSL, SSL_connect error 5.

This happened in Thunderbird with a Hotmail account.
OS: Windows XP SP3.

The solution was to uncheck: Scan outbound messages, in Avast! 5 Mail Shield Configuration menu.

Well, again, what is the use of a Mail Shield that has to be disabled so you can use your e-mail client? This is a bad joke.

Avast! is deceiving and misleading people with this useless Mail Shield that doesn’t work properly, this supposed layer of protection is a wasting of time, it is an illusion. The only real protection that you have with Avast! 5, like in Avira Antivir Free Edition is: The Real time and the On-demand Antivirus/Antispyware scanner for your PC. At list, Avira are honest and they do not advertise or offer a fancy useless Mail Shield for the Free Edition.

I am really frustrated and disappointed with this jokeware of Avast! 5. It does not work with Gmail and Hotmail SSL/TLS encrypted accounts. I tried to find a solution, I asked for help in my previous post, but there has not been a reply with a working solution because nobody knows how to fix it. Avast! representatives do not show their face in this Forum, probably they are ashamed because the don’t know how to fix these Bugs.

Link to my previous post: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56319.0

Thank you so much Avast! for your grate support,
Avastin.

2

Did you check the SSL settings? Mail Shield > Expert Settings > SSL Accounts. While at this screen press the F1 key to see the Help content.

Have you read through some of the other topics in this forum regarding mail issues/problems? Below are a several of the latest.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56969.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56975.0
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56794.0

Using Outlook 2003 setup an GMail IMAP account on two Win XP Pro systems and been working fine.

3

Thank you Jon_T, but they didn’t help. I am still with the same problem.

4

I don’t use Hotmail, but the attached settings for Thunderbird work for me and many others with Gmail.

5

hotmail in POP requires SSL too :wink:
pop3.live.com>>> 995
smtp.live.com >>> 465/587
…so it should be like for Gmail POP: settings in Thunderbird 110 for POP and 25 or 587 for SMTP >>> and ssl deactivated to allow the mail shield to scan. @ the OP: ask a question before you decide that the mail shield is useless, not doing its job etc… ::slight_smile:

as to the “incorrect greeting” message, it happens off an on, rarely actually, with Gmail too. A reboot generally solves the issue, or just a closing and reopening of the email client, I’ve had this twice.

6

sded and Logos,

Please read my previous Post, the link is in the beginning of this Post, I have done my homework. What I am commenting here, is after doing a lot of Research and Testing. Before I came to this Forum in the search for answers, I google for this problem and checked other Forums.

I have already tried your suggestions and they don’t work for me, I have checked other possible configurations and my computer setup for incompatibilities, nothing. It is the way the Mail Shield is programed to work the culprit. I had McAfee Iternet Security before Avast! 5 working and no problems scanning e-mails.

Please talk to your Developers, it is a bug in the Mail Shield configuration.

Regards,
Avastin.

7

there’s not much we can tell the devs, when the mail shield works fine for us. On the other side you’re welcome to get in touch with them, through the forums, and provide more information: and I mean not just your configuration (which you already gave, and that’s useful), but log files, debug files etc…You can pm “Vlk” or “Igor” for that, I can’t see no reason why they wouldn’t help. OK it’s up to you, either you decide to stick to Avast and you want to solve the problem, either you don’t and chose another solution, another security software provider. I’ve tried Hotmail in POP, in WLM, and the mail shield worked.
BTW, I see you unchecked “server requires authentication”… and it must be checked. What must not be checked is “secure authentication”.

so either clear text authentication or POP authentication and not secure password authentication. That’s in WLM.
In Thunderbird, just the fact that you enter a user name (without @live.com) means that authentication is provided. But of course don’t check “secure”.

8

Avastin,
Now that you have told us you changed from McAfree, please go to http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS100507 and run the McAfee Removal Tool. McAfee is one of the products that leaves behind a residual that often prevents other security software from working properly. That is why they supply the tool. After you run the McAfee Removal Tool, you may still have to uninstall and reinstall Avast!-use the Avast! v5 Removal Tool in the sticky on this forum also to make sure everything is cleaned up.

9

Hi!

Logos and sded, I think we are not being able to understand each other.

Yes, I did the correct uninstallation of McAfee, there are no leftovers causing conflicts.

I think that Avast! 5 Free, has much potential and I think is a grate Security software option. I am grateful because it is been provided for free for personal use, but the Mail Shield is a joke. A good Mail Shield must work without hiccups and should not need for you to change your IMAP and SMTP Ports settings in order to work as it is the case with for example, McAfee.

This problem whit Avast! 5 Mail Shield, is been inherited from Avast! 4.8 and previous. It is the architecture or design of the Mail Shield what is causing problems in my opinion.

All my IMAP and SMTP settings are correct for Thunderbird 3, Windows Live Client, and POP Peeper to work with: Gmail, Hotmail, etc., they work normally. But, when I installed Avast! 5, I had this Pop-up message from Avast! 5 saying that this accounts are encrypted and can not be scanned. Then, I did what is recommended, to change the IMAP and SMTP Port settings to a none SSL/TLS fashion and my e-mail clients stop working because they can not communicate with Hotmail and Gmail Servers on that way. This mean that for some reason Avast! 5 Mail Shield proxy is not redirecting Ports: 143,110 and 25 and providing the necessary encryption and authentication to be accepted by Hotmail and Gmail servers. Hotmail and Gmail need Ports: 993, 995, 465, 587, as well the Authentication to work.

I hope this comment clarify the situation,
avastin.

P.S. What is an Evangelist status, are you Priests or techs? If you are only good people trying to help, may God Bless you all, but better call the Devs :slight_smile:

10

But, avastin, it works on our systems. With Gmail and Thunderbird. As it does on hundreds of thousands of machines.
So there must be something special with your setup that prevents it to work.
My recommendation is:
Set up Thunderbird with no SSL/TLS.
Then go to MailShield, Expert Settings and delete all of the SSL accounts that are listed there.
Then reboot.
Avast should find the correct settings on restart.

11
P.S. What is an Evangelist status, are you Priests or techs? If you are only good people trying to help, may God Bless you all, but better call the Devs

careful, you might go to hell with such assumptions ;D On a serious note, I feel sorry for wasting my time posting in this thread ::slight_smile: You were definitely not worth it. And please don’t come back to tell us in 2/3 weeks that you finally found what you did wrong with the mail scanner or the email client…unless you wanna hear the bells of hell and get deaf ;D

12

Zyndstoff,

I did what you suggested but, still the same it doesn’t work. What about POP Peeper and Windows Live Mail? But don’t worry I can live with out Gmail and Hotmail been scanned by Avast! 5. I think Gmail and Hotmail scan all the mail anyway.

Thank you.

Logos,

You are a rude person, kind of insulting as a good French must be. My time is as precious as yours. I am the one who have to feel sorry because all the effort and good will I spent here trying to solve this issue for my good and the good of others with the same problem. If you provide support for people in need and you don’t have patience. Better look for another occupation were anger is a good tool, like
the Army, probably you will be a good killer. But definitely not good for Tech Support or Customer Service, If I was Avast! CEO, I will certainly fire you. Your attitude can damage my business and make me loose customers.

Don’t worry, I am not going to come back again to this Forum.
avastin.

13

1 you were rude in the first place >>>

P.S. What is an Evangelist status, are you Priests or techs? If you are only good people trying to help, may God Bless you all, but better call the Devs
or how do you call that ???
2 I don’t work for Avast :smiley:
3 I feel sorry for your customers… having to deal with you must be insane ;D as to your business ::slight_smile:

14

;D logos way of helping ;D ;D ;D
just take advantage what is good in all suggestion and leave the disadvantage behind.
try what is best and leave what is worst
worst can be a lesson
just think, mistake is one of the way to make things perfect
in some calculation you must try the trial and error method
for you to determine the whole error in your system ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
and solution come always late, by knowing every mistakes you have ;D ;D ;D ;D

15

bingos2x >>> go back to school , learn how to write a post, and read others’ posts…no, forget it ::slight_smile:

16

;D ;D ;D Logos we are all in school called life ;D ;D ;D ;D
Life is a continuous process of learning, everyday you learned to someone you encountered and talk with ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

17

OK, I was really happy to find that Thunderbird worked with MSN and it made sending emails convenient and everything but Avast keeps sending me this error message about “ssl/tls”. I don’t even know what the hell that means. Are you eggheads purposely trying to make the internet so complicated that we ignorant laymen just leave in disgust? WTF?

So here’s what happened…I sent an email. Everything’s working fine up until this point. Then I see the error message from Avast that was posted in the beginning of this thread. So I look in my account settings (in Thunderbird), and my live.com email doesn’t even fricken’ have ssl/tls enabled. It’s something like “startttls” or whatever the bloody hell…so what now?

So I’m googling this error message and it appears that only me and the thread starter are the ONLY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD having problems with it. So I’m like %&*@!!!?! and now I have a strong desire to murder the innocent.

Takes deep breath…sighs…

Okay. I’m not even going to try and decipher eggbonics. Can you at least tell me this…will reinstalling Thunderbird fix it?

18

First we haven’t got a clue what version of avast you are using, you haven’t said ?
avast 4.8 can’t handle secure encrypted email (SSL/TLS).
avast 5.0 can work with this but you have to make some manual changes in the thunderbird email account settings.

Given the error you are talking about “It’s something like “startttls” or whatever” perhaps you are using avast 4.8, so before we can possibly attempt to help we need to know what version of avast your are using.

19

I must add to the comments on Avast 5 (Free) behaviour regarding email handling. I use Pop Peeper to check several of my POP accounts and it has always worked very well with Avast 4.x and I have been really satisfied with the way Avast integrate with that product. Then I installed Avast 5 when it was released officially and then one of the POP accounts I checked in Pop Peeper stopped to work/receive POP notifications on that particular computer. The other POP accounts still worked perfectly well though. Checking the “faulty” account from other computers worked all fine using Pop Peeper or other email applications. If I stopped the Mail Shield in Avast 5 it worked perfectly OK again to receive emails, then as I started the Mail shield again just that specific POP account failed again with error: “Login Error (Authentication failed.)”

So… all this has worked without any problems what so ever with Avast 4.x but as soon as I installed Avast 5 the problems started to appear. It’s not only this issue that Avast 5 has introduced, I even had to deinstall Avast 5 on one of the other computers at home because it froze all the time, now with Avast 5 deinstalled the computer works perfectly well again (with another malware protection installed of course). This is extremely sad since I was very satisfied with what Avast 4.x offered in terms of protection and stability and I’ve always recommended Avast but I can’t do that anymore without having doubts. One thing is good with Avast 5 though compared to Avast 4.x and that’s the user interface. I really hope these issues are solved fast so that I can go back to use Avast 5 Free again on my home computers.

Using:
Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0.462
Vista with latest SP and all updates installed

20

concerning the mail scanner, there’s nothing to solve on Avast side. I’ve been using it for a while now on Thunderbird + Gmail/IMAP and it worked/works; I wanted to try POPpeeper and it worked too.
The issue in this thread as usual is people complaining about the behavior of a mail proxy without understanding what it is about.
You’re saying it worked with Avast 4.8: what worked? you thought it worked because Avast 4.8 didn’t have any ssl proxy and your mails were not scanned at all ;D … but hey, you got your mails then, so Avast 4.8 worked ::slight_smile: