Greetings,
HELP. I have downloaded Avast! 4Home Edition and scanned for viruses. Everything worked fine until I turned off the computer and turned it back on. Now I cannot get onto the internet (I was able to get onto the internet before I turned the computer off). I am running Windows 98 and OE 6. When I click on Outlook Express I get a small window titled "Logon - Pura@Sonnet” The box says “Please enter your user name and password for the following server” The server is listed as 127.0.0.1. The boxes for the User Name (pura#pop.sonnet.com) and Password have already been filled in — . When I click on the OK button the box disappears and the reappears unchanged about two seconds later. No matter what I enter for User Name etc. the box always reappears unchanged, ie. asking for the same information again. Thanks for any help that you can send.
What is your firewall ?
Does it allow ashMaiSv.exe internet access ?
Mail Settings:
The server address for both POP and SMTP should be set to 127.0.0.1
The POP server name set to: username#pop.isp.com (use the actual username and ISP info)
and… SMTP server name to: username#smtp.isp.com
You can go into the Help file within the Avast Scanner and look up Manual configuration. It will take you through it step by step. It is not hard to do.
Check the avast help file for Setting up mail Protection. Switch of your email client and run the Mail Protection Wizard - Or you can set it up manually.
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4 - look for, ashPopWz.exe - double click this and it will run the Wizard
Or see this thread for further information and advice User’s FAQ - Mail Protection.
I know this may sound risky, but I do not have a firewall. I have dial-up, and was told that a firewlll would be overkill.
Who ever told you that wants shooting !
A firewall, no matter what your connection is an essential element of your system security. The time to infection on an unprotected system is now counted in minutes and since as a dial-up user (like myself) when you need to download something you are likely to be on-line for some considerable time. It also protects against outbound attack, Zone Alarm free http://www.zonelabs.com works fine with avast and has a reasonably friendly user interface. There are others, Jetico, Sunbelt Kerio, etc., but ZA is probably the easiest to set-up.
What other security programs do you have ?
With the information (and link) in my last post are you able to resolve your problem ?
Does your server need authentication, see image and is it ticked ?
As David states above, you need a firewall even more because you are on dialup and are likely to be on-line longer because it is slower. You should never be on-line without a firewall & an anti-virus program regardless of what type of connection you have.
OK, I’m convinced that I need a firewall and will get one as soon as I get my internet connection up and running again.
Security Programs: Ad-Aware SE (anti-spyware); McAfee Antivirus, which I have had problems with when I tried to update, that’s what sent me to Avast! GO-BACK, not really a security program, but can revert hard drive in some cases of virus attack or other mischief.
I have run Mail Protection Wizard both automatically and manually and it did not resolve the problem. I did follow your link.
BTW, when I go to START>Programs>Avast!>Help>Search Tab, the list of topics is empty. Is this normal or did I lose something in the download? The Contents tab is OK.
Questions: 1- How do I find out if my server “needs authentication”? 2- How do I change the address of the SMTP, POP etc. servers to 127.0.0.1? I think this has already been done because it appears in the box that is giving me all the trouble.
The problem could well be having two resident AVs installed on the same system, far from providing twice the protection, it just provides possibilities for conflict, which could leave you more vulnerable not less.
Uninstall McAfee, reboot, uninstall avast (probably best to run the Mail Protection Wizard and remove protection first), reboot and reinstall avast. That should at the least give you a clean start.
If your server previously needed authentication and you somehow unchecked the option it may fail authentication, which may present itself in this way. As to how to check, you would need to check your ISP’s mail set-up instructions, or try checking the option and see it it works then. However I wouldn’t do anything until I had removed McAfee as I mention above.
I hope you have completely uninstalled McAfee because any left-over files/registry entries could cause problems.
Yes, it is normal for the Search tab to be empty … until you enter word(s) and active a search. Otherwise, how does the program know what to put there? So, no you did not loose something in the download as far as the Search tab is concerned. It is a feature to search the help files for information and remains empty until activated by a search. 
Here’s the latest.
I removed both AVs as suggested and then tried to start OE6. Nothing. It would not even load, let alone hook up to my ISP. So I did not even reinstall Avast! under these conditions. I used GO-BACK and reverted my hard drive back to before all of this started. I just barely made it because my timeline was running out. Then I installed Avast!, entered the key, rebooted, etc. and BINGO, it works fine. I have no idea why. It has worked for two days in a row now.
I started to get the firewall from ZoneAlarm, but realized that my computer does not meet the minimum system requirements of Windows 98SE and a 450 MHz chip — I have Windows 98 and a 333 MHz chip. So now I’m looking for a firewall that meets my needs.
Thanks for all of the help and feedback. Good luck in your future endeavors.
Check out some of these http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml free firewalls. Ghostwall is light on resources, I don’t know how it does on the firewall leak test site http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php or how easy it is to set-up or use.
Look for the ones that are compatible with win98 they are more likely to be lighter on resources.
Hi all…
Although I cannot speak for the leaktest results either, I have used Kerio 2.1.5 on Windows 98 in the past and it ran pretty light. You can download it here:
http://www.321download.com/LastFreeware/page7.html
Best Regards…