Can't check emails with Avast going

Hi,

I finally decided to get rid of Norton since my subscription was up tomorrow anyway. I was tired of all the problems, so I had been doing lots of research online over the last few months and have heard that Avast was one of the best free AV programs out there.

I removed Norton completely and setup Avast today but I am having email issues now that Avast is on here. If I go into the “On Access Protection Control” and Terminate the Internet Mail, I can check emails just fine, but with that running, I can’t. I would really like to keep it enabled so my incoming emails can be scanned.

I found a help topic at this page: http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=38&nav=0,1,20 with some information that might help fix the issue, but I couldn’t find the “Mail Protection Wizard” and after some searching, it seems that feature is no longer available, so I am at a loss as to how to fix this issue. My email is used heavily for work daily so I need access to it, but I want to make sure my emails are virus free when they come in.

I am running Win XP SP2. The issue is happening in both Outlook Express 6 and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 Avast is version 4.7

Any help is appreciated! Thank you!

  • Jennifer

The Mail Protection Wizard is designed for use with win9x, winME as the Internet Mail needs to be set-up to work with those OSes, it isn’t required for win2k, winXP, Vista.

At the top of that KB article was:

This article applies only on Windows 95/98/ME operating systems.

So there is something else in the mix.
What is the exact error message or post a screenshot of the error ?

What is your email client ?
What is your firewall ?
Does it allow ashMaiSv.exe internet access ?

  • If it does delete the entries for them and do a manual update and reconnect to the internet and try to download your email, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT

Do you use any firewall? Is ashMaiSv.exe allowed to connect into the firewall settings?
Which work do you do in this computer?

Currently I am only running the default firewall that came with Win XP.

I use both Outlook Express 6 and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 as my email clients (I listed these in my first post).

I get the following error when trying to check emails:

The server responded with an error. Account: ‘Atryeu’, Server: ‘mail.pacifier.com’, Protocol: POP3, Server Response: ‘-ERR Cannot connect to POP server 64.255.238.209 (64.255.238.209:110), connect error 10061’, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800CCC90

In Mozilla, the error just states that it cannot connect to the POP3 email. As soon as the Internet Mail is disabled in Avast, all of my emails will check just fine.

DavidR: Thank you for the link about Norton. I did remove all of the extras earlier today including other random folders and registry entries. I had a list of registry files and such for the software from back when I helped a friend completely remove it from their system. I also had the same version as they did, and I had kept the information and was able to delete everything completely without trouble :slight_smile:

Do you use (any) Spam application?

Can you see if this helps?
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/help/email/oe_errors_0x800ccc90.html
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B820669&x=7&y=10

For emails, no. I don’t have any programs that help block email spam.

The 2nd link at Microsoft shouldn’t be the issue. I do have multiple accounts setup, however they are for different mail servers. They do all share my one outgoing mail server through my ISP though.

My emails were checking okay with the Internet Mail settings in Avast turned on awhile ago, but now I get the same error again. It is something with the Avast email scanners, because when that feature is disabled, I can check the emails prefectly fine without any errors but as soon as I enable it again, the error comes up as soon as I try and check/send an email.

Have you actually run the removal tool recommended by David?

Your issues seem (to me) to bear all the classic signs of a Norton intercept blocking avast.

An update to the latest TB version (2.0.0.4) would be advised when problem solved.

I already have a copy of the Norton removal tool on my system, which I did use after uninstalling the main program through Add/Remove Programs. I also manually went through and removed all other traces of it. Norton and Symantec no longer exists anywhere on this system, including in the registry.

I do know about the update for Thunderbird, but I had heard there were several issues with it that would interfere with some of my things so I was waiting for the next release before updating. I do not use Thunderbird as heavily as I do Outlook Express, but it does get used quite often. Outlook Express gets used daily though.

atryeu have you tried an Avast repair
Repair Avast–Add/Remove programs/Select Avast scroll down to repair-- Must be online/ reboot

Are you sure ashMaiSv.exe has correct permissions via your Firewall

Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 is still a supported current version of Thunderbird and version 1.5 will be officially supported until the fall of this year so there is no rush yet to go to Thunderbird 2 - and by then they may have fixed a few more of the issues with the new (and very lackluster - my opinion) release.

Since you tell us that you are using just the Windows XP firewall there should be no issues with permission for avast to make the outbound connections to your mail server.

Can you please tell us a little more about the POP3 setup for you account on mail.pacifier.com?

Are you using a secure logon option for this account at all? In Thunderbird what is the security setting for the POP3 entry for the account?

Tednelly: The repair didn’t seem to work :frowning:

alanrf: Yes, that’s what I thought too. I’m in no hurry to update Thunderbird yet, so I can wait until some of the issues are fixed in their next update before I upgrade.

My Pacifier account is actually setup in Outlook Express. Thunderbird contains 2 POP3 email accounts and those are used for my personal website, and another website that I help run.

Under Outlook Express, I have my main email account (Pacifier) and 3 others. All connect to a different mail server to check for incoming mail. ALL outgoing mail in both Outlook and Thunderbird have to go through Pacifier.

Secure Authentication is not setup for any of the email accounts. The server ports for all emails are 25 (for outgoing), and 110 (incoming).

Would the email scanner for Avast interfere with certain POP3 settings?

Still no luck today either. I enabled the Internet Mail and my emails still won’t check with that turned on :frowning:

Not on Windows 2k or XP. If ashMaiSv.exe allowed to connect into your firewall settings?

Not on Windows 2k or XP. If ashMaiSv.exe allowed to connect into your firewall settings?

Avast was able to scan my emails once yesterday before it started causing the problems again, so the firewall shouldn’t be a problem. I am currently only using the default firewall that came with Win XP. I double checked the settings and Avast is listed as being allowed.

Maybe you can add the following line to the [MailScanner] section of \data\avast4.ini:
Log=20
Then generate some traffic, simulate the problem (i.e. force the avast mail scanner to time out by sending an email with attachment) and then post here the contents of the file \data\log\aswMaiSv.log

Details: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=12234.msg103474#msg103474

I had to just copy and paste the log to a txt file and attach to this post. It ran over the post limit when I tried to paste here :frowning:

During the tests, I first tried to check my Pacifier email and got the same error as before. During my 2nd test, I sent an image attachment to one of my other addresses and that successefully went through, so it seems the issue is only with incoming email…

I edited my email out from the log to prevent any spammers and such from picking it up… I try and avoid listing my email, especially my personal email, online to help cut down on spam.

I really see no trouble in your log… although I’m not an expert on mail scanning. Hope Alanrf could give you a hand
http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/4091/iconcool5lw.gif

Hi Tech, Thank you for trying to help out. Isn’t technology great? LoL I should have known that there would be problems when I switched AV software. There always seems to be something that happens when you decide to do something that should only take at most a half hour (or less). I guess that’s what I get for working with computers though, huh?

Thank you again :slight_smile: Perhaps somebody else might spot something out of place in the log, or come up with another idea LoL

I think Alanrf is the guy that can help here… I hope he monitors this thread 8)

Well, you certainly did log an error in trying to get your mail from mail.pacifier.net.

I tried setting up a fictitious account using that same server name and I get exactly the same error as you do. Since you are using port 110 I am assuming that you are trying to access a POP account (rather than an IMAP account). When I changed the server name to pop3.pacifier.net I get a much more normal conversation with the server requesting my logon password.

I suggest that you too try that server name.