I apologize in advance if this is an inappropriate post.
All of a sudden yesterday morning, when I opened Outlook Express for my email, the automatic dial-up box did not open with the option to connect with my ISP. It has worked without fail for the almost four years I have had the computer (a Gateway with Windows XP).
Clicking Send/Receive ended up with a permanent hourglass and note at the top reading “Inbox Outlook Express - Not Responding” leaving nothing but to exit the program. This has happened ten or more times so far.
Using the “Connect To” option on the start menu did give me a connection and I have used this since, with messages sometimes downloading and sometimes not.
I also noticed that I lost most or all acitve cookies at the same time.
I ran an avast scan, a spybot scan, a Hijackthis scan, a CWS scan and a Spybot scan, all with no problems found. System restore (with dates in August) came back “unable to restore.”
I would appreciate any ideas, including direction to some other forum if necessary.
Thanks very much.
Isn’t there closer points (e.g., October or September)?
Do you use any firewall?
avast shouldn’t be messing your dial-up… it’s difficult to imagine what’s wrong…
I was also surprised that there were no more recent dates, but I have not used System Restore for two or three years.
I use ZoneAlarm.
I really don’t have any reason to suspect avast!, hence my initial disclaimer.
Thanks for the reply.
You have the right to do so… antivirus is a very intrusive application that could affect all the system. The same for the firewall, at least, for the connection.
If you uninstall ZoneAlarm for a while, will your system work?
I temporarily closed ZoneAlarm this morning while opening Outlook Express. It froze again after clicking Send Receive.
I am also finding that the first time I click on a function, it may or may not work.
I am also losing my automatic connections to various “sign in” forums, this one included.
Most of the case, disabling is not enough. The driver (from the firewall) is loaded…