The timeout is from Thunderbird. Before I switched to Thunderbird I would get the same timeout messages from Netscape.
Hello,
Just started getting the same connection timeout message. Mine says
msinn.exe 68.6.19.2.110
What can I do to make it go away.
Adding some apps to the ignore list stops the message from comming up all the time, but I still occasionally get it. It’s probably worth noting that unlike seemingly everyone else here, whenever I get these messages, it doesn’t tell me what app it came from.
What we have here are two absolutely different issues. In the first one, from loranga, there is a program (Direct Connect) which is abusing port 25 (reserved for SMTP traffic) for different type of communication (p2p file sharing). This kind of communication does not adhere to SMTP protocol, Direct Connect does NOT send or receive mails and thus it should not be scanned by avast Mail Scanner - hence the IgnoreProcess solution.
On the other hand when the timeout message comes from the mail client (such a ThunderBird or Outlook Express = msimn.exe) it is completely different issue. These programs should send or receive mails and should be scanned by avast Mail Scanner. Please do not add them to IgnoreProcess list in these cases. You would loose you mail protection.
What is the cause of these timeouts is unfortunately yet unknown. It could really means that the server didn’t respond in timely fashion, it could be a temporarily problem, firewall configuration problem, some compatibility problem with other components installed on the system, or some compatibility problem between avast! Mail Scanner and the mail server.
To help us further understand it please open the file C:\Program Files\ALWIL Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini, insert this line Log=20 under [MailScanner] section.
Eg.
[MailScanner]
Log=20
This will enable detailed logging.
Then try to reproduce the problem with timeout and post here the created log file (from C:\Program Files\ALWIL Software\Avast4\DATA\Log\avMaiSv.log.
Also please try to reproduce the problem with Internet Mail Provider disabled. Do you get any timeouts messages from you mail client when used without avast Mail Scanner?
Regards
Lukas.
Are you sure you want me to post the entire log file? It’s long.
Thanks
With the Internet Mail Provider disabled I do not get any timeout messages from Thunderbird.
John C.
- Clear/delete the log.
- Try to reproduce the problem
- Post the log here
(this way the log won’t be huge)
I can’t post even a partial log file as it exceeds the maximum of 1000 chars. I emailed the entire log to lukor.
Thanks
John C.
Hey lukor,
Have you had a chance to look through the log?
Everything I’ve glanced thru in the log looks ok except the:
“01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command” msgs
They occur five times in the log until my user cancellation.
1st:
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --XXX received 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --POP ReadFromPop …
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --XXX sent 30(0x0000001E)
2nd:
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --XXX received 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --POP ReadFromPop …
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command
01/07/05 23:27:51 000001D8: --XXX sent 30(0x0000001E)
3rd and 4th:
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX received 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --POP ReadFromPop …
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX sent 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX testing second-side connection
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX sleep
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A08: --XXX received 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A08: --POP ReadFromPop …
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A08: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A08: --XXX sent 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A08: --XXX testing second-side connection
5th:
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --POP ReadFromPop …
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: <-POP -ERR popgate unknown command
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX sent 30(0x0000001E)
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX testing second-side connection
01/07/05 23:32:50 00000A24: --XXX sleep
Other than the "unknown command"s and a lot of sleeping it seems ok.
Can you post what type of priority this will get so I know when to check back.
Thanks,
John C.
Lynnejohn,
thanks for the log. We have looked on it with Vojtech and I am still testing this with ZoneAlarm. The “-ERR popgate unknown command” - although it might seem a bit strange - is perfectly normal. It just says that your mail server (pop at yahoo.com) does not support certain commands used by your mail client.
Also, what we can see there are two mail pickup retries (the interval is 5 minutes). First one ends with timeout, and the second one is in order. This means it is not some compatibility issue, invalid commands or invalid parsing, but rather some timing issue. The problematic connection (which later timeouts) comes through the ISAFE ZoneAlarm’s proxy - the process isafe.exe.
The only advice I can give you know is to try to switch off the E-mail protection in Zone Alaram and see if it helps. You can also turn off the transparent mail scanner in avast! (avast4.ini section [MailScanner], AutoRedirect=0) and configure Thunderbird support via PopWizard (ashPopWz.exe from Avast folder).
Lukas.
lukor,
The email protection is off in zonealarm (always has been). When you say to "turn off the transparent mail scanner", are you saying to go back to the old configuration of email program where there was some funky address for the pop servers?
Thanks,
John C.
I have only recently installed Avast Home v4.5 on my PC having used eTrust EZ Antivirus previously This has been troublesome for some months and I’ve given up with getting support.
Came across the thread whilst browsing and I’m getting the same pop-up from time to time. In my case it’s MailWasher Pro 4.1 that’s quoted. I have it set to check for incoming email every 5 minutes.
I think in my case that it’s connected to the fact that if the incoming mail server on an account can’t be polled for some reason i.e the server fails, then the pop-up appears.
I’d like to stop it happening if possible but ONLY provided it doesn’t jeopardise my protection.
As an update to my last post. Set the AutoRedirect=0 and used the PopWizard
(ashPopWz.exe) to configure Thunderbird. To my amazement the problem was still
there (I thought for sure it was the transparent mail scanner.) Is there an older
version of avast I could run to see at what version of software release the
problem appears?
John C.
No, there isn’t… Only the last one is available for download…
I have placed Mailwasher.exe in Exclusions and I have set Mailwasher NOT to include the accounts which usually give me connection timeout problems but I am still getting the Connection Timout Pop Up window appearing on a regular basis for Mailwasher.Exe
When I check Mailwasher I’m not getting any indication that any accounts are being timed out.
This is getting very frustrating.
What did you do? Include mailwasher.exe into the exclusions lists or exclude it ‘just’ for the Mail Scanner (into avast4.ini file)/
Did you increase the timeout of your email client (account properties) and avast timeout (Internet Mail provider settings)?
Are you receiving the timeouts or not…? I’m confused here…?!
I included Mailwasher in the exclusions list. I have not amended the avast4.ini file.
In Internet Mail I selected Customize>Advanced and in Silent Mode selected with general answer Yes (OK) just to see if this made any difference.
I have not adjusted the Timeout Internet for Internet communications(s) from the default of 120 secs although I was thinking of trying this.
At the moment all my accounts in Outlook Express are set under Advanced as Server Timeouts of 1 minute (short).
Mailwasher was set by default to check for new messages every 2 minutes but I have extended this to 10 minutes to see if that helps.
I have several email accounts and one email provider in particular does periodically have server timeout problems. When this happens Mailwasher gives a server timeout error.
Between my last entry and your reply, Avast was flagging up the Internet Connection timeout error every minute or so. As soon as I cleared one message by clicking OK the next one came up.
When I checked Mailwasher this did not show any timeout errors for the troublesome server accounts. I had in any case excluded them from being polled automatically by Mailwasher so this should not have been causing any timeout problem.
Since clearing the last Avast error and writing this reply, the system seems to have settled down again as I am not receiving any warnings from Avast.
As Mailwasher only displays messages that are stored on the email server, nothing is downloaded to the hard drive until I select Process Mail, at which time Mailwasher will delete or bounce any spam on the server and then start Outlook Express. Only when I select Receive All with Outlook Express download messages to my drive, so it’s only at this stage that the messages need to be scanned by Avast.
I assumed that by including Mailwasher in the exclusions list this would stop Avast scanning Mailwasher and get around any timeout problems.
I am incidentally on ADSL so my Internet connection is always on.
The answer Yes in Silent Mode keeps the virus in the file or into the message (attach) and continue the scanning. You can’t configure ‘delete the infected file’ in the Home version. The default answer No will send the file (email) to Chest.
Can´t you increase these timeout to the limit of 600 seconds?
The solution is simple. You must exclude the MailWasher process from the automatic virus scan.
Find your avast4.ini (generally C:\Program files\Alwil Software\avast4\Data\avast4.ini) and in the section [MailScanner] add (or edit) the following key:
[MailScanner]
IgnoreProcess=MailWasher.exe
Multiple process names can be separated with commas.
This way, not the executable will be on the exclusion list but only the mail communication of the ignored process will be bypassed of scanning. This brings no other exceptions - file access is of course scanned. In version 4.5, with the transparent mail scanner of avast!, not only mail clients could be monitored but also all communication to certain ports.
If you believe in MailWasher (of course!) and you exclude it from scanning, no mail scanning on it’s connection will ever have any other effect that timeout message. The timeout message is there for the situations when sending or receiving of large mail may look like timeout and you would like to wait a bit longer in stead of just silently terminate such a connection.
Thanks for the info I will implement the changes you suggest and report back after a few days.
I orginally installed Mailwasher because I was periodically getting hit by a lot of spam. Recently my main email ISP has introduced a spam filter and most spam gets trapped by that. However, Mailwasher is still useful for being able to trap any that slip the filter giving me the chance to manually delete any emails I don’t want to download.
Apart from the Timeout issue I have to say I’m very impressed with Avast.
Provided the timeout issue is resolved and there are no more “niggles” I would consider buying the Professional version but at GBP 29.69 this is much dearer than my old EZ Trust anti-virus which only cost me 5.58 GBP per year (This was a special price offered to users of the earlier FREE version) and as a pensioner I have to consider the cost benefit to me of anything I buy.
It’s always useful to use a spam killer application 
They try to do a good job ;D
You can ask for a discount: sales (at) avast.com
Good luck 8)