Can anybody suggest any configuration or setting changes I can make to solve the following problem please.
Anytime I want to send an e-mail with an attachment over about 2Mb in size, I get a server timeout from my ISP while Avast is still scanning, and I am unable to send the mail. This problem is 100% consistent.
I came to Avast from AVG and am delighted with it, but this one problem is likely to force me off it if I can’t find a cure:-(
I am using Avast Home edition 4.6 on Windows XP Pro. E-Mail client is Outlook Express, using SMTP for outgoing mail and a I have a 1Mb ADSL connection.
I obviously cannot alter my ISP’s settings and, in any case, I ony have this difficulty when I am using Avast.
One of my very few and small complaints about Avast is that it can sometimes get in the way of how a program normally works. One of those cases is with sending mail in Outlook Express.
If Avast were not involved then Outlook Express would be sending out the mail and getting acknowledgments back from the server as it sent the mail.
When Avast is involved in scanning the sent mail it takes over. The mail is sent (very quickly and internally) to Avast which buffers it, scans it and, if all is well, then Avast sends it on to the server.
The bad news it that Avast is sending the mail and OE is not getting the acknowledgments so, with its default timer of 60 seconds, it will complain every 60 seconds about a timeout.
The good news is that Avast has recently made improvements to the mail sending code. I reviewed some of that effort and I can report that Avast now sends the mail faster than OE does itself - so you will see less timeout complaints from OE.
But, as Eddy suggests, in Outlook Express, go to
Tools > Accounts > Mail > select your mail account > Properties > Advanced > Server Timeouts
Move the slider to a setting that works for your connection, perhaps 3 minutes or so.
How to win friends and influence people ! It evidently didn’t occur to Eddy that a reasonable person might already have RTFM and checked this forum before posting his perfectly reasonable query.
In fact those settngs have been extended already and this poster searched this forum for two hours prior to posting. ERven on reflection, it does not seem reasonable or necessary to preface a question with “I have read posts #xxx and xxx and xxx and still have the problem”.
Not a particularly helpful, or creditable, response Eddy.
Thanks Alan. I have tried that, however, and OE is actually set at the maximum 5 minutes and I am still having the same problem. I appreciated the information you posted though.