I have avast! 4.6 home edition running on my Windows 2000 Professional pc. I send outgoing emails via SMTP that avast! is scanning. All is good so far.
But about 25% of outgoing emails I send get returned to me with variations of the error messages below. If I disable avast! the emails get sent fine. So for some reason, avast! is stopping the rcpt command that SMTP uses when sending emails??
If anyone has any thoughts, I’d really appreciate it, I’m pulling my hair out. Thank you.
Examples of error messages on returned emails:
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 503 Need Rcpt command
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 554 No valid recipients specified
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 503 5.0.0 Need RCPT (recipient)
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 504 At least one RCPT command is required
SMTP Protocol Returned a Permanent Error 554 Server said: 503 Need RCPT first.
I sent you the log file as you requested. I did some further investigation after reading that log, and now fully understand what is happening, I just don’t know how to fix it. After changing the logging options as you suggested I did two tests:
Test 1: (aswMaiSv.log at 08/16/05 18:44:42)
I sent an email to ***@msn.com with avast! enabled. The msn server responded with: <-SMTP 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable
avast! changed that error to <-SMTP 503 Need Rcpt command. and the email was returned to me.
When I disabled avast! and resent the message I got the correct failure back (<-SMTP 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable)
Test 2:(aswMailSv.log at 08/16/05 18:53:40)
I sent an email to ***@HealthComptpa.com with avast! enabled. TheHealthComptpa server responded with: <-SMTP 451 4.7.1 message delayed, see http://projects.puremagic.com/greylisting ; Please try again later
I read through the white paper located at that url (it’s really informative) and now understand what is happening.
avast! changed that error to <-SMTP 454 4.5.0 no valid recipients given. and the email was returned to me so my computer interprets that as a permanent failure so it doesn’t try to resend it like greylisting assumes it will.
When I disabled avast! and resent the message my computer got the correct failure back (<-SMTP 451 4.7.1 message delayed) and resent it and it was delivered successfully like greylisting assumes will happen.
Question: Why is avast! changing the error code the server sends back? Thank you for your response.
Avast does not change the response to the RCPT command, the server response is simply forwarded to client. But your client sent the DATA command in spite of that negative response. And here came the difference: the server would reject the DATA command, but avast always accepts it, because it wants to check the mail and decide whether to send it or not. When avast checked the mail, it sent DATA command to server, that was rejected and that response was forwarded to the client as a result of sending mail.
I think we can change the behavior so that avast would reject the DATA command whenever the preceding RCPT failed, that could solve the problem.
That seems to work. Will this be included in future versions, or should I hang on to this customization and replace those files if I upgrade in the future?
Owen, most probably. I see no reason for Alwil to avoid an improvement.
Nice family but, the avatar is a little bigger than the forum policy allow 8)
New version of avast! will ‘override’ the actual files you’ve downloaded (patch).
Don’t worry, it will be automatically 8)
I don’t know if I should reply, or start a new topic. But I am experiencing this problem of no receipt:
503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA
I have had no problem, but yesterday I got my key, after purchasing Avast professional and now I cannot send email or forward email.
I read these instructions, but they are Greek to me. . .
Can someone walk me through to correct whatever needs to be correct to get me back up and running, please?
I have Windows XP Professional and use Outlook for my email.
Avast 4.6 Professional (Build Feb2006 4.6.763)
If you ask me to send you anything, I can’t!
Hopefully you can help!
Kind regards,
Caroline
I have Outlook 2003. Strangely enough, the problem seems to have cleared itself after 24 hours.
Don’t know what the issue was – but if it fixed itself – I am happy. All of the FAQ’s I read indicated that with Windows XP, there shouldn’t be a problem. I was most concerned when there was. Especially when I had no problem with the program prior to its purchase.
Thank you for your timely response. But for the sake of curiosity, do you have any idea why the problem may have fixed itself?
Kind regards,
Caroline