Outlook Express E-mail not working since updated to 6.0.1203....HELP!

After I updated Avast Free, I can not send or receive email using Outlook Express (earthlink). When I disabled Avast, I could. It definitely caused the problem. I can’t go unprotected yet I need to use my email, what to do??? I didn’t see this posted by anyone else…Please advise, thanks.

Someone else will be along who knows more about this than I do.

However, in the meantime you may want to look at this link

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r24284729-Outlook-Express-SSL-Free-Avast-Anti-Virus

Thanks, don’t know if it matters on this but I use dialup. But I’ve used Avast free for 2 years and its worked fine until this update. Anyone else with this issue?? To Avast staff, i need help, thanks again.

I turned off the Avast mail shield protection for both incoming and outgoing mail and now my outlook express works again. I shouldn’t have to do that, but don’t mind unless it’s important to have this on… Can anyone tell me if it is?

What error messages are you getting ?

It is more likely that after a program update your firewall is blocking changed modules in avast.

What is your firewall ?
Does it allow avastSvc.exe internet access ?

  • If it does delete the entry for it and reconnect to the internet, this should force the firewall to ask permission again.

Thank you David. The error message is when I try to send/receive email, it’s a ‘server error’ from outlook express. My firewall is PC Tools free version and allows avastSvc.exe internet access; I deleted it like you said and it reappeared but nothing changed re: the email. But as soon as I uncheck avast’s ‘scan inbound messages’ and ‘scan outbound messages’ under mail shield, then I can send/receive email.

If you can post a screenshot of the error window, that will help us more.

Do you have the latest version of the PC Tools Firewall as we were seeing instances of the avast update being blocked, which was why I stopped recommending PC Tools for a while.

It very well could be a firewall issue since I use Outlook Express and have not had the problem. I only use the XP firewall.

Not quite sure how, but I fixed it. Removing and replacing Avastsvc.exe didn’t work but then I removed “avast!antivirus” from the firewall list. Several avast things were listed in the Avast folder and I didn’t know which to add so I added ‘avastUI.’ I don’t know what that is, but the avast!antivirus’ then reappeared in the firewall list and now can send and receive email with both incoming/outgoing mail checked… I wouldn’t have known its a firewall issue and to look there… thanks.

one thing I wondered, under windows program files and under alwil is still ‘avast 5’ folder. And all the files in that have the date of 2010 when I first downloaded avast, yet the files are listed as having the latest update, 6.0.1203 that I downloaded yesterday.

Forget everything I said in my last post…lol. I spoke too soon, the problem is still there. I just uncheck scan incoming and outgoing mail in avast settings and then at least my email works… If it’s my firewall, it just seems to affect that aspect of the avast update…

Turned off firewall and still a problem.

This could be a long and drawn out experience, I asked questions and for an image of the error window in order to get a better understanding of your problem without information we are working in the dark, just guessing.

I don’t know what else I can tell you that I haven’t already. I don’t know how to do a ‘screen shot’ but I copied the exact error message below that I get from outlook express when I try to send/receive mail and when the ‘scan inbound/outbound messages’ boxes in avast are checked. As I said, right after the update, when these are checked I can’t send/receive email and get:

“The server responded with an error. Mail Account’, Server: ‘pop.earthlink.net’, Protocol: POP3, Server Response: ‘421 Cannot connect to SMTP server 209.86.93.203 (209.86.93.203:587), connect error 10060’, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800CCC90”

OK, now we have something to work with.

First from one of the IPs it shows that it is using a secure port, that’s the :587 bit on the end of the bracketed IP.

This indicates the connection attempted was secure.
Does your earthlink email require a secure connection ?
e.g. did you make any changes to your OE account settings (disable SSL) to enable avast to scan your email ?

If you did need to use SSL and had to change that for avast to work, ensure that your password is also set to use no encryption, as avast would handle the secure connection.

If earthlink.net doesn’t need SSL (and personally I think it might I have seen something like this before) then ensure that the avastUI, Mail Shield, Expert Settings, SSL Accounts entry for that email account is set to Encryption = None.

It could also just be server problems at your ISP as you said it worked for a while and then stopped again. Intermittent faults aren’t good as this should either fail all the time or work if the settings were incorrect it wouldn’t work at all. http://forums.techguy.org/web-email/121876-oe-wont-accept-my-password.html

Thanks, I appreciate your time. I made no changes to OE settings and it doesn’t require a secured connection, or at least I never had that box checked. I made sure that in avast expert settings all encryptions are set to none. I’m not going to dwell on this, at least I can send/receive email now, they’re just not being scanned. And from what I understand that’s not crucial, especially if earthlink scans emails for viruses too.

Looking back over this topic:

This is normal if you updated from avast5 to avast6 using the avastUI, it would be too big a task to change all associated program folders and associated registry entries with avast running.

Only if you did a clean install of avast6 would you have the folders AVAST Software and Avast, e.g. C:\Program Files\AVAST Software\Avast