Thunderbird not recognised

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have recently downloaded and installed Avast 4.5 Home, having previously used AVG (which I have uninstalled). Avast seemed to install OK, but does not appear to recognise my email program, which is Thunderbird 0.9.

When I look at the On-Access Scanner list, I have Internet Mail showing as an installed provider, but it is greyed out. There is a message showing that says, "The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start’.

Is this caused by something I have failed to set up, or is there some other problem?

Thunderbird is working OK, just without any checking of inbound or outbound mail.

2

It sure will help if you tell us what OS you are are using.

If you have a NT based system (XP/2K/2K3/NT), setup the mail as if Avast isnt’t there. And see if it is working.

If you have 9x / ME, setup the mail as if Avast isn’t there and run the mail protection wizzard.

Does this solve the problem?

3

I’m using XP. Thunderbird is all set up and has been running alongside AVG for months with no problem.

It looks as if Avast tries to recognise Thunderbird when I initially open the program because the icon in the taskbar revolves. I just have a sneaking feeling that there may be some setting that I’ve missed, although from the installation instructions, I got the impression that Avast would automatically recognise whatever email program I was using.

What is the mail protection wizard you mention? I haven’t come across this yet. I have entered my smtp server and email address details via the Program Settings and have enabled the various messaging options for inbound and outbound mail.

4

the mail protection wizzard is for 9x / ME systems, not for NT based systems.

click on the mail provider in the on-access control panel. Does the count increases if you sent or recieve a mail?

5

The scanned count has always remained at zero. If I click once on the greyed-out ‘Internet Mail’ icon (shown in the list of Providers on the left hand side of the On-Access panel), nothing happens. The message ‘The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start’, remains the same also.

6
"The provider is waiting for a subsystem to start'.
The subsystem is your email client. The status should change when you start Thunderbird. Does it?
7

Eddy, shoud a provider work this way?
I mean, I understand that a plugin (like MS Outlook) waits for a subsystem but a provider? I never saw this message, with my email client running or not… ???

8

No. I’ve tried stopping and starting Thunderbird and even rebooting the entire system, but the status message always remains the same.

I just tried it again and, as I start up Thunderbird, Avast definitely seems to spot that something is happening, as the task bar icon revolves, but the Internet Mail icon remains greyed-out and the status message says it’s still waiting for the subsystem to start.

I spotted the following message in another post, which seems to relate to a similar problem with Thunderbird. The trouble is that it involves modifying JavaScript files and I’m not familiar with how to do that:

Quote:

"Step by step:

(If you have thunderbird running, close it first)

1.) Find the “mailnews.js” file
(Usually located here: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\defaults\pref) and edit it

2.) Find these four entries:

pref(“mail.imap.fetch_by_chunks”, true);
pref(“mail.imap.mime_parts_on_demand”, true);
pref(“mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks”, true);
pref(“mail.server.default.mime_parts_on_demand”, true);

3.) now change the “true” to “false” in each entry and save the file.

4.) Voila! Avast finds all the Virii in all the Emails!"

9

Can you try to repair your installation?
Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove programs > avast! antivirus > Remove
Then choose Repair function in the popup window (Repair).

If this does not help, can you uninstall / boot / install / boot again?

10

It looks as if I’ve fixed it. I went into the On-Access Scanner panel and clicked on the Internet Mail icon. Then I clicked the ‘Terminate’’ button. When I subsequently clicked the ‘Start’ button, the Provider started running.

I’ve tested it using the EICAR virus test file and Avast spotted it immediately.

Looks as if it just needed a kick to get it going. Very odd.

11

So those “computer trolls” are now at your place :wink:

12

More of a gremlin than a troll, I suspect.

Thanks for all the help anyway.