In the last couple of weeks I've had a couple of friends who have strarted having problems with AVG stopping them from sending emails. Both are using Outlook Express, one is on Windoze ME & the other on XP.

Not really wanting any advice on it, just wondering if anyone else has had or heard of similar problems?

Also, AVG has been slowly annoying me more since they went up to version 7, does anyone have any good freeware AV alternatives?

No problems.
(easy to configure it not to check outgoing mail)

Originally posted by cgksheff
No problems.
(easy to configure it not to check outgoing mail)

On a friends computer if you do that, it completely ignores it and still uses the AVG Email Scanner.

Have installed AVG 7 on many pc's and not had any problems with any of the major email clients. As mentioned easy enough to tell it not to scan outgoing mail

I'm not in love with the new version, but then I sometimes fear change.

The missus says she had some mails bounced by I disregarded her comments as witchcraft - perhaps I need to revisit her claims.

I've previously (briefly) used http://www.pandasoftware.com/home/default.asp but can't comment on it's current state.

I've heard of all kinds of problems with Norton so would steer clear.

I think Google may be your friend here - http://www.avast.com/eng/products.html is one of the top ranked free Googles but I haven't tried it.

I've disabled the email scanner. I noticed that it was scanning continuous even when my email client was closed and the next thing I knew I had 2000 emails in my inbox. They were messages that had failed delivery, but I'd not even sent them, they were to addresses unknown to me.

Originally posted by cgksheff
No problems.
(easy to configure it not to check outgoing mail)

First thing I tried, also tried it again while swearing at it fluently, just to see if that made any difference. Then I tried it while threatening it, still the same...

Originally posted by Skatiechik
On a friends computer if you do that, it completely ignores it and still uses the AVG Email Scanner.

Yup, that's the problem...

Doesn't seem to have started on a particular date or anything (so presumably not triggered by dodgy update)

Ah Avast! That's the one I've been trying to remember the name of (thanks Phil!), knew it was something that sounded piratey (land-lubber hating kind, not genuine software hating kind)

If AVG so much as looks at me funny again, it's dumped...

I did have some trouble a few weeks ago with AVG screwing up...but then i worked out that it was in fact my firewall (Zone Alarm V5.5.062.011) that just randomly went mad and blocked my email client(s)...it did it to me again today and blocked EVERYTHING for no reason....Like steev i also tried swearing at it fluently, then threatening it...but a evtually kicked the reset button...and then after more swearing and a reboot it worked! :suspect:

I disabled the email scanner because it was annoying, kept crashing Outlook, and kept returning some emails to me without reason. Disabling it isn't as easy as it could be, so do to so:

- Open the AVG Control Centre
- Select the Email Scanner on the right
- Click Properties
- Click Configure
- Untick all the email scan options so it's not set up to check any then click OK
- Click "Disable Plugin"
- Tick the box saying "Ignore plugin status"
- Click OK

After that it should leave you alone. I unticked the scan options as well as disabling the plugin because it still carried on being annoying until I did all of the above steps.

Just to note, I've discovered a few problems with the AVG scanner myself but also noted when it was happening so here's a few things to check.

1. Try running an "Update" to see if there's an update for the software.

2. If you have 2 users logged into your machine (in XP you can switch users) then chances are your other user has email up and running on their profile and it's not letting you share the scanner.
Solution: logout the other account (go for restart if needs be)

3. Try changing the setting to use a personal profile instead of the shared one (see the configuration settings for the Email scanner in AVG). This sometimes solves the problem.



In all cases I've seen the system get back up and running again and generally it works fine...

Hope that helps.

Too late, AVG been dumped for Avast, which, by the way, is looking good...

Got the new trial version and it slowed my machine down to a trickle. Had to get rid of it and went back to AVG free.

I tend to do a fresh intall of it every couple of months as the update can sometimes play up.