Really weird email issue in Outlook

[PinkPanther 0]

Hello all,

 

I really hope someone here has a theory on what could possibly be causing this issue …

 

First, this the software involved in the scenario:

 

Outlook 2003 – Final release version

Norton Anti-Virus 2003 – fully updated with latest patches and virus definitions

Windows XP Pro – Also fully updated with latest patches

 

 

Ok, now for the really weird problem:

 

Outlook completely out of the blue started having problems retrieving email from one very specific pop account. The error is that it times-out on the very last message it tries to download from this pop account. Some very obvious ideas came to mind at first, so here is a list of everything that has been tried already and the details of things, which pretty much covers all the usual suspects on the cause of the problem …

 

1. ALL messages have been deleted from the mail server using the web interface supplied. As soon as more messages arrive, Outlook has the same problem.

 

2. No one message is to blame. Sometimes there is spam on the server, sometimes not. It does not matter what the messages are, Outlook times out on the last message only.

 

3. Because outlook is timing out on the last message, it is also failing to properly delete downloaded messages from the server (I guess it only does this after a fully successful operation) so it keeps creating duplicates of all the messages it does download.

 

4. Outlook 2002 (with all other aspects of the scenario being equal) does not have this problem.

 

5. The settings and outlook data file can not be the cause. This problem can be duplicated on several machines using completely clean installs of all the software, meaning it is also a new outlook data file and settings.

 

6. The problem only happens on this one pop account. All other pop accounts on the same server and on other servers do not have this problem at all.

 

7. The host of the pop account has been contacted, Discountasp.net, and they are also at a loss. From their end, nothing obvious is different on this one pop account.

 

8. The “solution” is to turn off virus scanning of incoming emails. This allows Outlook to download all the messages. No other settings in Norton change the situation, not even the setting that specifically deals with time-outs.

 

9. The key things to keep in mind is the weird combination of this happening only with Outlook 2003, Norton incoming scanning ON, and ONLY this pop account. All 3 of these things have to be true for the problem to happen. Change just one of them, and no problem at all.

 

I will supply any additional info as people needed.

 

Thanks for any theories on what on earth could be going on here.

[sapiens74 0]

I use both Norton AV 2003 and Office 2003, but I disable the email scanning features on Norton AV, since it causes me problems as well.

 

IN my case it hangs Outlook.

 

 

Set a restore point, and try the Norton AV 2004 Trial version. I have a feeling it doesn't have the same issues.

[jmmijo 1]

Back in my ISP support days, the only other thing that can cause issues like this is a corrupted mail spool. Meaning the actual file that stores the email on the mail server at the host.

 

I remember having to delete the file for a few users back in the day and when new mail arrived the email server just recreated the .mail file under the users account.

[PinkPanther 0]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

 

I will contact my host and suggest the mail spool idea to them.