OE6 no longer sends email from a VB6/MAPI application

[DonRI]

I have been writing a VB6 program using MAPI and Outlook Express 6 to send email from a Windows 2000 pc. Things have been working fine. I have sent dozens of emails from the application in the last few weeks.

Today, I tried to send email for the first time since last week. After I hit the Send button, I closed the application. I noticed that the Outlook Express "Connecting" window seemed to be hung. I waited for a number of minutes, but the window never closed. The same thing happens every time I try to send email.

When I look in Outlook Express, the message is sitting in the outbox. It is sent only after I open Outlook Express.

None of the OE6 security/send settings have changed. The MAPI email just never completes being sent until OE6 is opened. What has changed on this pc is that a recent batch of Windows patches was applied earlier in the week.

Someone told me that the recent crop of patches had some changes to Outlook Express and suggested that I remove the fix named KB911567. I did that, but it didn't help.

Has anyone had a similar recent problem after the application of new OE6 & Windows 2000 operating system updates? Any suggestions?

What email package do other people use as their default to be able to send email from another application such as a VB6 application? Thanks for any help. Don

 

[DonRI]

I think I found it.

It turns out that VB6 being unable to send email through Outlook Express may have been a side effect of installing the patches, rather than being caused by it.

I could find nothing on the internet about anyone mentioning a similar problem (naturally). So I started looking at all the changes I had made to settings to enable VB6 to send email via Outlook Express. One after the other, they all were still the same. Then I got to the last place to look...

When I started writing this program, I learned that I had to make McAfee Virus Scan aware that VB6 was going to be allowed to do emailing. In order to do this, you bring up the Virus Scan console, click on Properties, and then click on the Port Blocking tab. The "Prevent Mass Mailing Worms From Sending Email" option is checked. In order to allow VB6.EXE to be able to send emails, you highlight this option and click Edit. A line appears that allows you to type in the name of any exe file that will be an exception to this rule. So, two months ago, I added VB6.EXE to this list of exceptions.

Somehow, in the process of updating Windows and reestablishing the firewall access allow/deny rules for updated programs, the "VB6.EXE" that I added to the Virus Scan rule exception disappeared. I know I didn't delete it. But something must have happened in what I did to take the name of that exe file out of the list. I put it back in the list and now things work again. There's one night's sleep I'll never get back.