Symantec AV Corp Prevents Sending Mail

[markdmac]

Anybody else run across this problem? After installing Symantec Corporate AV version 10, Outlook 2003 is no longer able to send email. Removing Symantec does not resolve the problem.

I have not yet tried reinstalling Outlook.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[Xanaxo]

I remember hearing something about this but I cannot recall what it was at the moment. I was wondering though, are all users impacted by this? What version did you install and have you checked Symantec's website for updates or information on this issue?

Steven Parent [MSFT]

 

[markdmac]

The problem only occurs with a few clients. Seems to only happen to ones that had a problem installing. We did a support call to Symantec regarding the install and they provided tools that totally remove any trace of former versions of Symantec AV. Once they were removed we could successfully deploy the AV client but then mail stopped working.

I could not find anything on the Symantec web site and have not had the time to call them again to see if they have a solution for the sending mail problem.

As stated above, this is version 10.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Marcs41]

No help, but that is THE major reason why I will never, ever use any Symantec product!

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

Have a look at the shop @

http://www.cafepress.com/tektips

!

 

[markdmac]

I agree with you Marcs41. Been trying to convince the customer to dump it. The only exception to the rule is Ghost which I di think is a great product.

Now that they own Veritas my already love/hate relationship with Veritas just got shifted more towards hate.

I have never seen an AV package that requires more reboots than Symantec. It is pathetic.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Arsynic]

I had the same problem (Symantec 9.0), but I only had trouble sending to a few locations like hotmail and something else. To fix the problem, pull up the AV Client on the mail server and see if you can turn off Internet Email Scanning and Exchange Email Scanning. A key symptom of having these options enabled are lots of little pop-up windows telling you that an email was blocked or something.

The funny thing is that I didn't find this out until I telnetted into hotmail and tried to send a test email and one of those stupid pop-ups came up and the mail was rejected. So I opened up the client window and sure enough, both Internet Email scanning and Exchange Email Scanning were enabled. After I disabled them on our Exchange Server (which already had Symantec for Exchange installed), my outbound queues were all green. Symantec should either get rid of this feature or disable it on install so that if you want it on, you can have it on. But if you're using Symantec for Exchange on your mail server, I don't see why you would need these options.

I haven't had time to play with Symantec 10 yet (just downloaded it a couple of days ago), but from what I did see it didn't have the Internet Email scanning. But don't quote me on that as I haven't taken a thorough look at it yet. I'll do that this weekend.

 

[markdmac]

This problem is even worse than you think. Even after removing Symantec AV the Outlook is still broken.

I may have narrowed this down to a problem with DCOM permissions after using the Symantec removal tools that Symantec support gave me. Need to do a little more testing and I will post results if I do find a solution.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[FastEddieC]

Mark,
We are experiencing for the same problem: outgoing mail gets hung up in our queue and never gets out. I have called Symantec about it (when I only suspected it was them) and the tech said he couldn’t find any info on issues with Exchange 2003.
Now after more research, I know its Symantec ver. 10. I’ve been looking through forums before I call them back.

One thing that I have found is if I reboot my Exchange box, usually the mail will get sent out once it comes back up – that is, if I don’t login. Now I just leave my Exchange server at the login prompt, and all mail rolls through the queue just fine. I would assume that there is some SAV service that starts upon boot-up that hasn’t started yet.

I used to love Symantec, never had any problems like this. Just think, I got rid of a perfectly good McAfee product for this crap.

Eddie

 

[Arsynic]

Well, it looks like I'm going to hold off on installing version 10 until this thing gets sorted out. I'll be neck deep in documentation this weekend...

 

[markdmac]

My favorite is Trend Micro which seems to have the least problems. Only trouble we have ever had with that was when they released a bad definition update that sent CPUs to 100%, only problem in a few years we have had. Customers using Symantec ALWAYS seem to have problems.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[markdmac]

I didn't mention this earlier but since it seems we have a lot of eyes onthis thread I will. Had to turn off real time scanning on two files servers because there seems to be a problem with runaway threads in version 10. non-pool paged memory ran out on two of our servers. A reboot fixes it temporarily and then returns in a day or two.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[Arsynic]

Was it real-time Internet Email scanning and real-time Exchange Email scanning in the SAV10 Client?

 

[FastEddieC]

Mark,
Are you talking about prventing SAV from scanning the Exchange structure?
Here is the link SAV sent me on this issue:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2005040513412648?Open&src=ent_gold_nam

Eddie

 

[markdmac]

No, we have SAV runhning fine on the Exchange box. It kills the customers two files servers though. Funny thing is that all are the smae OS & SP level 2003 SP1.

The clients are our major concern right now. After installing V10 the client can't send mail. Does not even leave the client PC to reach the queue. Fails at the Outlbox level.

I will be out there again next Wednesday. Probably won't have an update until then.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[FastEddieC]

Oopps - Not only did I read your 6th post wrong, I didn't get the gist on the 1st one either!
Ok, now I'm on track (I think)
The only problems we've seen on the client end after the upgrade was some MS Office files were changed, which prompted Office to attempt to fix them. And to do that it need the CD. Why would it change MS Office files? (oh well who cares - minor problem)

I'm going to call Symantec after lunch to go over my whole SAV setup and resolve my Exchange server issue. (wishful thinking - truthfully I'm not expecting much out of them)

Good luck Mark,


Eddie

 

[Arsynic]

You're going to call them? You might as well call them, put them on hold, go to lunch and maybe when you get back you'll get to speak to a representative.

 

[jpm121]

Eddie, to fix the "asking for Office CD" problem you can delete the Start Menu shortcut to "Create new office document" and it will be fine. I've never seen anyone use that shortcut anyhow...

FWIW, I've finished a SAV Corp 9 -> 10 upgrade along with Symantec Exchange and had no problems at all -- it's catching spyware that idiots try to download and not causing any problems. I have several clients running Corporate with absolutely no problems at all... the last problem any have had was probably 8.x and I think it was something related to an old Win98 box.