I addressed this topic, and offered what I use as a solution, in this thread:
http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/23776.aspx
I do this on two PCs, so it should work for others. I'd be curious to find out!
Hi,
I've found a strange conflict between AVG Internet Security 8 (licensed version) and pegasus mail 4.41
I've reported this to the AVG support people, and assisted with various tests and diagnostics, and am reaching the point where I suspect they're giving up. They are suggesting the problem is with pegasus email client. I have formally disputed that, on basis that an internet security suite is more likely to make system changes that conflict with an email client than the reverse. However, I consider it appropriate to report it here in the hope of gaining insights. My priority is to have pmail work with AVG 8, and that means getting information about potential causes. I couldn't care less about which program causes the conflict, but at this point in time I can only use one or the other.
System setup
Operating system: A clean install (hard drive formatted during installation) Windows 2000 professional. Service pack 4 applied. Internet Explorer updated to version 6. All "high priority" updates from Microsoft update site applied.
Non-standard software installed: Updated device driver for Belkin wireless card installed from Microsoft web site (symptoms described below occur regardless of this). Pegasus email client V4.41 and AVG Internet Security Suite 8 (licensed version). No other software is installed (although in a previous test configuration, installation of firefox 3.0.5 did not affect the observed symptoms).
Pegasus email setup specifics are related to my email server via secure connections (Secure SMTP port 465, pop3 995, imap 993). Pegasus is configured as my default email client.
I start Pegasus after AVG 8 is installed and configured to support my wireless network. However, the symptoms also occur if I use ethernet cable connection to my ADSL modem/firewall appliance. Browser behaviour is unaffected: I am able to "surf" at will.
Symptoms of conflict
After selecting profile, pegasus email attempts to retreive email (secure pop) and commences consuming 100% CPU cycles (single CPU machine) indefinitely. Pegasus responds to user interface (close/refresh windows, read any messages in inbox or other folders, etc). When Pegasus window is closed, the process does not terminate, but sits in background consuming CPU cycles indefinitely and bogging down system responsiveness. The process cannot be terminated with the windows task manager (no visible effect on first attempt, on second an subsequent attempts a popup dialog is shown indicating insufficient privilege for the requested operation). If user attempts to log out or attempts to shut down system, the system hangs indefinitely while saving state, necessitating power cycling.
The symptoms are elimated if AVG is uninstalled, and resume if AVG is installed before running pegasus mail.
Symptoms are unaffected by AVG installation or configuration options: performing a custom install and not installing ANY optional components does not eliminate system. Configuring AVG through user interface to disable ALL components (virus scanner, email scanner, etc etc) does not eliminate symptoms. The only reliable way to eliminate the symptoms when running pegasus client is to uninstall AVG. I interpret this as meaning the conflict involves a core part of the AVG suite (i.e. one that is installed and/or operational regardless of installation or configuration settings).
Symptoms occur regardless of privileges of user account: same symptoms occur when run as "Administrator" or any other less-privileged account.
Is anyone able to offer any pointers?
It's pretty obvious that AVG is affecting the connection to the internet since it's hanging on trying to even make a connection. I assume you are not using AVG between POP3/IMAP4/SMTP connections since you said you turned everything off. Have you also excluded all PMail directories from the scanning as well?
That said, I finally gave up on AVG after the last couple of "upgrades" and went to Avast! for my laptops and run McAfee Enterprise v7 on the desktops. In all cases I do not use their email proxy support and always exclude all directories used by PMail. PMail opens it's files exclusive and having a-v software scanning files on open causes a clash. In addition, having the a-v software deleting folders folders for what it thinks is a virus it way to much of a problem.
You need to disable the Email component of AVG so that it does not insert itself between Pegasus Mail and the upstream POP3 server. Alternatively you *could* experiment with the AVG Desktop administration and configure the AVG Email service to provide the Ports and IP address to use. I gave up on that.
HTH
Martin
[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]
It's pretty obvious that AVG is
affecting the connection to the internet since it's hanging on trying
to even make a connection. I assume you are not using AVG between
POP3/IMAP4/SMTP connections since you said you turned everything off.
Have you also excluded all PMail directories from the scanning as well?
[/quote]
Yeah; the curious thing is that it doesn't appear to affect web browsing or Microsoft's email clients. On a previous configuration, I never noticed a conflict between pmail or a licensed Trend Micro security suite (those two were running for a year or two) either.
I'll exclude the Pmail directory from scanning but I'm skeptical of the chances - as I see the same symptoms when all forms of scanning are disabled completely or the corresponding components not installed. (Philosophical arguments about the value of such a configuration aside, that suggests a core part of AVG is implicated).
[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]
That said, I finally gave up on AVG after the last couple of
"upgrades" and went to Avast! for my laptops and run McAfee Enterprise
v7 on the desktops. In all cases I do not use their email proxy
support and always exclude all directories used by PMail. PMail opens
it's files exclusive and having a-v software scanning files on open
causes a clash. In addition, having the a-v software deleting folders
folders for what it thinks is a virus it way to much of a problem.
[/quote]
Yeah; despite having a new AVG license, I'm considering walking away from the product as well. I'm scratching my head: I don't recall seeing the symptoms in the trial period before acquiring the license. (Hmmm .... I might have to install AVG unlicensed, and see if the symptoms occur).
I doubt it's related to Pmail opening files exclusively: despite the conflict, I am able to view contents of email folders, change Pmail settings through the user interface, etc. Which suggests pmail is opening its files successfully, and also that pmail is polling in a manner that does not block the main user interface thread or affect file access, but not much else.
Pmail just sits there with a message at the bottom of the screen indicating it is (attempting to) the pop3 connection/load. It does not appear to be actually establishing a connection (I closed the ports and enabled logging on my modem/firewall appliance, and logged no attempts of an outgoing connection on that port).
When AVG is not installed, the modem/firewall logs the connection attempt, and pmail attempts to make the connection for 20 seconds or so (also consuming 100% CPU) before giving up and going quiet for a period.
I have had no folders or files deleted (or moved to the virus vault). This is a clean install, so such a thing would have gotten my attention PDQ.
[quote user="irelam"]
You need to disable the Email component of AVG so that it does not insert itself between Pegasus Mail and the upstream POP3 server. Alternatively you *could* experiment with the AVG Desktop administration and configure the AVG Email service to provide the Ports and IP address to use. I gave up on that.
[/quote]
The symptoms occur when the email component of AVG is not installed, or when it is installed but not enabled.
In fact, the symptoms occur even when all optional components of AVG are uninstalled (or when they are installed but disabled).
To date, I haven't found options for configuring the AVG email service to provide ports and IP address, but will look further.
Thanks for the suggestions guys; I'll keep poking.
I was a victim personally and on a few home user machines I installed AVG on when they started LinkScanner....holy crap I got calls.
I have since switched to AntiVir on my personal machine mostly for testing and still am running the version prior to the latest on my wife's older laptop with email and link scanning turned off.
AVG had a good thing with an unbloated AV...I don't know why they are trying at the feature-rich demographic.
I am experiencing a similar problem with PMail, and now apparently AVG as well. (See this other thread http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/14843.aspx)
I had running PMail, AVG Free and Zone Alarm together for a long time. Last December my email server switched from "unsecured" POP3 to an SSL secured exchange IMAP/POP3 server. I did the proper adjustments to the email client configuration.
On January 30th, at some point during the evening (PST) I tried to access my email, as always. However I started to experience the same 100% CPU usage problem described here. The "action" seems to be around this "msvcrt.dll+0x8532", according to Process Explorer. The only thing new, after some tracing, was AVG updated itself.
To confirm PMail capacities I accessed my other POP3 account, which is not SSL and it downloaded the messages without problems. It is only when I switch the security settings to SSL for this exchange server that PMail goes nuts. If I try to access the same server without the SSL option there is no access of course but also there is no memory clashing.
I tried Outlook Express and there are no problems accessing the SSL IMAP folders or the POP3 server. So it is, apparently between PMail and AVG.
Any insights?
With a bit more investigation, the comments from AlexD apply to my situation as well. No symptoms with "unsecure" POP3, and Process Explorer shows the action in msvcrtl.dll+0x8532.
I've supplied the various bits of supporting information about this (up to an include screen captures) to AVG technical support. My last response was that they have provided the full set of information to their development team for action.
Just a quick followup to this thread. I went through the process with the AVG support folks to characterise the problem.
Yesterday, I received a followup from their QA testers advising the problem above is resolved in AVG 9.
I've installed AVG 9. The problem with pmail 4.41 is resolved. Now to go though a more detailed evaluation of AVG 9, and later to upgrade pmail to the latest version.
Hi all !
Well, I have the exact same problem as you grumpy. my system is made up of the free edition of "Avira Antivir" (version 9) and that of "Bit Defender" (version 10 oem). The process takes as in your case 100% of CPU resources, and it is impossible to shut it down. I tried with "Process Explorer", "Pskill.exe" and "WinPatrol", but it is failure over failure thanks to a denied access to "winpm-32.exe". I then tried to send the entire folder to the trashcan, but it stopped on "bearhtml.dll" which may still be used by some process. Even when closing the session and reopening it or a new one, "winpm-32.exe" is still there. The only solution is to restart the whole computer. I will try to shut down "Bit Defender" to see if this is the source of the problem. If this fails, following the experimentations of grumpy, I will try to uninstall Bit Defender to see where it gets me. I will also exclude the installation folder of Pegasus Mail from all the scan engines, and see what it does. I will keep you posted on my discoveries, hoping I will solve my problem soon enough.
Cheers !
Whiskyfizz.
Hi !
It seems Bitdefender Free Edition v10 was not the culprit. By the way, it is a wonderful piece of software with a solid scan engine. I am now aiming at Avira Antivir version 9 in its free edition. I know for sure that Pegasus Mail is working fine along version 8, so I will uninstall version 9, test the email retrieval, and then install version 8 to confirm it is what I am thinking it is. By the way, I already configured the whole Pegasus Mail folder to be excluded as well as the following processes : winpm-32.exe and bearhtml.dll. It did not change a thing, I have still the same problem as grumpy. If anything new is happening, I will let you know.
Cheers !
Whiskyfizz.
[quote user="whiskyfizz"]
Hi all !
my system is made up of the free edition of "Avira Antivir" (version 9) and that of "Bit Defender" (version 10 oem).[/quote]
Are you saying that you're running two antivirus programs at the same time? I hope not, because then you're practically begging for trouble.
Cheers!
Steffan
Hi !
Well, it is really not a problem to have multiple antivirus programs running on your machine as long as you follow this iron rule : enable only one real-time scanner at a time. At some point, I had four of them : antivir for the real-time scanner, bit defender and clamwin for on-demand scanner, and finally avast! for the memory and the boot sector. Also, if someone is interested, I have tested antivir and avg in their latest versions, and both go along fine. Anyway, I gave up on having too much antivirus protection because it was too much memory consuming. I adopted better browsing habits, and I am fine with this and the memory too. If you do not configure properly the various antivirus you may want to install on your machine, then indeed it is not recommended to have more than one as you say. Concerning my problem, I have identified the problem and created a new thread because it concerns a new program.
Cheers !
Whiskyfizz.
