Tech: Outgoing emails duplicated

Subject: RE: Tech: Outgoing emails duplicated
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 May 08 - 11:13 AM

The same (or at least similar) problem occured with an earlier (3 or 4 years back) version of one of Norton's AV programs and Outlook Express. In the case of the Norton AV it happened only with incoming mail.

The AV "trapped" the incoming message, scanned it, then forwarded it. The AV apparently "made a copy" for scanning purposes, and then forward it back to the In Box, so the copy delayed by scanning then duplicated the original that went directly to the inbox. Since both Outlook and OE store messages as database records, a message is identified and stored only by record number, so identical messages (copies) don't overwrite each other, and duplicates can exist.

With the Norton, there apparently was also an ISP/Server effect, as an MSN POP3 account we had did not produce duplicates but a hotmail account did. MSN/Hotmail objected to our use of OE on both accounts, and repeatedly "broke" the account with flip-flops to "new servers" (about every two or three months for 10 years for the hotmail with about 1/2 of the "breaks" requiring both accounts to be reset), insisting that only html mail was permitted for hotmail. They eventually forced both accounts to SMTP servers rather than POP3, but I don't know if that fixed it as we'd updated the AV by the time that happened.

About 6 months ago they sent us notice that NO HOTMAIL accounts would be permitted using OE, but that was shortly after we had already switched our ISP from MSN dial-up to AT&T DSL. I still get some SPAM sent to the hotmail addy, using OE, but it's picked up by AT&T and forwarded from an AT&T server, which has been pretty much trouble-free.

My answer would be that yes, the delay caused by scanning with an AV can cause duplicate messages. In the case of the old Norton, we had no success in finding an "admission of guilt" from either Norton or the ISP, and no corrective action except via an update to the AV; but we did see it happen - but only when the ISP server also contributed to the problem.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Outgoing emails duplicated
From: Bernard
Date: 03 May 08 - 11:02 AM

Nope - but thanks for the thought. I use AVG myself... will watch for that one!

This was happening on every email with a JPG attachment until we disabled the outgoing AV check. Unless she deleted the offending emails, they would continue to be sent over and over again (with the original stuck in the outbox) even after a cold reboot. The messages didn't appear in 'Sent Items', either. I received a test email 15 times this morning before she deleted the original!

Emails without JPGs were behaving normally, which was why I suspected the AV software had something to do with it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outgoing emails duplicated
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 08 - 10:38 AM

I use AVG, a free antivirus program, and I went into that program and told it to stop scanning outgoing messages and to stop putting its text on outgoing messages (that it had scanned them) because it was hanging, taking forever for mail to come and go. I often accidentally closed out the program before it had finished so the message didn't go. It went out instead the next time I opened the program. I wonder if some variation of that is happening with her software?

SRS

Subject: Tech: Outgoing emails duplicated
From: Bernard
Date: 03 May 08 - 08:49 AM

Sorry this isn't very specific, but I'm not the one having the problem! I'm in Manchester (UK) and my non-technical friend is in London (210 miles away), so specifics are difficult to establish!

She is running Micro$haft Outlook 2007 and PC-cillin antivirus (the most up to date version, she thinks, but that may not be so).

Anyway, the problem is that when she tries sending emails with JPG attachments, the original message stays in the inbox but the recipient keeps receiving duplicate copies of the message until the original is deleted from the outbox.

I suggested that the problem could be the email antivirus scanner, and the problem stopped as soon as she disabled the outgoing email scanner.

My questions: has anyone had this problem, what is probably causing it, and how did you sort it?

Is it an issue with Outlook, or is PC-cillin broken? I'm guessing the latter... please bear in mind I can't answer any specific questions about her setup, so I'm hoping someone has first-hand experience and can recognise the symptoms.

She needs to use Outlook (and has only recently bought MS Office 2007), so ditching that for a more friendly email client isn't an option, but she may agree to ditch PC-cillin in favour of something that didn't come bundled with the PC...

Can I politely ask that the thread doesn't become cluttered with speculation from those who haven't experienced this specific issue first hand, and knocking either Outlook or PC-cillin and their software houses won't be very helpful, either!!

Ta!

;O)