Slightly off the wall this one. I've been noticing at work that some emails I send do not arrive. I usually notice when someone rings me asking why I never sent the thing I said I would send. There is no obvious link between the emails that do and don't arrive - not all large files, not all going to the same organisation or at the same time of day or with the same subject heading. I've been blaming the outgoing email server for munching on them but a new theory has come up. When I send an email my Norton scans it. I've noticed that some emails go into the sent folder and the scanning icon doesn't appear, these seem to be the ones that aren't making it to their recipients. Usually they hang around for a bit in my outbox and then go, rather than going straight away and I assume that is part of the problem. Any ideas? I can't watch for the scanning icon the whole frigging time...
The only thing i can think of is attatchments. Our norton here at work allows some but not others, the rules are made up (seemingly arbitrarily) by our IT team
Nah. Most had no attachments. And they aren't being denied, Outlook claims they have been sent but since they were neither scanned or arrived, I have my doubts.
If its a work PC Norton usage will probably be a 'group policy object', if they are managed PC's. He wont have any choice to turn it off/remove it
Then bitch like a mother fucker to your IT department. E-mails that fail to send are an unacceptable constraint on business process.
^ well the company is so small there is no dedicated IT department but I also can't just turn off Norton on my initiative. Well I could and no-one would notice but it something happened, related or not, then I could find myself answering questions... Anyway I'm not sure if it is Norton because it only happens to emails that Outlook fails to send immediately.
Do you have Outlook 2003? I've noticed with mine that if anything disrupts an immediate send, the result very often is the message hanging in the outbox. For me, this is caused by a temporary loss of connection with the Exchange server, but I could see a slow scan causing a similar problem. Google seems to confirm this is a common problem: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=message stuck in outbox outlook 2003&btnG=Google Search Here's an interesting case: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924788 Considering your set-up, you might consider whether there are any message size limits. That could cause the problem, too.
while checking for the scan-icon is a hassle, you could make sure that every mail you send is actually gone, and not just queued. To check if it's in the settings, you might try and send an email twice - one of those you think didn't make it. Also, check the options/security tab to see if the option is ticked which prevents opening of emails which could possible contain a virus. Maybe it deletes attachements, or entire emails that it doesn't like. One final note - the problem could be on the receiver's end - the option I mentioned above deletes attachements like powerpoint files, mp3, just about anything good - even word documents, I think, from incoming mail. So maybe they are getting your mail, but just without the attachement, making them think they didn't get the mail or that you forgot to attach the item you promised. If you're certain you always attach the stuff you say you attach, you might want to point to that option in your signature or something.
There are better ways to secure your address list. Now, I would say a selective scan on port 25 is not a bad idea, ie block any program other than the authorized mailer, but that is really more of a firewall setting than a virus policy.
Gul, most mass mailers are going to use the authorized mail client to send the infected mail... not to mention they can open and control your port settings - mydoom for example opens a listening port in the 3000 range, allowing a hole in remote access settings... It is a very good idea to scan all mail, coming and going. I'd check the recipients, see if there is anything in common with them. Gul's comment that it could be a bug in outlook is valid, it could be getting hung up on their end, or check with your exchange server admin to verify they are actually being sent. Your IT folks should be able to help.
scanning outgoing mail with attachments is a good idea, but i don't see the point of scanning all outgoing mail.
