Found your post because I was experiencing the same
problem. The Virus thing got me thinking and I found the
following on the McAfee Site. Seems to have fixed the
problem.
My email client times out and I am having difficulty
sending email
Affected Products:
McAfee VirusScan version 8
Affected Operating Systems:
Windows 98/ME
Windows 2000/XP
Description
VirusScan has the ability to scan outgoing mail for worm-
like behavior. This additional heuristic can increase the
time that it takes to send email. If you are getting
timeout messages from your email client, try increasing
the amount of time the email client has to timeout.
Workaround
Outlook Express
Open Outlook Express.
Click on the Tools drop-down menu.
Select Internet Accounts.
Click on your email account and click on Properties.
Click the Advanced tab. (Not available for Hotmail
accounts)
Lengthen Server Timeout settings to the maximum. (Maximum
timeout settings depend upon the Mail Provider). In most
cases, 5 minutes.
Outlook
Open Outlook.
Click on the Tools pull-down menu.
Click on Options.
On the Mail Setup Tab, click on the Send/Receive Button.
Click Edit.
Click Account Properties.
On the Advanced tab, there is a bar here to adjust the
settings. Adjust it to the maximum.
Additional Information
Disable WormStopper
Open the Security Center, click on VirusScan on the left
side.
Click on configure VirusScan options
Click on Advanced
Click on the WormStopper tab.
Disable WormStopper.
Kill the Email Scanning Process
WinNT/2K/XP: Terminate the process MCVSESCN.exe
Win 98/ME: CTRL + ALT + DEL, end task on Mcvsescn
