XP Pro Outlook 2007 cannot send/receive with attatchments over 100

[stelrat405]

Setup
XP Pro Outlook 2007 all critical Microsoft Updates applied

Issue
Sending or receiving email with attachments over 100 KB.

Detailed description
When attempting to send or receive an email with an attachment over 100 KB
Outlook times out about 98% of the time (Occasionally a message with a large
attachment will get through after timing out several times). Messages with no
attachment or under the magic 100 KB mark will send and receive in a timely
fashion. Setup Outlook Express (OE) on this computer and OE exhibited the
exact same issues. Setup the email address in Outlook and Outlook express on
another computer and did NOT have this issue. No one else in the office is
having this issue. This is a newly loaded computer with Vipre
antivirus/Firewall. I have disabled Vipre (both through the GUI and then
through Task Manager) this did not change the results at all. The speed from
this machine appears to be acceptable (Downloaded 19 Meg worth of updates
from Microsoft in about 60 Seconds) So I do not believe the issue to be
hardware/network related. I have tried setting the timeout to max size. I
have tried tweaking various setting in Outlook as well as registering files.
I have spent about 6 hours on Google trying everything that made sense (and
then everything that did not but did not seem distructive ;-) )

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

Setup
XP Pro Outlook 2007 all critical Microsoft Updates applied

Issue
Sending or receiving email with attachments over 100 KB.

Detailed description
When attempting to send or receive an email with an attachment over 100 KB
Outlook times out about 98% of the time (Occasionally a message with a large
attachment will get through after timing out several times). Messages with
no
attachment or under the magic 100 KB mark will send and receive in a timely
fashion. Setup Outlook Express (OE) on this computer and OE exhibited the
exact same issues.

If OE also has the problem, then clearly it's not an Outlook problem.

Contact your mail provider. It could very well be a limit they impose.
Outlook has no sending limit. It could also be interference by your antivirus
progrma if you have it configured to scan messages. If so, uninstall your AV
program and reinstall it without the mail scanning feature. You will be just
as safe. Consider also increasing your server timeout value (on the Advanced
tab of your account properties) and making sure your send/receive interval is
no less than about ten minutes.

 

[steelrat405]

I am the webhosting provider for this client so I know it is not a web server
issue. Also others in the office are able to send attachments up to 5 Meg.
The office shares a DSL modem.

Where are the attachments downloaded to during the initial transfer process
from the mail server. I know that by default for Outlook there is a registry
setting `outlookSecureTempFolder` that sets this directory by default to
%\Documents and Settings\<username>\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.Outlook\<Random Dir>

Is it possible that OE shares a similar directory path?

 

[Roady [MVP]]

Not true, that path is only used when someone opens an attachment directly
from an Outlook message. It does not play any role with receiving
attachments or with the send/receive process in general.

Note that disabling your virus scanner or turning off its mail scanning
features does not disable its integration components with Outlook or Outlook
Express. You'll have to specifically disable its integration completely. In
some occasions this means that you'll have to uninstall the component or
even reinstall the virus scanner without this specific component.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP - Outlook]]

I am the webhosting provider for this client so I know it is not a web server
issue. Also others in the office are able to send attachments up to 5 Meg.
The office shares a DSL modem.

Turn on disagnostic logging in Outlook and examine the SMTP handshaking to see
what may be happening.

Where are the attachments downloaded to during the initial transfer process
from the mail server.

In the mail message. Attachments aren't separate files. They're integral
portions of the body of the message and have no separate place on your PC
until you attempt to open one.

I know that by default for Outlook there is a registry
setting `outlookSecureTempFolder` that sets this directory by default to
%\Documents and Settings\<username>\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.Outlook\<Random Dir>

Is it possible that OE shares a similar directory path?

Outlook and Outlook Express share nothing. I don't know if OE even has the
equivalent of the Outlook Secure Temp folder.

 

[steelrat405]

Turn on disagnostic logging in Outlook and examine the SMTP handshaking to see
what may be happening.


In the mail message.  Attachments aren't separate files.  They're integral
portions of the body of the message and have no separate place on your PC
until you attempt to open one.



Outlook and Outlook Express share nothing.  I don't know if OE even hasthe
equivalent of the Outlook Secure Temp folder.

Ok all I have now uninstalled ALL firewall and antimalware products
and Outlook still will not receive emails. I have created new
profiles. checked the PST using the psttools. I am stilling running
into the issue of downloading a few kb then will sit there until the
system times out.

Thanks for straightening my understanding of the registry entry out. I
was grasping at straws at that point anyway but that eliminates any
possible rights/folders issues.

any other thoughts

 

[steelrat405]

Ok all I have now uninstalled ALL firewall and antimalware products
and Outlook still will not receive emails. I have created new
profiles. checked the PST using the psttools. I am stilling running
into the issue of downloading a few kb then will sit there until the
system times out.

Thanks for straightening my understanding of the registry entry out. I
was grasping at straws at that point anyway but that eliminates any
possible rights/folders issues.

any other thoughts

I completely reinstalled windows and all worked for several weeks. Now
yesterday The issue began again exactly as it was the last time. I
checked the microsoft updates and no updates were applied yesterday
and no new programs were installed yesterday. What could be causing
this issue?

 

[steelrat405]

Well I completely reinstalled the computer from scratch and everything was
working until today. Again it is just this computer. I can send and receive
emails that do not have attachments or attachments under 100K. Everyone else
in the office is working properly with no issues. The only know program
installations between working and not working is AT&T connection to use USB
device. And an industry specific program call "Optisizer". Has anyone else
experienced any issues with AT&T connection manager and Outlook mail issues?