Lost Mail in Netscape 7.1 different prob than anyone's posted about!

Hello All,

I have two users that both use Netscape 7.1 for POP email. They also both use Symantec Corporate Antivirus version 8.1.

User 1 had a problem last week with Netscape Mail freezing everytime he went into it. He was getting a 'c:\Windows\Prefetch\netscp.pf is corrupt' error. I deleted the pf file and when into Mail in Safe mode and deleted all the SPAM from his inbox. This solved the problem. However, today this user lost about 50 messages from his Trash folder AND the handfull that were left are completely blank.???

User 2 had the same problem today. All her Inbox messages disappeared.

I looked at the Inbox file on the HD. Indeed the messages were gone in both places.


Netscape seems to be losing mail and mail account settings often lately. I have a few different clients that have needed thier profiles restored lately. Anyone know what's going on and specifically how to prevent it?

Thanks,

-John

 

I've got a suspicion that it might be a Norton problem. I've just had the same thing happen for the second time today - that I know of. I'm using Mozilla and a webmail system that I've had for about four years without problems, and they're going through Norton AV. I've got the same setup both at home and work, and it seems to be happening in both places.

I noticed earlier today that I was downloading messages from webmail into Mozilla and yet nothing was in my inbox. I figured they were getting caught by the various spam filters I have, but when I checked the junk mail and the trash folders, they weren't there either. I went to the webmail and discovered 4 messages, but I cleaned out everything except 3 that I wanted to save at home. I left them on the webmail server and when I tried to access them through Mozilla at home, the same thing happened - 9 messages downloaded, but they're not here. Unfortunately, because I had Mozilla set up at home to delete the messages when they were downlaoded at home, they're not on webmail anymore either.

Anybody got any clues on this one??

 

Welcome to the Forum, nieblertech!

Hi John,

I found 138 Bugs on lost mail, if you ant to go through them.

To avoid losing Mail, the best advice I can give is to back up on a daily basis. I've been using Norton AV for seven years, and not experienced a single lost message. My current version is 2003; however, I do not screen incoming or outgoing Mail. Have you tried disabling those features to see whether or not this might be beneficial?

Netscape 7.1 is an unstable browser, there is simply no getting around it. The next release is due sometime in early summer. It will be based on Mozilla 1.7 code, and we are all waiting to see just what AOL will do with this Release.

bentley,

What version of Mozilla do you run? Have you tried deleting the MSF files in your IMAP folder? Tried compacting your folders? I use myrealbox for IMAP mail, but haven't experienced what you describe. Have you tried disabling NAV incoming/outgoing mail screening?

Ramona

 

I'm using Mozilla 1.6, and I have compacted the folders. The weird thing is that this is only happening on one of my webmail accounts. The other one - as far as I can tell - is fine. I did disable NAV on my work computer, sent a test mail from one account to the other, and everything seemed to work fine, so I thought I had just imagined the problem. Then I came home and it happened again. I've disabled NAV here too, but I really don't like leaving it that way...

Another detail that I'd forgotten - sometime late this afternoon I tried to access the webmail account through Mozilla and got that error message that says something like "127.0.0.1 server cannot be found ". That happens sometimes, but I wonder if it's related in some way. That was when I went to the webmail account and found that I had 4 messages that weren't going through.

 

Hi bentley,

If you're worried about a virus, this is from the Mozilla FAQ:

3.7. Is Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup susceptible to e-mail viruses?

Mozilla Mail & Newsgroup will not allow a virus or worm to execute automatically. You can see what attachments have been sent to you without a virus being able to execute, and you would have to save a file to your system and deliberately run it before it could cause any harm.

JavaScript is switched off by default for mail and news, so an e-mail cannot run script code just by being opened.

As with any mail program, take proper caution before running any file that you receive in e-mail. Appropriate anti-virus software should also help keep you safer.

See the supplementary tutorial on Junk Mail Control for more details: Using Junk Mail Control
-----

This is why we love and use Mozilla, Bentley!

The error which mentions 127.0.0.1, may also have to do with Norton AV, especially if you're running an older Version. From Norton:

Email Protection
Norton AntiVirus 2000/2001 includes an email protection feature that
scans email messages and attachments for viruses as they are being
retrieved. It provides an additional layer of protection to Auto-Protect alone, though your system can be secure without it.

Without email protection enabled, your email program connects directly
to the mail server and downloads the mail. Email protection creates a
step in between; it sets up a proxy server on your computer. Your email program connects to the proxy server, rather than the mail server; the
proxy server then connects to the mail server, downloads the mail, and scans it for viruses. Then, and only then, does your email program receive the email.

Because, in this process, your email program never connects directly to
your Internet service provider's (ISP) mail server, it must be configured to connect to the proxy server instead of the mail server. The address it uses is as follows:

NAV 2000: 127.0.0.1
NAV 2001: pop3.norton.antivirus
This IP address is known as the loopback address; it simply indicates
"this computer. "

Norton AntiVirus also changes your user name. For example, if your user name is "gsmith" and your mail server is "mail.worldservice.com," then the text in the program's user name settings box would be changed from "gsmith" to "gsmith/mail.worldservice.com." When the NAV email proxy server receives a logon, it divides this back into the user name and the server name, then connects to the specified mail server.

These are the only changes that Norton AntiVirus makes to your email
program.

What if you cannot receive email with these settings? On most computers and with most ISPs, email protection works without any problem. There are, however, some cases in which the proxy server cannot connect to the mail server. Your email program connects to the proxy server and asks for mail, so the proxy tries to connect to the mail server--and fails. Your email program eventually reports an error, because it does not receive a response. For more information on what can prevent Norton AntiVirus from connecting to your ISP's mail server, see the document Cannot use NAV Email Protection with Internet Service Provider's email system.

The other possibility is that, for some reason, the proxy server, Poproxy.exe, is not starting. This usually stems from a timing conflict when your computer starts up and POProxy tries to load. To see if this is the cause, follow the instructions in the document for your version of NAV:
NAV 2000. How to resolve Poproxy.exe timing conflicts for Norton AntiVirus 2000.
NAV 2001. How to resolve Poproxy.exe timing conflicts for Norton
AntiVirus 2001.

How can you change the settings back?
The easiest way to change the settings back is to disable email protection. Disabling email protection looks at the user name in your email program, looking for a / character. It then keeps the settings before the / for the user name and changes the server name back to whatever was after the / (after deleting 127.0.0.1 or pop3.norton.antivirus from the server name). For example, if email protection changed the user name to gsmith/mail.worldservice.com, and you disabled email protection, then it would change the user name back to gsmith and the server name back to mail.worldservice.com.

You can also manually change the settings back; please consult your ISP
or your email program's Help menu for instructions on how to do this.

NOTE: If you do not disable email protection, the settings may be changed back after certain actions, such as running LiveUpdate. It is recommended that you disable email protection if you are going to reconfigure your program.

To disable NAV email protection:
1. Start Norton AntiVirus and click Options.
2. Click Email Protection in the Options list.
3. Depending on your version:
NAV 2000 users, uncheck "Enable email protection (recommended)," and
then click OK.
NAV 2001 users, uncheck the boxes that correspond to the protected email
clients.

Norton AntiVirus will restore the settings, POProxy will no longer load, and email protection will no longer be enabled on your computer.

If you disable email protection, is your computer still safe from email
viruses?
Disabling email protection does not leave you vulnerable to viruses and
malicious software in email. It is a separate layer of protection in addition to Auto-Protect. Auto-Protect scans any incoming files, including email, as they are saved to your hard drive. As long as you keep your virus definitions up to date with LiveUpdate, and keep Auto-Protect enabled and set to scan files as they are created or downloaded, your system is fully protected.

Product(s): Norton AntiVirus 2000, Norton AntiVirus 2001
Operating Systems(s): Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows
2000, Windows Me, Windows 95B
Document ID: 2000020716064206
Date Created: 02/07/2000
Last Modified: 01/10/2002
-----

This should ease your mind about disabling autoprotect for incoming/outgoing mail.

Ramona

 

Well, after some fooling around, I think I've figured out this problem - and it's funny, but a pain at the same time. Lately - just in the past week - I've gotten a lot of spam that's dated 12/31/69, and therefore appears at the very end of my inbox. It's obviously nothing I want, but it takes time to go track it down and trash it, so I created a message filter in Junk Mail Controls to send everything with a date before a certain date to the trash. I created it on both computers, but I set the dates differently - one is set for "before 2004" and one is set "before 2003" - but neither of them was working correctly. The date - obviously - has to be 1/1/2003, not just 2003.

But to compound the problem - at least on my work computer - in Tools/Message Filters I discovered there is a Filter Log that reveals everything the filters have been doing. And there I found that the messages had been sent (again obviously by my own handiwork) to the Local trash folder, not the one particular to that mailbox. And I probably did the same dumb thing at home, too...

 

Thanks for the quick response

I just talked to another user there and she is now missing mail on her machine. I did notice that the latest virus defs date correspondes to when the problems started happening. I'll try and disable email scanning and see if that helps.

Thanks,

-John

 

bentley,

Aha! That's a horse of a different color, and to get rid of those messages dated 12/31/69:


Close Netscape & Quick Launch
Open Windows Explorer
Navigate to the Mail Account folder
Delete all files with an MSF extension

Open Netscape, and Compact your folders.

You don't even want those files in the Junk folder... Get rid of 'em!

Ramona