Norton blocks ASP.NET mails!

[Ammar]

Hi!
I am running IIS 5 on windowsXP proffesional with norton internet security
proffesional 2004. I have been trying to make an ASP.NET page that sends a
report as an e mail to the webmaster of the site when a user subscribes in
the site. The page runs well, but the e mail is never delivered!
After long hours of search i found that turning norton Internet securty off
solves the whole probelm!
But then of course, i dont want to run my IIS without norton's protection, i
tried all possible combinations and alowed some program through the
firewalls, turned off the script blocking property of norton but the e mail
dosent get through!
now i am really fed up! could anyone please help me with this??
Thanks
Ammar

 

[Marina]

It sounds like you need to ask Norton, as it is their security software
that is the problem.

 

[darrel]

now i am really fed up! could anyone please help me with this??

This is norton running on the server, correct?

If so, I've never had good luck with Norton running on an IIS server. They
just don't get along.

My hunch would be that norton is looking for services on the computer that
are sending emails and blocking them. See if you can allow asp.net to send
emails within Norton's preferences.

-Darrel

 

[Ammar]

Yes the Norton is running on IIS server.
Believe me i tried all the possible adjustments in Norton firewalls and
antivirus without any luck!

 

[Ammar]

The only possible solution, asides from turning off norton internet
security, is to allow full access to the IIS in the firewalls properties,
but i am not sure what threat this could be to my computer, i mean everyone
accessing ym web site will have total access to the IIS services, dose
anyonw know if this is safe or not?
thanks again

 

[darrel]

anyonw know if this is safe or not?

Around here, we like the phrase 'a secure web server is a useless web
server' ;o)

Unfortunately, at least for us, the problems Norton caused far outweighed
any added security.

-Darrel

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Hi Ammar,

There is a BIG difference between Norton Internet Security and Norton
AntiVirus, even though Norton AntiVirus is packaged with Norton Internet
Security. Neither of them is particularly good for use on an Internet
server, and neither of them, IMHO, is your best bet for anti-virus and
security, as Symantec loves to force you to install a bunch of separate
products when you install either one of them, and some of those products are
quite Machiavellian in how they treat you, the Administrator of your system,
and difficult to disable. In your case, if you are hoping to use Norton
AntiVirus, which doesn't try to control your email services, you certainly
do NOT need Norton Internet Security. But the only way to install AntiVirus
without Norton Internet Security is to buy it separately, not as part of
Norton Internet Security. Even then, you should go back and make sure that
it isn't doing something you don't want it to do, as it will.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

 

[Ammar]

Thank you for your advice Kevin.
in that case, what would be your best choice of an antivirus and firewall
software, if you dont recomment norton??
thanks again

 

[Kevin Spencer]

Good question! Any anti-virus software is going to present some problems.
For firewall protection, a professional-grade real hardware/software
firewall is your best bet if you can afford it. If not, recent versions of
Windows have software firewall protection built in, that is probably just as
good as Norton's. If you DO use Norton for Antivirus, expect to spend some
time hacking it to get only the protection you need.

--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.

 

[dotnetasp]

I seem to be having a similar problem. My webserver (IIS5) appears t
work fine and i can see all the hosted web apps through localhost
127.0.0.1. However when i try to access any page by typing in th
server's LAN IP address it gets blocked. it also gets blocked when
try to access the pages by any other computer on the LAN. On the we
server, I am using Norton Antivirus and a separate program fo
firewalling (Zone Alarm). I have tried it with ZA disabled, also wit
ZA enabled I checked that all calls to IIS get through the firewal
which means that ZA isn't blocking anything. I can also see that call
to the webserver from other computers in the LAN also get through th
firewall, which means that the router or network card aren't blockin
anything either. I have had a sneaky feeling it might be Norto
Antivirus and after reading this thread i'm gonna have to run a fe
tests. By the way I have always heared that Norton didn't work wel
with internet firewalls but never had any problems until now... Wil
get back to you all, thanks for the advice


-
dotnetas

 

[dotnetasp]

ok i did a little research on it and here's what i found out. Some
antivirus programs inc. Norton & McAffe run a utility called script
blocking. In theory this is a good piece of protection to have, however
cript blocking prevents calls to the File System Object (FSO). THat
means that if you have script blocking enabled on your antivirus then
any program on your PC that places calls to the FSO will mulfunction.
Unfortunately for IIS users, FSO is an integral part of IIS. Note that,
at least on Norton antivirus, script blocking will run even if you
deactivate the antivirus program altogether!!! If you want to stop
script blocking you have to explicitly disable it from OPtions (if you
do that there is no need to deactive the whole program). So this is a
trade-off situation, where you have to decide whether to compromise
security by disabling script blocking and let IIS function properly or
compromise your server's functionality in the name of security. The
call is yours, but I opted for less security and proper web services.

see ya