Just recently I have been experiencing a strange problem downloading my emails into Outlook Express. I am running Windows XP with Norton Antivirus and Zonealarm firewall.

I always check my emails on the Yahoo webmail site before downloading the good ones into Outlook Express. When the Receive All button in Outlook Express is clicked, Zonealarm warns that ‘Symantec User Session is trying to access the Internet’ with the options Allow and Deny.

If I click on Deny, Outlook Express refuses to download the emails with an error message that says ‘Your server unexpectedly terminated the connection’. If I click on Allow the emails download as normal. Why is this happening?
Keith Beadle

The key here is that you have Norton Antivirus installed on your computer. Because it scans emails before they arrive in Outlook Express, it is this that is connecting to the internet, not Outlook Express.

You have confirmed this by reporting that the emails are not downloaded if the Deny option is selected. To stop this from happening again, click in the small tick box at the bottom of the Zonealarm window that says remember this response and then click on Allow.