SUMMARY

The association between web mail hanging or timing out and Norton Antivirus script blocking running on the server.

DETAIL

If logging into web mail is slow or eventually times out, one possible reason for this may be because Norton Antivirus is running on the server.

Norton Antivirus implements Script Blocking as a security measure. This causes the FileSystemObject to hang on initialisation of the web mail client.

RESOLUTION

The following article on Microsoft's website contains information about lowering security settings or how to turn off security features: PRB: Antivirus software causes FileSystemObject calls to hang IIS

A server reboot may be required after disabling script blocking in the Norton Antivirus software.