I am getting a connection terminated error when downloading email with Outlook

When attempting to download email with any Version of Outlook or Outlook Express you may receive the following error:

Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity

In almost every senario that we have encountered this error, it has been caused either by an AntiVirus / Firewall program blocking email download or by an Internet connection problem. If you believe this may be caused by an Internet connection problem, please contact your ISP. If you are running Firewall software on your computer or have a hardware Firewall on your network, you must open up port 110 for incoming email and port 25 for outgoing email. If you believe you have done this and are still experiencing problems, try temporarily disabling the software or uninstalling it and try again.

The most common problem we have experienced is with Norton AntiVirus Email Scanning. To troubleshoot this, try temporarily disabling Email Scanning with the following steps:

1) Start Norton AntiVirus, and then click Options.
2) Click Email.
3) Uncheck Scan incoming Email and Scan outgoing Email.
4) If you are prompted to verify that your email program is not running, then click OK. Click OK.

Now try downloading your email. If this has resolved your problem, you will need to contact Symantec to troubleshoot an issue with Norton AntiVirus.

More detailed information regarding this issue with Norton Antivirus can be found in the following Symantec Knowledge Base article:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nav.nsf/docid/2001060516275506

More detailed information regarding this issue with Outlook Express can be found in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;813514&Product=out2003

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