PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange: troubleshooting spam rules download problems
Issue
PureMessage spam rules are failing to download.
Sophos product and version
PureMessage for Microsoft Exchange
Operating system
Windows 2000
Windows 2003
What to do
PureMessage spam rules may fail to download for several reasons. The following troubleshooting steps guide you through the most likely reasons for this problem. Please follow them in order.
1. Check the secondary download Address and User name/password
2. Check your firewall
3. Clear the AutoUpdate cache
4. Try re-installing Sophos AutoUpdate
5. Contact Sophos Technical Support
1. Check the secondary server details
Check this by right clicking on the Sophos shield icon and clicking 'Configure updating'. Then click on the Secondary server tab.
- The 'Address' should be set to 'Sophos'.
- Check the User name: This should be set to the required username as described in the knowledgebase article 12194
- Ensure that the proxy server is correctly configured, if applicable.
For more information, see Installing Enterprise Console and PureMessage for Windows/Exchange onto the same network.
2. Check that your firewall is not blocking the updates
You must configure your firewall (or other equipment) as follows:
To allow the following files to pass through:
- xml files (*.xml)
- dat files (*.dat)
- PureMessage-AntiSpam-Data.ppd
- PureMessage-AntiSpam-Data-YYYY.MM.DD.XXXXX.tar.gz
- PureMessage-AntiSpam-Data-YYYY.MM.DD.XXXXX-YYYY.MM.DD.XXXXX.asdf
To allow access to the Sophos download locations:
3. Clear the AutoUpdate cache
The problem can also be caused by a corrupt cache
- Stop the Sophos AutoUpdate service in Windows Services.
- Delete contents of the following folder: C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\Cache
- Delete contents of the following folder: C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\Data\Warehouse
- Delete contents of the following folder: C:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\Data\Channels
- Delete c:\Program Files\Sophos\AutoUpdate\data\status\status.xml
- If any "pmsr_tempXX" folders exist within: c:\Program Files\Sophos\PureMessage\ please move them to a new folder within the Puremessage directory.
- Delete the contents of the following folder c:\Program Files\Sophos\PureMessage\datadir (you may need to stop the Puremessage service).
- Restart the Sophos AutoUpdate service.
- Run an update (you may need to watch the alc.log to view its progress).
4. Remove Sophos AutoUpdate from Add/Remove programs
If the cache is not corrupt, the version of AutoUpdate may be out of date.
- Remove Sophos AutoUpdate from Add/Remove programs.
- Navigate to C:\Windows\Temp and delete the sophos_autoupdate folder.
- Browse to the central installation directory and run setup.exe to reinstall the Sophos Anti-Virus.
- If running a standalone installation of Sophos Anti-Virus, download the Sophos Anti-Virus standalone installer from http://www.sophos.com/support/updates/ and run through the installation wizard.
- Once installed, right click the Sophos shield icon and choose 'Update now'.
5. Contact Sophos Technical Support
If the spam update still fails, please contact Sophos Technical Support.
If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.
- Article ID: 29452
- Created: 12 Sep 2007
- Last updated: 14 Oct 2008
