Why dont my Ichat and Mail work correctly

Question

Hello
I recently have been problems with my Ichat version 1.01 and my mac mail client.
What happens is when I restart my computer my Ichat and my Mail dont work.
First the Mail I can recieve mail fine but I can not send mail everytime i hit compose i get the spinning beach ball also i can not access the menu options even before i hit compose i get the beach ball.
on Ichat when i log in it takes a while then i get a messege
saying
Uncaught exception:
NSPort Timeout Exception
[NSPortCoder send Before Time : send Reply Port:]
timed out
I also get this messege
(null) is disabled
you must enable the service to diplay list
and give you option to enable or quit
enable does nothing
i also cant access the menu bar
Now heres the weird thing after working on my computer for a few or more hours all theses symtoms go away till i next reboot my computer
I have tried everything to fix this problem on my own i ran Nortons anti virus , norton utilities and diskwarrior none have seem to do anything to help the problem
sometimes when i run the Norton Utilities it quits before it finishes the search say something unkown has caused to to cancel.
So i am a bit confused on all these problems and they seem to come out of no where so if you could help I would great apprieciate it.
Jake

Answer 1

The glaring problem to resolve first is this.
sometimes when i run the Norton Utilities it quits before it finishes
the search say something unkown has caused to to cancel.
Unless there is a hard drive directory problem that Disk First Aid repair cannot successfully repair you don't need Disk Warrior but since you have it, you shouldn't let Norton Utilities anywhere near your hard drive but you should do so regardless.
Three years ago or maybe longer, Symantec announced they will no longer be supporting Norton Utilities with OS X which means no new updates or versions. Norton Utilities has been known to cause more problems than it resolves with OS X which Symantec could never get right so there are good reasons Symantec made this decision.
The first thing I would do if Norton Utilities is installed on your hard drive is to use the Norton uninstall utility to remove it completely from the hard drive. Check Symantec's website for an updated uninstall utility you can download since the uninstall utility included on your install disc is out of date and don't use it again especially since you have Disk Warrior which is highly regarded and recommended for OS X. The Norton Utilities install disc makes a nice coaster.
Regarding the Mail.app problem, try the following:
Quit the Mail.app first and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
Note: Moving the com.apple.mail.plist file out of the Preferences folder will require re-entering all email account information when re-launching Mail.
The only exception to this is if you have a .Mac account and/or if you created an email account as part of the original computer setup assistant when first turning on the Mac when new which may be recreated automatically. If so and you no longer access any account recreated automatically, you can delete the account from within Mail.
Launch Mail and decline any prompt to import mailboxes. After re-entering all email account information the same as before, the Mail.app should rediscover the existing account named folders and mailbox files at Home > Library > Mail.
After confirming all mailboxes were successfully rediscovered, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder and old com.apple.mail.plist file from the Desktop.
Test if this resolves the problem.