I think Avast did an automatic update yesterday and since then it’s been blocking my emails. It’s version 5.0.594.
I’ve found I can get the email to work by going to Settings>Troubleshooting>Redirect settings and taking out the port numbers for POP and SMTP under the Mail section - just leaving it blank, but is this OK? Am I leaving myself unprotected?
I think it is something to do with the Avast not being able to read SSL encryption, but in my email client (Thunderbird) I’ve got never use SSL selected…
I’ve been struggling with Avast/Thunderbird/SSL for more than an hour now.
You say you’ve set TB to “never use SSL”. Where do you see that option, i can’t find it in Thunderbird 3.1.2. But the TB settings that work for me are in Tools>>account settings, then choose the following in the left side of the window (and change the options on the right side)
Server settings: Security settings → connection security: none, authentication method: password transmitted insecurely (that last one might differ in your case but that’s what my provider tells me).
Outgoing server (SMTP): choose an smtp server, then click edit. Set the same as for pop3 (connection security: none, authentication method: password transmitted insecurely).
With those settings i can send and receive emails and they’re being scanned too (you can see this in the main avast window>>real-time shields>>mail shield (expand the “shield traffic” bar to make the graph visible). Whenever a mail is scanned, you should see a bar in the realtime graph and under the graph there’s a text showing which email was the last to be scanned).
By the way, i didn’t know about the redirect settings until i read about them in your post. I’ve been trying to set up SSL with other settings (main window>>real-time shields>>mail shield>>expert settings>>SSL accounts and added the (i think) proper entries there. Then i read your post, looked in the redirecting settings and saw that the SSL ports weren’t even listed there so i added them. If i enable SSL encryption in TB the emails are blocked (or let through but unscanned, if the SSL ports are not listed in Avast redirect settings), but if i use the above settings i can send and receive and the mail is scanned. I’d like to verify that encryption was actually used though, i don’t know how to do that
In order for e-mails to be scanned by the Mail Shield, it is necessary that encryption is turned off in the mail client software. If encryption is required, appropriate e-mail accounts needs to be configured in the Mail Shield to establish a secure connection with the mail server. This will enable all incoming and outgoing e-mails to be scanned by the Mail Shield. All other e-mail accounts using unencrypted connections should be listed as unencrypted in the SSL Accounts settings of the Mail Shield (i.e. SSL/TLS encryption to ‘None’, ports for SMTP to ‘25’, for POP3 to ‘110’ or for IMAP to ‘143’, by default).
