Avast blocking email on wifi (and lost passwords)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

OS: Windows 7

Dear Avast Gurus, please help!

I have had trouble sending and receiving emails with Outlook 2010 ever since installing an automatic Avast Emergency Update a week ago. Previously everything was working fine and that is the only thing that has changed.

Since then I have tried everything, I did a full system scan, malware scan with Super-Anti Spyware and even re-installed Avast using Avast Cleaner.

I have subsequently discovered that I can send and receive emails using my phone as a hotspot but can’t use the wifi connection which I was using before to send and receive emails (web browsing is ok). Avast complains that the router has a weak password but I am a guest at an Airbnb apartment so do not have access to the ISP or router settings. Besides I have been here a month and it was ok until a week ago. I can’t use webmail on the wifi either but I can access it with the Hotspot so it is nothing to do with my email settings. I can get my G-suite based work emails into and out of Outlook whether on the wifi or hotspot.

So there are now two things that I need help with please:

  1. Change Avast settings to allow access to my email server
  2. Retrieve all the passwords that I lost when I reinstalled Avast and the Avast Passwords component (I hope that is possible considering I used the Cleaner program).

I have had to create a new password just to get into this forum :confused:

Thank you!

PS some other things are not right but I have no idea how long this has been going on. My Task Scheduler is no longer working correctly so I do not have any automatic restore points to go back to except one I created manually a month ago. The Emergency Updater seems to be running as scheduled and Google updates but not much else is going on there.

2
  • Which Avast…? (Free/Pro/IS/Premier)
  • Which version…?
  • OS…? (32/64 Bit…? - which SP/Build…?)
  • Other security related software installed…?
3

Avast Internet Security 18.4.2338
Windows 7 64 bit SP1
Super Anti-Spyware
Malware Bytes (which I only installed after this problem occurred so that I could scan the update file for malware)
C-Cleaner
Windows Defender (also installed this week)

4

Repair Avast:

  1. Control Panel → Add/Remove programs → Avast
  2. Click on ‘Repair’.
  3. Follow instructions.
  4. Reboot.

PS: Regarding Avast & Malwarebytes, see: https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/200324-exclusions-for-avast-users/

5

Thanks Asyn, I’ve followed the instructions for Malwarebytes and have excluded the Avast files and vice versa.

Repairing Avast was one of the first things I tried before I reinstalled it but it didn’t work. Have tried it again anyway and despite excluding Malwarebytes it flagged it as incompatible.

Still no email.

Update: I retrieved my passwords and the extension is working! I followed these instructions found in the FAQs of the Passwords board :-[

If the Avast Passwords browser extension reports an issue:

Go to your internet browser Extensions section and uninstall the Avast Passwords browser extension. For instructions on how to uninstall extensions, refer to your internet browser's documentation.
Open the Avast user interface and select Privacy ▸ Passwords.
Click Settings in the top-right corner of the screen.
Select the Browser Integration tab from the left-side panel and click Add extension next to the internet browser reporting an issue
6

As I don’t use Outlook, nope. Wait for another helper and/or submit a ticket: https://support.avast.com/contact

7

Thanks anyway Asyn

8

You’re welcome.