Short version: Avast Free is blocking receiving email on a Win 7 computer with Outlook 2007.
Is there a fix for this?
Long version: I’m on my computer, not my wife’s. I updated her Avast Free last night, so it is the most recent update as of 8-28-22. I have not updated this computer.
Today she got an error (see below) while trying to get email for the first time since the update. Naturally I first though it might be a ISP problem. I then checked email on this, not updated computer, and things were sent/relieved with no error. That eliminated the ISP. I check all Account settings and they are identical on both systems.
I disabled Avast on her computer for a test, and like magic she is now able to send/receive with no issue.
I checked for another update, and none available.
Error:
“Task xxxxxxx - Receiving reported error (0x800CCClA) : 'Your server does not support the connection encryption type you have specified. Try changing the encryption method. Contact your mail server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP) for additional assistance.”
today we released a new beta version that should fix all the connection problems. Would you please be so kind and try the beta and check whether you can successfully send/receive mail messages? https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=320992.0
Honestly, I’ve seen reports of similar problems since the last year, or even longer.
It just always seemed to be that such shields, like Mail Shield and Behavior Shield, cause more problems than they add to protection.
So, I’d recommend you (if you value your personal time) to completely disable both shields (ideally, removing those components would be even better, since you wouldn’t be able to accidentally enable them).
Or at least you can disable the Mail Shield, if you have no other issues for now.
Your most important protection comes from the Web Shield and File Shield.
The former will protect you when you browse around the web in your browser, and the latter will prevent you from running harmful programs on your PC (including them trying to run automatically).
In other words, having a separate Web Shield is kinda overprotection, as you shouldn’t be able to get infected even if you do download a bad file or it tries to run automatically.
(Also, if possible, it’s safer to switch to a web interface (especially great with gmail service) instead of using an extra application like Outlook.)
Anyway, that all is just my opinion, though based on observing how many people complain about various issues, and personal experience with only ever using two shields Web and File one, and having no virus issues for many years.
Check email, Win 7 Home, Outlook 2007, same error, close Outlook.
Check Avast Free, no new updates, running v22.9.6032, b22.9.7526.734, release 8.31.22.
Turn off Avast, get email - 22 emails, no errors - close Outlook, restart Avast, open Outlook and send test email to self (*sending has Not been affected.).
Come Forum to check for thread updates, found 2. Tried InvisibleMan’s suggestion to turn off Mail Shield and now No errors checking email. If I leave it off, at least my wife can now check email on her own. Turned it back on to do as HK suggests.
Downloaded Tool, sent another test email, check email, same error. Run Tool (took a long time!) and the File ID is:
As you can imagine, stopping to get my wife’s email when she wants it is more than inconvenient as she checks email frequently and I’m busy.
So, what do I do?
1- Leave Mail Shield off? I guess that might be better than turning Avast Free off, even if it’s only a couple of minutes, but at least this way she can check email on her own. Or,
2- Revert to the prior version that doesn’t have this problem - ** I like this better than Option #1. (I’ll have to check my computer for version number, but that’ll have to do that later.)
Also, was anything actually 'installed' to run the Tool? If so how do I uninstall it?
Reverting might cause problems in theory, as going to previous versions of any such complex software doesn’t always work the way you expect, unless you do have the offline installer backed up for this version and can clean install it.
Realistically, you shouldn’t be in much danger without the Mail Shield, as long as Web and File ones are running.
If you hit some dangerous link inside an email, it would try to get open in a browser, where the Web Shield would prevent your device getting infected.
If you download some suspicious file from mail and run it, it would still run on your computer, so File Shield would stop any virus it can detect.
So, I would recommend just go the simplest route: just stopping Mail Shield forever.
I myself never had that shield for many years of going around quite dangerous places on the internet, where Avast successfully protected me via Web or even File shield (judging by the detection logs).
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Hi HK. I’m kind of in the middle here. Tech Support first sent me an email wondering what was going on. So I sent them the link to this thread (I originally did that in the Comment section, but the link may have been removed for security), and they replied they are glad it’s being handled in the Forum…
Unfortunately simply leaving a link to this topic is unlikely to give detailed information.
That is why HK asked if you can create a support package, that gathers the information and uploads it. Giving the Support Package ID here, gives them a means to link the Support Package to you.
Well Avast 22.9.6034 (build 22.9.7554.734) has very recently been released. So I would have expected that to have fixes bi the beta version to have been applied.