Can not send or receive email when internet mail turned on

??? I am using AVAST 4.7 on a Windows XP machine, windows firewall, and microsoft outlook email program. Earthlink ISP DSL connection. With internet mail in AVAST turned on I can neither send nor receive email. Has anyone else encountered this problem before.

Welcome to the avast forum.

Is this a recent problem?

Did you recently install avast?

If yes, were you using a previous antivirus program (which one) and have you completely removed it?

If you are using MS Outlook (not express) you shouldn’t need the Internet Mail provider, but the Outlook/Exchange plug-in.