Cannot open browser nor mail with Avast working

…which is not feasible. Installed new versions of avast Internet Security, installed new versions of browser & email client, have reset email client according to provider’s requirements, have then worked with a lot of combinations of email settings - most I could think of. When I disable Avast then I receive mail and browser windows pop right up. I enable shields one at a time and everything works fine, till I reboot, then have to disable Avast, and disable all sheilds and enable one at a time. I still can not send out email. This problem started when I upgraded to Avast 6. I like Avast, and there are so many settings variables that to go thru them all would be impractical and take forever. Please advise.

Vital stats:
OS: Windows 7 64 byte
Browser, Firefox 5
Email Client: Thunderbird 5
Avast: Internet Security 6 (paid - 3 set-ups)

Error message on sending email out:
Sending of message failed.
The message could not be sent because the connection to SMTP server mail.(my domainname).com timed out. Try again or contact your network administrator.

Have contacted Omnis [who hosts my domain name] administrator, and set email client according to their specifications, however this does not work. Omnis requies SMTP auth, which I set in Thunderbird, and turned off in Avast, but that didn’t work, so turned it off in Thunderbird and set in Avast, and that doesn’t work

Hopefully one of the moderators can move this to the correct avast! Free/Pro/Suite Forum http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2.0.

What do you mean “you can’t open browser or mail” ?
Clearly your are able to open the email program (which isn’t what I take the above to mean) or you wouldn’t be able to even check for or send emails if the program didn’t open.

Have (or did) you another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

What was your firewall before installing AIS6 ?

EDIT: ~~~~
As a temporary measure stop the Web Shield that should allow you to brows, without having to disable AIS completely.

Thanks for answering…I can open browser when I turn off shields on Avast! (which is not a way to keep my computer permanently). I can get email through the webmail configuration, instead thru my email client. The only way I can send is through webmail, again this is not a permanent solution for me as all my business and legal records are in my email client.

Thanks for help.

If you can answer my questions that helps us to help you.

Did you follow the instructions in the link I gave so that avast can scan your email ?

New version of the server isnt resolving it ?