Can't Send Emails in Microsoft Outlook

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have Microsoft XP Professional operating system, I just downloaded Avast 4.6 home edition and now I can’t send Emails. Everytime I go to reply to an email, it freezes up and I have to shut down Outlook. Any help?

2

Are you sure your firewall is not blocking the emails?
Can you send emails without being scanned by avast, disabling the scanning of smtp (Outbound) mail into avast! settings?

3

I’m not sure if my firewall is blocking the emails. How can I find that out.

I do know that I did go into avast and disable the scanning of emails in outlook, and this didn’t help the cause

4

Which firewall do you have? kerio, Zone Alarm, or Windows firewall which should not block email as it looks only incoming traffic.

5

I have a Windows firewall. Could the problem lie in my Linksys router.