Conflict between Thunderbird and Avast Virus Scanner?

Within the last two weeks, since I upgraded my Thunderbird program, a problem has been encountered that never happened previously. I leave my computer on most of the time, and have always been able to check my email with a click of the “get mail” button. Now, I often get the message that it cannot connect with the POP3 server. Sometimes it happens when I am sending out an email – the SMTP server is down. The only solution I have come up with so far is rebooting.

Avast, which I started using only a short time before upgrading Thunderbird seems to be playing a role in this problem in that a icon has appeared indicating some kind of connection to a POP2 server. When everything is working well, this icon is not there; but it is when a reboot is needed.

Any help that may be given is much appreciated, as rebooting is a hassle when you’re in the middle of sending or receiving emails.

Thanks

Avast and Thunderbird work just fine together. If you think it is avast, disable the providers one at a time and see if it makes a difference. Also search this board for tips on how to setup things with thunderbird/avast.

Which is your operational system?
Do you use a firewall?