Deactivating Avast

Once in a while I need to deactivate avast because I use Net2Phone and the antivirus degrades the connection.
I’ve noticed that once I activate “Stop on Access protection and exit” then I’m not able to send or receive email. I realize this is a safety feature but I would like to be able to bypass it completely, that is, I’d like to be able to make the avast completely inactive if I so choose without affecting other operations. Is there a way to do this?

Also, when I reactivate avast by clicking on “On Access protection control” and then click on Start on the dialog box that opens, I get another dialog box that says" Error 0x00046101, the operation could not be clompleted." When I press OK avast does restart, but the error message is a bit annoying. ANy comment on this?

To disable the avast mail scanner completely, you have to run Mail Protection Wizard (menu Start → Programs → avast! antivirus → Mail Protection Wizard) and remove protection from your accounts.