Non SSL SMTP stopped working after uninstalling Avast 7 (or 8) [SOLVED!]

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

There’s been a few topics about this, but I couldn’t find one exactly like this one.

Avast 7 (free) was working fine.
Updated to Avast 8 → smtp mail stopped working. Also when deleting the list like Avast tells you to.
Uninstalled Avast 8 → still not working.
Installed Avast 7 → worked again.
Deleted the SSL server list. Uninstalled Avast 7 → still not working.

It seems Avast 7 has set some option within the system to force non ssl (port 25) smtp to use port 465, but when uninstalling Avast the system (or both Outlook and Thunderbird) still tries to use that port?
How do I get my mail working again in a way like Avast has never been installed in the first place?

I know I can use SSL and hassle with the certificate to get it to work, like described in most other topics, but I would like it to work the way it should work. I installed Avast on about every family member’s computer, don’t want to force them to keep using Avast because of this.

Any thoughts?

2

with avast 8 you should use default account settings in your mail client…and not change like you needed to do with avast 7

3

Setting were on default, port 25, non SSL, that’s the one not working.

4

After extensive testing, installing, uninstalling, enabling, etc, etc, I can’t get my Outlook or TB to work without SSL.

I guess this is a remainder of Avast 7?

5

It works like this:

In Avast7

  • you have to remove SSL inside your mail client and turn it into non-ssl. This way avast is able to scan the mails.
  • since the mail server requires SSL and you’ve removed it from the mail client, you have to setup a SSL Mail account inside avast - this will “re-enable” the ssl on those connections from MailShield to the SMTP Server

Once you turn-off or uninstall avast7, there is no one to re-enable the ssl for you, and your mails can not work since they are in plain text and as such unsupported by (many) SMTP/POP/IMAP servers.

In Avast8

  • no actions should be necessary in your mail clients. Leave the SSL on. MailShield now understands SSL encrypted connections.
  • if your turn MailShield off, no actions are necessary, everything should work
  • if you have problems with SSL certificates while MailShield is running - you should follow our KB article and add avast root certificate into your SSL certificate storage (e.g. Thunderbird’s one). Since MailShield is sitting on the wire it has to decrypt and re-encrypt the connection for you, in order to be able to scan it - that’s why it uses its own certifacate root to sign its own connections.

Of course - if your mail server (SMTP server) does not require/support SSL at all, its a completely different story :slight_smile:

6

It turns out, it was the perfect storm of troubles…

  • While using Avast 7, my ISP started blocking port 25 to external smtp servers. I couldn’t notice because Avast 7 was turning it into SSL port 465.
  • When upgrading to 8, port 25 came back into play because that was set in Outlook. Resulting in an connection error due to my ISP.
  • It also turned out, the SSL certificate on the external server refers to the hosting providers domain, also resulting in an error that somehow wasn’t present when Avast 7 was handling the SSL, and also is not present when using the iPhone mail app (maybe I checkmarked it trusted some time ago, but I couldn’t get that permanent this time).
  • So the only way it was actually working was setting the email setting at port 25 and run Avast 7. Uninstalling Avast resulted in an error on port 25 due to my ISP and on port 465 due to my hosting provider. In the end it wasn’t Avast’s fault, but both my ISP and hosting provider’s “fault”.

I can use an alternative port for non SSL, or use an alternative smtp address (from hosting provider) the certificate is referring to.

Problem solved :slight_smile: