POP3 blocked although configured

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hi.
I recently updated to Avast Free 5.0.545 and one of my POP3 connections stopped working.
If I try to connect using Mozilla Thunderbird it simply times out. It worked flawlessly earlier with older version of Avast.
This connection was not automatically listed under Real Time Shields/Mail Shield/Expert settings/SSL accounts so I added it as POP3 at port 110 with no encryption as it is configured in Thunderbird but it still blocks the connection.
If I temporarily stops the mail scan it works OK.

What am I missing?

2

Anyone with some tips & tricks?
After trying out new settings form emailscanning, does the setting work directly or do I need to restart?

3

No need to restart after editing the accounts.

You can enable debug logging in Settings/Maintenance and then post the log file
C:\ProgramData\Alwil Software\Avast5\log\Mail.log
after the problem occurs.

4

Ok, this is a log from one failed attempt. I edited out the mailserver address and IP.
I actually have the same problem with all my POP3 accounts whose server don’t listen to the POP3 SSL port.
For the IMAP and POP3 accounts where the server listens to the SSL port all works fine. Seems like Avast always try to connect to the SSL-port although I have configured no SSL in the Thunderbird settings. Why?

6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000E84: POP accept connection from: 127.0.0.1
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000E84: POP Connection handler: 00000F8C 00000FF8
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Ignored PIDs: 1852 1852
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Ignored Addresses: 127.0.0.1:80 208.77.152.158:80 208.77.154.134:80 72.3.135.203:80 193.243.128.78:80 193.243.128.76:80 62.132.1.234:80 204.58.27.61:80 204.58.27.60:80 204.58.27.58:80 204.58.27.57:80 204.58.27.53:80 204.58.27.51:80 204.58.27.50:80 204.58.27.49:80 204.58.27.45:80 204.58.27.43:80 204.58.27.42:80 204.58.27.41:80 204.58.27.37:80 204.58.27.35:80 204.58.27.34:80 204.58.27.33:80 198.200.173.74:80 198.200.173.139:80 192.168.0.108:119 127.0.0.1:119 192.168.0.108:143 127.0.0.1:143 192.168.0.108:587 127.0.0.1:587 192.168.0.108:25 127.0.0.1:25 192.168.0.108:110 127.0.0.1:110
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Ignored Processes: msnmsgr.exe avgemc.exe forx.exe FXMadeEasy.exe aoltpspd.exe waol.exe googledesktop.e tor.exe wcescomm.exe utorrent.exe ypager.exe V3P3AT.EXE bitcomet.exe mpftray.exe ABC.EXE CZDCPlusPlus.ex CRAXY.EXE NETMONSV.EXE SYMPROXYSVC.EXE NAVAPW32.EXE WEBPROXY.EXE EMULE.EXE TMPROXY.EXE isafe.exe SMPROXY.EXE ccLgView.exe ccSetMgr.exe ccPwdSvc.exe ccApp.exe ccProxy.exe ccPxySvc.exe ccEvtMgr.exe winroute.exe avast.setup
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: command REDIRECT xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:110 3316
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: PATH: \Device\HarddiskVolume1\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Host name: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Domain: xxx.xxx
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Account not found
6/16/2010 3:03:57 PM 00000F8C: Account not found

5

Avast uses its own account settings (the SSL account page) rather than Thunderbird settings. In Thunderbird SSL must be disabled for avast to be able to scan mails. If avast does not have an account for the server that Thunderbird is connecting to, avast first tries SSL and then non secure connection.

The session ends with ‘Account not found’ ? It probably will continue somehow after a while …

6

I found the following a bit later. Probably connected to the earlier logging. But this is like 4 minutes later when Thunderbird has given up long ago.
Is there a way to stop Avast from trying SSL-connections alltogether?

6/16/2010 3:07:06 PM 00000F8C: Cannot connect to POP server XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:995), connect error 10060
6/16/2010 3:07:06 PM 00000F8C: Connected to POP server XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX 110
6/16/2010 3:07:06 PM 00000F8C: connection closed (C) 0
6/16/2010 3:07:06 PM 00000F8C: --POP Finishing connection handler

7

Ok, I got it solved (probably).
I added an entry to the SSL accounts with POP3, port 110 and encryption none AND set the hostname to the exact host name that appeared in the Avast log file! Earlier on I had used the alias for the hostname that I received from the mailprovider.
So the solution was to use the exact hostname as it appeared in the log file.

Maybe it would be a good thing to match the IP-address (dotted decimal) instead of the hostname in the future?

8

I also had another mail server where I got Host not found in the Avast log (don’t know whats wrong with the DNS in this case?)
Here I could use the IP-address (dotted decimal) as hostname under SSL-accounts. Maybe this would be OK for all accounts without SSL-support?