happened to me too on a brand new windows 8 asus fresh factory install using latest avast 8.0.1483
but i want to note a few other items i also discovered in a weekend troubleshooting process before following a hunch that avast port/ssl might be worth looking into.
turning on ‘inbound mail scanner’ not only threw the certificate dialog which worked for only that session if i accept the exception ‘permanently’ and the mail stops downloading after that session. but that same “on” setting also caused elements on my keyboard to stop working incl. the touchpad clicker and the arrow keys. deleting the exception, using TB 995 SSL and turning off ‘scan inbound mail’ in settings released the grip avast had on my keyboard and allowed my SSL port: 995 email to download properly.
it took my whole sunday to figure this out, so not too confident i should bother to take the additional steps to import the certificate/exception per steps http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle (if i must do this everytime i change or setup a new machine - at least past versions would provide user info/option to change ports to enable SSL scanning etc.) specially, if scanning mail isnt that critical or advisable if AV programs detect and stop viruses as soon as they try to execute and the risk of allowing an AV to delete or quarantine virus could result in the whole email folder (your inbox) to disappear.
i’d like to 2nd all of these sentiments:
-There is simply no other reasonable conclusion but that Avast SSL mail scanning does not presently work properly with at least some SSL accounts set up on Thunderbird.
-I had to delete the existing certificate in Thunderbird to get this working
-Got mine working by following the export/import certificate dance. I am an IT guy and this was anything but straightforward; I pity the average home user who encounters this issue. I am amazed that Avast expects people to 1) FIGURE OUT the cause of this problem. Thunderbird puts up a generic SMTP error. Even an experience googler will find it VERY difficult to attribute the problem to Avast.
Problem has been solved spontaneously for a few days, then now the same story… Yesterday it has’nt got any matter, from today afternoon Thunderbird has timed out again (no message trafic, it’s blocked) until I ticked out SSL scanning.
I had the same issue after updating my mom’s computer (Vista OS) to Avast on the 9th - her email is Sympatico. I tried the fixes suggested and nothing worked. This morning I went to Bell Canada to double check the settings needed for POP3 thinking that perhaps Bell had made changes.
The issue was with the ‘Incoming’ settings. When I had originally installed Thunderbird, it took me two days to figure out the settings needed to make Sympatico work since Thunderbird was not able to do it automatically; and, of course, I had an older version of Avast.
For incoming mail settings, Bell recommended ‘Yes’ for’SSL required’ which would set the Port to 995; however, I had to set it to ‘None’ which changed the Port to 110. Today, I returned to that recommended setting for ‘Incoming’ and this solved the problem with accessing Sympatico mail through Thunderbird.
I would recommend that users having this issue go back and double check their providers recommended settings for their Incoming email in POP3. It is possible you had to originally ignore those settings when you first set up you POP3 mail accounts in Thunderbird.
I have tried this procedure several times. Sometimes it seems to work, but after awhile it stops working.
I am constantly being asked to allow a permanent security exception for all the servers whose names I deleted in the instructions.
I frequently am unable to send any outbound msgs at all unless I stop the mail shield. When I stop it, all the problems stop. When I restart it, sometimes I’ll get lucky, and sometimes I’ll have to stop it again.
The old method of intercepting emails and inserting secure login data that was in effect through Avast 7 always worked well. The current process is an abject and utter failure.
Just the act of keeping Thunderbird open for a long time almost guarantees that I will hit the “connection limit” described elsewhere in these forums. That was not happening with Avast 7. (Yes, I have tried several times to edit the INI file as instructed. I’m the sole administrator and sole user of my XP, and I can never get permission to modify that file.)
and go down near the end, where Vojtech has posted a link to a .dll file. Install it as instructed. If that does not fix the problem, then reset Avast to factory default (it’s under troubleshooting) and reboot when prompted.
This worked for me. Thank you. Since fewer than 1% of users could follow this solution and 0% should have to I have found another solution. Control panel>Add/remove programs>Avast>uninstall
:)Maybe good news for some of you…I had this problem with my new computer. It has W7 pro on it, and I first installed Thunderbird, and then installed Avast several days later. Thunderbird worked perfectly until I installed Avast, and the symptoms were that Thunderbird was not able to connect to my mail server, either to receive or send messages. It took me a while to even realize that Avast might be the problem. Then I found this thread, and started adjusting things, as suggested. I was able to export the Avast certificate and import it into Thunderbird, but this did not solve the problem. Then I noticed that in reply #38, by stduc, he/she mentioned that the Thunderbird certificate needed to be deleted and re-imported from Avast. Well, I deleted the Avast certificate from Thunderbird, and then tested Thunderbird, and it worked! Well, sort of. Thunderbird asked me to confirm certificate exceptions, which I did, and THEN it worked just fine, with Avast doing its scanning like it should.
So I have this diagnosis: Avast found the Thunderbird folders when it was being installed, and inserted a certificate, which didn’t work. I have other computers where Avast was installed before Thunderbird, and I did not have this problem. So now I suppose Thunderbird has created whatever certificate information it needs, and it has done that right. As far as I know, everything is working just fine, and as designed to work. I hope this helps someone!
