system
7
Wow - thanks for the prompt, numerous replies.
I’ll start by updating her machine to v6.0 later today… She, like me, is set to "auto-update, but is still on v5.1. So I’ll do it manually. I’d guess that her sudden problem occurred due to the auto updates…working one day then not the next.
She’s been running both Zone Alarm and Avast for a long time with no problems…maybe a year or two.
She does use an email client - a stand alone program on her computer, not web-based email. Thunderbird by Mozilla.
And her ISP is actually earthnet, not earthlink - my bad. Hard for me to keep them straight when I don’t use them. Earthnet worked with her to assure proper settings for her servers. They suggested disabling Avast as a check. And it worked.
To restate, it clearly was the Web Shield that made the difference, not Mail Shield. I turned them on/off one-by-one until I got a change. With Web Shield on, hitting Send in the email program, Thunderbird, put up a progress window with a moving, repeating bar as it tried to connect/send, but it never did. When I disabled Web Shield and tried again, the progress window showed very briefly then was replaced with a message saying mail sent successfully. In only a second or so. I turned Web Shield on and off a few times and tested it. When Web Shield was on it would not allow a send of email. When Web Shield was disabled the email sent every time. The other Shields had no effect.
I’ll report back after the version upgrade, and maybe try the other items noted, like SSL stuff, if just the upgrade does not work.
Thanks!