Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: gadgetfan on October 24, 2013, 01:13:44 AM
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I just received the 2014 update this morning, and now I find that Avast and Thunderbird aren't playing nicely. I now routinely (though not every single time) receive an Avast error message when I start Thunderbird, advising that it couldn't scan my SSL email, and that I may need to configure SSL manually. The text of the message reads "The avast! Mail Shield encountered a problem with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually." It's followed by a prompt to open Avast's SSL settings.
Ok, that's fine. Tell me how to configure it manually. The Avast help simply says that you check the box if you want Avast to scan SSL email. Exporting the Avast-provided SSL certificate and importing it into Thunderbird doesn't seem to change anything. The error message still appears. I know Avast 2014 does things differently than prior versions. Is there a walkthrough for exactly how to set up Avast and Thunderbird using SSL?
I'm using Avast 2014.9.0.2006 and Thunderbird 24.0.1 on Windows 7 (64-bit).
Thanks.
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Is there a walkthrough for exactly how to set up Avast and Thunderbird using SSL?
lots of info in the FAQ section
http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle
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Is there a walkthrough for exactly how to set up Avast and Thunderbird using SSL?
lots of info in the FAQ section
http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle
Those only go up through Avast 8. My setup worked fine in v8. With this new version, they've apparently changed something and now it doesn't work properly. The error message I receive is not covered in the FAQ at this point.
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Hi,
I got the same problem and have to say, that the error message is absolute rubbish. It just says "Uh, something does not work.". So what now? There are no settings to change and the mail certificate is up to date. It worked absolutely perfect with avast 8 and now suddenly it doesn't. Sorry, but how do you test your new versions?! Not at all?
So long.
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same problem here - I had to install 2014 for 8.1, and then prob started.
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same problem here - I had to install 2014 for 8.1, and then prob started.
Please, stick to your thread and post the requested info. You are not helping to get your problem solved by complain left and right without providing any information.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=138169.0
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Funny that, I just downgraded to Avast 8 and now it works without any problems. So I'll stick to version 8 until this stupid message box is changed in a way that it is helpful.
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Hello,
I would like to add my own experience...
I too have the same problem, i.e., from time to time (not always) I can see the following Avast! pop up window:
[img]http://postimg.org/image/w40fnztn5/[img]
(saying: "The avast! Mail Shield encountered a probelm with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually.
Click OK to open the Mail Shield Configuration page.")
The strange thing is that in Statistics, Mail Shield seems to work (along with the others).
In view of the advice on this thread, I followed two different approaches/procedures:
a) the procedure (by the letter) described here: http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle.
Yet, the problem remained... So, I deleted the installed Avast! certificate in Thunderbird, in "Authorities" tab, (the "Servers" tab was empty from any Avast! entry, anyway) and (since I have Avast! version: 2014.9.0.2008) I followed procedure:
b) Settings > Active Protection > I chose "Mail Shield", clicked on Settings (i.e., Mail Shield Settings) > SSL Scanning (the "Scan SSL connections" was already checked), I chose "Export Certificate" (which, in contrast to the procedure in a) produces a certificate with .der -instead of .cer- format). The exportation was successful and, I imported the new one -as described in a).
Once again, the problem persists.
So, clearly it seems that there a kind of conflict between Avast! and Thunderbird, therefore, I was thinking (as a workaround, and until a final solution is found) what if someone un-checks the "Scan SSL connections" ? I mean, that still the computer is protected, is not it?
Info: Avast! 2014.9.0.2008 and Thunderbird 24.1.0 on Windows 7 Professional @ 64-bit.
Thank you in advance.
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Hello,
I would like to add my own experience...
I too have the same problem, i.e., from time to time (not always) I can see an Avast! pop up window saying that it couldn't scan my SSL email, and that I may need to configure SSL manually (unfortunately, I did not take a snapshot of it). The strange thing is that in Statistics, Mail Shield seems to work (along with the others).
Having the same problem.
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Had the same problem. Here's the solution that worked for me (from memory):
Start Thunderbird and in the left pane click on your email account then click "view settings for this account"
Server Settings: Make sure that connection security is set to "SSL/ TLS" and "Normal Password"
Then in the left pane click "Outgoing Server" then click on your email account in the window then click "Edit"
Apply the same settings as before.
Click Ok and shut down Thunderbird. Maybe reboot to be on the safe side.
There are no setttings to configure in Avast - just tick the boxes in the mail shield settings.
Start Thunderbird and if you get a warning - I don't remember the exact wording but something like "unusual activity or a connection security warning" just allow the connection if prompted. If you're asked to add a certificate and security exception - go ahead. It will allow Avast to scan your email and everything should then work fine.
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I've just remembered some useful stuff regarding Avast scanning email in Thunderbird (or any other email client) on Windows 7.
Thunderbird additional settings:
Tools> Options> Security> Antivirus
Tick the box to allow antivirus to quarantine incoming messages.
Probably it will now quarantine anything loaded with a dodgy script. However Windows 7 isn't configured by default to call antivirus programs when opening attachments. (Believe it or not!) So that means that if you attempt to open an attachment and for some reason Avast fails to scan it - you will still be able to open the attachment. There's a way to ensure that if an attachment scan fails then the ability to open that attachment will be blocked by windows.
What you need to do is use Group Policy Editor to ensure that Windows 7 notifies antivirus programs to scan attachments:
Type gpedit.msc in the Start menu’s search box and then press Enter.
Navigate to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and then select Attachment Manager in the left column of the Group Policy Editor.
Double-click Notify antivirus programs when opening attachments in the Settings section of the Group Policy Editor.
Select Enable and then click OK to save the changes.
Group Policy Editor is not available in some Windows 7 editions (Home Premium, Home Basic and Starter). Only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions come with Group Policy Editor installed.
If you'd like to add Group Policy Editor to the Home Premium, Home Basic or Starter version of Windows 7 there's an installation guide and download link here and it works:
http://www.askvg.com/how-to-enable-group-policy-editor-gpedit-msc-in-windows-7-home-premium-home-basic-and-starter-editions/
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Group Policy Editor is not available in some Windows 7 editions (Home Premium, Home Basic and Starter). Only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions come with Group Policy Editor installed.
It's my guess that a large majority of users would not be comfortable editing Group Policy settings, even if their particular version of Windows has that facility, and they should not have to.
The settings necessary to have Avast work properly with mainstream email clients like Thunderbird should have been properly documented in either the help file, or a FAQ specific to the 2014 version before the product was released to the public. Maybe it is somewhere - I'm still looking.
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I have the same problem with Thunderbird and SSL scanning. However I get the Avast popup occasionally when coming out of standby mode with Thunderbird active. My guess is a timing problem between Avast and Tbird. The mail scan does work, the Avast complaint about the certificate is a nuisance. My OS is Windows 8 x64.
This same configuration worked flawlessly with Avast 8.x
As a workaround I disabled SSL scanning...
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@ Callender
Regarding your first post: everything was already adjusted as you said (so, not a workaround for my case).
Regarding your second post: I am extremely reluctant to play with those Windows utilities. On top of that, I totally agree with olddog's reply.
@ Olddog
Thumb up
@ Ahwphx
I tend to believe that what you did (and which was one of my thoughts) is (probably) the only realistic workaround -at least until a proper adjustment/solution from Avast! appears.
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Sorry that it didn't work for you. Perhaps consider fully removing Thunderbird then reinstalling. There's no guarantee that it would solve the problem!
As for the Group Policy settings - I just posted that "for information only" and didn't intend to suggest that it would be a good idea for inexperienced users to mess about with it. It's just that I'm aware that a standard windows 7 installation has numerous security misconfigurations that could be fixed/ improved and that's just one of them.
Picture the following scenario: Another user has access to your machine and disables the Avast mail shield in order to download and open an attachment that is blocked. They can do that no problem but with the fix in place it's impossible. Of course this shouldn't concern you if you're the sole user.
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Sorry that it didn't work for you. Perhaps consider fully removing Thunderbird then reinstalling. There's no guarantee that it would solve the problem!
As for the Group Policy settings - I just posted that "for information only" and didn't intend to suggest that it would be a good idea for inexperienced users to mess about with it. It's just that I'm aware that a standard windows 7 installation has numerous security misconfigurations that could be fixed/ improved and that's just one of them.
Picture the following scenario: Another user has access to your machine and disables the Avast mail shield in order to download and open an attachment that is blocked. They can do that no problem but with the fix in place it's impossible. Of course this shouldn't concern you if you're the sole user.
If I may, uninstalling and installing -and that because of a peculiarity of behalf of Avast!- is not a decent option! I prefer to disable the scanning of SSL/TLS connections instead, or even to use another antivirus (in the worst case scenario).
Regarding the other stuff,two observations:
a) well... even so, Avast! should be able to scan the entire system afterwards -it is its role after all...
b) I am the only user of this machine
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I have been around the houses with this issue. none of the solutions suggested on the forum (not just on this thread) or by Avast support have helped. initially one solution re fixing certificates seemed to work, but today I suddenly could not send emails again. This is unbelievably flaky. I have had to turn off email scanning completely and hope that the file system scan covers it. My ISP does some pretty good spam handling so I'm not too worried about that.
I'm now wondering what I paid for since the SafeZone (which seemed like a great idea, a way to turn off that resource hungry rapport service) is a bit flaky as well. I guess I can chalk it up to experience (and also the fact that Avast the free version did a solid job for several years - wierd how as soon as I start paying for software it seems to degrade in quality...)
I may move to another antivirus eventually , Ad-Aware is getting some really good reviews, but I'd like to give Avast a chance to sort this out - I think they should realise they will seriously lose custom here
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I may move to another antivirus eventually , Ad-Aware is getting some really good reviews, but I'd like to give Avast a chance to sort this out - I think they should realise they will seriously lose custom here
I had the same thought, yet -after a lot of research- I came up with the conclusion that there is no flawless solution. For instance, the BitDefender (free edition) has major conflicts with CCleaner (a very handy and useful piece of software -in Windows OS). Similar drawbacks can be found in almost all of the solutions out there (like, e.g., Avira, AVG, Panta Cloud, etc).
So, for the time being I stay with Avast (which, otherwise, is pretty good) hoping that eventually the problem will be solved. If case that the problem persists, one can try either of the following procedures:
a) instead of following, by the letter, the steps mention here http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle, one could simply follow the variation (after having deleted all previously installed certificates):
"Settings > Active Protection > I chose "Mail Shield", clicked on Settings (i.e., Mail Shield Settings) > SSL Scanning (the "Scan SSL connections" was already checked), I chose "Export Certificate" (which, in contrast to the procedure in a) produces a certificate with .der -instead of .cer- format). The exportation was successful and, I imported the new one -as described in the aforementioned link"
AND
in Thunderbird, in "Options > Security > Anti-Virus tab", the single option must be checked.
b) if a) does not work (in due course) then disable the "SSL/TLS connection scanning" in Avast!, hoping that the file system scan will cover that as well.
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I have also been having this problem since updating to 2014 (now 2014.9.0.2007 on Win 7 Pro x64 Thunderbird 24.1.0), and now, unless I uncheck "Scan SSL Connections" in Settings>Active Protection>Mail Shield (the other three Main items are checked) I can't get mail. And Avast shows no mail scanning in Statistics.
In my attempts to get rid of the pop up error, I tried to delete the Avast mail certificate but it keeps telling me there already is one (from 3/13). Just now I looked under the Authorities tab and the Avast entry was gone. I reimported it (and see that also says 3/13), and restarted TB (now there don't seem to be any Server entries for Avast in there now).
The same "avast! Mail Shield encountered a problem with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually..." came up, as well as the TB "Add Security Exception popups, in this case for imap.googlemail.com:993 (8 accounts), imap.gmail.com:993, pod51000.outlook.com:993, pop.att.yahoo.com:995 (5 accounts). All server connections are set as SSL/TLS.
I cannot get/receive mail unless I deselect the Avast SSL Scanning, and it looks like none of the mail is scanned that way, according to the statistics. Can somebody please tell me how to configure TB and Avast to work together so my mail is scanned.
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I have also been having this problem since updating to 2014 (now 2014.9.0.2007 on Win 7 Pro x64 Thunderbird 24.1.0), and now, unless I uncheck "Scan SSL Connections" in Settings>Active Protection>Mail Shield (the other three Main items are checked) I can't get mail. And Avast shows no mail scanning in Statistics.
In my attempts to get rid of the pop up error, I tried to delete the Avast mail certificate but it keeps telling me there already is one (from 3/13). Just now I looked under the Authorities tab and the Avast entry was gone. I reimported it (and see that also says 3/13), and restarted TB (now there don't seem to be any Server entries for Avast in there now).
The same "avast! Mail Shield encountered a problem with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually..." came up, as well as the TB "Add Security Exception popups, in this case for imap.googlemail.com:993 (8 accounts), imap.gmail.com:993, pod51000.outlook.com:993, pop.att.yahoo.com:995 (5 accounts). All server connections are set as SSL/TLS.
I cannot get/receive mail unless I deselect the Avast SSL Scanning, and it looks like none of the mail is scanned that way, according to the statistics. Can somebody please tell me how to configure TB and Avast to work together so my mail is scanned.
Hello,
try the following steps (to be sure):
1) if possible (i.e., if you are using an IMAP e-mail account, like gmail) perform a clean uninstall of Thunderbird
(a) "Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall" and Choose Thunderbird
(b) afterwards, use CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) to remove any remnants
(c) Start > type %AppData% (and press Enter). A folder named "Roaming" will appear in Windows Explorer. Delete any Thunderbird related folder. Do the same with folders
"Local" and "Local flow", which belong to the same folder three as "Roaming"
(d) restart Windows
NOTE: Regarding step (c), you should be very careful -especially if you are also using Firefox
2) Then install Thunderbird again. After having your e-mail account set, do the following
(a) In Thunderbird: "Options > Security > Anti-Virus tab", the single option must be checked
(b) In Avast!(*): "Settings > Active Protection >" choose "Mail Shield", click on "Settings (i.e., Mail Shield Settings) > SSL Scanning" and make sure that "Scan SSL connections"
is checked. Then chose "Export Certificate" (which will produce a certificate with .der -instead of .cer- format).
(c) Import it to Thunderbird: "Option > Advanced > Certificates > View Certificates > Authorities > Import". Make sure that in the tab "Servers" (next to "Authorities") there is
nothing related neither to Avast! nor to any recent certificate, which was added as an exception.
Hopefully, these will help...
(*) there is a new version of Avast!, so update ;)
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hmmm I have completely uninstalled and am using ad-aware free as a stopgap. I will reinstall today, and follow ajax's instructions. last chance dance I think. this has already taken way too much time
not that I'm not grateful for everyone's help here and I agree there is no perfect solution...but not being able to send my IMAP email at all is too far from perfect for me - call me fussy!
I will update if reinstall etc is successful...
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update: I have uninstalled, deleted default avast certs from TB, then exported & imported der cert file : huzzah imap and pop mail are working again...for now.
and I even have SSL scanning switched on!
hopefully I will not have any more issues - I don't have 100% confidence as I thought it was working previously, and it suddenly stopped working - without any update so I have no idea what goes in the mind of avast!
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Problem as described is more of a nuisance for me. True, it is not a constant issue on this Windows 7 64bit machine.
I took a look at Ccleaner's Options settings and "excluded" Thunderbird from being cleaned. I also unchecked it in the "Applications" list. Tested on our 32bit Windows 7 laptop to see what is happening; does not happen so far. I have seen this with Thunderbird and Verizon in the past, btw. (Avast Free 2014 9.0.2008)
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@helkav: If you have followed the instructions in my previous post, hopefully, you will have a working system. At least, in my case, it seems to work (although, sporadically, I have
some pop ups but my e-mails are delivered/received normally).
@jc836: I am not sure that you have made the right choice (i.e., regarding CCleaner). I am saying that because Thunderbird cleaning has nothing to do with the (imported)
certificates.
Note: I have observed that the majority (if not the totality) of those sporadically appearing pop-ups manifests right after a Windows resuming (e.g., after a secure screen saver), i.e.,
when the connection was lost and then reset.
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@ajax
status update: all still working sweet ;D
fingers crossed this is a permanent fix
I would say to others that I had tried the various fixed involving certs etc perviously, but the combo of an uninstall/reinstall and then applying the fixes seems to have sorted everything out
fyi i have windows 7 64bit / TB 28.0a1 (Daily update version) / multiple accounts using both pop and imap
thanks to people on the forum, especially ajax for the help with sorting this out. where would we all be without forums like this?
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@ajax
status update: all still working sweet ;D
fingers crossed this is a permanent fix
I would say to others that I had tried the various fixed involving certs etc perviously, but the combo of an uninstall/reinstall and then applying the fixes seems to have sorted everything out
fyi i have windows 7 64bit / TB 28.0a1 (Daily update version) / multiple accounts using both pop and imap
thanks to people on the forum, especially ajax for the help with sorting this out. where would we all be without forums like this?
I am glad that I might have helped ;) . In any case, please also consider my notes in my posts.
Regarding Thunderbird, I have version 24.1.0. Also, when dealing with Mozilla projects (Firefox, etc) it is advisable to perform a clean uninstall, as I have described it, first.
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Avax_7:
I was testing the notion that Ccleaner might indeed impact the settings for Thunderbird 24.0.1. I will retry using it as it has never been harmful before.
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@Avax
You said "if possible"--not all my accounts are IMAP, some are pop3 and I have local folders, plus Lightning installed both with Google and local calendars. Will I be able to keep my data if I uninstall as you indicated?
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@Avax
You said "if possible"--not all my accounts are IMAP, some are pop3 and I have local folders, plus Lightning installed both with Google and local calendars. Will I be able to keep my data if I uninstall as you indicated?
No -what I wrote is for a clean uninstall (i.e., nothing will be left). So, before you do that, consult these:
https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Migration
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I hope I have not led to a misunderstanding as to my solution. I get the feeling I might have from the last few posts Here is exactly what I did:
- I did not uninstall Thunderbird, just Avast
- used a reg tool to find and delete all data in the registry with avast in them
- reinstalled Avast
- deleted the certs from Thunderbird,
- exported a .der cert file
- imported the .der cert file into thunderbird
after the above all my mail accounts are working even with SSL scanning turned on
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ARGH! I spoke too soon. it's back; can't send imap emails again ; getting THAT popup from Avast.
...I did try to open safezone in the meantime (it sort of hung) obviously that SHOULDNT affect my
email client, but I'm really running out of ideas now...I guess I'll have to try to uninstall Thunderbird
my supply of patience with this is almost out...
:'(
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I hope I have not led to a misunderstanding as to my solution. I get the feeling I might have from the last few posts Here is exactly what I did:
- I did not uninstall Thunderbird, just Avast
- used a reg tool to find and delete all data in the registry with avast in them
- reinstalled Avast
- deleted the certs from Thunderbird,
- exported a .der cert file
- imported the .der cert file into thunderbird
after the above all my mail accounts are working even with SSL scanning turned on
I am sorry but you did not read carefully the steps I mentioned in my previous posts... I wrote about uninstalling Thunderbird and not Avast!
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I ended up doing something else (which maybe I didn't need to do all of, but it was less trouble than uninstalling/reinstalling TB). I did reinstall Avast (that's the part I probably didn't need to do). And I found a troubling post.
I found a post that led me to this, which refers to 8 not 2014, but it seemed to work. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I exported the certificate this way instead of using the Export button. I also checked the "Trust this CA to identify websites" as it says there when importing into TB (which I hadn't done before because I wasn't sure whether and what to check).
http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle (http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle)
I still don't quite understand that after looking at this, which I'd found first. That said to check the "Trust this CA to identify email users." Granted, not talking specifically about Avast, but I'd like to understand if someone can explain (i.e. the difference between websites and email users in this context).
http://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/BrowserClients#Installing_the_CRL (http://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/BrowserClients#Installing_the_CRL)
This is the troubling post: https://lelutin.ca/posts/avast_conducts_MitM_attack_on_users_and_encourages_bad_security_practices/ (https://lelutin.ca/posts/avast_conducts_MitM_attack_on_users_and_encourages_bad_security_practices/)
I'm not sure about the fingerprints on the imported certificate, either.
However, with SSL Scanning enabled, I don't get the Avast popups any longer and it appears that the emails are being scanned (based on what is in the email headers X-Antivirus and X-Antivirus-status).
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I ended up doing something else (which maybe I didn't need to do all of, but it was less trouble than uninstalling/reinstalling TB). I did reinstall Avast (that's the part I probably didn't need to do). And I found a troubling post.
I found a post that led me to this, which refers to 8 not 2014, but it seemed to work. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I exported the certificate this way instead of using the Export button. I also checked the "Trust this CA to identify websites" as it says there when importing into TB (which I hadn't done before because I wasn't sure whether and what to check).
http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle (http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle)
I still don't quite understand that after looking at this, which I'd found first. That said to check the "Trust this CA to identify email users." Granted, not talking specifically about Avast, but I'd like to understand if someone can explain (i.e. the difference between websites and email users in this context).
http://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/BrowserClients#Installing_the_CRL (http://wiki.cacert.org/FAQ/BrowserClients#Installing_the_CRL)
This is the troubling post: https://lelutin.ca/posts/avast_conducts_MitM_attack_on_users_and_encourages_bad_security_practices/ (https://lelutin.ca/posts/avast_conducts_MitM_attack_on_users_and_encourages_bad_security_practices/)
I'm not sure about the fingerprints on the imported certificate, either.
However, with SSL Scanning enabled, I don't get the Avast popups any longer and it appears that the emails are being scanned (based on what is in the email headers X-Antivirus and X-Antivirus-status).
Once again, the http://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle is something which I quoted in my previous posts. Nevertheless, the guidelines there refer to an older version of Avast!, they produce a different certificate (.cer) and, as the practice showed, they did not work. On the other hand, the procedure described in my previous post is suited to the newer version of Avast! and seems (fingers crossed) to work pretty good.
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Funny that, I just downgraded to Avast 8 and now it works without any problems. So I'll stick to version 8 until this stupid message box is changed in a way that it is helpful.
I spent most of the past day wrestling with this beast, until in desperation I decided that there might be someone else running into this nightmare, so, a brief web search brought me to this thread.
I've already tried much of what's been suggested here -- lost track of how many times I followed the friendly advice in the popup telling me to export the certificate and import it into Thunderbird. Tried every imaginable permutation of twiddling with the certificate after importing it (the fact that when I looked at it it told me it was NOT trusted wasn't very comforting). Told Thunderbird to accept it. Tried checking the box for making it work on email. Tried checking all three of the boxes. No joy.
I've been using Avast! Free for years without this grief. It was only when I upgraded to Version 9/2014 that the "fun" began.
Frankly, I'm just not up for uninstalling Thunderbird and then hoping I'd managed to avoid wiping out many years of content in the process -- or, at best, spending a nontrivial portion of my life reclaiming it. Nor am I excited by the fifty miles of step-by-step instructions found here: http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91
After plodding through about a quarter of that page my eyes were glazed over and all I could think was that you gotta be kidding me. I mean, this sort of intricate "don't make one wrong move" drudgework is what computers are FOR. (Speaking solely as a retired programer/tech writer and "formerly famous person" now a disabled old fart.)
OK, I can admit when I'm beaten.
So how do I "down"grade to Version 8? I searched my drives, found two incarnations of Ver 7 and one of Ver 9, but that's it. All my other upgrades have been done via the in-program upgrade process, which, being consigned to uber-rural USA where I am stuck with dialup modem access, has always been less than enjoyable.
I have nosed around the Avast site and can not find any way to download Version 8. I have not yet looked at filehippo. If there's anything there, can it be trusted? I am generally loath to trust software obtained from other than vendor-site.
In looking at this thread, and some of the other instances of people running into this not-so-small taste of hell, it seems there are a LOT of people wrestling with this, and, it's been going on for what seems like quite some time.
I initially went with Avast because after researching every AV product I could find, it was the only one that was truly solid, void of bloatware (the big name retail products seemed the worst in that regard) and in general, truly elegant. I'm now starting to worry.
What worries me the most is the lack of any official statement on the problem, steps being taken to resolve it, any carrot of hope at all. The silence, as they say, is deafening.
Can anyone tell me how I can get back to version 8 and resume what's left of my life?
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@too old... I couldn't agree with you more
I tried a more minimalist approach to the uninstall/reinstall TB suggestion - I renamed the cert8.db file to cert8.db.old and restarted TB
this has the effect of resetting all security exceptions. so far (touch wood and keeping everything crossed) this seems to have worked
I didn't post as a solution because I have thought I was in the nirvana or being able to send emails without reprogramming my entire bleeping OS before, and look where that got me :'(
at the moment I have no popups and can send/receive pop/imap and have SSL scanning on - I'm using Avast Internet Security
if you try this and it doesn't work - because I don't expect a consistent solution at this stage...post back here - I bet I have a version 8 of avast lying around somewhere (I'm a bit of a hoarder in that respect)
even so I would say: over to you Avast - you REALLY need to see how much palaver this upgrade is causing, and come up with a consistent solution
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Thanks for your post helkav! It works!
One remark, the cert8.db is located in the %appdata% folder on Win7 systems and after renaming, you'll have to accept the certificates for all your e-mail providers again. After doing so the message is gone.
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@too old @helkav @smartin
I also agree (also too old for this and the many other things that have broken and shouldn't have). I have 15 TB accounts plus local folders and 3 calendars and I don't want to uninstall TB either.
An update to what I previously wrote, I have gotten a few warning popups since doing what I did (1-2x when I closed TB, which it was doing each time I closed TB before, and once in a while otherwise), but for the most part I can get/send email and the Avast blurb shows up at the end of the message and headers.
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Sorry, I have to reply again, but the message is back. This only after resuming from hibernation, as far as I could work it out. Sending and receiving mails is working fine, all mails are scanned. What about you, is it the same on your side?
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@smartin no still working touch wood and pray to all the bird-gods of thunder etc etc
I am using TB Daily (bleeding edge version of TB i.e. daily updates)
I will go back to release & earlybird and see if the problem exists on them...can't see why they would, but this issue is currently defying all logic
hopefully I amn't asking for trouble by testing out the earlier versions...oh well wish me luck - here goes...
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@smartin - update I've tested sending/receiving imap emails from both TB release and earlybird. all seems fine. this was on an account without SSL, SSL scanning is enabled in avast
I then tested sending/receiving an imap SSL account - all seemed fine
I then went to the avast UI to check the SSL scanning was enabled, just so I wouldn't be misleading you...it was bu I noticed something odd - scan outbound mail was unchecked - I don't remember doing that since reinstalling Avast, but this has been a SERIOUSLY meandering path...anyhow I turned it on. sending still seemed fine, but I am now a seasoned cynic in this respect so not trusting that it "took" I restarted TB and what do you know, sending imap emails started having the same problems - i.e. couldn't save to sent folder
so I went back to Avast UI, switched of scanning outbound email and restarted TB, and hey presto all is good again. What really bugs me about this (apart from all this time I will never get back) is it specifically says SMTP email - so why is it affecting sending of IMAP emails?
I think I won't worry about scanning outbound email until Avast sort this mess out. Presuming they do eventually...
this is now Part 3 of what seems to be a 3 part solution
(1) clean out TB security certs (delete/rename cert8.db file)
(2) export/import Avast .der security certificate to TB
(3) switch off scanning of outbound emails
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Ok, I just confirmed the behaviour on my PC (Win7):
- sending/receiving with SSL enabled works fine
- rebooting or restarting Thunderbird is also ok, no problems
- resuming from hibernation --> now this stupid message pops up, although everything is working
So it seems to be a problem with hibernate, any suggestions?
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@smartin : the only thing I can think of is TB is possibly going offline when you hibernate, so perhaps if you force back online (I think by menu it's : file/offline (uncheck offline)
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@helkav: Nope, the box only pop's up the very first time after resuming from hibernation. After that I can check mails or close and start TB as often as I want, or even reboot and it works w/o the message box. I guess that's a problem of avast.
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Thanks to all who replied, provided feedback, suggestions, and in general, camaraderie on my Pilgrim's Progress through a region of hellishness I wouldn't even wish on any of my former publishers ;).
As I read through the various comments, my hopes were alternately raised, then dashed, over and over. As it now stands, I plan on implementing the three steps detailed in Reply #40 and will report back on my success (or lack thereof).
Sorry I did not reply sooner. My "health" (using the term as charitably as possible) really does suck, bigtime. That, combined with the arrows in my back (Yay! I'm a pioneer! ;)) make stuff like this nonsense doubly difficult. Hard to imagine I used to be able to put in 30+ hour coding sessions, juggling yay many variables, procedures, data structures, and so forth in my mind, daring not to stop for such trivialities as food and sleep, lest I fumble a juggletoss and be forced to backtrack several hours to "find my place" again -- and then spend another few hours finding and fixing what I broke -- due to those "minor" nits I did not manage to find. My sole luxuries were the toilet-breaks, taken when I could no longer leverage the keyboard versus the throne, because I knew I'd do so at the cost of the aforementioned hours of backtracking and inadvertent adventures in Instant Regression].
Yep, hard to imagine All That Fun, from here, a place in which getting out of my chair and walking across the room takes all the oomph I can muster.
Ironically, my health decline went exponential roughly in tandem with the death spiral of the Dead Tree publications industry. Towards the end, I spent more time on the phone ranting and raving at my publishers (trying to get paid) than I managed to spend writing. The irony is that prior to my only semantically-true "retirement" I ran my work computer "naked." These were the end days of the era in which a few tens of megabytes were "a lot of memory." The notion of multiple gigabytes was unimaginable. My first encounter with anything gigaesque was the insanely huge TWO gigabyte SCSI drive I bought for the unimaginably low price of $900.
What with my work machine laden to the breaking point with compiler, IDE, word processor, various applications (those I used, and those I was developing), every byte and every cycle was precious. And, since I had no inclination to wade into the Inet's "red light district" I did not feel I was at risk for infection (I continued using Eudora Pro 3.x FAR beyond its "best used date" for the sole reason that it was strictly character-based, with what few browser-related "features" wholly optional, and thus, it was immune to scripting exploits).
The family machines, OTOH, which wife and child used in total disregard for my "paranoid" warnings, were strapped down tight with Avast! Free. And it did yeoman service.
It wasn't until some time after my career and my health disappeared below the cloud layer that I decided the Net had become so bloody unfriendly that it was completely nuts to run without an AV, at which point it went on my personal machine too.
Well, time to quit rambling; I hate bracing for a slew of "tl;dr" replies. ;)
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Update:
I renamed cert8.db to cert8.db.old (also made a backup copy of cert8.db.bak, "just in case" (FWIW, all three versions of the Cert8.db were sized differently, and for a brief moment I toyed with the idea of reverting to the .bak version, since it was dated 9/25/2013 (last modified), but decided to reserve that option for trial in case the clean wipe of cert8 fails.)
BTW, on my machine, the cert8 stuff was found here (on Win7Pro/64):
C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\ik2mubha.default
Edited to add: So far, so good -- Upon restarting TB it did a mail fetch, which it accomplished without any popup noise from Avast. I was a bit surprised at this, since I wasn't prompted to add or accept any "new" certificate(s). Hopefully Avast IS checking my mail(!!!)
For reference, I do have it set to scan SSL mail (inbound-only; since I run a putatively clean machine, and don't engage in any naughty-bits type stuff, I don't see any need to bog down my machine any further than it already is).
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Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.
I stepped away from the computer to try to rustle up a Pentax screw-mount body to check out the like-new 28mm 3.5 Takumar I found in a dusty old (original) leather case, set aside over a decade ago in my "to check out" pile. No joy there either (other than an old H3 with torn tapes), and when I returned to my computer, Ye Olde Bogus-Error Box was staring me in the face.
Unfortunately, I was so disgusted that I dismissed it without doing the export/import mambo, so, I don't really know if the problem is fixed or not.
The next time it pops up (See? I do have some confidence in this sucker!) I'll try doing that and see if it works. Sadly, I've so little confidence that it will, that I am not going to get my hopes up.
I really wish someone "official" would weigh in on this nightmare. The damn silence is getting louder and louder by the day.
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Argh! This is getting downright weird.
When the box popped up again, instead of dismissing it, I clicked OK, and then told it to export the certificate.
I then went into Thunderbird and told it to import the cert.
Right off the bat, something looked odd. The entry for my ISP was a child of "unknown" rather than -- as it was before -- a child of Avast.
The Avast entry stood alone by itself, in a parent/child setup. (So frazzed that I can't recall if the parent was "unknown" or "Avast")
I took a look at the cert, and sure enough, it said it wasn't trusted, so, I clicked the button to have it be trusted, and then OK'd my way out of the dialog.
I then remembered that I hadn't looked at the sub-dialog that selects what it will be OK to handle (web, mail, software makers). Since all were unchecked, I checked them all. I then OK'd my way out of the dialogs, and looked to see if my ISP's entry was now a child of Avast.
It wasn't.
It couldn't be a child of Avast, because Avast was no longer visible!
I don't know if it was truly gone, I don't know if it was "merely" invisible.
I do know that this crap is getting really old.
I'm just about this "-->||<--" close to saying "I give up!"
And, just as I finished typing the above sentence, Avast just poked me in the eye with that stinking alert. Again.
I guess that regardless of my resolve to not give up (or the opposite), Avast has made its intention to give up unmistakeably clear.
Ever feel like you're on an airplane, flying over an ocean, or a mountain range, or a huge inhospitable wilderness... and your pilot has quietly bailed out while no one was looking?
That's about how I feel right now. Me, and I suspect umpteen gajillion other users of TB & Avast too.
Mayday!
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@too old i feel your pain : unfortunately I have no more than sympathy to offer as my system is behaving itself after my 3-step fix was applied
Personally I think the uninstall/reinstall TB and various other fixes posted are really random and show that nobody really knows what's going on here. I don't think we can blame TB since this has only been happening since the last Avast ugrade
I will root around for Avast 8 for you today since others have said that that has sorted it for them
oh yes and of course don't forget to light the scented candles and move your work desk etc in the correct feng-shui positioning otherwise OBVIOUSLY nothing will work ;)
try not to let it get you down - you're obviously not on your own here...
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I think I'm getting closer to a workaround or even a solution. My mail accounts are 3x POP3+ SSL and one is IMAP + SSL. This one seems to cause the problems. I switched it to STARTTLS and the message box didn't show up after the next resume from hibernate. How does it work on your computers, can somebody check this?
In short:
- delete cert8.db and renew all certificates
- all POP3/SMTP accounts set to SSL
- IMAP accounts set to STARTTLS
--> works for me, as it seems. :o
So long!
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The email in Thunderbird is working fine for me. So far I've never had any problems.
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Hi everyone,
I think I solved the issues on my machine. The point with the IMAP account was not the solution. Instead it was changing the settings in Thunderbird. I had all my accounts set to STARTTLS and then back to SSL again. Now it works w/o this avast message and the mails are scanned. :o This might explain why not all people do have these problems.
See you!
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It's still not consistent with my situation i.e. most of my imap connections have no security set, and the ones that do are set to SSL/TLS - I never changed those settings and all is now working for me
as I noted before it's still not clear what exactly is the root cause of this issue, not consistently for everyone anyway
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Can de next 2014 R2 (still beta1) be the solution:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=141763.0
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I, too, was very frustrated by this.
Finally found a simple solution (let's hope it works for everybody...)
1. With my email set to SSL/TLS I exported/imported the MailShield certificate.
2. I checked my mail, and set permanent exceptions to allow the certificate. (Thunderbird can't automatically trust a cert that comes from an imported file, ever! Security reasons. That's why you must allow it.)
3. I changed my email to STARTTLS, checked mail again, allowed the certificate permanently again (it's on a different port this time).
4. I sent a simple email to a family member and allowed the cert yet again (like I said, different port.)
5. I went to Avast Control Center -> Settings -> Active Protection and clicked on the MailShield settings icon. Then on Behavior, I turned all options on.
6. I sent a couple emails back and forth to test everything.
All my emails, sent or received, now have a note at the bottom from Avast, and the statistics page shows that MailShield is doing its job.
I'll keep you posted on its condition. I'll also be more than happy to take any questions. ;D
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Where in Thunderbird do you import the certificate to ?
Under which tab ?
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@COMPUTIAC
Oh, right. Sorry.
Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Certificates.
Then you click View Certificates and a new window will pop up. Then click Import.
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Under which tab ? Authorities ?
If so, then it is already in there.
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Under which tab ? Authorities ?
If so, then it is already in there.
Good, then you're almost done.
Make sure that you've checked the box in Tools -> Options -> Security -> Anti-Virus. And that the feature is turned on in Avast.
Then have Thunderbird fetch your mail. Ignore Avast's message. Thunderbird will do its certificate security thing. ("Could not verify...") Check the "Permanently store this exception" box if it isn't already, then click the button that makes the allowance.
Then send an email to someone. Avast and Thunderbird will squawk again because the certificate's going through a different port. So just store another exception.
So, you'll need two exceptions per email server Thunderbird uses to check your mail.
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Hi all,
I'm now back on version 8. My "solution" lastet for full three days and then the message was back. I didn't change anything and avast started again showing me this useless message box. Sorry but this just sucks. If avast can't get this fixed and the support for version 8 stops, Ill change to a different scanner.
So long.
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Under which tab ? Authorities ?
If so, then it is already in there.
Good, then you're almost done.
Make sure that you've checked the box in Tools -> Options -> Security -> Anti-Virus. And that the feature is turned on in Avast.
Then have Thunderbird fetch your mail. Ignore Avast's message. Thunderbird will do its certificate security thing. ("Could not verify...") Check the "Permanently store this exception" box if it isn't already, then click the button that makes the allowance.
Then send an email to someone. Avast and Thunderbird will squawk again because the certificate's going through a different port. So just store another exception.
So, you'll need two exceptions per email server Thunderbird uses to check your mail.
This is too much to go thru for something which should not even exist. There should be no reason for this to keep occurring. Avast should fix this, NOT ME !
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Do Avast employees read these threads? I have the problem discussed here and it is really seems to be taking a long time for Avast to step up and fix the problem. I do not plan on removing, reloading, resetting things on my computer to get a software that I pay for to work as it should. This is not acceptable and with my subscription about to run out, I do not plan on renewing with Avast.
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Hi, folks, me again (sadly). Haven't been feeling too well, haven't gotten much done, but did discover a few things that may be of some use (or more likely, may not).
In no particular order, I found three versions of Avast 7 on a laptop here -- considered downgrading to that, since downloads of these suckers are a real PITA over a dialup connection. I did find several versions of Avast 8 on FileHippo, but since they proudly proclaim that none of their files are from the actual vendors -- they are all user-supplied -- I kinda lost interest in downloading it.
After prolonged web searching I did find a direct link to download Avast 8 from an Avast.com link, YAY! I persuaded my wife to download it for me at her work place, which, being "in town" has high speed connection.
She downloaded it -- I copied it -- and first thing I did was right-click on the file, check it's properties, and lo and behold, the kindly folk at Avast had rigged things so that when one downloads that file, they get Avast 9!
Gee, thanks a lot, guys. Can't tell you how much I appreciate that! (at least, not on a family friendly forum)
Then, I found my wife's old notebook computer (she stopped using it when the battery died). I plugged it in, fired it up, found that it had Avast 6 on it, which was past its best-used-by date (needed re-registration), so, I registered it, and it then whined that it was sorely out of date on the definitions -- so, I went to update definitions, and then my three day excursion through Avast-hell began.
It just would NOT download the definitions (God, how I wish they'd just let us download a stinking ZIP file with the definitions, instead of this blasted live-update nonsense, ARGH!)
I then thought gee, maybe just just don't support 6 anymore? So, I installed the newest version of Avast 7 I had on hand -- and got the same results. It would NOT complete a download of the definitions. It would either just sit there doing nothing, or else do "some" downloads, then tell me it had failed and was retrying, then chuck along for another hour or two and get another similar event, and eventually, it would just stop and tell me it couldn't do it.
After much nosing around, I found FixUpdate.exe on the laptop -- and when I ran it, it told me I didn't have the kind of error it could fix.
So, I uninstalled and reinstalled Avast 7 and tried again (read something somewhere saying that should fix it) -- it didn't fix it. Argh...
More nosing around. Found aswclear.exe on the laptop, and ran it after uninstalling Avast 7. Then reinstalled Avast 7, tried again. No joy. ARGH!!!
So... I grit me ol' teef, and did the dirty: I installed Avast 9 on the notebook.
And can you believe it? IT wouldn't update EITHER!!!
But , since this was a tiny notebook computer (as opposed to my beastpile of a desktop machine here), I could ask my wife to take it to work and try updating the definitions from there.
She told me she didn't know if it worked, because things flashed by so fast that she couldn't tell if anything happened.
Well, it did update the definitions -- and this brings us to something that might be of interest/use in figuring out what's going on:
My desktop machine had one other Avast malfunction which I didn't mention -- in all the "fun" with the mail problem, it just slipped my mind. The problem is, I can no longer right-click on a file and tell it to scan that file. With previous versions of Avast it always worked like a charm. With Avast 9, I'd get a big pop-up -- empty -- for the scan results. It would always stay empty. I'd also get a small window right over the Start bar's icon tray, with three buttons, to stop, cancel, and restart the scan, and something about progress, IIRC. It too never displayed anything [with one exception, read on], and the only sign of life it would show was to say that everything was OK when I hit the Stop button. Nonsensical, at best.
So, today, I went into the Control Panel "Programs" area and told it to repair itself (N.B.: I also did this on the Notebook more than once, to no avail). On the notebook, it told me it couldn't fix the damage, I should do a full reinstall. On my desktop, it went through the motions, and declared success.
The only difference is that now, the small popup by the Icon Tray no longer appears. The big window -- the one for the results -- remains empty.
I am so weary of this crap.
So now, the punchline (as in, "I apologize to Avast for my face punching them in the fist," har har har) -- after I did the repair-itself thing tonight, it said it had restored the factory settings. Well, since several of the default settings are simply not viable on a dialup modem scenario, and others are IMO gross violations of my privacy, I went into settings to uncheck the various and sundry. I discovered two things: The repair routine did not revert them to factory settings, and, I saw a notice that my program was out of date, because there was a new version available (Avast 2014.9.0.2011), which I am now downloading (only five or six hours left!)
BTW, the only reason I can download it is because of a truly amazing Firefox add-in I discovered recently (and wish I'd discovered years ago). It's called "DownThemAll!" -- it's a download manager, which is very easy to use, and, does amazing things. The most amazing thing it does is to allow me to download large files, without fear that a hiccup after several hours of downloading willl NOT kick me back to the start. It can pause and resume downloads -- even if you turn off your computer while paused! And, it can downloade MULTIPLE parts of a file at the same time -- instead of starting at the first byte of a file, and then handshaking its way through packet after packet until it gets the last byte downloaded, it will divvy up the file into as many segments as you specify (I have it set to 6), and it will have that many concurrent "sub-downloads" going on at the same time. The advantage is that it gets you out of handshake-hell. Oh, each "sub-DL" does indeed need to do all the handshaking (request a packet, wait for it to be sent, confirm it's received, request the next, etc., etc., etc.), but, while one such "thread" is waiting, another one can be downloading! I experimented with various numbers, and for my setup, six seems to be optimal (if I try more, it goes slower).
Before this, using the native downloader in Firefox, I was lucky to get maybe 3KB of actual transfer rate. Now -- I am not making this up -- it rarely goes below 5KB, and frequently goes as high as 7KB!
For those of you with decent connections, this must sound amusing, but for someone trapped in modem hell, it is truly staggeringly fast!
I have my fingers crossed, hoping against hope that this new version will fix the problems. Oh, and BTW, Avast 9, on the laptop, does NOT exhibit the inability to scan a file. When I go to scan a file on that machine, it works fine.
Clearly, there is "something" about Avast 9 that is VERY picky about the local environment. (The laptop is running a two-core Intel Atom processor, with all of one GB of memory, using WinXP SP3. My desktop is running a somewhat long in the tooth two-core AMD Athlon, with 64 bit Win7 Pro, and 4GB of RAM.)
Did I mention that I am so weary of this crap?
I just don't understand why they are so silent on the matter(s). Very poor tradecraft.
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Not to wander too far off topic, but you might consider running the Line Quality-Ping Test tool on DSL Reports and see what it says about your connection...
http://www.dslreports.com/tools (http://www.dslreports.com/tools)
Additionally, you might want to run the Overdrive tool on PCPitstop to see what it says about your computer's health overall...
http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/default.asp (http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/default.asp)
The issue I have experienced with SSL and Thunderbird is the MailShield.der cert being removed by the installer on a Windows XP SP3 box.
Exporting the SSL cert and importing it into Thunderbird solved my issue.
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I must confirm everything sayed here, we dont install an antivirus program to have something to do on our computers, we woul like that it does what it should do. Since nearly 3 month this thread had been read more than 4000 times without any solution from avast. (how about an update that would work)not one that complicates things. This is really a poor reaction and performance from avast. Sorry but thats my feelings. It took me 2 Hours to read only the previous mostly unsuccessful solutions :'(
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I'm trying to use Avast 2014 with Thunderbird 24. [Yes: I have ticked the "Allows anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages."
Yes, I've been round the circle of sending messages and ticking "store this exception permanently".
But even so, when I left the computer alone for a while, it came up with an error about certificates *again*.
So - I'm trying to follow the script.
I've exported the Avast certificate directly from Avast or from certmgr.msc.
So far so good... but when I try to import the certificate into Thunderbird it asks a new (killer!) question:
"Please enter the password that was user to encrypt this certificate backup".
Well, duh! Avast didn't tell me that - nor did it ask me to supply a password.
So, I can't import the certificate.
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I'm trying to use Avast 2014 with Thunderbird 24. [Yes: I have ticked the "Allows anti-virus clients to quarantine individual incoming messages."
Yes, I've been round the circle of sending messages and ticking "store this exception permanently".
But even so, when I left the computer alone for a while, it came up with an error about certificates *again*.
So - I'm trying to follow the script.
I've exported the Avast certificate directly from Avast or from certmgr.msc.
So far so good... but when I try to import the certificate into Thunderbird it asks a new (killer!) question:
"Please enter the password that was user to encrypt this certificate backup".
Well, duh! Avast didn't tell me that - nor did it ask me to supply a password.
So, I can't import the certificate.
The certificate file name exported from Avast is MailShield.der.
When importing into Thunderbird, you should select the Authorities tab, and then click on Import, select MailShield.der.
I have never been asked for a password.
HTH
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All my problems with Avast sending email with Thunderbird gone with update to Avast! 2014.9.0.2011
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@heikwith
if there has been a fix, it would be good to hear it from Avast - or for them to put something in the release notes - I can't see anything relevant:
http://www.avast.com/en-gb/release-history
otherwise it could just be a coincidence of some other change in your system, or maybe you will have the "it's fixed, then it's not fixed" runaround a few of us have had!
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I am curious
- is this happening only:
1) to people who are using Google's application-specific passwords / "two-step" verification? (https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en)
2) when win7 desktop is coming out of sleep / hybrid sleep / hibernation
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Due to disinterest by Avast to fix this problem, I have installed AVG which works like a charm. Goodbye Avast.
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I got tired of reading so skipped to the end where I expected to find solution.
I think I will follow the person who decided the solution was to go to AVG.
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This worked for me. I have Thunderbird 24.6.0 and Avast 2014.9.0.2021
1. Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features > Select Avast and Click Change > Remove Mail Shield
2. Restart computer
3. Start thunderbird. Check email. It should work without mail shield. Leave thunderbird open (not sure if this step is needed)
4. Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features > Select Avast and Click Change > Add Mail Shield
5. Restart computer (this step is needed)
6. Start Thunderbird. It should work. If it is stuck at connecting. Close and reopen Thunderbird.
The idea is that Avast wants to be installed after Thunderbird.