I have had the same problem. Avast stopped protecting my email on all servers pop and imap. It occured after I alowed avast to update to the new version just this past week. I have been using avast since june, without any problems. I have mcAfee firewall, windows xp, and use outlook express for mail. Ive checked for other viruses and spyware since then and have come up nothing. I already has the services updates to xp prior, and didn't have any problem with it. The only thing i can think of is the recent update i alowed avast to do to the program.