Bikeman, it's normal that some servers are on 'the way' of downloading emails.
That means avast! is listening the skol.flexi-suff.co.uk server at port number 110.
I won't worry about that.
Which email program do you use?
You can increase both your avast! timeout: Internet Mail provider > Customize > Advanced (tab)
and your email account timeout (generally, right click the email account, choose properties and the Advanced tab of settings).