Version 20.5.2415 is causing failures in email checks (in Thunderbird)

[AZBruno]

I'm using Thunderbird and often checking about 15 email address on about 4 different servers when I run a check.

Since update to the current version of Avast Free A/V, I am consistently getting timeout/communication failures on the email checks from Thunderbird.

I first tried to turn off the new Ransomware shield, but that didn't help.

I have found that if I turn off the Mail Shield, Thunderbird works fine and I see on the status bar that it is checking much faster. I hate to turn it off as I have really liked this feature but if this issue isn't fixed asap I will need to go to another product. Right now it is next to useless. I was hoping to find a simple setting I could adjust, but I don't see it.

[AZBruno]

Further information...

I have found that checking emails for one account at a time works fine. Checking a small in one operation seems to work. But when I ask Thunderbird to check all 14 emails, some fail with connection timeouts.

For the time being I'm trying to stagger the checks so Thunderbird won't check them all at once. We'll see how that works.

[DavidR]

Are you getting any Avast error displayed to the screen ?

I'm thinking this might be like downloading news groups as it can swamp the maximum concurrent connections (default 50).  But that should show a maximum concurrent connections error window and not this timeout issue in thunderbird.

[AZBruno]

I'm seeing no Avast errors to the screen.

If I turn off the Mail Shield and hit the Thunderbird button to check all email accounts, it goes through 14 accounts (where there are no new messages) in about 4 seconds. Turning on the Mail Shield and repeating it took about 2 1/2 minutes to complete. I would see the status bar where it would show an account connecting to the mail server for a long time. Sometimes (like this time) it does complete although takes way too long, and other times I will get connection timeout failures from Thunderbird. It varies as to which account may show delay and it also varies widely as to total time to process all accounts.

[DavidR]

What is your usual connection speed (as you don't appear to be coming up against excessive concurrent connections)  ?

I haven't come across that before but that when I was only checking 5 email accounts but only on 3 different servers, however that was some time ago.

I also use thunderbird but now I'm only checking on one mail server, so I haven't needed to see if I/you could connect to one server at a time and get the mail from that, but I don't think it is that flexible.  I'm not sure the Mail Shield was designed to be this flexible either.

[AZBruno]

My connection speeds are very good (120Mbps).

In Thunderbird, I use the extension Get All Mail Button, which does a mail check on all main accounts. I just put up a review of the extension mentioning that it should be throttled. I suspect with so many accounts, the new version of Avast is not keeping up with the requests and therefore something is being lost.

[DavidR]

My connection speeds are very good (120Mbps).

In Thunderbird, I use the extension Get All Mail Button, which does a mail check on all main accounts. I just put up a review of the extension mentioning that it should be throttled.

I suspect with so many accounts, the new version of Avast is not keeping up with the requests and therefore something is being lost.

Your suspicion may well be correct, though that would also depend on the number of emails being downloaded.  Also as each would have to be intercepted and scanned, this (as far as I'm aware) would be done during download before they end up in the inbox.

[AZBruno]

Your suspicion may well be correct, though that would also depend on the number of emails being downloaded.  Also as each would have to be intercepted and scanned, this (as far as I'm aware) would be done during download before they end up in the inbox.

I have run this repeatedly and know for a fact that it is problematic when there are no emails in any of the mailboxes. They are all POP.

[AZBruno]

Updated to version 20.10.2442 and finally I seem to be getting good performance from Mail Shield with Thunderbird. I've been trying every new version for many months and this is the first time it is performing well. I hope it stays this way.

[DavidR]

Thanks for the feedback and fingers crossed

[AZBruno]

Sorry, I spoke too soon.

I had a distracting day so I forgot that I had unchecked the Scan SSL Connections option in the geek area. Once I checked it again I found the delays and timeouts returned.

[AZBruno]

I think this issue is getting worse. It is intermittent, but stills occurs too often.

I run two instances of Thunderbird, each using a different profile (but the same emails). One profile does not download messages, it only gets headers (so I can get rid of the junk before downloading messages). It seems as though when the problem occurs T-bird does it's thing and Avast just never gets back so T-bird times out.  Also, when I do get a header and I want to have that profile download the message and I click on the command, sometimes it works and other times nothing happens.

When the issue occurs with one instance of Thunderbird, it also is problematic with the other instance.

With mail shield off, everything works at lightening speed.

At this point, I feel that the Mail Shield is unusable.