Avast 4.8 blocking outgoing mail in Thunderbird

[lizgold]

Hi--

Avast 4 (free) is suddenly blocking outgoing mail in Thunderbird. My server is NOT GoDaddy (I've read these posts).

When I stop On-Access Protection, I can send the email. However, oddly, when I try shutting down each of the "providers" one at a time, Avast continues to block the email.

My port is 25.

I am running XP and ZoneAlarm, but ZoneAlarm is not logging any blocks of Avast.

Help much appreciated!!!

[alanrf]

What is the security setting for the SMTP entry in Thunderbird for the problem account?

[lizgold]

"Use name and password" is checked.

"Use secure connection" is "No."

The password has not changed. I tried unchecking "Use name and password," closing Thunderbird, then re-checking it, to see if it would let me enter the password again, but it didn't work.

I found the place to check all the passwords for incoming mail, but not for outgoing mail.

Thanks...

[DavidR]

Firstly avast doesn't block it scans and alerts to infection but doesn't block. So there is something else in the mix and the most likely culprit is a firewall blocking ashMaiSv.exe, which in turn would block email because it would be going through the email scanner (that's blocked).

Does Zone Alarm allow ashMaiSv.exe internet access ?
- If it does delete the entry for it and try to send your email, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.

[alanrf]

If the problem was with ashMaiSv.exe permission in the firewall it should affect both receiving mail and sending mail (since, in fact, both are technincally outbound accesses to the server).  When I used ZA it had only one permission for ashMaiSv.exe - perhaps it now distinguishes accesses by port.

The only provider that should be involved here is the Internet Mail provider.  If you terminate that provider and the problem of sending the mail persists then there is a completely different issue to be determined.

What is the error message you are getting from Thunderbird?

[DavidR]

Sorry Alan I missed that implied ability to receive email (as nothing was mentioned about blocking inbound email). avast! doesn't distinguish between ports as far as I'm aware either so there would only be one rule in ZA.

However, it would be nice to have it confirmed that inbound email is received with the internet mail provider enabled ?

It would also be nice to find out what ISP or email servers and port settings are in use ?
If something that isn't using 110 for pop3 would allow receipt of email even if the ashMaiSv.exe were blocked as it wouldn't be using the redirected ports/localhost proxy.

[lizgold]

Sorry for the delay--I had a family emergency, so I couldn't respond.

You are correct that both incoming and outgoing mail were blocked. And also correct that it is only the Internet Mail service that is the problem--when it is shut down, Thunderbird works fine.

I have allowed all privileges in ZoneAlarm to the Avast E-mail scanner service, and there are no blocks being logged in ZoneAlarm. Shutting down ZoneAlarm does not seem to help.

The ISP servers are pop.cybermesa.com and pop.valornet.com. Port is set to 110.

The message I get is:  The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server smtp.valornet.com failed." The settings for incoming and outgoing mail are the same as on my other computer, where they work fine. (But it has Norton installed instead of Avast/ZoneAlarm.)

Thanks for your help.

[DavidR]

I would suggest deleting the entry for ashMaiSv.exe in ZA as I suggested and try to send your email, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.

Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

[lizgold]

I would suggest deleting the entry for ashMaiSv.exe in ZA as I suggested and try to send your email, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.

--I don't know how to do this in ZA free. Can you tell me how?

Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

--I have AVG Anti-Spyware (free) installed, but it has never caused any conflicts before. I update & run it manually.

--I think I had Norton installed several years ago, and I went through all sorts of shenanigans to get it completely off--the removal tool, you name it.

It's really weird that this just started happening all of a sudden. I've scrutinized all the settings, and they are identical to the ones on my other computer.

Thanks for your patience!

[lizgold]

OK, I figured out how to delete the entry in ZA, but I'm not sure how this is any better than manually giving the Avast Email Scanner Service all rights in the Program Control window in ZA.

[Lisandro]

OK, I figured out how to delete the entry in ZA, but I'm not sure how this is any better than manually giving the Avast Email Scanner Service all rights in the Program Control window in ZA.

Glitches into ZA. Sometimes, only deleting the entry and starting again is the way of satisfy ZA to work properly...

[lizgold]

OK, so I tried that, and I've even tried shutting down ZA, but Thunderbird still works only with the Avast Internet Mail service off.

As I said, I only run AVG manually--it's not running in the background.

Any other ideas?

Thanks....

[mahiathira]

I had a similar problem using outlook configured with gmail. i could solve this by changing the outgoing mail server of my account to "smtp.googlemail.com" from "smpt.gmail.com" and setting the port to "465".
http://techn0l0gy.blogspot.com/2009/04/outlook-blocks-outgoing-mail-when-avast.html


So you too can fix this by changing the outgoing port of the provider to one that is ssl enabled.

Hope this helps

Mahesh