jonzie,
Yes, if you lower the timeout towards zero, it approaches no timeout.
At this point, I am nor sure what the cause of the problem could be.
It seems as though the computer is waiting for an SMTP connection but does not see one and disconnects.
Have you reviewed the Help file on manual configuration of Avast? Let me know while I do some more research.
IMPORTANTAlso, how long ....from the time you attempt to send an email to the time you get the "timeout" alert?
Techie