POP3 traffic blocked after Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 update

[Tol Phobos]

Hi.

Here is my config :
- WinXP Pro SP3
- Avast! 4.8 Home Edition (French)
- NVidia ActiveArmor v50.23
- Thunderbird v2.0.0.23 (French)

Since Thunderbird have been updated with v2.0.023 (yesterday evening), I am no more able to connect to my POP3 email accounts (3 accounts on 2 differents ISP). After several tests, I have identified Avast! eMail Protection v4.8-1351 as the cause of this trouble : if I uncheck Avast! eMail Protection 'POP-Incoming mail scan' option, the problem is solved. The Outgoing SMTP protocol is not impacted.

The trouble can by identified when Thunderbird try to connect to ISP POP3 servers : there is immediatly an error message for each account which explains that the POP3 server (usually pop.isp.com) has not answered.

Are you aware of this trouble, and do you have a solution ?

Thank you very much for your help.
Best regards.

[avast5]

Bonjour

tu parle francais?

[Tol Phobos]

Oui ça m'arrive tous les jours .

[avast5]

lol ok explique moi le probleme

[Tol Phobos]

He bien c'est assez simple.

1) Tout marchait bien
2) Thunderbird se met à jour hier soir en v2.0.0.23 et redémarre. Immédiatement, j'ai des messages d'erreurs pour mes 3 comptes emails me disant que le serveur POP ne répond pas.
3) Je cherche un peu du côté des programmes restrictifs (firewall, antivirus, ...), et je m'aperçois qu'en désactivant Avast! tout remarche.
4) En affinant ma recherche, j'identifie que c'est le service de protection 'Courrier électronique' d'Avast!, et plus particulièrement la fonction de scanner des courrier entrant en protocole POP, qui empêche Thunderbird de se connecter aux serveurs POP3 de mes 2 providers.

C'est plus clair en français ?

[Mr.Agent]

Ta tu donner permission a Avast! Courrier Electronique a ton Firewall ? Ou a tout les services de Avast! ?

Sais quel Firewall que tu utilise.

Sais quel Windows que tu utilise.

A part Avast! et ton Firewall quel protection tu utilise dautre ?

Mr.Agent

PS : I hope ALWIL forgive me because he got a big problem and im sure for what i said to him its will help his problem

[nmb]

@ all

i thought this is a English only forum. 

[Black3agl3]

Yeah right... but u could help better if those who could used both french and english... in these types of exceptions...
< c'est vrai... mais on pourrait mieux aider si ceux qui le peuvent utilisent et l'anglais et le francais... dans ces cas exceptionnels >

[Tol Phobos]

Such a deep debate around french speaking ... It was not my purpose, so let's continue in english.

My OS is WinXP Pro SP3 (French)
My antivirus is Avast! 4.8 Home Edition (French because it's my mother computer, and her english speaking level is low)
My firewall is NVidia ActiveArmor v50.23 (French, with Nvidia 6150/NForce 430 chipset - ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard)
My email client is Thunderbird v2.0.0.23 (French)

The WinXP firewall is disabled, so I don't use another protection tool.
My firewall is not linked to this trouble : all my tests have been done with ActiveArmor disabled to.

Today, I have found a workaround to repair it, but it is boring to use :
1) I disable Avast! eMail Protection 'POP-Incoming mail scan' option
2) I restart my computer
3) I enable Avast! eMail Protection 'POP-Incoming mail scan' option
=> all is working

However, if I restart my computer with the 'POP-Incoming mail scan' option enabled, the problem is coming back.

[Tol Phobos]

I have found the solution ! 

The application c:\program files\alwil software\avast4\ashmaisv.exe was blocked by my firewall. After unblock and reboot, all is working ok.

It seems that this service stay blocked even after my firewall was disabled ... a blocking at Windows startup blocked it for the whole session. I'm curious to understand why this conflict between antivirus and firewall has appeared only after email client update ...

Strange behavior between Thunderbird/Avast/ActiveArmor ... but now all is ok.

PS : thanks for your help and salutations to Mauritius (I have family at Belle-Mare ).

[Mr.Agent]

That what i said in french. Its may be a provider of Avast! that your firewall block lol.

[alanrf]

I am finding no issues with the current production release of avast and my many POP3 access accounts with Thunderbird 2.0.0.23. 

However, I was not using any firewall other than that provided in Windows XP. 

I suspect that firewall blocking issues is a key reason for avast to provide a full suite including a collaborative firewall in avast 5.