Help! Avast preventing downloading of POP3 mail to Thunderbird

[LGM]

I have 4 email accounts in Thunderbird and for some reason I can't figure out, it won't download POP mail for one of those accounts when Avast is enabled. The other 3 accounts are fine and I can't see any difference in the settings that would cause the problems with the 1 account. If I disable Avast, I  can download mail for all 4 accounts.

The misbehaving account is with Verizon-Yahoo. Here are some of the settings:

server: incoming.yahoo.verizon.net
port: 110
security & authentication: None

Is there some setting or file in Avast I can tweak so it can allow downloading from that server?



just one of the mail accounts won't download mail to

[schmidthouse]

I have 4 email accounts in Thunderbird and for some reason I can't figure out, it won't download POP mail for one of those accounts when Avast is enabled. The other 3 accounts are fine and I can't see any difference in the settings that would cause the problems with the 1 account. If I disable Avast, I  can download mail for all 4 accounts.

The misbehaving account is with Verizon-Yahoo. Here are some of the settings:

server: incoming.yahoo.verizon.net
port: 110
security & authentication: None

Is there some setting or file in Avast I can tweak so it can allow downloading from that server?



just one of the mail accounts won't download mail to

Hello LGM: Could you please provide some further information that may assist in solving your issue.  ie. WHat version of Avast are you using? What OS are you running? Do you have any other security software installed on your computer.
There are numerous things that could contribute to your email issue. Here are some basic instructions for setting up email with Avast. Please check and make sure you are setup correctly.

 http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=458

Please let us know if your issue persists.
Thanks

[LGM]

I'm running Avast Anti-Virus 5.0.677.

My OS is Windows XP SP3.

I have Comodo Firewall running, but downloading of POP3 from incoming.yahoo.verizon.net works fine with just Comodo enabled. Comodo is not the problem.

I looked at the page you linked to. It's not real clear what they are saying there, but from what I can tell, I am set up correctly. In Thunderbird, under the security settings for the Verizon-Yahoo account that is having issues, the type of security is set to "None" (other options are "STARTTLS" and "SSL/TLS) ... and the Authentication method is set to "Password transmitted insecurely." In Avast, under mail accounts in the expert settings, the servers for the Verizon-Yahoo account are not listed at all. I believe this is correct, no?

Keep in mind when I totally disable Avast, then the POP3 mail from incoming.yahoo.verizon.net downloads without any problems.

When I try to download mail with Avast enabled, this is the error message that Thunderbird gives:

"An error occurred with the POP3 mail server. Mail server incoming.yahoo.verizon.net responded:"

And then right underneath that line there is simply a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in the center. No error code. Just the symbol.

[DavidR]

One for schmidthouse, your email is not displayed.

[schmidthouse]

Keep in mind when I totally disable Avast, then the POP3 mail from incoming.yahoo.verizon.net downloads without any problems.

Mmm...thats interesting. When you say "I totally disable Avast" are you talking about disabling all Avast Shields?
I'm not sure but I might be inclined to disable one shield at a time and see if you can possibly isolate which shield might be involved if in fact it is within Avast.
To be totally frank, I have never used Thunderbird so I just throwing darts in the dark here. My appologies??
I'm sure that one of the folks with more experience with Thunderbird and its interaction with Avast will assist you soon.
Thanks

[LGM]

What I had been doing is right click on the Avast icon in the taskbar  and choose "Disable for 10 minutes," and then check the mail.

But now I have simply unchecked "Scan inbound messages" under the Mail Shield settings and the mail downloads fine. So it is definitely the Mail Shield that's causing the problem.

I did a search and found another poster here who had the same exact problem. It was never resolved.  

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=66918.0

Hopefully someone can come up with an answer.

[sded]

What do you show under mail shield/expert settings/ssl accounts?  It sounds like Avast! may be confused by the domain name and port.  When you download without avast!, do you change your TB setting to ssl/995 or handle some other way?

[LGM]

What do you show under mail shield/expert settings/ssl accounts?  It sounds like Avast! may be confused by the domain name and port.  When you download without avast!, do you change your TB setting to ssl/995 or handle some other way?

See attached screenshot. It shows the servers for the other 3 mail accounts I have in Thunderbird. All 3 of those accounts have been working fine -- with or without Avast fully enabled.

When I downloaded with Avast disabled(just to get the Verizon-Yahoo account to work) I never changed any settings for the other 3 accounts.

[sded]

Try going into the avast! ssl accounts table and changing yahoo.com to verizon.net manually.  Or yahoo.verizon.net if that doesn't work.  The changes I wondered about were what you did in TB when you disabled avast! if not the normal switch to ssl/995 from none/110.  I don't use Yahoo, but Avast! thinks it needs to change the mail domain here.

[LGM]

Try going into the avast! ssl accounts table and changing yahoo.com to verizon.net manually.  Or yahoo.verizon.net if that doesn't work.

But I have a regular yahoo email account, and that's the server settings for that account. If I change that, then my Yahoo account won't work.  

The changes I wondered about were what you did in TB when you disabled avast! if not the normal switch to ssl/995 from none/110.  I don't use Yahoo, but Avast! thinks it needs to change the mail domain here.

When I disabled Avast to get the Verizon-Yahoo account to work, I made no changes to any of my other 3 accounts -- either within Thunderbird or within Avast. What you see there in the screenshot is what Avast put there. I set up the other 3 accounts in Thunderbird long ago (I can't even remember when) and have not changed the settings in Thunderbird since then.

The only mail account for which I have been fiddling around with settings is the problematic Verizon-Yahoo account. Before I figured out it was Avast that was interfering with mail downloads, I was inputting every conceivable variation of various settings, usernames, etc.

[sded]

OK, if you have a regular Yahoo account also, ADD a setting for verizon.net pop3 995 ssl to the ssl table and see if that helps.  Avast! uses this table to translate between secure and insecure settings to allow scanning.

[LGM]

Added the setting for verizon.net, then checked to filter incoming messages, but it didn't work. The message with yellow triangle popped up again when I tried to check the mail.

There is some incompatibility between that specific verizon server (or is it a yahoo server?) and avast. 

[sded]

Also try yahoo.verizon.net in the table.  Beyond that we may need to wait for another user of the service.  You just checked "scan incoming messages"?  TB is still setup as none/110?  How do you have TB set up without avast?  Normally this requires a switch to 995/SSL in TB, like you do with gmail.

[norel]

Scratch that, I posted some stuff then realized after doing some reading it was mostly all irrelevant.

Out of curiosity, does the Verizon account require encryption. I see in your first post you said TB encryption is set to "none," but does the account require encryption? If not and your incoming mail isn't encrypted then there may not be an entry required in the Expert Settings>SSL Accounts. That may be why it's not there.

Go to Expert Settings>SSL Accounts and click the question mark at the bottom of the page and read the help file that comes up. See if that's of any help.

[LGM]

Also try yahoo.verizon.net in the table.

Still doesn't work.

Beyond that we may need to wait for another user of the service.

You mean another user who may be able to help? Hmmm, if that doesn't happen soon, can I open a ticket with Avast?

You just checked "scan incoming messages"?  TB is still setup as none/110?  How do you have TB set up without avast?  Normally this requires a switch to 995/SSL in TB, like you do with gmail.

I now have "Scan inbound messages" unchecked as that is the only way I can use Avast and check my Verizon-Yahoo mail at the same time. I just checked it temporarily to see if adding "verizon.net" to the SSL accounts in Avast would work.

All the accounts in Thunderbird are currently set up with no authentication/security as mentioned in my previous posts earlier in this thread.

Does this answer your questions? I'm not really sure what you were asking.

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