Don't know where to start

At mid-morning on Feb 21, Mozilla Thunderbird email stopped working. Messages continued to appear in my Inbox, but I could no longer open them, and I was unable to send email. When attempting to open or send messages, I saw notification "boxes" saying: "imap.gmail.com has disconnected. Server may have gone down or there may be a network problem" or "Sending of message failed because connection to outgoing server smtp.gmail,com was lost..." :sad:

I was successful sending and receiving via the gmail website, so I assume something in my laptop changed. Is this a legitimate Spybot Forum problem? If not, I would much appreciate your suggestion(s) of another source of technical help. :thanks:

Hello gin_jammer,

You could start a topic at What the Tech in their forum: Browsers, Internet and email

Best regards, :)

tashi

Thanks! I'm going to look for that website now.

Best regards,
g_j

Thanks again! With some help from What the Tech, I was today able to restore Thunderbird, but only after disabling the Email Shield of AVG Free. I'm now operating my system using AVG Free partially disabled and I have no idea whether this leaves it unreasonably vulnerable to attack or not.

I began using AVG Free several years ago at the recommendation of a Spybot Safer Networking forum helper. Until now I've had no problem with AVG Free, but after this incident, I must ask: is there another free anti-virus or anti-malware software that you would now recommend over AVG?

Helpers at What the Tech recommended Microcosmic Security Essentials and Malwarebytes AntiMalware Premium, which I intend to investigate. Can anyone on Tavern comment on these, or recommend any Free AV software?

In the mean time, I intend to avoid opening "unnecessary" E-mail and attachments. Obviously, how to discern which messages and attachments are legitimate/safe and which are malicious is a matter of judgement...