Thunderbird Email Error....

Haven't been able to send out emails for a while , I get this message.

"Sending of message failed.
An error occurred sending mail: Unable to establish a secure link with SMTP server smtp.gmail.com using STARTTLS since it doesn't advertise that feature. Switch off STARTTLS for that server or contact your service provider."

 

see
http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=6b67c7ea19502a3c&hl=en

 

Tried some of the fixes suggested there and still can't send email.

 

did you disable Avast scanning email?

 

Yep, just get a the email outgoing loading window but it just times out.

 

I had a similar problem but solved it . I use Avira Premium and Windows Live Mail and was able to send emails only after disabling the scanning of outgoing email in the mail guard. Seems an encrypted TLS connection was being detected and blocked. Avira threw up a red flag saying "You are using an encrypted connection on the standard port to send emails. Mailguard is not able to scan these encrypted connections for viruses and unwanted programs. The connection will be terminated". Avira advised to disable monitoring of outgoing emails and all was good again.