AVG 8 preventing POP3 email download

Whenever AVG 8's update servers aren't responding, or are busy, I'm unable to download my email from my POP3 account. This occurs on all 3 PC's in our house and it is becoming a real nuisance to deal with because it's been happening more frequently over the past several weeks. Even though the virus definitions are up to date, every time I try to download mail, AVG attempts to contact it's servers, and when they don't respond, my email server times out. As soon as I uninstall AVG, my email works fine.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem? AVG support has not responded to my query on this issue, probably because I'm using their AVG Free product.
Does anyone know of a better, trustworthy product out there that I can try?

 

Could you disable Email Protection from AVG Control Center and try your POP Mail ? If it still doesn't work, then its probably not AVG's fault.

The best free AV for home IMO, is Avast! Home Edition.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes, when I disable 'check incoming email' I'm able to download my mail with no problem.
I'll also add here that I use Comodo free firewall, which was what alerted me to the fact that it was AVG that was trying to access it's servers when I attempted to download my mail.
I had completely uninstalled the firewall before I uninstalled AVG, and the trouble didn't disappear until AVG was gone. I reinstalled Comodo firewall and my mail continued to work fine until I reinstalled AVG (standard install, accepting the email default)
That certainly proves that it's AVG, but what good would the program be without email protection?
I can't deal with that.
I'll give Avast a whirl.