Fundamentally the message is your antivirus (AVG) has dropped the ball and the connection has failed.

I guess the solution would be get an antivirus that was a little more robust or disable it's email scanner. I find windows defender does a good job for me and does no scanning at all of my email specifically.

Hi Matt, Thank you so much for your speedy response!! I tried to uninstall AVG but it does not go. I waited for 10 minutes or so and when I clicked on it again, it said to wait for the uninstall to complete. What other method can I use to get rid of AVG? Regards, Sylvia

There used to be an AVG uninstaller. When I dumped it about 10 or more years ago.

Yep, looks like it is still there https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=uninstall-avg-software-clear-remover

Something is so corrupt that the removal tool just runs and runs. I have sent an email to AVG (paid member) and am waiting for a possible solution from them. If you have any other suggestion, I would welcome them. Maybe a restore would work.

Try running Windows in safe mode. This will not only bypass AVG and other startup apps, allowing you to test TB, but will probably allow the AVG removal tool to run properly.

Thank you Matt and sflowers. My saviors. My 88 year old brain forgets stuff I used to know. I rebooted in safe mode, downloaded my messages, ran AVG removal and in minutes things were good again. Bless you both!

Warm regards, Sylvia

I hope my thanks and appreciation to you both registered. I posted but it seemed to not go. Hmmm Anyway you guys are great!

Given the age of your operating system, you probably do need one of the third party antivirus products. you could try reinstalling AVG and see if it behaves better, or a google search for antivirus products for your version of windows will provide lots of choice.

I did reinstall AVG since I had a paid subscription. Years ago I used Symantec's protection and others in recent years. so far so good with the reinstall. I sure do appreciate the advice you all give so freely. I really like Thunderbird. In the old days I used Eudora but I think that went by the wayside.

If my W7 ever crashes so badly I guess I will have to update. The problem being that I have so many programs that work on W7 that I may not be able to update to the new platform. When I went from XP to W7 Hallmark told me just to change extension and my reminders (essential with my memory) still worked. Thanks again for your help.

Warm regards, Sylvia