Web Shield causes all browsers to stop working

[fooldog01]

I have been having this issue in Vista where IE7 stops working after about 5-10 minutes of use. It will just sit there as if it is loading a web page but the page never loads. I tried Firefox and it is doing the same thing. Today I isolated the problem. If I stop Web Shield, the browsers immediately begin functioning normally again.

During the problem I can still ping, use messenger, access other network resources.

When I restart the Web Shield, the provider doesnt show as running in the Avast! icon on the notification area of the taskbar. It says 2 running out of 7 even though the Web Shield should make 3.

Not sure what the deal is but it might need addressing for future releases because this problem is happening for other folks as well as you can see in the following link: http://winvistaforums.com/windows-vista-support/10005-browser-stops-working-after-while-7.html

[Tech]

Which firewall do you use?
If you remove the entry ashWebSv.exe and browse again, allowing the connections, will it work?

[fooldog01]

I am using Windows Firewall. Defender is disabled. I havent specifically stopped AshWebSv.exe.

Once I restart Web Shield I seem to have no problems and even though it says only 2 providers are running, AshWebSV.exe is still in the task manager as running.

If the problem shows up again, I can try ending the process specifically and report back if you need me to.

Hopefully that answers your question.

[Tech]

I can try ending the process specifically

WebShield is not only the process running.
You need to disable it into avast provider settings.
But, in fact, what we want to have is WebShield working in your computer.
Which was your antivirus before avast? Any firewall before?

[fooldog01]

I did disable it in providers. Thats when the browsers begin working. And I restarted it in the providers and so far the browser problem hasnt reoccurred.

[Tech]

Maybe a temporary glitch... difficult to troubleshoot.
Glad it's working now.

[Goliath Corporation]

I've also experienced this on XP Pro SP3 with both version 4.8.1201 and 4.8.1218 beta.

The problem does not occur consistently, but tend to happen once the PC has been running for a few hours.  When it occurs, I cannot load any pages in either Firefox (happened with both versions 2 and 3) and IE7.  I've noticed this occur more when I've been gaming online for a few hours - the game and voice chat connections continue to run without problem, but if I switch to the desktop and try to browse the web then any page I try times out.  If I try to fetch mail when this is happening, it too fails.

The following courses of action cause the problem to go away:
(i) disabling the Web Shield; and
(ii) disabling my ethernet apadtor, then re-enabling it.

I don't particularly like either course of action as (i) leaves vulnerabilities and (ii) causes my connections to Guild Wars and Ventrilo to disconnect.

Any thoughts?

[Cc7]

I also have this problem. Sometimes its random and many times its after running the game F.E.A.R. online. The symptoms are firefox 3 seems to hang and cannot connect to web sites. Sometime it affects both firefox and IE7 and sometimes just firefox 3. Stopping and restarting the avast web shield will allow the browsers affected to connect. My concern is that when I hover over the avast icon it shows one less provider running even though i have restarted web shield. If I go to the On-Access Protection control panel it will say that the web shield provider is waiting for a subsystem to start. This is when I will just reboot the pc and it be fine again for a while.

[info]

Well, this is certainly a similar problem to what I am experiencing as well and which I have described here.  Evidently I am not alone after all.

[wyrmrider]

I'm thinking that all of you need to provide the basic info so Tech can see if there is a common thread
was there ever a security suite or AV pre-installed on your systems or another AV?
what firewall and previous firewalls
any resident security software such as Spybot T-timer, Counterspy active protection, etc
any bit torrent, P2P etc activity
Operating Systems and all that stuff
what is running when this happens?

thanks

you can also put your games in an exclude list
let us know if that helps

you do not want to be connected with AV off

[info]

Thanks.  I am running the following providers (default):
Internet Mail
Internet Messaging
Network Shield
P2P Shield
Standard Shield
Web Shield

The machine came with Norton Internet Security which I disabled using MSCONFIG (two entries), but I am uncertain if I have gotten rid of all of it.  The Windows Vista Security Center shows only avast! running under Malware.  I am also running Zone Alarm, and Spybot S&D.  ZoneAlarm is shown in the Security Center under Firewall (nothing else). I had suspected Spybot and tested without loading it but got the same result.  When I discovered that I could reconnect by stopping avast!, I was running only Zone Alarm and avast! (of the three programs). I stopped Zone Alarm to no avail, and then, when I stopped avast!, I was able to reestablish the connection.  Subsequently, after running into the problem, I was able to reconnect by the method described above (disabling and re-enabling avast!) with both Zone Alarm and Spybot S&D running alongside avast!.

P.S.
I cross-posted this with a post on the thread I started prior to seeing this one as I saw no other way around it.

[info]

I have stopped the Web Shield provider and will report back.  All other providers listed above are running.

[DavidR]

You need to uninstall Norton not just use msconfig as that doesn't stop the drivers loading and following add remove programs to uninstall it you would be best to also run the uninstall tool as it is a pig to remove.

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT
Or http://ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

[Cc7]

*Windows Vista 32bit SP1
*avast home 4.8 build 4.8.1201 running
*zonealarm 7.1.254.000 running
*Windows Defender not always running
  Version:  1.1.1600.0
  Engine Version: 1.1.3704.0
*No IM's
*Utorrent 1.7.7 build 8179 never running

I have all providers set to high
I have never had another AV installed

I cant think of anything else.. but I will take note when it happens again.

[info]

You need to uninstall Norton not just use msconfig as that doesn't stop the drivers loading and following add remove programs to uninstall it you would be best to also run the uninstall tool as it is a pig to remove.

A link worth looking at, which is a program removal tool that can remove the remnants of a number of different Norton Programs:
Removing your Norton program using SymNRT
Or http://ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe

Thank you!  I will go through the process of uninstalling it completely.  I'm not sure I really installed it as, when I received the machine, each time I booted it would pop up a prompt to get started with NIS and I always just closed the pop-up. It may have been fully pre-installed as a trial though and the pop-up was just a TOS and/or registration procedure.   The only thing I may have accomplished with MSCONFIG is to prevent the pop-ups from reoccurring.