Avast stopping my internet connection? Thats a good one!

[spg SCOTT]

Hi SJesMe, Welcome to the forum

...I'm using avast! version 4.8.1201 home edition...

Really? The latest program version is 4.8.1356. I'd suggest that you update it to that version first, to see if that helps some.

-Scott-

[polonus]

Hi folks,

Avast gets the blame, but the the error is with XP, it can be "a socket for unreachable host, caused by a W32 Time error"
Read about the solution here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555584

pol

[SJesMe]

That's probably a valid idea Scott, but before you smile and point a finger at the outdated version, please do note that (1) it was working fine until a month ago and (2) this complaint seems to be a recurrent one amongst users, regardless of version.
(See: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=34305.0)

Nonetheless, I will upgrade just so we are all on the same page.

Polonus, I can't seem to get that page to load ...
Edit: As of this morning it did but I'm not sure how that relates to the problem?

[Oggy]

Hi folks,

Avast gets the blame, but the the error is with XP, it can be "a socket for unreachable host, caused by a W32 Time error"
Read about the solution here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555584

pol

Thanks for the information. However, how come the problem goes away with Avast not present.

[shelant]

hey me again. so i spoke to the IT guy at work and he said there was probably another antivirus on the computer that needed to be uninstalled (because sometimes they fight eachother ). found it, uninstalled it.. reinstalled avast and now everything is fine!!! 

[CharleyO]

***

Welcome to the forums, shelant.   

We are happy that you have solved your problem.

Please come back often and learn more.


***

[piombo]

Had Avast long time; have current key.  No changes made.  First thing this morning Internet Explorer and Chrome both stopped working for first time.  IE would say website found.  Waiting for reply forever.  Chrome would say This webpage is not available immediately.  I rebooted.  I found that if I paused Web Shield provider, Internet would work.  Resume Web Shield and Internet would stop working.  What should I do?

[DavidR]

First would have been to read the full topic and answer the various questions ashed of the original poster.

What firewall do you use?
(Edited from original) Does it allow access for the avast! ashWebSv.exe file ?

You may have to remove the avast! entries and the start browsing, this will force it to ask again and then you can allow it.

[SafeSurf]

Polonus,

I tried following your directions:

How to Fix Time Error
RESOLUTION:-
 
1] Open a Command Prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
 
2] In the Command Prompt type the following commands. After each command press the Enter key.:-
 
    net stop w32time 
    w32tm /unregister
    w32tm /register   
    net start w32time
 
3] Close the Command Prompt window.

But only the first and last command prompts would take; the others said they were invalid and I typed them exactly as written.  Any suggestions?

I do have the same problem as everyone else, but the first thing I do when I boot my machine is reset my time manually.  When I'm online and try to update the time via Internet Time, it is off by 2 minutes, but I know my time has to be correct for any AV software to work properly.

The other thing that happens to me is that since I can't get online with either FF or IE (I really don't use IE), I found that my IP address needs to be renewed.  I suspect this is caused by my Internet provider who likes to change it on its customers daily and either Avast or my firewall is preventing it from happening and they are not happy with me.  So what I am doing is going into Control Panel -> Network Connections -> right click Local Area Connection -> Repair.  This causes my system to renew my IP address and I can get online.  But it's a pain in the butt to have to do this when I may have just signed off 15 minutes ago.  Any other ideas?  Thanks.

[ReimoFr]

I have the same problem with Vista.

MSN worked ok. But IE8, Chrome and Firefox wouldn't open webpages.
Chkdsk runs every time my PC starts up!! (no idea why - not sure if this is related)

I ran an antivirus scan - but there was an error at the end: it couldnt access c:\programs\avast4 (or similar) because the folder was corrupt !

I figured out today that the internet issue was because of the Web Shield: when I deactivate it the internet works fine.

Why does WebShield suddenly stop me from browsing the internet?
I updated Avast again today, it rebooted the PC, had the chkdsk which I skipped, tried the w32time commands, and the WebShield problem is still there


Help??

[DavidR]

If you have read the previous posts, commonly it isn't the ashWebSv.exe stopping you but the firewall stopping it, so please answer the questions in the quoted text in Reply #22 above.

[SafeSurf]

I completely uninstalled my firewall (OA Premium) while leaving Avast working and still have the problem of not being able to access the Internet unless I manually go into Control Panel -> Network Connections -> right click Local Area Connection -> Repair.  This causes my system to renew my IP address and I can get online.  I tried turning off the Web Shield and putting it back on.  I then reinstall my firewall (clean install) allowing both AV and firewall as trusted exclusions, cleaned the machine, and am malware-free.  I rebooted several times; the machine works fine otherwise. 

[185db]

I had this problem as well, it started about the same time that the original post was posted.

I have been using Avast Home for years, and recently built this computer maybe a year ago. I was using Comodo firewall, Ad-Aware Anniversary free edition, and PCTools ThreatFire. First I thought that the reason I was unable to use my connection was dew to my USB wireless going out. So I replaced it with a D-Link PCI card, and that did nothing to fix my problem. So I did a reformat of my computer (I was having other problems too). After a clean reinstall of Windows Vista x64 I proceeded to install the latest versions of all my drivers, security programs, and Firefox. The problem happened again. I had no viruses and no malware, as this was a clean system.

I thought that a windows update or a driver update might be the culprit. So I reformatted again turning off the Automatic Update feature built into Windows. Installed all the old drivers and tried the internet, and it worked fine (only trusted sites). I then reinstalled all the security software (Comodo, Avast!, Ad-Aware, ThreatFire) and FireFox, and after about 30 minutes of surfing the internet stopped loading in both FireFox and Internet Explorer. At this time I still had not done any Windows updates or driver updates.

Knowing that a Windows update or a driver update was not to blame, I reformatted again. This time I did all the Windows updates and all the driver updates and the internet worked fine. So I tried reinstalling each of the Security products one by one. I started with Comodo, and the internet worked fine. Then Ad-aware, and the internet worked fine. Then Avast!, and the internet stopped responding. So I uninstalled Avast! and the internet was back. Then I tried ThreatFire and still no problems.

I thought it might be a conflict with Avast! and another security product. So I did another reformat, and this time I updated Windows and all the drivers. I then installed Avast! by itself and i lost my internet again.

I uninstalled Avast! and installed ZoneAlarm, WinPatrol, and Avira. Everything is working fine now, but I HATE Avira. Please fix this problem so I can switch back.

Specs:
MSI K9A2 Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
8GB RAM
NVidia 9600GT 512MB
2 DVD optical drives
2 250GB HDs RAID 0
650 Watt PS
D-Link wireless NIC
320 GB external USB HD

[185db]

Bump.

Anyone got any ideas as to the cause of this problem?

I also had the problem listed in this post: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=50882.0

[SafeSurf]

I realized with me I had to play around with some port settings on my firewall and now everything is working fine.

The other problem I still have is that my clock doesn't keep time and I have to manually fix it every time I boot the machine.  I know AV and firewalls need to have accurate times for them to work.