Avast 7 freezes on .exe running

[nebulus]

I have the following issue after upgrading from Avast 6 to Avast 7: When I try to start an executable on my computer, it takes 15 to 30 seconds for it to start. During this time, Avast 7 tries to connect several times to vl.ff.avast.com, but this action is blocked by my firewall (Comodo 5.8 without Defence+). The problem is that all cloud services, connecting to avast account, automatic updates are disabled, but Avast keeps trying to connect to that site and blocks the executable from running until the connection times out.
I'd appreciate if you could look into this.
Thank you very much!

PS: Avast 6 had no such problems, with the same configuration for my firewall.

[itsjustme2]

go to firewall >network security policy and enable any connection established by avast (outgoing/ingoing).

[nebulus]

It might work, but I don't intend to let Avast connect to the server I mentioned without any valid reason. As long as I disabled any option that might give a reason for Avast to spontaneously connect to the Internet, and it still tries to do that, I think it's a bug in Avast. That is the reason that I though I should mention it on this forum.

[igor]

Strange... have you tried restarting the machine after disabling the reputation services?

[nebulus]

Sure thing. I investigated the matter a few hours (during which I restarted multiple times), because I wanted to make sure it's Avast fault and not my firewall's. I replicated the problem on a freshly installed virtual machine too, not only on my main computer.

[igor]

OK, sounds like a bug. It will be checked and fixed.
Sorry for the troubles.

[antrox]

Similar friezes occur with Avast 7 + Online Armor 5.5 during the extraction of some files or scan.

Reinstallation of products with traces of cleaning do not help (using Avast uninstal utility). Adding to the exceptions do not help. Changing the settings too. It helps only turn off startup Online Armor and reboot.

p.s.: with Avast version 6 all perfect

[igor]

Can you give some examples of installers that triggered the problem?
Also, what exclusions exactly (and where) did you try to set?
Thanks.

[stevejrc]

I have found that when an executable is started and is unknown to both Avast and Online Armor my system freezes for up to 5mins, I dont think Online Armors HIPS / anti malware network lookup can analyse a file at the same time as Avasts cloud lookup, sandbox, behaviour shield. One or the other is blocking access. Online armors log shows OADriver "signal and wait  for answer EX" timeout for the pid (process identifier) of Avastsvc.

[antrox]

Can you give some examples of installers that triggered the problem?

i sent in a personal message link on archive with the viruses (6Mb) which is a frieze with 16% extraction (WinXP SP3 32bit + Avast Free 7 + Online Armor 5.5 + WinRAR)

Also, what exclusions exactly (and where) did you try to set?

1) in Avast added exception of OA in the settings file screen
2) in OA added exception of Avast in the settings

Screenshot:

(WinXP + Vista style theme)

[stevejrc]

I had to disable avast sandbox to stop the freezes.

.......

But I also added these exclusions, which speed up my system (XP SP3 32bit).

avast webshield > expert settings > exclusions > "processes to exclude" :

C:\Program Files\Online Armor\OAsrv.exe
C:\Program Files\Online Armor\oaui.exe

also all .exe and .dll files individually from C:\Program Files\Online Armor\......   to avast behaviour shield > expert settings > trusted processes.