Avast WEBforum
Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: fooldog01 on July 12, 2008, 09:33:49 PM
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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
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Which firewall do you use?
If you remove the entry ashWebSv.exe and browse again, allowing the connections, will it work?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Maybe a temporary glitch... difficult to troubleshoot.
Glad it's working now.
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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?
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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.
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Well, this is certainly a similar problem to what I am experiencing as well and which I have described here (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=37098.0). Evidently I am not alone after all.
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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
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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.
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I have stopped the Web Shield provider and will report back. All other providers listed above are running.
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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 (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039)
Or ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/removal_tools/Norton_Removal_Tool.exe
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*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.
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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 (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039)
Or 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.
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Info
BINGO
Norton yet again
(or Panda or Mcaffe or whatever)
post back and let us know how you are doing
Other posters to this thread
if you do not have the Norton/Pand/mcaffe AVG or other previous AV problem/solution id suggest starting new threads
please give all the info required in your first new post
do the previous AV uninstall -reboot- run cleanup tool for previous AV- reboot
another cleanup tool can be found on the ANTIVIR website under programs or products
reinstall Avast
update
schedule a boot scan
Did that fix it?
post back to close your part of this thread or give a link to your new thread
there is malware that also causes this behaviour
with various fixes
let's get everyone clean
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You're welcome.
If you received it on your system, it was certainly fully installed (even as a time limited trial) or you wouldn't have found the entries in msconfig, you should always look in add remove programs first before taking any other action.
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Absolutely, I just saw the NIS directory in Program Files, it has it's subdirectories, and it appears to have been quite completely installed. I also have the icon ('twas hidden) so I'm a little embarassed I even mentioned this part of it. I would like to be thorough in removing the program and will take a moment to study exactly how to do it a little further. Thanks for the warnings. I have not yet had the time to explore the links provided.
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You're welcome, good luck in removing NIS.
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Previous AV on my machine was AVG 7.5 followed briefly by 8.0 plus Spybot plus Ad-aware 2007. Removed AVG via add/remove in the control panel, and made sure the Grisoft and AVG folders in Program Files and Documents and Settings are no longer there. Any other steps in making sure it's all gone?
After installing avast I ran the boot-time scan, which found a few generics in the System Volume Information restore directories but nothing in the Windows directory. Subsequent scan show up nothing.
When I first noticed the problem, I still had Ad-aware 2007 and Spybot 1.5.2 plus Spybot-SD Resident on my system along with avast! 4.8.1201. I've removed Ad-aware (via their uninstall shortcut?), and am now running Spybot and its Resident at version 1.6, SUPERAntiSpyware Free and Malwarebytes' Anti-malware. No firewall running on the machine (running one at the gateway).
With avast, I'm now running 4.8.1218 Home with the default providers and have not made any changes other then (i) disabled skins, (ii) show results of Explorer Extension scans and (ii) check for full-screen applications before showing pop-ups (as I run quite a number of games).
I tend to notice the problem after I've been gaming for a while e.g. over the past few weeks I've been running Guild Wars plus Ventrilo plus Ventrilo server running for a few hours - Guild Wars and the Ventrilo programs continue to operate fine to the internet, but the web browsers cannot retrieve anything. It's also occurred at other times though - on a couple of occasions where I've run iTunes shortly after boot-up I've noticed that it was not downloading my podcasts, and then that my email and web were not going either. When it occurs the indications are that all processes are running normally - ashWebSv.exe is not using CPU time, and no other programs or services are hogging resources.
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Goliath
here is link to AVG uninstall page several entries
http://www.grisoft.com/ww.faq.num-285
notice that they recommend downloading the latest installation file to remove
AVG does not have a separate uninstall program
I use the one from ANTIVIR on AVG which does seem to find some things the AVG removal misses
(it is a version of a popular reg cleaner)
Cheers
wyrmrider
spybot does not interfere with AVAST
neither does spywareblaster
you will have to do the remove-reinstall drill with avast after the AVG removal methinks
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Just a brief note to report that since I disabled Web Shield, the browser (Firefox in my case) has been working flawlessly and has not stopped connecting in almost 24 hours without any measures having been taken by me (no disabling/enabling of avast! or rebooting). So, at the moment, it seems that I am in the same situation as fooldog01 with Vista and avast! allowing smooth connections to the web as long as Web Shield is not active. I have not yet re-enabled it to see if this corrects the problem as it may have done in his case.
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INfo
give it a shot
you do NOT want to be without AV protection which is how you are now
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INfo
give it a shot
you do NOT want to be without AV protection which is how you are now
Thanks wyrmrider. I went ahead with the Norton Removal Tool in the ftp link that David provided which appears to have done quite a good job as it even removed the icons and there is nothing running that I can see with the name Norton attached. The NIS directory has also been fully removed. There are two items which appear in MSCONFIG as disabled (ccApp and isCfgWiz) which I googled and both seem to be related to Norton. These are not the two items I mentioned previously which I had disabled, and both of which had the name Norton in them; those are gone. I'm not sure what I should do about these two.
Should I remove avast! and re-install at this point or just run as is for a while to see? If I need to remove avast!, should I do this with Add/Remove Programs and was there an additional cleanup procedure that needed to be followed? I didn't quite understand your post about this.
Things seem to be running well at the moment but I just uninstalled the Norton programs a few moments ago and rebooted. I disabled the Web Shield provider in an attempt to reproduce the behavior that seemed to solve the problem for fooldog01, and will continue to run this way for a little while (re-enabling Web Shield after maybe a couple of hours) unless I hear otherwise. I hope the removal of NIS solves the problem.
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they are related to norton
they will not cause any problems but you do not need them
you could also try the antivir removal tool if you are going to reinstall AVAST
but let's see if avast works correctly with Norton resident portions and most registry entries gone
get web shield back on and report
thanks for posting those two Norton remnants- there may be additional fragments
if you do run the antivir tool and find any let me know- it did on may machine and I have not used norton AV for YEARS and was converting from- subsequent to Norton- Antivir and AVG installations
If you do need to reinstall I'd do both the add remove programs way and then use the "small fix" then run the antivir tool then reinstall - with lots of reboots
perhaps this will not be necessary
let us know
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So far, so good with Web Shield up and intense surfing for about 2 hours now. Memory usage seems considerably lower (it may be the two programs though). I will probably be up past midnight (PST) visiting different sites and should know what is going on soon. Thanks.
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Once you have remover Norton you will most certainly notice less ram used and probably your system is more responsive too. So if after the removal avast is running fine it will probably be OK to leave it as it is, if you do have any other issues then a reinstall would be advised.
I seem to have missed the antivir that wyrmrider has picked up on so you should run the uninstall tool for that before considering any action on avast.
Avira AntiVir Uninstall Package & RegistryCleaner (choose appropriate version): http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html (http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html)
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DAvidR echos correctly
do not run the Antivir tool unless you have to reinstall as the norton fragments are disabled they are harmless
looks like you are good to go
after an update you might want to schedule a boot scan for your next reboot to catch anything that might have snuck in while webshield was down however the on access-(when a program loads) protection should catch most things
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Well, I'm sorry to say that last night, after about an additional hour of internet use, I again had Firefox 3 just suddenly stop connecting. There was no prior slowing down of the system or other tangible symptoms whatsoever, clicking on a link just spins Firefox and the connection does not go through. After trying two or three addtional links without success, I stopped avast! On-access protection using the taskbar icon and was able to reconnect immediately. I turned avast! back on and continued as if nothing had happened.
So, I think I should proceed to the next step of removing and re-installing avast! in the hope that that will fix it. I have a question about wyrmrider's post below:
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If you do need to reinstall I'd do both the add remove programs way and then use the "small fix" then run the antivir tool then reinstall - with lots of reboots
perhaps this will not be necessary
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I'm not sure what the "small fix" refers to so I will wait for clarification before I proceed. Then I will use add/remove to take out avast, use the small fix (whatever it is), use the antivir tool in the link David just provided, then reinstall, rebooting after every move. Please let me know if I am understanding this correctly. I'm now again wondering if fooldog1 really got this permanently fixed since if one uses the net only lightly it takes (me) hours to get to the glitch.
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There is are several links on the Avira site and I'm a bit confused as to which ones to use. First is the Avira AntiVir Removal Tool accompanied by a "download here" link. Then a little further down the page is a link to what appears to be the same thing. And prior to that there is an "Avira AntiVir and Registry Cleaner" link. I am under the impression that I should go with the last one. Is this correct? Also, it does not indicate support for Windows Vista in the pdf Manual (going as far as XP).
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First fully remove antivir, see the image to see what you should download.
Reboot and continue monitoring avast and your browsing, if no problem, then OK, if the same then reinstall.
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Once you have remover Norton you will most certainly notice less ram used and probably your system is more responsive too. So if after the removal avast is running fine it will probably be OK to leave it as it is, if you do have any other issues then a reinstall would be advised.
I seem to have missed the antivir that wyrmrider has picked up on so you should run the uninstall tool for that before considering any action on avast.
Avira AntiVir Uninstall Package & RegistryCleaner (choose appropriate version): http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html (http://www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html)
It's possible that I may have completely misunderstood something here. I have never had any Avira products on my computer and was thinking that you were all referring to some generic product that removed malware. Is this software really applicable to me? Thanks.
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No I believed I had missed something somewhere (another post/topic) that you also at some point had antivir as wyrmrider brought this up.
If you didn't have it installed then no need to run that, but now the next step would be a clean reinstall of avast.
Download the latest version of avast http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html (http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html) and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, find it here (http://www.avast.com/eng/avast-uninstall-utility.html) and save it to your HDD.
1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step) reboot.
2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, reboot
3. install the latest version, reboot.
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right
the Antivir tool is a general purpose tool which might remove those two Norton leftovers
I'll check on which one is which-- good find about Vista
so I'll check and see if they work on Vista
so for now Neither
there are other ways to clean up those entries however since they are disabled they cause no need for immediate action
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I uninstalled avast! and ran the uninstall utility in Safe Mode, rebooting at each step along the way. I have completed the re-installation, rebooted, and chose "yes" to schedule a boot time scan; but, I had to move from the location when the scan had only progressed 5% and possibly made a mistake stopping it. I suppose a regular scan will do the same for me this evening but stopping it may have allowed a bug to stay around. I suppose I could repeat the installation process this evening if it becomes necessary. Again, keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for your help.
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you completed the installation process
ran update
then scheduled bootime scan- right?
rebooted - scan started then moved ?
should be no harm no fowl
no hits?
you should not have to reinstall
you could reschedule bootime scan if still having problems
run your hours of tests now and let's see if something acts up
NORTON hopefully was the root of all EVIL and hopefully the conflict is gone
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I uninstalled avast! and ran the uninstall utility in Safe Mode, rebooting at each step along the way. I have completed the re-installation, rebooted, and chose "yes" to schedule a boot time scan; but, I had to move from the location when the scan had only progressed 5% and possibly made a mistake stopping it.
Stopping the scan shouldn't be a problem, it is only looking for infection and your problems don't seem to be related to any infection.
The installation doesn't need to do a boot-time scan to complete successfully, it has effectively done that before you reboot and if windows started after aborting the boot-time scan, then no problem you should OK.
Re the two NIS entries reported earlier:
There are two items which appear in MSCONFIG as disabled (ccApp and isCfgWiz) which I googled and both seem to be related to Norton.
Then it is back to monitoring avast and your browsing and see what the result is.
If they are disabled in msconfig, you cang go back in there and right click on them and you should be able to select delete.
I suppose a regular scan will do the same for me this evening but stopping it may have allowed a bug to stay around. I suppose I could repeat the installation process this evening if it becomes necessary. Again, keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for your help.
I wouldn't make that supposition a boot-time scan can take a while and it differs from the regular on-demand scan as you can change the sensitivity and effectively what is scanned.
There should be no need to reinstall unless you are experiencing problems and you should report the problem first.
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Like info I'm also still having problems. A couple of nights ago I did an uninstall, then rebooted to safe mode and ran the Antivir registry cleaner tool wyrmrider suggested (which seemed to find a slew of AVG related entries) and ccleaner. I then searched the drives for any Grisoft/AVG directories and removed anything related. After doing that I rebooted the machine, reinstalled avast, followed again by a reboot.
I left avast at 4.8.1201 and did my usual things for a few hours (Thunderbird, Firefox, Guild Wars, Ventrilo server, Ventrilo) and things were fine for a few hours, then suddenly stopped. After a reboot, I went through the process of installing avast beta (was interested to see if there was any difference between the versions) and rebooted again. Things were fine for the rest of that evening. However last evening I experienced the lockups again.
Did I miss a step, as I did not run the avast removal tool? I don't mind repeating the process if you guys think it's worth a shot.
I found an earlier thread (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19650.0 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19650.0)) about web shield issues which suggests enabling web shield logging and catching a memory dump when the shield locks up - I will also set these up tonight in the hope of catching the cause.
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It will be interesting to see what that webshield log shows
I've never done that myself
When I un-installed AVG I also got a lot of AVG leftovers with the ANTIVIR Tool and a lot of very old NORTON leftovers
Avast is now humming for me
good luck
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you completed the installation process
ran update
then scheduled bootime scan- right?
rebooted - scan started then moved ?
should be no harm no fowl
no hits?
you should not have to reinstall
you could reschedule bootime scan if still having problems
run your hours of tests now and let's see if something acts up
NORTON hopefully was the root of all EVIL and hopefully the conflict is gone
Sorry for the delay in getting back to the board, I was sidetracked yesterday and only now am returning to my computer. In answer to the above, yes, that is right except for the update part which avast! did automatically but it I don't exactly remember when. Unless answering yes to the "Schedule boot time scan?" automatically causes a reboot then and there, I am under the impression that right after that, avast! updated itself. I was so tired yesterday, I forgot to run a scan from within Vista before going to bed. I just located the boot time scan option from within avast! and will choose that over doing the scan from within Vista.
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posted in error, please disregard.
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David, thanks for the additional information, I'm learning a lot here. I have also read Goliath's posts carefully and my problem seems very similar to his. More details as they arise.
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You're welcome.
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I am sorry to report that the problem has persisted. After watching a video of about an hour (National Geographic's "Cloning"), I was unable to connect to any new sites until I stopped and started avast!, whereupon again I was immediately able to reconnect. Would it be possible to analyze a log or a core dump using the procedure described in the thread provided by Goliath? Or are there other things I could try? I am doing a Standard Scan right now.
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Sorry I'm at a loss as to what might be the problem, with everything that we have suggested and you have done should have resolved the problem and it did for a while.
It is this inconsistency that I don't understand, the web shield should either work or not with no inconsistency. This would lead me to believe there is some outside influence, what is the 64,000 dollar question.
Lets try another tool to see what it reveals.
HiJackThis, Program & Tutorial - Also useful as a diagnostic tool - FileHippo Download - HiJackThis (http://filehippo.com/download_hijackthis/) and post the contents of the HJT log file here. - HJT Information HiJackThis Tutorial (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial42.html).
Download and run HJT and post the contents of the log file (cut and paste or attach the log file to the post) into this topic, you may need to split it over two or more posts depending on how large it is.
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Sorry for this post, I seem to be getting extra forum posts in error. It may be related to the preview function but I'm unsure at this point.
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Thanks David. I will download those programs and wait for the problem to re-occur to run them. At the same time, I will try to set up the logging on avast! the way indicated towards the end of the thread that Goliath posted above (where someone solved a seemingly identical problem by adding a line to exclude a .dll process in one of the avast! files). This has been the only documented solution that I have seen so far, but I am not running the program that seemed to be causing the problem in that particular case.
I have also seen several posts tying the problem to ZoneAlarm which has always been running simultaneously on my system every time the problem occured. One person said that when both ZoneAlarm or Web Shield were running together the glitch would occur (he was also on Vista running both avast! and ZA). Disabling either resolved the issue. Unfortunately, he tried almost every possible combination of installing, uninstalling (first one, then the other) and also several changes to his settings (receiving much assistance on the avast! and ZA forums to no avail. He evidently gave up on it without a solution and probably subsituted either a different firewall or anti-virus.
I did a Thorough Scan with avast! and found 0 files infected. Placing the cursor over the avast! icon in the Taskbar shows 7 providers total, 6 running. There is a software package called Sphinx which someone mentioned that sets up the Vista Firewall in a way that it works in an acceptable way (it is evidently somewhat complicated to set up to catch outgoing traffic) but, I am uncertain about the free version and am debating whether to install this (possibly Comodo is better). Also, I have disabled ZA to confirm that there it has a relationship to this on my own system, so it may take me a while to report back while I get all of this done.
I appreciate you all hanging in there with me.
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I'm getting the following warning in the Vista Event Viewer. There have been 30 logged records of this, 6 in the last 7 days. The time of this one seems to coincide with the time of the failure to connect to the internet problem I had last night; although, the previous recorded warning did not correspond to the occurence of the problem yesterday. So, I have set updates to ask, and restarted ZoneAlarm to see if this is the culprit first. I seem to recall a post saying that updates was the cause of disconnects from one poster.
Log Name: Antivirus
Source: avast!
Date: 7/17/2008 11:22:04 PM
Event ID: 90
Task Category: Client
Level: Warning
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Universe
Description:
Function setifaceUpdatePackages() has failed. Return code is 0x000004C7, dwRes is 000004C7.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="avast!" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16896">90</EventID>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>4</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2008-07-18T06:22:04.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>74</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Antivirus</Channel>
<Computer>Universe</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>Function setifaceUpdatePackages() has failed. Return code is 0x000004C7, dwRes is 000004C7. </Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
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I wouldn't wait, you have an unexplained problem already.
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david and info
I've jsut been lurking
but
both
Vistafirewall and zonealarm?
info
follow davidR's instructins
mine are just comments at this point
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david and info
I've jsut been lurking
but
both
Vistafirewall and zonealarm?
info
follow davidR's instructins
mine are just comments at this point
Vista Firewall is disabled at the moment. I was thinking that, as a last resort, I would just disable Zone Alarm and use the Vista Firewall (if I could confirm that by not running it avast! would run without problems). The Sphinx software evidently facilitates a more secure Vista Firewall.
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Here is the attatched result of the scan. None of the boxes came up checked on the HJT scan. Is the the logfile we wanted (sorry, although I've seen it mentioned many times before, I am not familiar with using HJT).
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That is why I gave a link to a HJT Tutorial as well.
These are further remnants of Norton, fix:
O2 - BHO: NCO 2.0 IE BHO - {602ADB0E-4AFF-4217-8AA1-95DAC4DFA408} - (no file)
O2 - BHO: Symantec Intrusion Prevention - {6D53EC84-6AAE-4787-AEEE-F4628F01010C} - C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\SYMANT~1\IDS\IPSBHO.dll (file missing)
Redundant Fix:
O3 - Toolbar: (no name) - {7FEBEFE3-6B19-4349-98D2-FFB09D4B49CA} - (no file)
Other than that I don't see anything obvious.
Do you use WildTangent as a) I'm not a gamer and b) some think it should be removed.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildTangent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildTangent) and http://www.pchell.com/support/wildtangent.shtml (http://www.pchell.com/support/wildtangent.shtml)
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good work info
do read the tutorial prior to a fix by hjt
close all browsers including this one
if you have run any other scans or rebooted your system prior to FIX you might want to post up a follow up hjt
Wild Tangent
If you do not use it Loose it
that's IMHO
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Since enabling the logging a couple of nights ago, I hadn't had a lockup until I was replying here saying that the problem hadn't occued since enabling the logging...
The programs I was running at the the time were Firefox, Ventrilo server, Ventrilo and iTunes (which had been busy downloading prior to the lockup).
I used the userdump program from the other thread to capture a dump of the ashWebSv.exe process (and discovered that I had to disable the avast self-defence module in order to do so) then disabled and re-enabled my network adapter and was able to resume normal service. Since then I've been running Guild Wars, Ventrilo server, Ventrilo and Firefox and things are still working ok at the mo.
Could someone tell me if the instructions in lukor's post (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19650.msg265569#msg265569 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=19650.msg265569#msg265569)) are still valid - just wanting to check that I won't send the file into a black hole.
Looking through the AshWebSv.log file doesn't appear to point to any causes - there is just a pause between when things seems to have hung up, and when things resume after I re-enabled my adapter.
Following info's lead, I also had a look at the Event Viewer, but could not find any events which correlate with the Web Shield lockup.
DavidR, thanks for the HJT links - it found another leftover from AVG8 which I removed:
O2 - BHO: WormRadar.com IESiteBlocker.NavFilter - {3CA2F312-6F6E-4B53-A66E-4E65E497C8C0} - (no file)
info, since you're using Vista do you have the ZoneAlarm compatibility settings enabled in the [WebScanner] section of your avast4.ini file? (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15960#msg15960 (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15960#msg15960)).
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You're welcome.
I would say the instructions are still valid, however, it is normal to have been asked to upload this by one of the Alwil team as the FTP upload destination isn't continuously monitored so it could sit there for a while.
The ZA compatibility settings have nothing to do with the OS, but the version of Zone Alarm, e.g. if you have the ZA Pro version. avast! should detect what ZA version you have and not ask the question if you have the ZA Free version.
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Goliath, Thanks for pointing that out. I am using the Zone Alarm free version and I'm not sure from what I saw on Zone Alarm compatibility setting if it is necessary. The note alongside seems to imply that it isn't but it would seem to be worth a try.
I have been a little tied up in the last couple of days and haven't had to much time available. Here is what is in my avast.ini file in the DATA directory. I have not enabled logging yet as I have disabled ZA and am testing avast! alone with the Windows Vista Firewall (just turned it to on with no modifications) trying to eliminate ZA as a source of the problem. I a have left avast! on with Web Shield activated.
Yesterday, Firefox got stuck in processes (could not be terminated, no matter how long I waited. this has happened before). I tried IE which connected only after I disabled and re-enabled On-Access protection. At the moment I am waiting to see if the system becomes stable after disabling Zone Alarm and am studying HJT.
This is what I have in the avast.ini file under the DATA subdir. I will turn logging on after the current test with the Vista Firewall.
[WebScanner]
AutoRedirect=1
HttpRedirectPort=80
LoadIsapiFilters=1
ISAPIFilter1=ashWsFtr.dll
IgnoreAddress=
IgnoreLocalhost=1
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It seems I'm hitting the quote button rather than the modifiy button resulting in these extra posts which I cannot get rid of, so please ignore this. Apologies.
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Just a note to report that without Zone Alarm running I still encounter the same problem. Strange that turning off avast and turning it back on has not freed up Firefox which has stuck in memory the last two times. IE failed to connect until I turned avast! on and off twice. Totally frustrating at this point. I'm going to run for a while with avast! updates set to off and have disabled Vista Firewall and re-enabled Zone Alarm. I think I will put the extra line into the avast.ini regarding Zone Alarm that Goliath mentioned but first I will test again with the Web Shield off to double check if that it really is the problem.
This might take a couple of days so, in the meantime, I hope everyone has a good weekend. ::)
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Again, my apologies for hitting quote instead of modify. I'm not really used to forums where this cannot be done. I'll be more careful and report back again with a re-confirmation that Web Shield is indeed the culprit. I've been on now for a long time (about 4-5 hours) with it disabled and I'm still going strong.
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I have been on for four hours and twenty minutes today and have not had "the inability to connect to the net using Firefox after a few hours problem" since I last reported it yesterday. All in all, I have had about 10-12 straight hours of uninterrupted connection to the net so, I feel that I can re-confirm that Web Shield is indeed causing the problem as was my initial impression. The last time I was able to run this long without a problem was the last time I ran avast! without Web Shield.
How really important is Web Shield anyway? I have Zone Alarm, Spybot S&D, Windows Defender, and avast! (without Web Shield) running really smoothly on Vista Home Premium. The system runs beautifully (very fast). I have been considering moving to Avira as a last resort, but I am not sure that they have a component equivalent to Web Shield at this point, and am uncertain that I would be gaining much with the move. We seem to be at the end of the line here, what would you guys do? Again, thanks so much to you all for your help and your kind manner.
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I've been lurking awhile and am at the exact same point as Info. I'm also running Windows Vista Home Premium with ZoneAlarm and Windows Defender. I've reinstalled Avast like described and am still having problems.
I've also considered switching to a different AV but AVG seems to have the same problem and I don't think I would like Avira because of the nagscreens and it doesn't have emailprotection. At the moment I'm also running without webshield and haven't had a lock-up for a whole day. So I would like to stay with Avast but I aslo want to be protected.
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Personally I would try a different firewall.
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Thanks for replying. I've tried turning off ZoneAlarm but that was a few weeks ago and I'm not sure how I tested it. Info tried it also and it didn't work for him. I will test this tomorrow again with Vista firewall instead.
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Personally I would try a different firewall.
Can you recommend one? I was thinking about Comodo (too complicated?) or Online Armor.
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Richard, I turned off Zone Alarm (but did not completely uninstall it) and ran with the Vista Firewall. Unfortunately, it did not work for me. I believe I read somewhere that the avast! update feature was causing this problem for some people and while I've tested it with "Ask when update is available," I have not tested it with the "Manual" setting. It may just be coincidental that I sometimes lose the connection after about 4 hours of use which is the time that avast! checks for updates (as I understand it).
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info, have you already tried the latest avast update? (4.8.1227)
The previous version had a bug, that could (theoretically) cause what you're describing...
Thanks
Vlk
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Info, I just turned out ZoneAlarm and rebooted but in the security panel it says it's still active. So maybe I indeed have to uninstall it completely. I also had "Ask when update is available" "but today I've updated so now I'm running 4.8.1227. Lets first see if that fixes the problem before I try to uninstall ZoneAlarm. It's late in the Netherlands I'm going to sleep now, I'll keep you updated tomorrow.
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Vlk and Richard, Thanks for the heads up on the update (I had reset updates to manual so I've just gotten the latest). I suppose it is worth another 4 hours or so to test it out. I'm enjoying the stability of things right now but am intending to turn on Web Shield and take it for another spin tomorrow to see if the update makes a difference. I really want this to work.
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Richard, I believe I had a similar problem with Zone Alarm being reported as running when I had set it not to start up with Vista. I believe that I rebooted twice and it disappeard from the Vista Security Center, then I turned on the Vista Firewall. David indicated that some of the drivers in Norton Internet Security (which I had pre-installed on my machine) were probably still being loaded and this may be the case with Zone Alarm as well, so my test in that area was inconclusive.
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Vlk - great to hear about the update. Am holding thumbs that the bug has been squashed. :)
The update went without a hitch, so I'll monitor things over the next few days and report back on how it's going.
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The common factor in this thread seems to be zonealarm and avast.If any testing needs to be done ,i think the programs will have to be completely uninstalled (registry cleaned) then tested.In the case of za make sure it isn't set to start with windows before uninstalling.
m
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see my problem is similiar, and if i stop avast and restart it , everything goes back to normal for a little while, then browsing stops again, i am just not so sure its zonealarm. this is on a vista sp1 machine, with the lastest version free zonealarm and avast. avast has full permissions. have uninstalled zonealarm and reinstalled it also.
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see my problem is similiar, and if i stop avast and restart it , everything goes back to normal for a little while, then browsing stops again, i am just not so sure its zonealarm. this is on a vista sp1 machine, with the lastest version free zonealarm and avast. avast has full permissions. have uninstalled zonealarm and reinstalled it also.
Same here with Windows Vista SP1 32bit.
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The common factor in this thread seems to be zonealarm and avast.If any testing needs to be done ,i think the programs will have to be completely uninstalled (registry cleaned) then tested.In the case of za make sure it isn't set to start with windows before uninstalling.
m
I'm not sure that Goliath is using Zone Alarm and believe he is on XP Pro SP3.
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After just shy of three hours of running Firefox stopped connecting and froze even with the updated version of avast. I was unable to stop the process using task manager. I disabled/enabled avast! and was able to connect with IE. What a mystery this is. I'm wondering if it is a conflict with Firefox and Web Shield. Is everyone here experiencing this using Firefox? I've seen some notes that they weren't getting along a while back but they (the notes) did not resolve the issue for me.
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What operating system are you using, info?
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What operating system are you using, info?
32bit Vista Home Premium SP1 on an HP Pavilion dv9700t w/Intel 8100t 3Gigs Ram. The system runs beautifilly with avast! Web Shield on (little perceptible speed difference) and then suddenly, I click on a link, and it fails to load. Not running Web Shield defininitely eliminates this.
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After just shy of three hours of running Firefox stopped connecting and froze even with the updated version of avast. I was unable to stop the process using task manager. I disabled/enabled avast! and was able to connect with IE. What a mystery this is. I'm wondering if it is a conflict with Firefox and Web Shield.
exact same problem, except time that it works correctly varies, but i have to wind up rebooting computer to get firefox back to working again.
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After just shy of three hours of running Firefox stopped connecting and froze even with the updated version of avast. I was unable to stop the process using task manager. I disabled/enabled avast! and was able to connect with IE. What a mystery this is. I'm wondering if it is a conflict with Firefox and Web Shield.
exact same problem, except time that it works correctly varies, but i have to wind up rebooting computer to get firefox back to working again.
Are you also running Vista Home Premium SP1?
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yes i am.
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Hmmmmmm. ;D
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Hi guys, I'm on XP SP3 and not using ZoneAlarm. When the problem has occurred, Firefox, IE and Thunderbird (which is using the WebMail plugin) are all affected. Disabling the Web Shield gets these working again, as well as going into my Network Connections and disabling then enabling my Local Area Connection. I tend to do the latter as sometimes Web Shield gets hung up and won't restart properly. https pages (port 443) don't seem to be affected as I can connect to my work web portal at the time the problem is happening.
As for the latest version - I did not experience the problem last night running Firefox, Ventrilo, Ventrilo server and Guild Wars for a couple of hours. I'm still hoping that this update might have solved things on XP but it's unfortunate to see that you folks on Vista still have the issue. The biggest test for me would be seeing what happens on Friday and Saturday nights.
Vlk, if a lockup occurs should we capture a dump of the ashWebSv.exe process?
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I'm also on Home Premium SP1. I didn't have a lock-up today but also didn't use IE as much as on other days, so I'm not convinced yet. I also find it very hard to believe that it has to do only with ZoneAlarm as there must be millions of people using this combination. And this problem is very rare I think.
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Problem not fixed for me, just had a lock-up.
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HTTPS (secure encrypted) pages won't be effected as they aren't monitored by the web shield.
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Zone Alarm and a MS update.... for those using ZA this might help
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic157247.html
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Goliath, your description sounds more like the problem that was supposed to be fixed in the latest update.
info, once the problem is simulated, please disable avast self defense (avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page) and then start Task Manager, go to the Processes page, righ-click ashWebSv.exe and select Create Dump File. Finally, ZIP the created dump file and upload it to our ftp site as described here: http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=18
Thanks
Vlk
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Zone Alarm and a MS update.... for those using ZA this might help
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic157247.html
I saw this on the Zone Alarm site but they specifically mentioned that Vista users were not affected, I don't know if that has changed because it seems they were working on the problem when I read it. Also, hitting update on my installed Zone Alarm retrieves a message that it is already up to date which is a bit confusing as ZA is saying that those are the latest versions (I am using the free version) and it seems the version number I have is later than the one on the links given. Thanks for your input.
The statement from Zone Alarm that Vista users are not affected is here. (http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/pressReleases/2008/LossOfInternetAccessIssue.html)
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Goliath, your description sounds more like the problem that was supposed to be fixed in the latest update.
info, once the problem is simulated, please disable avast self defense (avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page) and then start Task Manager, go to the Processes page, righ-click ashWebSv.exe and select Create Dump File. Finally, ZIP the created dump file and upload it to our ftp site as described here: http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=18
Thanks
Vlk
OK, I will run Web Shield again today and wait for the problem to reoccur, thanks. I agree that Goliath's problem has a high probability of being fixed by the "new" version, although my guess is that he has already tried it. The ZA Forum (http://forums.zonealarm.org/zonelabs/) has had a front page alert on it for a while now.
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Just a note to report that I lost my connection after a run time of *exactly* 4 hours. I stopped On-access protection but was unable to re-connect with either Firefox or Internet Explorer. After looking around to see if I could re-establish the connection, I glanced at the timer in the avast! panel mentioned below and it read 4:02:xx.
Is it true that avast! updates every four hours (I had the auto-update turned on)?
I had right clicked the avast! icon/On-Access Protection Control/Web Shield/Details and was watching the time and number of pages scanned when suddenly I lost the connection in a Starbucks. It was slightly different this time in that disabling/enabling avast! did not re-establish my connection and Firefox didn't hang as it sometimes does, so it may just have been one of those strange co-incidences; but, I wanted to mention it in case any else notices the same behavior. Windows was unable to repair the connection for me.
I did not do the dump on this occasion because I suspect that it may have been a fluke and I don't want to waste people's time, I'll run again watching carefully but, after rebooting, I was immediately able to log-on again.
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Just a note to report that I lost my connection after a run time of *exactly* 4 hours. I stopped On-access protection but was unable to re-connect with either Firefox or Internet Explorer. After looking around to see if I could re-establish the connection, I glanced at the timer in the avast! panel mentioned below and it read 4:02:xx.
Is it true that avast! updates every four hours (I had the auto-update turned on)?
I had right clicked the avast! icon/On-Access Protection Control/Web Shield/Details and was watching the time and number of pages scanned when suddenly I lost the connection in a Starbucks. It was slightly different this time in that disabling/enabling avast! did not re-establish my connection and Firefox didn't hang as it sometimes does, so it may just have been one of those strange co-incidences; but, I wanted to mention it in case any else notices the same behavior. Windows was unable to repair the connection for me.
I did not do the dump on this occasion because I suspect that it may have been a fluke and I don't want to waste people's time, I'll run again watching carefully but, after rebooting, I was immediately able to log-on again.
Yes by default it updates every 4 hours.
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Thanks miscreant.
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Well, my system has been running for 4:47 minutes and is still connecting to the net. However, I just turned it on after about two hours in hibernate so I don't know if I will be able to provide any meaningful data. I've disabled the avast! updates but I've done it before and the problem has persisted. I'm just waiting for a re-occurrence to upload the dump now.
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Yikes! I have been busy tinkering with other stuff for a while and just putting this Avast issue on the backburner. I finally decided to report back and the thread is at almost 100 posts?! So I see I am definitely not alone...
Anyway, the problem persists. Every single time I start the computer up and begin browsing the web, it takes all of about 10 minutes for the browser to stop working, regardless of whether it is Firefox or IE7. As soon as I stop the Web Shield the browsers begin functioning perfectly again. Shutting down Web Shield seems to be the only thing that fixes it too. Stopping Zone Alarm and Windows Firewall (And basically every other process I can think of) has no effect.
I want to point out that if I then go back to the protection control and restart Web Shield, the problem doesnt seem to reoccur HOWEVER, the icon claims only 3 processes are running where Web Shield should be the 4th. If I open up protection control again it shows Web Shield is running fine with the timer tickign and all, but hovering over the A icon reports essentially that it isnt. No idea if that is relevant but it is an interesting tidbit.
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I wish i could help more :( .I have vista premium and avast and firefox and it doesnt happen on my machine.I guess its hard to stick in there ,but i hope you do ,as i would like to know what the cause is too.
m
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miscreant, Are you running Vista Home Premium with SP1? Are you also running Zone Alarm?
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Im running vista premium sp1,however im not running ZA :( , I use sphinx vista firewall control instead).It seems many users are not using ZA ,and still experiencing the problem so i guess it rules that out anyway?
m
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Thanks.
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Vlk,
OK, immediately after experiencing the problem, I disabled avast!'s self-defense, went to Task Manager and right clicked the AshWebSV.exe process and clicked on Create Dump File but, the computer seemed to hang while on "wait while writing file..." I waited about 8 minutes for it noticing that the hard drive was not moving at all, canceled and tried again, but this time Vista came back with an access denied message. I stopped On-access protection and it was still in there so I tried again, and again got access denied. I looked around the root directory and the Alwil directories, my home directory, with hidden files visible and didn't see anything that looked like a dump file. The procedure never got to the point of asking me to name the file. Perhaps I should have waited longer. What would the file have been named in case it was created (where might it be, I may have missed it)? Do you have any idea what else I might do?
This time I was able to get Firefox to reconnect by disabling avast on-access protection. I also noticed that some links on open tabs were able to connect before disabling (i.e. Google and others) but links on others which were open (avast! forum) I was not able to connect. I had not opened those links that I was able to open prior to the problem occuring. Links from unopened bookmarks were not able to connect at all, home page did not connect. All this was fixed with disabling on-access protection.
This is really starting to wear me down. :-)
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Update: I located the dump file by creating another one while things were running well \appdata\local\temp\. I made two of them just to test without a problem, it only took a few seconds. I'll try once more when Firefox stalls again.
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Thats good news .I really hope the cause can be found.I notice that many with the problem also use spybot.I know this has some registry blocking techniques.Could that be somehow blocking registry writes after avast update?.I know it has a good reputation ,but everything must be considered in these cases.The problem with spybot and such apps is that even if you uninstall ,it doesnt put back any registry entries it may have changed to block malware.Thats why i wont use that either.I know its a long shot but everything must be considered .I hope vic can check out that dump file pretty quickly.
m
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miscreant, I forgot to mention that the dump file I made when the stall occurred was empty (0 bytes) so I am not sure that I will be able to make one at all. I agree that all must be considered but I think I had the problem before I installed Spybot S&D. In retrospect I cannot be 100% sure though.
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miscreant, I forgot to mention that the dump file I made when the stall occurred was empty (0 bytes) so I am not sure that I will be able to make one at all. I agree that all must be considered but I think I had the problem before I installed Spybot S&D. In retrospect I cannot be 100% sure though.
Mmm if that is the case then it cant be that.I guess i grasping at straws here trying to find a common app (as well as avast) that may be causing the problem.I know with spybot before immunization ,a registry backup is recommended otherwise if you uninstall the immunisations may stay.This is fine in theory as immunisations shouldnt mess anything really,but not something that i would wish to risk.I have a disk image so maybe ill install ZA and spybot and see if anything comes of it.What ZA version are you using?
m
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fooldog01: Welcome back! ;D
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Goliath, your description sounds more like the problem that was supposed to be fixed in the latest update.
info, once the problem is simulated, please disable avast self defense (avast Settings -> Troubleshooting page) and then start Task Manager, go to the Processes page, righ-click ashWebSv.exe and select Create Dump File. Finally, ZIP the created dump file and upload it to our ftp site as described here: http://support.avast.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=18
Thanks
Vlk
Vlk, I uploaded the file as infoashWebSv. It is 43.7 megs. There is another which aborted named infosashWebSv (please disregard). Thanks!
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I don't use spybot and also have the problem. At the moment I'm running Avast without webshield and check daily this tread. Thanks info for all your effort trying to figure this out!
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richard, I know that the problem will eventually be found. I just hope I'm alive to see it. ;D
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I don't use spybot and also have the problem. At the moment I'm running Avast without webshield and check daily this tread. Thanks info for all your effort trying to figure this out!
There is a new avast version 4.8.1229, can you test?
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Yep, I will test.
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Too bad, that update didn't fix the problem.
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Can you activate logging in WebShield?
0. (Disable avast self-defense module: Program settings > Troubleshooting tab of settings.)
1. Edit <avast>\data\avast4.ini file with Notepad (or use step 0 with other text editors).
2. Find the section [WebScanner]
3. Add the line:
EnableLogging=1
4. Restart Web Shield in XP\Vista (terminate and start again) or whole PC in case of Win98
5. Browse (trying to access some webpages)
The log file are <avast>\data\log\ashwebsv.log and ashwebsv.ws.
They would be accessible when WebShield is terminated again.
Post them here or send by mail to rypacek (at) asw.cz
After that, disable the logging to avoid a big log file.
Oh, enable the self-defense module again after that if you have to follow step 0.
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I've just followed the steps and will sent the files when I have a lock-up again. This can take some time somtimes. Thanks for helping figuring this out.
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No lock-up today, hopefully tomorrow more "luck". Goodnight
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The update has not fixed the issue for me.
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Tech, I've just had a lock-up and sent the files to you. Maybe we can continue the conversation here so others can benefit from your investigations.
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Tech, I've just had a lock-up and sent the files to you.
To Lukas indeed, not for me...
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I've send it to rypacek (at) asw.cz Is that not OK? Must I copy and past the file here?
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I've send it to rypacek (at) asw.cz Is that not OK?
It's ok, it's just not me, it's the Lukas' email.
Must I copy and past the file here?
It's not necessary.
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Hi all,
Just a quick note to say that I haven't had the lock up since 4.8.1227 / 4.8.1229 - many thanks to the team! :)
Wishing you similar success in tracking down the Vista bug too.
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Great news Goliath, glad to hear you have solved the problem.
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It seems that I spoke too soon. :( Had the lock-up again earlier, but wasn't in a position to dump the image. Will send the dump file in the next time this happens.
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It seems that I spoke too soon. :( Had the lock-up again earlier, but wasn't in a position to dump the image. Will send the dump file in the next time this happens.
Oh no! I know the feeling only *too* well. FWIW: On another note, I had the *impression,* that, on Vista HPSP1, the recent avast! update was more consistently causing Firefox to stick in processes requiring a hard reboot to get it to connect again (holding the power button down). This had happened in the past with the previous version, but the behavior seemed to be occurring more frequently since the update. Also, since that update of the avast! program, starting Internet Explorer would result in an immediate connection, where in the past, I had to toggle Web Shield to get either Explorer or Firefox to work. I have not had enough experience with either of these to confirm either suspicion though, since Web Shield is no longer activated on my machine.
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Hi Vlk,
I had the lock-up twice this evening, both times after booting my PC. I've zipped and have uploaded the dump file as ashWebSv-Goliath_Corporation-28-07-08.zip to the ftp server. Hopefully it will provide some useful info!
info, I may well turn the Web Shield off too until the next beta or update. :-\
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Yeah I find myself stopping Web Shield on startup then restarting it. If I forget, its no more than 15 minutes before I get that nice lttle reminder in the form of all my browser ceasing to function.
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I'm running XP Home (SP 3) here and have not experienced Web Shield causing browsers to stop.
What I have noticed, is that when I run a speed test with Web Shield enabled, the download speed decreases significantly (to 1.5 Mbps). With Web Shield turned off or paused, the download speed in the same test increased to over 6 Mbps, which is the advertised connection speed.
In one of the other threads, another forum member indicated that it could be due to the slow speed of my system.
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My Web Shield has no effect on speedtests, thats interesting.
Unfortunately I have jumped ship. I installed Avira AntiVir yesterday. I hate to do it because I have been a huge fan of Avast for quite sometime, recommending it frequently. I will keep tabs and when (or if) this problem is rectified, I will be returning to the fold. Sorry Alwil :(
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I can't understand why you would jump ship as you say, as far as I'm aware antivir doesn't have a function like the web shield unless you are prepared to pay for the Premium or Suite version.
If that is the case you are better off just terminating the web shield (which as you have previously saiid works) and monitor the situation through the forums.
Sorry this just doesn't make sense to me to jump ship to a product that doesn't even offer a comparative protection, rather than simply terminate the web shield ???
AntiVir also doesn't have email scanning nor does it have functions like the network shield or P2P and Instant Messenger shields, important if you use any of these functions.
There is also the option to use something like filehippo.com and download an older version sat 4.8.1201 and see if that works with web shield enabled and keep that until the issue is resolved.
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A friend & I are both using build 4.8.1229 with similar setups - Vista 32bit (he has Home Premium and myself Business Edition) + ZoneAlarm freeware firewall, no other antivirus etc tools - except he sticks with IE while I use Firefox 3.0.1 (he has never installed Firefox). My friend has no problems, whereas I have had the same experience in this thread of all internet (and network!) access halting after having opened about 20 webpages (rough estimate only), whether or not I close & re-open the browser every now and then, or use IE instead, and using Flashget download manager also seems to contribute to the 'total' events. Firefox then gets 'stuck' in that it won't unload, and the only way around it for me has been to reboot (which itself then takes such a long time I sometimes have to do a reset). I think it is not specifically because of ZoneAlarm, as I had the same problem with current version of Outpost Pro.
The SOLUTION (for me) ... I de-activated the WebShield component of Avast!. Immediately, all is now 100% OK.
My current thinking is I am happy with Avast! and want to stick with it, though having to do without WebShield worries me somewhat, so hoping for a fix soonish (whether from Alwil, Microsoft, ZoneAlarm or whoever). When I have WebShield on the problems for me are so severe that to re-enable it in the meantime is not tenable for me.
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I'm running XP Home (SP 3) here and have not experienced Web Shield causing browsers to stop.
What I have noticed, is that when I run a speed test with Web Shield enabled, the download speed decreases significantly (to 1.5 Mbps).
I experienced the "freeze"-issue with 2k, XP SP2 + XP SP3. Things went worse this morning as the Ebay login form froze up and therefore I lost an Auction.
I followed the link to the Vista Board somwhere in this Thread and set up the Proxy setting what the girl has recommended (127.0.0.1 Port 12080). Until now, it works fine without ending in a loop... All I can say is that the ashwebsrv does not affect my DSL connection speeds.
I installed Avira AntiVir yesterday. I hate to do it because I have been a huge fan of Avast for quite sometime, recommending it frequently.
Good luck with AntiVir, because the red & free one doesn't check for Spyware which Avast does.
I can't understand why you would jump ship as you say, as far as I'm aware antivir doesn't have a function like the web shield unless you are prepared to pay for the Premium or Suite version.
AntiVir doesn't need to have a dedicated Webshield, because it checks every bit of what will be read or written from/onto your harddrive.
This works with local access, web surfing and filesharing. This does NOT work on Email however (only with the blue Premium version), LAN and any type of Spyware & Adware. I've seen many machines running the red AntiVir on infected with Spyware like SpyAxe, CoolWWWsearch etc... If someone wants to run AntiVir I recommend installing Spybot S&D plus activating its TeaTimer. The next problem will be that the TeaTimer is for advanced users only because it doesn't work fully automated.
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The problem jasward is experiencing is *exactly* the problem I have on my machine (down to the details on sticking and having to do a "hard" reboot because of the length of time it takes Vista to close by clicking reset). We both have Zone Alarm in common (which I never removed). Also, it somehow doesn't seem that Firefox is getting along with avast!. jasward, are you using NoScript by any chance?
Yesterday, I ran CCleaner on my setup and cleaned the registry as well (worked flawlessly and impressively on Vista). I have not the oportunity to test avast! again yet. Possibly a complete removal (as David suggested) of ZA and cleaning out the registry items might do it. I'm not sure if jasward removed ZA to test though.
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Info
somewhere in this thread this has undoubtedly been said
so I'm just going to cut and past from another post
Some guesses here
you are running vista
therefore this may be a new machine
did it come with an AV or Suite pre-installed?
If so go to PC Hell
for example
http://www.pchell.com/virus/uninstallmcafee.shtml
you can navigate to Norton and Panda from the bottom of the post
remove avast
reboot
follow the instructions
run the avast removal tool link also on pc hell website
reboot
reinstall avast
INFO
if you had a pre installed AV or Suite did you remove completely with one of the tools?
sorry if this is duplicate INFOrmation :)
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hello wyrmrider it's good to see you again, I can confirm that I did that in spades with NIS. First add/remove, then Norton Cleanup tool, then HJT and followed Davids instruction, then CCleanup found even more things in the registry. All traces of NIS were removed, but I never tried removing Zone Alarm, I just shut it down and rebooted. I don't *think* it's ZA, but then *thinking* doesn't cut it when it comes to this particular situation. I cannot confirm that it is not ZA conflicting somehow with Vista Home Premium and possibly Firefox.
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That eliminates a big cause of these types of problems
anyone else?
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Can somebody tell me what the danger is in surfing without the webshield?
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Can somebody tell me what the danger is in surfing without the webshield?
Webshield scans the http traffic (Internet) and avoid that any infected file is even saved in your disk. If you use Standard Shield at High level of sensibility, you'll avoid that any file is read or executed and then you can disable WebShield.
The better performance with protection is WebShield enabled and Standard Shield at Normal level. But you could use avast without WebShield and Standard Shield at high.
Hope it helps.
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I can't understand why you would jump ship as you say, as far as I'm aware antivir doesn't have a function like the web shield unless you are prepared to pay for the Premium or Suite version.
If that is the case you are better off just terminating the web shield (which as you have previously saiid works) and monitor the situation through the forums.
Sorry this just doesn't make sense to me to jump ship to a product that doesn't even offer a comparative protection, rather than simply terminate the web shield ???
AntiVir also doesn't have email scanning nor does it have functions like the network shield or P2P and Instant Messenger shields, important if you use any of these functions.
There is also the option to use something like filehippo.com and download an older version sat 4.8.1201 and see if that works with web shield enabled and keep that until the issue is resolved.
Well I wasn't aware of the lack of web scanning by AntiVir so technically I guess I am in the same boat as before. I dont use the P2P, IM or Network Shield so it doesnt really matter either way then. I still plan to reinstall Avast once the problem is resolved but for right now I am just going to leave things as they are. I will still keep tabs here to see the progress on the issue.
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Thanks Tech, I've set the standard shield at high. Hope it doesn't slow things down or doesn't let me access particular pages. We will see.....
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Can somebody tell me what the danger is in surfing without the webshield?
Webshield scans the http traffic (Internet) and avoid that any infected file is even saved in your disk. If you use Standard Shield at High level of sensibility, you'll avoid that any file is read or executed and then you can disable WebShield.
The better performance with protection is WebShield enabled and Standard Shield at Normal level. But you could use avast without WebShield and Standard Shield at high.
Hope it helps.
Thanks, that certainly could be helpful.
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You're welcome ;)
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Nevermind.....
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I have been experiencing the same issue; all browsers not pulling up pages on two 32bit VistaSP1 machines. My 64bit machine remains unaffected. The 32bit machines use Avast/Zone Alarm with almost identical setups. The 64bit uses Commando but the rest of the software setup is the same. I can stop and restart the webshield but this occasionally causes the browser processes to become unresponsive and they cannot be stopped, I must then restart my computer, which can take forever. I'm usually stuck doing a hard reboot.
I've seen a lot of posts throughout the web related to this, most do not realize that Avast is the culprit.
My Event log is packed with shutdown performance monitoring entries. Control Panel>Performance Information and Tools>Advanced Tools> 'Programs are causing Windows to shut down slowly. View Details.' then listed are Explorer, Firefox and Safari.'>View details in event log>
Is there a definitive way to fix this and not bandaid it by restarting? If I missed it, I apologize but there are 10pgs worth of suggestions.
Thanks
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Are you using ZA free or Pro?
More info about avast WebShield and ZA compatibility: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15960#msg15960
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I'm wondering: was the issue finally resolved (for the free version)? That's an awfully involved looking thread. I gave up trying to solve it and moved to Avira Antivir while waiting for things to finally to get cleared up. I like the shields which avast! has on the free version (Avira does not), but the detection rate and other features make it an excellent alternative for machines on which problems still exist. If I knew for sure avast! was OK on Vista Home Premium 32bit SP1, I would switch back though.
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Without wishing to offend I suppose I could say "what problem for the free version"?
It is clear that some users have experienced a problem but, given the huge number of avast users, they represent - at least as expressed here - a tiny minority. All I can report is that none of the Vista 32 bit users I support (though I must say all Ultimate SP1) have experienced any problems with the free version of avast up to current release.
It may be that the configuration provoking the problem for the affected group is still prevalent on your system. While I would not wish you to take any risks with your system, if you have a current backup and can try the current avast release and report back in this thread the results it may well give additional information to the avast team (whether it be good or bad news).
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Only some people are affected, that is for sure. Thanks Alan, but I'm exhausted from trying the last time and am good for now. When I move to 64bit, probably later in the year, I will return to avast! as I have always appreciated it.
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In response to "Are you using ZA free or Pro?" I am using the free version.
I'm fed up with the problem. I am moving to another Anti Virus. I have always backed Avast and still find it a great program, but when it cripples my computers I must look for another solution.
I wish there was a way to know when/if this problem was resolved...
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I have been using Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32bit edition for about 4 months and have also run into this issue.
System:
Homebuilt
AMD Opteron 185
GA-K8N-Ultra-9
2GB Mushkin Redline DDR500
1 WD Raptor 36gb system disk
2x WD Raptor Raid 0 application disks
1 WD 320 Media disk
Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB
Acer p243Waid 24" LCD
Security Software:
Avast Free Home Edition
Zone Alarm
Adaware
Network:
3COM OfficeConnect VPN Firewall 4 port 10/100 Switch
(system w/ issue is hardwired)
Airtek WAP
Linksys CIT400 VOIP
I have found that by disabling and then re-enabling Webshield, that I can restore browsing capabilities. I've never had a problem before, this a is a recent issue. I installed ZoneAlarm and Adaware AFTER the problems started occuring in the off chance that I had some sort of infection on my system (no). I don't know what the problem is but if Aliwil can't fix this, I'm going to have to stop recommending their software which, IMHO, would be a damn shame.
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Its march ... there's been no active posts on this topic from someone in the Avast/Awil team in a while ... I've had this problem and am also looking for a solution.
I have noticed one other thing, I use the URL filter and have had this problem occur on XP pro SP3, though not as frequently as its been on a CLEAN install of Vista Business sp1+
I run Zonealarm Pro, on my machines, Privacy options (Cookie, Ad, Mobile code) are ALL turned off (never used and *I* have always defaulted them to off on my installs)
Problems with the "restart webshield" comments people have made ... I have an alarm site that monitors several processes and updates every 60 seconds. When this problem with Webshield happens, it means I'm not getting updates in my browser, and hence if I decide to nap or actually take time to sleep ... that this web shield problem could mean that I would miss an alarm.
I have decided I will have to turn off the web shield when I need to sleep so that I can catch alarms, but I would much rather the issue be fixed.
Reasons why this issue may not be seen by everyone..
- how many people really use their pc's 24/7 or nearly that way? (suggesting that maybe this is somehow related to the network stack and more browsing might cause this to happen faster to some than others)
- how many just "reboot" without looking to figure out what is going on?
- is this problem only with people who use Zonealarm (free or pro)?
Each of those questions further reduce the number of possible complaints ... but the fact that there are enough people having exactly the same problem, and with exactly same temporary solution (restart web shield) that suggests if more people were using their pc's the same way, they'd see the problem and then might be looking for a resolution.
There is only *one* other issue I've seen that is outside this with regards to IE or Firefox, which points to some sort of web oddity. I like to frequent a Daily Sudoku site.. and within the past 2 months have found that I can no longer use the site with Internet Explorer ... this because while trying to play the game with cursor keys, I find that through IE there is a 1 to 5 second lag for the onscreen game to respond to my keypress. I go to the exact same site through Firefox and there is no delay. The website says they believe this is an issue with IE and java, which they laughingly say shouldn't be used together.
System info:
1 - self built AMD X2 (939 socket not AM2) 2 gigs ram, onboard ether, SB Audigy, Windows XP Pro sp3 +all microsoft updates, Zonealarm Pro (current), Spybot Search & Destroy w/Teatimer, office 2003,
1 - HP laptop intel dual core, intially windows vista home premium - reloaded with Vista Business, SP1 +all windows updates, office 2007, zone alarm pro (current), spybot w/teatimer
At no time have "trialware" applications been installed and then removed (ie. exception for something like Avast which then gets registered with the key and becomes valid for 14 months, etc ... but avast has never been removed)
I have not timed the issue to see if the problem with Vista shows at exactly 4 hours, nor have I counted the number of websites or other links I've followed, to see if either of these corresponds to something like the 4 hour update window of Avast.
Help!!??
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Hello,
I am facing the same problem here. Fresh installation of Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit, Zonealarm Home, Avast Antivirus. All versions are up to date. All Windows Updates are on board. After browsing some time browsers stop working. This happens with both browsers (Firefox & IE). After stopping webshield of Avast Antivirus everything works again like a charm. Activating webshield again causes the same problem after some time of browsing.
Hope they will fix this as soon as possible.
Did I read somewhere, that Avast 4.9 is near ? Maybe it works then.
Help !!?!?!?
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Welcome ba0645
Try uninstalling ZoneAlarm and use Vista Firewall Control on the Vista system:
http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html
Avast V5.0 beta test is coming maybe August or September.
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sorry for writing on an old thread but I have had the same problem too.
Yesterday onwards I couldn't get on the net via my browsers ( Firefox, Chrome and Internet explorer ). Disabling the Web shield allowed me t do so.
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Hello Ubermensch76,
It would have been better if you had posted this in a new thread.
What firewall are you using?
Can you delete the entry for ashwebsrv.exe and try browsing. This should force it to ask to allow or block again and then select allow (or words to that effect)
-Scott-