Author Topic: Avast at startup (Resolved)  (Read 16908 times)

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xpphil

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2012, 06:02:50 PM »
Found interesting information here: http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/XPMyths.html
This should mean XP firewall gives needed protection even if Avast is not yet running.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2012, 06:10:23 PM »
Sorry but outbound protection I feel is essential these days.
Windows XP's firewall is better than no firewall but, it lulls you into a false sense of protection, it doesn't provide outbound protection.
Whilst the windows XP firewall is usually good at keeping your ports stealthed (hidden) it provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall.

Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (sensitive or otherwise, user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential. Firewalls will automatically allow traffic requests back into the system if the request originated from the system.


The windows XP firewall is extremely limited I would never rely on it and I have felt that way for many many years, having had a 3rd party firewall installed from day one of my XP Pro use.
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xpphil

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #17 on: July 31, 2012, 07:03:15 PM »
Of course I agree. I only mean't that I just realized I also had a firewall  and that it could protect from attacks the time Avast appeared. And as you said in the beginning, maybe Avast starts working before it's icon comes.   I never mean't to uninstall Avast. What I'm looking for now is how to keep my PC from connecting automatically. There's an other possible solution I have to check. With a programm that's supposed to list what comes up in the startup and allow to choose a given order.
I'll keep you informed.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #18 on: July 31, 2012, 07:44:23 PM »
I never said maybe, the main avast starts before the icon, but the avast service does start before the icon, the avastUI.exe is a user startup item and the avastSvc.exe (avast service) is a System level service.

System level services/processes load much earlier in the boot sequence.
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kvsivaraman

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #19 on: August 01, 2012, 05:02:08 PM »
Deal all,
At start up the avast icon is shown in the desktop right corner but withing few seconds
a red cross mark appears over it. On keeping the mouse pointer over the icon, I am warned
as "YOUR SYSTEM IS UNSECURED". I tried restarting but of no use. chkdsk done/ defragment done
But could not make the avast active. Please help.
with regards,
KVSivaraman

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #20 on: August 01, 2012, 05:41:20 PM »
Deal all,
At start up the avast icon is shown in the desktop right corner but withing few seconds
a red cross mark appears over it. On keeping the mouse pointer over the icon, I am warned
as "YOUR SYSTEM IS UNSECURED". I tried restarting but of no use. chkdsk done/ defragment done
<snip>

Please start your own new topic here - http://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=2.0 so as not to hijack/confuse this one - use the New Topic button at the top of the page (see image, click to expand) and we will try to help.
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xpphil

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #21 on: August 02, 2012, 02:16:36 AM »
Hello
I learnt english when I was a kid and came back to France at 11 so there are some words I'm not sure I understand well.
Just to make sure does "outbound protection" mean protection from 3rd party prog or protection against things coming from outside or something else?

Quote from reply # 12 :"With your Intel Celeron processor boot time might put it under load 1GB of RAM should be fine on XP"  Does it just mean boot should be fine with 1GB of Ram or does it mean something else?

Quote from reply #16:"XP firewall provides no outbound protection and you should consider a third party firewall." Do you mean a third party firewall would give more protection? If so, any subgestion?

I opened Task manager right after loging: avastSvc.exe and avastUI.exe were already there, as a lot of other programms. Does this mean they were already working? Because avastUI had zero processor time and avastSVC only had 1 (second?).
Besides that startup is still very quick. All icons of the tray seem to pop up almost at the same time. Some times Avast icon appears before the connexion one, some times it's the opposite.
Do you know if there's a service lanching the connexion that I could put to manual instead of automatic?


Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #22 on: August 02, 2012, 02:43:25 AM »
Firewalls a long time ago only provided inbound protection, stopping unauthorised access to your computer from outside.

As things progressed it was realised that if malware got on to your system (either hidden or undetected) there is nothing to stop it connecting to the internet and downloading more malware or uploading your data to the internet. So firewalls got outbound protection, applications trying to connect to the internet were intercepted and the user asked if it was OK for that to access the internet.

The above is a rather simplified explanation of the difference between inbound protection (stopping bad stuff getting in) and outbound protection (stopping bad stuff getting out).

The windows firewall only has inbound protection, I compare it to a fire door that only protects you from fire from one side of the door.

####
When you connect to the internet using your browser, you are asking it to display a web page, to do that it has to find that web page and import (download) that data, this comes into the browser cache so that it can be displayed in your browser. This has Outbound traffic, the request to get some information (the web page) and Inbound traffic, the information coming back in.

For inbound connections it the request originated from your computer (linked to an outbound connection) the firewall lets it in without hindrance, now if there is an inbound connection attempt to your computer that didn't originate on your computer then it would be investigated by the firewall.

This is important as I said inbound connections that originated on your system (linked to an outbound connection) are let in, if that outbound connection is made by malware this leaves a hole in security as it can send out what it wants and bring in what it wants. So outbound checking by a firewall can block unauthorised outbound connections.
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xpphil

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #23 on: August 03, 2012, 01:23:38 PM »
Thanks a lot for your explanations. It's really great to have this kind of

information, I mean clear enough for a non pro to understand what is important

without going down too far in technical details that we wouldn't necessarily

understand. I think you are making a fine job in making these things accessible

to us like that and I guess many are interested.

I found an answer to how control the connexion. Was a bit stupid not to do it

earlier. I just right click on the connexion screen icon and choose "disconnect"

when I leave the web. Then when I reboot, it stays on disconnected and I only

need to rightclick again and choose "reconnect".

Can't decide yet which firewall I might choose. So many contradictory

information. In some forums, they say XP firewall is enough for sure. Your

explanations make it clear it's not the case. Almost each forum otherwise has a

different firewall to emphasize. But I'll find one for sure.
VTY

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #24 on: August 03, 2012, 01:45:36 PM »
No problem, glad I could help. Welcome to the forums.
There are many freeware firewalls such as, PrivateFirewall, Online Armor, Outpost Firewall free 7 suite.

Many forum users are using these:
- PrivateFirewall, http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html

- Online Armor, http://www.online-armor.com/

- Outpost Free Suite 7,  http://free.agnitum.com/. Whilst this is a suite, when you install it, it detects avast and asks if you have it installed, answering Yes will mean it doesn't install the antivirus, anti-spyware and web control modules to maintain compatibility.

Should you choose Outpost.
- Outpost Exclusions - Whilst Outpost would have you exclude its folder from avast scans, I don't feel that is required, if outpost is running in its compatibility mode with no anti-spyware and no web control modules running.

Personally other than a single file exclusion I don't believe you need exclude the Outpost folder, I haven't in all of the time that I have been using avast and outpost together and that is many years.

This is the file and path that I have in the File System Shield, Expert Settings, Exclusions section, C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall Pro\wl_hook.dll (easiest it to copy and paste this full path). This file is as its name implies a hooking tool that outpost uses to monitor activity also and is the only file where I ever had any issue with avast.
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xpphil

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #25 on: August 04, 2012, 01:17:12 AM »
Would Outpost Firewall Pro be better than the free suite? (Presently a 50% offer)

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #26 on: August 04, 2012, 01:46:30 AM »
Well if you aren't looking for a suite but a specific firewall the Outpost Firewall Pro as far as I'm aware has more functionality than the firewall in the Outpost Free Suite. This is no doubt because they would use the free version to buy one of the paid products. That said the firewall in the free suite should be adequate for most needs.

I don't know if the offer is for a lifetime license or just 50% of an annual license, which wouldn't represent as good a value.
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Offline schmidthouse

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #27 on: August 04, 2012, 02:03:21 AM »
Well if you aren't looking for a suite but a specific firewall the Outpost Firewall Pro as far as I'm aware has more functionality than the firewall in the Outpost Free Suite. This is no doubt because they would use the free version to buy one of the paid products. That said the firewall in the free suite should be adequate for most needs.

I don't know if the offer is for a lifetime license or just 50% of an annual license, which wouldn't represent as good a value.

I believe the 50% off is for both Lifetime and 1 yr, 3 PC's: $29.00 and $20.00 respectively.
Both are good deals........especially the 'lifetime' license.
Having gone the 'lifetime' myself  ;) :)

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #28 on: August 04, 2012, 02:19:47 AM »
If it is that 50% off the lifetime license it is good and for 3PCs is a great deal if you have more than one system.
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Offline schmidthouse

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Re: Avast at startup
« Reply #29 on: August 04, 2012, 02:22:57 AM »
If it is that 50% off the lifetime license it is good and for 3PCs is a great deal if you have more than one system.

Absolutely DavidR. THe lifetime I believe is $60.00 regular.
Can't beat 1/2 price for a high quality firewall such as OP Pro.
imho  ;);D
« Last Edit: August 04, 2012, 02:29:20 AM by schmidthouse »