7.0.1474 Upgrade: Web Shield OFF

[MAG]

Updated and, like for some others, web shield wasn't running.

Repair did nothing.

Uninstalling and reinstalling the web shield component seemed to improve matters (it now says it's running) - however no pages are ever actually scanned.

I wonder if this is the old redirect driver problem again - I have aswRdr.sys and aswRdr2.sys both present again.

If so, that is an avast installer bug that has been present for about a year now - and seems never to have been fixed.

[lukas.hasik]

We released a fix for the "WebShield OFF" problem in the latest vps update. The problem was caused by a timing issue in one critical section. It might or might not appear therefore some users had fixed it by restart of the avast! or their computer. It should work now (hard to test this kind of problems ).

If you were affected by this problem and the virus definition files (vps) are not updated automatically for you then please invoke the vps update manually[1]. This action (when the new vps is applied) should fix the problem. If it doesn't then "restart" either avast! service or the whole computer, please.

We are sorry for inconvenience.
Lukas.

[1] manual update = click "Update engine and virus definitions" in "avastUI > Maintenance > Update". Or right click avast tray icon and "Update > Engine and virus definitions".

[Gopher John]

Lukas,
I'm guessing the fix is contained in VPS 121102-1.  It just updated automatically here.

[MAG]

I have 121102-1.

Web shield is now running, but since the program update it has scanned zero pages.

I'm almost sure I have sen this before, and it was related to redirect driver.

Should I have aswRdr.sys and aswRdr2.sys both present?

[Marco_B]

Same issue here, Avast Web Shield went down (Windows 7, 64 bit) as soon as the last program update 7.0.1474 became available and was detected by Avast (so Web Shield was down even before updating the program and choosing Update didn't fix it).

In my case, I fixed it by restarting the Avast service using Windows 7 "Control Panel" and "Service". I needed to do this twice, once under my "Administrator account", which still didn't solve the issue under a "Limited rights account". I solved the issue under Limited rights account by first logging in under this limited account, and than right clicking the Services option in Control Panel, and choosing "Run as Administrator". Once I restarted the service once again using this "Run as Administrator" under limited account, the Web Shield came back on there too.

Please note you may get a Windows error warning "that the service didn't stop properly". I had forgotten to close the Avast program window before stopping the service. Seems Avast is actually quite robust here when knocking the service from under it's feet, it simply asked first if I wanted to stop the service (I clicked Yes), and than Windows came up with the error warning but showed in the Services panel the Avast service was stopped. When I restarted it, Avast program windows came immediately up again showing Web Shield was now properly on, as all other shields.

Good to hear the Avast team may have tracked down and fixed the urgent issue!

[avast@@dvantage77.com]

Thank you Lukas for gettin in this!  (-:

[user_1000]

We released a fix for the "WebShield OFF" problem in the latest vps update. The problem was caused by a timing issue in one critical section. <snip>

May I ask what triggered that issue at first place? Previous vps update was faulty or something?

[osem123]

Thanks for all the helpful advice everyone!  My son had this problem this morning before updating to 1474 (which we did later ) but it seems to have resolved itself (fingers crossed). 

[lukas.hasik]

Lukas,
I'm guessing the fix is contained in VPS 121102-1.  It just updated automatically here.

yes, it should be fixed from this VPS.

[lukas.hasik]

We released a fix for the "WebShield OFF" problem in the latest vps update. The problem was caused by a timing issue in one critical section. <snip>

May I ask what triggered that issue at first place? Previous vps update was faulty or something?

A bug. We wanted to fix a deadlock. And the fix caused another bug - less dangerous (OS works "only" webshield's down) but affecting more users.

As I said it might appear only sometimes on the same environment. It's a race condition. To make it clear - if you restart your computer many times then once it might work and other time it might not I don't expect that anybody of the avast team will provide you more details about the fix

[user_1000]

<snip>

Okay, thanks for the quick reply. That answer was exactly what I was looking for.

[villasg]

Thanks for the fix

[MAG]

I have 121102-1.

Web shield is now running, but since the program update it has scanned zero pages.

I'm almost sure I have sen this before, and it was related to redirect driver.

Should I have aswRdr.sys and aswRdr2.sys both present?

After a full uninstall/reinstall I now only have aswRdr2.sys, and webshield is scanning again.

Why does update installer still bring in a wrong version of the redirect driver on some systems? This was acknowledged as a bug ages ago by avast team I seem to recall (either Lukas or PK I think).