Window 8 Network Issues - dont bother using Support

[dannyg]

Having the same exacts problems are u are having under windows 8 64 bit. avast pro.
Every few days, web browsing stops working in any browser and email clients but everything else continues to work such as torrents. Disabling shields correct this. And or every couple days, says trial version even though my license is showing expiring next year. A reboot corrects this.

Did get bsod couple of times. But none since using emergency update patch.

Anways, clean install, all device drivers updated, makes no difference.

Standing by for program update before i get fed up and leave.

[Surreysteve]

Come on Avast - is there anyone there?

This cannot be that hard - multiple users are experiencing the same thing and the simple fact is that Avast itself is expiring and erroneously blocking perfectly safe web traffic.

Even if you don't have the solution yet surely you can give your paid users an update to let them know you are working on it.

A fix date would be even nicer.....we have after all paid for your services to protect our PCs and we are mostly running at risk with shields down!

Come on.

[bob3160]

It is Sunday today. 

[Surreysteve]

....shame the viruses don't not work Sundays either  :-)

Seriously though , Avast have had several days to come back on this , not just today.

I just sincerely hope they sort them selves early this coming week.

[Zdenek]

Hallo all,

We are trying to detect the problem, but as somebody mentioned here before, the Windows 8 is new system and we are not able to reproduce the problem here in testlab.

Can you check if you have to disable shields completely to restore browsers functionality or is enough only to restart shields?

Thank you.

[dannyg]

yes, disabling shields and re-enabling shields does allow the web to work in my case for a while, but usually in all cases when i do this it goes trial version eventhough the date is showing next year. And when it shows trial version, nothing works.  At this point if i try to insert the license again, it says something to the fact that some 'element'  is missing'.

Just find it easier to reboot the computer to fix this issue, just that it happens every few days of computer being on.

[Surreysteve]

My experience at moment almost identical to Danny. i.e. When the licence shows as expired only option to turn off web/network shields or reboot to get going again.

Last time I tried to disable/re-enable the two shields it would not let me, cannot remember the error messages - seem to remember there was more than one and something about "out of memory" - I will try to do some more scientific debugging next time.

NB This is the first time anyone from Avast has read what I am saying rather than just telling me to do a re-install!

I am happy to help and will report further - Avast: if there is anything specific you would like me to do just let me know.

Steve

[Zdenek]

Hallo,

Thank you for your patience. We are trying to detect reason of those connection failures.. The notice about memory can be interesting, can you check the memory consumption of running processes and windows kernel when the issue occurs again?

Thank you

[dannyg]

Ok i will check the memory when it happens next......all though i forgot to mention that the avast service consumes alot of memory when web browsing when its working normally. I have noticed most times when doing heavy web browsing that the avast service can eat ram at a huge rate, it keeps growing and growing, at times reaching higher than 500 megs. When there is a couple minute of pause in browsing, it shrinks back to the normal size of about 25-50 kb's.

[Surreysteve]

Hiya

I have a number of screenshots (10) after the latest failure.

The Network Shield will not restart but restarting the web shield recovered Internet access.

The screenshots show the shields/Avast status screens after the failure and during attempts to stop/restart them. The other images show the memory/task usage at time of failure.

Can you let me know how to send them?

Steve

[Oldboy49]

 :PI had simmilar problems.  I fixed most by temporarily turning off Web Shield. rebooting pc then turn on Web Shield.  Worked for somethings but not others.

Windows 8 live tiles gave me the greatest grief. So for each live tile i disabled web shield, clicked on tile untill app fully loaded then turned web shield back on.   Worked for all but a hell of a chore to do individually.

[Surreysteve]

Avast.....avast.....anyone there!!!

You asked for info and I posted few days ago I have screen shots - just let me know where to send them?

NB I just updated Avast on my partners PC and it came up with a message "Now FULLY compatible with Windows 8"  LOL....I don't think so!!!

Come on guys give us an update....we are your paying customers.

Steve

[Zdenek]

Hallo all,

I'm using W8 with AVAST! heavily more than week to try reprodyce your problems, but without success..

I cannot say what is wrong here in AVAST! without steps to reproduce the issue.

Maybe you will be able to find a pattern to reproduce it ? The problem occurs always when you already visit a web site, run always some applcations, etc... Can you try to find something simmilar, or it is completerly random issue?

We are working on it, but still cannot find the reason of problems.

Sorry for inconvenience...

[Surreysteve]

Hi Zdenek

It happens after a few hours usage - sometimes 2-3hrs sometimes more and at least once/day

As I said I have screen shots (10) of the errors/memory usage at point of failure which I was asked to produce - if you have an email address I'll send them to you

Steve

[bonehenge]

I have just bought new laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed. Having been delighted with the free avast on my previous PC, I bought the Pro version for the new one. Shortly after installation, some of the Windows8 Apps (Skype, Store, photos etc) stopped working (they opened by hung on the "loading" screen. I wasn't sure if it was avast that had caused this but uninstalled it anyway and the apps came back to life. I sent a message to avast support via their website two weeks ago and have not even received an automated "thanks, we'll get round to it sometime" response. Until I hear something positive, I think I will just depend on Defender to ward of the evils of the internet.

If you alt-tab out from metro, I bet you will find that the app has been 'sandboxed' and is waiting for you to allow it to continue. very stupid concept to have ignored.

I lost all my email this way when avast sandboxed my email, loaded all the mail from the server, deleted it, then closed the sandbox without my interruption, thus losing all my email.

And I've had this with metro apps not loading, hanging, but when I alt-tab there they are in avast sandbox.

not to mention that the network shield kills the TuneIn radio app, and I've just realised now it's effing around with my web browser preventing me from getting to the router properly. I almost bought a new router thinking at first it was my ISP, then my hardware. It was bloody avast.

Uninstalling this rubbish until I find better alternatives. Avast on windows 8 is not only bad, it's destroying data. It's breaking more than itself.

I swore I would do this after my email, but now it's almost making me break things to fix them..... pathetic.