Author Topic: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of upcoming avast update  (Read 62727 times)

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Offline lukor

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2005, 08:45:13 PM »
Due to increasing number of conflicts with all kinds of proxy software, avast's webshield will now support only verified apps.

What do you mean, the user must 'verify' (allow) the application into webshild properties?

Technical, until this beta release, all apps were filtered (scanned) except those which were known to cause problems and these apps were excluded from the scanning. It seemed to us, that this approach would be the best. Anyway, as it turns out, there are plenty of apps using HTTP port, and these are often hard to configure with webshield. It may require some configuration tweaking and if this conflicting app is your firewall or your proxy through which you access the internet -- you might end up with the internet cut off and angry  :-[ . So we've decided that we might try the opposite approach. That is, only apps which are know to us not to cause problems with webshield (or known to the user and configured in the avast4.ini) would be filtered and scanned - namely the browsers are known to work correctly.

This behavior can be still switched to the previous -- scan all -- setting, but this must be the act of a knowledgable user.

Offline alanrf

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #16 on: March 07, 2005, 08:49:20 PM »
Is there any news if/when the Webshield will use the registry override for placement of its disk writes of http traffic?

Offline Lisandro

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #17 on: March 07, 2005, 08:54:05 PM »
I'm using the beta (4.6.614) but I see no difference in mine avast4.ini file (section WebScanner).
It seems that I must 'exclude' the applications and not 'validate' them  ::)
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Offline lukor

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #18 on: March 07, 2005, 09:02:31 PM »
There is no Proxy configured in IE (or Opera) just configured for direct access.

ad Muncher is using ports in the 1101-1115 range (that is what is configured now in Outpost)

Edit. I disabled ad Muncher and Web Shield is working again. No I need to find out how to be able to use  my favorite ad blocker in combination with Avast

Kantjer, indeed cooperation with avast and Ad-Muncher is a little bit more complicated, as ad-muncher does not use the traditional proxy-in-the-browser approach, it intercept the connection automatically as they leave your browser. I have several work arounds for you.

1) simply allowing WebShield to filter admunch.exe will do the trick. You may edit the avast4.ini file and in the [WebScanner] section add or edit the key OptinProces to include the admunch.exe process name.
E.g.

[WebScanner]
OptinProcess=admunch.exe

But I must warn you, I have seen pages that don't load correctly with this setup. Not to mention these don't not load correctly with ad-munch and without WebShield - but with WebShield things are behaving a little bit differently. ( try http://www.zive.cz/default.asp)

2) you may follow the ad-munch help instruction and enable ad-munch filtering for the ashwebsv.exe process. More info in the ad-munch help files. But basically, first step is to allow the connection to reach webshield - they are stopped (redirected) by ad-muncher by default. This can be done by excluding your browsers from ad-muncher (add -iexplore:* and -opera:* in the options/filter target ad-munch configuration page.

This will enable webshield, but ad-muncher will be disabled. You'll want to enable ad-munch for the ashwebsv.exe (WebShield) process. This can be done by adding the +ashwebsv:* string into the ad-munch config page, but firstly you'll have to download wsock32.dll from them (as said before, more info in their help files).

To sum up, here we have to colliding apps, WebShield and Ad-Muncher. I'll definitely try to identify the problem and when all problems will be sorted out, the solution 1) would be the easiest choice, when there are really no problems with this ad blocker, avast may adopt the process name and filter it's communication without any user intervention. In the mean time, you can configure ad-munch as described in the 2), or use the 1) option and see if any troubles will come up.

Lukas

Offline Vlk

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #19 on: March 07, 2005, 09:08:55 PM »
Quote
Is there any news if/when the Webshield will use the registry override for placement of its disk writes of http traffic?

The latest version does exactly that.
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

Offline alanrf

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #20 on: March 07, 2005, 10:10:09 PM »
Quote
Is there any news if/when the Webshield will use the registry override for placement of its disk writes of http traffic?

The latest version does exactly that.

Vlk, thanks for your response.

It was the first thing I checked out when I installed the pre-release yesterday.  I just verified again before posting today that the Webshield tmp files are still being written directly to the Windows defined temp space.  All others that I checked, NNTP and on-demand tmp files continue to use the registry override.

The install of the pre-release version said it completed successfully.  Are there any versions numbers I should confirm?

Thanks. 


Offline Vlk

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #21 on: March 07, 2005, 10:15:14 PM »
Version 4.6.614 should write the temp files to the avast folder (this was changed since 4.6.612 released yesterday).
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housi

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #22 on: March 07, 2005, 10:44:19 PM »
Quote
Kantjer, indeed cooperation with avast and Ad-Muncher is a little bit more complicated, as ad-muncher does not use the traditional proxy-in-the-browser approach, it intercept the connection automatically as they leave your browser. I have several work arounds for you.
Hi Lukor
I don't understand the problem. Since months I'm running admunch.exe together with Avast, and I never had problems with.
Sincerely
housi

Offline lukor

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #23 on: March 07, 2005, 10:52:27 PM »
The problem is that certain pages are not loaded properly with WebShield and admunch.exe. At least on my test PC. Unless you were using a beta version, Web Shield is not out for so many months  :P

Anyway, if you don't observe any problems (or have not observed) you may add the admunch.exe process to the avast4.ini as described in my post. Sorry for the troubles, this is new and in the latest beta refresh -- I tried to explain why we have done that, other users (those running less compatible products that ad-much is) will understand.

Cheers
Lukas.

Offline alanrf

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #24 on: March 07, 2005, 11:07:41 PM »
Vlk,

Webshield up and working with the registry override. 

Much appreciated.

Alan

Offline rdsu

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #25 on: March 07, 2005, 11:55:37 PM »
Hi,

I've been using the Ad Muncher with the Web Shield without any problem and now I can't use the Web Shield when Ad Muncher is enable...  >:(

I've read all the post and don't understand this!!!

I use the HTTP scanner of NOD32 with Ad Muncher, so you have to figure out the best solution for this...

Hope you can find it...

Regards
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Offline lukor

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #26 on: March 08, 2005, 02:58:11 AM »
I've been using the Ad Muncher with the Web Shield without any problem and now I can't use the Web Shield when Ad Muncher is enable...  >:(

I've read all the post and don't understand this!!!

I use the HTTP scanner of NOD32 with Ad Muncher, so you have to figure out the best solution for this...

Hmm, you can't use it?  ??? What does this mean Vampiric ???  >:(

Did you mean, that you are trying to report to us that Ad-Munch is working correctly with avast's WebShield and that you have added the admunch.exe to the avast4.ini file and that that caused no problems and seems to work correctly and that you are suggesting avast should include this process name into the standard installation and should scan the connections made by this favorite tool of yours by default?

Did you mean this?

I don't use NOD32 scanner so I don't really understand why would I need to figure that out.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2005, 03:12:06 AM by lukor »

Bernie

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #27 on: March 08, 2005, 11:24:44 AM »
Just an idea. Can Kantjers problem be caused because he uses Ad Muncher AND Outpost (which itself already has an Ad filter included)? So that it is basically a problem between this two programs which are partly doing the same.

Addition: I am using Outpost 2.5 and avast! 4.6.614 Both is running fine together.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2005, 11:34:39 AM by Bernie »

kantjer

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #28 on: March 08, 2005, 11:33:48 AM »
Just an idea. Can Kantjers problem be caused because he uses Ad Muncher AND Outpost (which itself already has an Ad filter included)? So that it is basically a problem between this two programs which are partly doing the same.

Hi Bernie,

I had the ad filter in Outpost disabled because i prefer Ad Muncher with its frequent updates of signatures.
I now have Ad Muncher disabled and the ad filter in outpost enabled this works. I need to start experimenting with lukor's tips.

Thanks for thinking with me.

Offline rdsu

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Re: ** Introducing ** - pre-release version of the upcoming avast update
« Reply #29 on: March 08, 2005, 11:37:01 AM »
Hi lukor,

If I don't change nothing, the Web Shield doesn't work if I have the Ad Muncher enable...
I haven't put the admuncher.exe in the avast4.ini, I only put OptIn=0 and now the Ad Muncher works with Web Shield like before...

NOD32 have two different settings for the HTTP Scanner:
Higher efficiency - if set, IMON will be working in active mode in case of the particular application. ex: browsers...
Higher compatibility - if set, IMON will work in passive mode in case of the particular application. ex: download managers, players audio/video...


With this, we can control the settings with our needs...

I don't want that you copy this, just take a look and take your conclusions to find the best way to resolve that.

And as I can see, you will put another setting to config only by edit the avast4.ini file... Very bad, in my opinion...

Regards
« Last Edit: March 08, 2005, 11:41:00 AM by VaMPiRiC_CRoW »
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