WebShield bugs(?)

[M_W]

I'm new to Avast! (after finally having abandoned NAV) and am trying out Avast! Home  Ed 4.6.691 on a Windows 98SE system.

With WebShield activated some HTTP port 80 connections seems to bypass the WebShield proxy.
These are detected as coming from the local computer's IP - 192.168.0.2 (not from WebShield or IE), caught by the firewall (ZA Free 5.5.094) and are blocked.

This happens to a few (typically 2 or 3) HTTP requests when visiting "link-intensive" pages like www.expressen.se or www.aftonbladet.se (Swedish newspapers, BTW...).

As far as I know, this can happen if a connection attempt from the browser is unsuccessful, which suggests that the WebShield proxy has a problem handling many requests at once, some kind of overflow problem?

Furthermore, with WebShield active, the page http://www.letour.com/2005/TDF/LIVE/us/1300/index.html, is shown as junk: "‹Å[ývê8’ÿ;<…Úsö’lƐ܏$ÐÃ'¡i" etc...
No problem without WebShield.

Anyone else noticed this?

/MW

[Eddy]

The last page you mentioned is opening witout any problems here with webshield enabled.

If it is: net > za > avast
Then it can be logically explained why the where blocked by za and Avast did not respond to them.
Since ZA already blocked them, they can't reach Avast.

[DavidR]

All three links open fine with firefox and webshield enabled, I'm using win XP Pro and not win98 however.

Have you manually set your browser to use the web shield as this is required with win98?

Extract from avast help file:

The provider works as a local proxy server. On NT-based operating systems (Windows NT/2000/XP/20003) the protection is completely transparent and it is usually not necessary to configure anything special. To enable the Web Shield on Windows 9x/ME operating systems, it is necessary to modify one setting in the Internet Options - in particular, the address and port of local proxy. So, if you want to use Web Shield on an older operating system.
Windows 95, 98, and Millennium

Check out these links and see if there is something you can find to help.
http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE
For IE - dialup users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (Dial-up)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox

[igor]

These are detected as coming from the local computer's IP - 192.168.0.2 (not from WebShield or IE), caught by the firewall (ZA Free 5.5.094) and are blocked.

Is it shown what process it comes from?
What version of IE do you have?

[M_W]

If it is: net > za > avast
Then it can be logically explained why the where blocked by za and Avast did not respond to them.
Since ZA already blocked them, they can't reach Avast.

Thanks for your reply!

Well, these are *outgoing* connection requests, from IE to the proxy (WebShield) that are blocked by the firewall *after* bypassing/overflowing/"leaking" from the WebShield proxy?!
I'd say it's: IE > Avast (proxy) > ZA > net (via router)...

/MW

[M_W]

Thanks for your reply!

All three links open fine with firefox and webshield enabled, I'm using win XP Pro and not win98 however.

Could be a pure Win98 issue, then...
(Guess the problem will be solved with my planned upgrade to XP Pro...) 

Have you manually set your browser to use the web shield as this is required with win98?

Yes, proxy: 127.0.0.1 port 12080.
By enabling "show detailed info...", I have verified the WebShield proxy works OK with all "normal" pages. It's only with "extreme" pages that some connection requests seem to bypass/overflow/whatever the proxy.

/MW

[M_W]

Thanks for your reply!

These are detected as coming from the local computer's IP - 192.168.0.2 (not from WebShield or IE), caught by the firewall (ZA Free 5.5.094) and are blocked.

Is it shown what process it comes from?
What version of IE do you have?

No, ZA only reports the computer's local IP address. An example:
type: FWOUT
source: 192.168.0.2,2519
destination: 192.71.238.76,80
transport: TCP

My IE version is 6.0.2800.1106

/MW

[lukor]

In Win98 webshield captures only connections that are explicitly directed to it. That is why you are telling your browser (Internet Explorer) to use the proxy server on localhost:12080. Any app that ignores this setting (or simply uses it's own methods of specifying proxies - if proxies are supported for the app at all) will of course bypass WebShield. Sorry to say that, but that's how it works.

[Alexo]

Getting junk on HTML pages with Webshield and Comodo Personal Firewall.
Pages like: google.ca

[Alexo]

Getting junk on HTML pages with Webshield and Comodo Personal Firewall.
Pages like: google.ca

Forgot to add: firewall used is Comodo Personal Firewall.

Are there any news about this?

[Bluesman]

Getting junk on HTML pages with Webshield and Comodo Personal Firewall.
Pages like: google.ca

Forgot to add: firewall used is Comodo Personal Firewall.

Are there any news about this?

What is you webbrowser?

google.ca works fine here with the browsers IE6 and Maxthon 1.5.8 (and I also have Comodo FW)

[Lisandro]

Are there any news about this?

Alexo, you're posting twice (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20404)
It wil just make more difficult to help you and duplicate the effort 

[neiby]

Getting junk on HTML pages with Webshield and Comodo Personal Firewall.
Pages like: google.ca

I have a similar problem that we haven't been able to resolve yet. When I try to open Google's main page with Web Shield enabled, the page does not load. Instead, I get a popup stating that I'm about to download an application/octet-stream and it asks if I want to save it or open it with another application. This happens only when both Web Shield and Comodo Personal Firewall are enabled. It does not happen if either is disabled.

This is apparently stumping the Avast people and the Comodo people. Since I don't feel like changing firewalls again I've just disabled Web Shield for the time being.

[Alexo]

What is you webbrowser?

google.ca works fine here with the browsers IE6 and Maxthon 1.5.8 (and I also have Comodo FW)

IE6

[Alexo]

Alexo, you're posting twice (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=20404)
It wil just make more difficult to help you and duplicate the effort 

There are several threads talking about the same issue.  I did not start those threads but I commented that I have a similar issue.
Perhaps you can merge them?