Author Topic: Avast Browser blocking some sites  (Read 5930 times)

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Avast Browser blocking some sites
« on: June 01, 2018, 05:03:54 AM »
I previously used SafeZoneBroswer as a backup/second browser. It auto-updated to SecureBrowser awhile ago.  Today was my first time logging in to use it.

It will not load some websites. This is a browser problem because I can ping the sites and load them in two other browsers (including a chromium based one).

I made no changes to the browser; whatever the defaults were at open.  However, I noticed something from the sites that wouldn't load vs would.  (I've listed the sites below.)  All the sites that would load were https URLs and all those that wouldn't were http.  I went into the security-privacy-center and and saw the toggle for force https, so I turned that off, closed and reopened the browser and tried again. I expected that to solve the problem, but it didn't. I also tried toggling the built-in adblock and made sure all cookies were allowed, but still no difference.

Interestingly, http://www.mailinator.com wouldn't load, so I tried https://www.mailinator.com and it DID load.  So I tried the same with ESPN, which my bookmark was http, but I know has https service, but throwing a wrench in my theory, https://www.espn.com still wouldn't load.  Neither will any of the other none loading sites below by switching them to https. That only worked on mailinator.com.

Anyone know what's going ON?!

Sites that WILL load:
https://twitter.com
https://ebay.com
https://ismyinternetworking.com
https://isitdownorjust.me
https://www.palemoon.org
https://www.brave.com

Sites that WON'T load:
http://www.espn.com
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/stop-avast-blocking-websites-54917.html
http://www.nbadraft.net
http://downdetector.com/status/spectrum
http://www.twittervideodownloader.com
http://www.filehorse.com/download-pale-moon-64/

(Also, I'm human and can't read your verification. Took me three times. Tell it to chill.)

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  • Guest
Re: Avast Browser blocking some sites
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2018, 05:34:44 AM »
Further info regarding http/s weirdness:
https://www.puritan.com will load, but if I do a search in the site, the search result URL http://search.puritan.com/search?p=R&w=turmeric  won't!

So I tried changing the search URL manually to https.  It still failed, but it did give me an interesting new fail page that said:
"Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from search.puritan.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID
This server could not prove that it is search.puritan.com; its security certificate is from *.resultspage.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration or an attacker intercepting your connection."

It allowed me to click a "proceed" button that then successfully took me to the site with the search results.

This is different from previous fail pages.  All previous times/sites the fail message was:
"This site can’t be reached
The connection was reset.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_CONNECTION_RESET
"
And there was no option to proceed. There was a "RELOAD" button, but it just tried again and returned the same fail page.

Offline ondrejz

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    • Avast Secure Browser
Re: Avast Browser blocking some sites
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2018, 12:41:28 PM »
Hello,

all the sites you mentioned works on my machine. I think there is something strange happening with your network connection..

Please try these steps
- Try the same website which does not work in other browser at the same time
- disable Anti-Tracking feature in Secure browser
- disable All AV shields (Avast tray icon menu -> Avast shields control) and restart the browser
- open cmd and type "ipconfig /flushdns"
- if disabling AV shields helped, try to focus on Real Site and Web Shield. It can be one of them. .. or Firewall but I do not think so
- launch Wi-Fi inspector in Avast. Any problems found?

Let me know your OS version, AV version, browser version

Thank you


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Re: Avast Browser blocking some sites
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2018, 10:52:17 PM »
"all the sites you mentioned works on my machine. I think there is something strange happening with your network connection."
As I said in my post, they work on mine too - except with the Avast browser. Therefore it's not network, it's browser.

"Try the same website which does not work in other browser at the same time"
I said in my first post I did this. Did you even read or just cut and paste a form?

"- disable Anti-Tracking feature in Secure browser"
Already tried, plus force https (which i think is the problem) and adblock - said this already.

"- disable All AV shields (Avast tray icon menu -> Avast shields control) and restart the browser
- open cmd and type "ipconfig /flushdns"
- if disabling AV shields helped, try to focus on Real Site and Web Shield. It can be one of them. .. or Firewall but I do not think so
- launch Wi-Fi inspector in Avast. Any problems found?"
These would manifest the problem in other browsers - it's not network - it's browser.

"Let me know your OS version, AV version, browser version"
Windows 10 Pro  Verson 1709
Avast Program Version:  18.4.2338
Avast Virus definition version:  180602-8
Avast Browser Version:  65.2.491.182


So I'm just done with Avast.

As I originally thought, I think the problem has to do with your setting in privacy-center to force https.  This defaulted on and I had the problem. I tried toggling it off and closing and reopening the browser - didn't work.  I tried restoring default settings and closing browser and rebooting - didn't work.  I toggled force https off again and played with some other stuff, then had to reboot computer for unrelated reason. After rebooting again, with force https setting coincidentally off, it seemed to solve the problem.  This is interesting that turning off force https and closing and reopening browser didn't work, but that doing so and rebooting entirely did. I'm very curious how that could be.

Regardless, here are my many problems with Avast:
1/ Your force https toggle sucks. It's a good idea, but it doesn't work. It just stopped some sites from loading.
2/ I've never liked your over frequent churning away at my hard drive with random background task.
3/ I loathed your background downloading/installing/updating stuff without my approval. I know you think this automation is "convenient" for many customers, but it often drags my CPU&HD when I'm doing other work, instead of postponing till I'm done.
4/ I don't need another crap chromium browser anyway. What's the point of a thousand identical browsers named different things taking over the market? How is that secure? Also, google is evil. And mostly, how many years and they can't/won't fix their tab problem. You get to 20-ish tabs and they become unreadable instead of fixed size scrollable right and left. It's maddening. I'm trying Pale Moon (which is Goanna). If I have to try another chromium, it will be Brave next.

Adios.