avast, hotmail loopback to login screen

[dedeone]

avast is looping me back to the login screen whenever I try to click on anything in hotmail live mail and I can only load the version for slow internet connections the other one won't load at all.
Is there a solution to this? Besides stopping avast.

[Eddy]

What OS?
What version of avast?
What version of Hotmail?
Anything about it in avast's log file?
Anything in the OS log file?
Any other problems?
etc etc.

[DavidR]

What is your firewall ?
This has been known to happen with ZA Pro with privacy settings at High and may be the failure of the login that loops back to the login page. Do you have za pro or a firewall that has a a privacy function ?
What is your browser ?

Do you start by logging on in a normal web page (http) and are then redirected to a secure page (https) ?

[dedeone]

Hi Eddy!
OS= win2000 Pro SP4
Avast = 4.7 Home Edition
Hotmail = hotmail live beta
Nothing in avast's log file and as near as I can tell none in the os either

Hi David R!
Firewall= Zone Alarm Pro 6.5.722.000  settings at medium

Problem goes away as soon as I disable avast and log in again.
Problem does not occur on any other msn sites either.
Thanks for the post.

[DavidR]

Try disabling the privacy settings or setting to lowest setting.

It may well be better not to use the transparent proxy (as should have been asked upon avast install) but manually set it up:

http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html

- ZONE ALARM - AVAST Web Shield compatibility dialogue - Install/Update Question - YES or NO

If you are using ZoneAlarm Free you should click NO, because privacy features are not present in ZoneAlarm Free this will not turn off web shield transparent mode proxy.
Use a text editor and edit the avast4.ini file, the default installation location is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini (I would advise you copy avast4.ini before editing it, just in case).
Locate the line containing ZoneAlarmCompatibility= and delete that line.  Save the edited avast4.ini file.

If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro and Privacy Control in ZoneAlarm is set to High and if you click YES in avast compatibility dialogue box the transparent mode proxy in web shield will be turned off you have to manually configure browser to access internet. To manually configure your browser watch instructional video

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

[dedeone]

I have opted out of the hotmail  " live mail " beta, the problem still persists even on msn regular hotmail. The only solution I have found is to disable the web shield component of avast. I am going to try the solution proposed by David R for Zone Alarm Pro and see if that remedies the situation. Will advise if this works.

[dedeone]

Have tried the solution proposed by : David R and still the problem persists. I am going to try UN-installing Zone Alarm and RE-Installing the application to see if this helps.


Haven't had any luck with that either. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

[Eddy]

I have no idea a.t.m., but I am still missing some info, which may help us to find and solve the problem.

What EXACT version of avast? (there are mutliple versions of 4.7)
OS? You say 2kpro, sp4. So you have the client version installed? (just asking to make sure)

avast is looping me back to the login screen whenever I try to click on anything in hotmail live mail and I can only load the version for slow internet connections the other one won't load at all.

Please update me. I thought hotmail is webbased and only works with outlook (express) or if you have a 3rd party application.

And what do you mean with "the other one won't load at all"?

Sofar it seems like a hotmail problem to me. But at this point it is too early to come to a definate conclusion.
Please feed us with more (possible) relevant information.
EG: Disable one avast provider at a time to see if it is just one provider that is causing this or not.

[dedeone]

Hi Eddy! Here is the information you requested.
Avast!= build Aug. 2006 4.7.871, extreme toolkit version1.9.4.0, active skin version 4.2.7.3
windows= version 5.0.2195 service pack 4 build 2195

Hotmail live and regular ( for free hotmail ) also support Firefox and eudora?
I have tried disabling  one service at a time and Web shield is the guilty party. I have tried David R  proposed solution on I.E  and logged in that way, unfortunately with the same results.
My favorite browser is still Firefox which is supported by windows live mail beta and I get the same results. When I log into my hotmail with Web shield disabled everything works as it should.
So I am guessing there is an incompatibility with WebShield and the Passport component of Microsoft?
Hoping this helps.

[Eddy]

This is something for the people from Alwil to look into.

[lukor]

dedeone,

did you see or did you not see the warning message about compatibility problem between avast! and zone alarm?

thanks.
Lukas

Edit: can you send me your avast4.ini file from c:\program files\alwil software\avast4\data\avast4.ini? We will see what have you answered (if anything)

[dedeone]

lukor,

I did read the warning when I installed avast! and since I have never had any compatibility problems with the two softwares.

This will probably be the last post on this subject .I check my e-mail every day and today there where no compatibility problems when I signed in ( signed in 4 times into my hotmail account with no problems ).
So I surmise that something happened over the weekend to fix the problem. I started my computer as usual this morning and updated it  ( avast, spywareblaster...etc ) and then checked my e-mail with no unpleasant surprises.Since I have not changed anything on my computer I gather a fix has been installed, anyway I hope so.
So thanks for all the help from the people who have responded to my queries.
dedeone

[DavidR]

The only thing that has updated is the VPS and that wouldn't have had any effect on your issue.

If any element of the program had changed namely web shield ZA would have asked permission again.

ZA in the past has been known to forget its permissions and even though web shield is shown to have permission in the list it is blocked. This however, would also have an effect on all web pages and not just hotmail. So I too am at a bit of a loss as to the cause of the problem.

If it happens again you could try deleting the entry for ashWebSv.exe in ZA and it should ask permission again when you next use your browser and see if that has any effect rather than disable the web shield.

[lukor]

dedeone,
if you use Cookie blocking in ZA and WebShield in it's native mode (that means redirect, without manualy set your browser to use localhost:12080 as a http proxy), you will have these types of problems. The only thing that makes it work sometimes is the enormous unpredictable crappiness of Zone Alarm software as a whole.