Questions about opening ports ~

[Jonis]

Hello Avast!

I'm playing an Mmorpg and when Im about to download new patches to the game the game's "downloading program" tells me:
'Your computer appears to be behind a firewall.'
Due to this, it takes alot more time to download the new patch.  The program says that you have to open some ports in the firewall...

Now I have some questions.
Is it possible to open ports on Avast? since its the only Antivirus (& firewall?) I have on this computer.
Because of the fact that this is the only antivirus~~ I have it must be Avast lowering the download speed... Or?


Hope you can answer some of my questions ;p

Good night!

[DavidR]

avast isn't a firewall and doesn't have any means of closing or opening ports.

What is your firewall (I guess by your previous comment, none) ?
What ports does the program suggest opening ?

How are these patches downloaded ?
Whilst the web shield would scan content using port 80 http port (for normal browsing) even if it was scanning the download it shouldn't have a significant impact. I'm on dial-up and see no noticeable slowing of downloads.

Can you tell us a little about your system, CPU, RAM, internet connection method, etc.

[Lisandro]

I have it must be Avast lowering the download speed... Or?

WebShield scans the download (http traffic) and could lower a little the speed of it.
If you're using a download manager and you're sure it's not infected, maybe you can disable WebShield while downloading it and automatically scans the download with C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashQuick.exe (into the download manager should have an option for it).

There a more sophisticated method but... it's late here to explain 

[Jonis]

Thanks for the fast replies.

*I don't have any other firewall.
*The downloading manager (Blizzard download manager ) suggests me to open the ports 3724 and 6112
they also say: "It can also benefit from having ports 6881 through 6999 open."
*The game (World of Warcraft) suggest me to open the port 3724

I better tell you, that I also have a router, but I have opened all the suggested ports in the router.

*The patches are downloaded through a download manager (Blizzard~) I dont know from what server(s) they are downloaded from though..



Well info about the computer:
Amd Athlon 64
1024ram
Im conected to Internet via  (I dont know the english name)    Broadband is a bad translation from swedish. the "speed" is 0.5 mbit :p


I didn't complete the download of the patch last night, Did it today and closed the Webshield, still the manager told me "Your computer seems to be behind a firewall".


Well Its not a  fatal problem I have, but still its quite annoying

I'll have a look on my router's page and re open the ports once again, Maybe it changes who knows...

[alanrf]

I do not think that this has anything to do with avast. 

I do think that it has a lot to do with being behind a router.

You may want to start at this site and if it does not help directly then take a look a the link there to portforwarding.com

http://www.blizzard.com/support/wow/?id=aww01199p

[DavidR]

*I don't have any other firewall.

The optimal here isn't 'other' as we have said avast isn't a firewall, your router seems to have a built in firewall. Even if it does have a firewall it is usually only inbound protection.

Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.

Based on the ports that your download manager (and warcraft) is using or suggesting to open, none of those ports are monitored by the web shield, so Alan is right in saying he doesn't think that this has anything to do with avast.