Author Topic: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Updates work fine [SOLVED]  (Read 20487 times)

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Offline alanrf

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #15 on: January 29, 2007, 12:08:34 AM »
I know a couple of weeks is a long time in the life of a system but can you tell from the logs the last time you successfully update at system startup and when it first failed.

Can you recall any system changes you made around that time? 

The 2AF9 error in your log was reported a long time ago as meaning that "host cannot be found" (in this case the avast update server) suggesting a network connectivity problem or a blockage to it.

How soon after the automatic update failure "red flag" does your manual update work ... immediately ... after 10 minutes?     

I know it sounds like a complete disconnect but do you have Windows Automatic Updates set to automatically update your system?  Did you get your January updates a couple of weeks ago?  (You can check in the Windows update log in your Windows directory).  No, I'm not going to suggest that the updates from Microsoft caused the problem.

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #16 on: January 29, 2007, 05:00:23 AM »
Yes, I have been checking all of the logs and yes indeed all of the times I have said they have failed, there has been evidence of these failures in the logs.

The only thing I can think of that occurred around the same time I stopped getting auto updates was I installed a game, KOTOR.  Now since this is not an internet based game I can't really see a clear cause and effect relationship, however maybe there is... but I would find it horrifying that this could completely whack something like this.

I am generally on a wifi connection so occasionally I have initial connectivity problems due to session negotiation, etc.  However I have played with the "AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=" setting and had that set up to 10 minutes and still no go. 

To me, the baffling thing is that it works 100% of the time when I do a manual update and works none of the time when it tries to do it on it's own, whether it's at start up or after the requisite time to update.  So unless it's some freaky obscure firewall thing, I am stumped.

Tech, you said you use Comodo Firewall... could you post your relevant firewall config to see if mine looks similar?

Once again, thanks for all your help!

Cheers!

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2007, 05:51:30 AM »
Quote
How soon after the automatic update failure "red flag" does your manual update work ... immediately ... after 10 minutes?

sorry i didn't address this directly in my last post.  the answer is both.  i have tried to do a manual update immediately after the "red flag" pops up or after waiting a bit of time.  depends on if i am sitting at the computer at the time.  the result is always the same.  i am able to get a manual update.

Quote
I know it sounds like a complete disconnect but do you have Windows Automatic Updates set to automatically update your system?

as for the windows updates... i have them set to download but not install.  i generally try to wait a few days before installing them since i have been spanked before by crap updates from MS.

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #18 on: January 29, 2007, 01:17:30 PM »
Tech, you said you use Comodo Firewall... could you post your relevant firewall config to see if mine looks similar?
I think I'll write down and does not post a screenshot as it won't help that much in this case (configuration won't be shown in the screenshot).
Into Comodo settings, the following programs should be allowed to connect:

C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe (avast! Web Scanner)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe (avast! e-Mail Scanner Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\avast.setup (avast! Update executable). This is a temporary file that just appears when an update (check) is about to launch, and disappears again afterwards.

Don't need rights to connect:
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe (avast! antivirus service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\aswUpdSv.exe (avast! Update Service)
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zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #19 on: January 29, 2007, 03:50:56 PM »
thanks for the config... I'm pretty sure those three files are allowed but I can't check now as I am at work.  I'll confirm tonight at home.

Cheers!

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #20 on: January 30, 2007, 05:01:37 AM »
As I suspected.  Comodo allows all three of those components in and out.

Any other thoughts?

Cheers!

avvidro

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #21 on: January 30, 2007, 12:12:36 PM »
I faced a trouble exactly like this in the past, in a pc at work, wich doesn't had antivirus, to test it, but wich had a corporate firewall (Avast version was 4.7.844 btw). The updates occurred only by  demand, never automatically, and nothing of Avast was changed from its default settings. Well, at that time I wanted only to do a test and uninstalled Avast right after it, but a thing intriques me: why the firewall (suspect of "Avasters") would deny an update in circunstancy X and permit in circunstancy Y? Should not be the update routine be the same? Should not be only the sources and events different?




Offline Lisandro

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #22 on: January 30, 2007, 12:14:05 PM »
"AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=" setting and had that set up to 10 minutes and still no go.
I suppose you've wrote: 
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=600

Did you change the service logon?
Try to change the logon account for avast updates to administrator account.
In services control panel display properties of avast! iAVS4 Control Service, switch to LogOn page, and enter administrator account and password. Restart service to take effect on changes.
You can try setting avast! Antivirus service logon too.
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zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #23 on: January 30, 2007, 03:09:34 PM »
Quote
I suppose you've wrote:
AlwaysConnectedWaitSeconds=600

Yes, I did have the setting at 600 seconds.

Quote
Did you change the service logon?
Yes, I tried the administrator account and my own account (which has admin privs) and neither seemed to make a difference as well.

Cheers!

kubecj

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #24 on: January 30, 2007, 03:52:08 PM »
You should just find the log entries (in setup/setup.log) which end with error code 0x20000004 and check, under what account they were run - it's specified near the beginning of the respective setup log run.

Excerpt from my log...


19:18:51 min/gen  Started: 29.01.2007, 19:18:51
19:18:51 min/gen  Running setup_av_pro-37c (892)
19:18:51 nrm/sys  Operating system: WindowsXP ver 5.1, build 2600, sp 2.0 [Service Pack 2]
19:18:51 vrb/sys  Computer WinName: MICINA
19:18:51 min/sys  Windows Net User: SYSTEM
19:18:51 min/gen  Cmdline: /refresh /noreboot /updatevps /verysilent
.
.
.
19:19:14 min/gen  Return code: 0x20000000 [Something done]
19:19:14 min/gen  Stopped: 29.01.2007, 19:19:14

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #25 on: January 31, 2007, 05:34:08 AM »
At the moment, it is running as Administrator as per Tech's suggestion.  Prior to this it was running as the system user.  It wasn't working as the System user either.

Cheers!

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine [SOLVED]
« Reply #26 on: February 01, 2007, 04:42:02 PM »
Ok, so here's the problem.  Auto-updates fail while Manual Updates work fine.  As it turned out what solved my issue was based on two things not working.

First, Microsoft might allow you to have multiple DNS servers but certain programs will only look at the first one on your list before shitting the bed.  This was demonstrated by running nslookup on various downloadXX.avast.com.  These were timing out.  Now other programs such as Firefox would allow me to browse and thus there didn't appear to be a problem.

Secondly, there is the unhelpfully named MS program called SVCHOST that was being blocked by my firewall that was denying Avast's Auto-updater from doing a name lookup on my primary DNS server.

So if you have a similar problem, look into these things closely:

1) Firewall Logs - See if you are denying critical DNS (port 53) traffic.
2) Check to see if your DNS servers are valid and answering queries.

Hopefully this post will help other people from pulling out their hair if they run across this. 

Thanks for all your help out there in Avastland!  Cheers!

Offline DavidR

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #27 on: February 01, 2007, 04:55:23 PM »
Well I'm glad that you appear to have finally resolved the updates problem and thanks for the feedback.

Your firewall should have at least warned of svchost access and not blocked it automatically. I used to block svchost in my firewall when I didn't want windows update any outbound checking.

Interestingly I get lots of blocked inbound access to the DNS port with n/a as the Process Name, but it doesn't appear to have any impact on browsing etc.
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avvidro

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #28 on: February 01, 2007, 05:42:38 PM »
I used to block svchost in my firewall when I didn't want windows update any outbound checking.
Excuse me for runnig out of the topic, but I got curious about this, could you please say why do you do this? Is it for expect the patches of Windows Update to be more mature? Or did I misunderstand you? I btw observed that Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 accesses Microsoft's site each time I click at Start menu.

zonkman

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Re: Auto Updates Fail, Manual Update work fine
« Reply #29 on: February 01, 2007, 06:25:56 PM »
After a bit of hunting around, I found out that SVCHOST does a lot more that just do the windows updates.  According to Microsoft "Svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries (DLLs)."

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056

Quote
Interestingly I get lots of blocked inbound access to the DNS port with n/a as the Process Name, but it doesn't appear to have any impact on browsing etc.
I believe the reason that happens is that the browser accesses the DNS subsystem directly as your local user.  SVCHOST is used by the "Service Account".  I must have blocked it at some point in the past few weeks because I got sick of seeing the popups and didn't realize the overarching importance of this obscurely named process.

Anyway... thanks again for all your help.  And if the moderators could change the subject of this thread to contain [SOLVED] in it, that would be awesome.

Cheers!