avast complications w/ zonealarm?

[Im4gzusgrl]

I only have Zone Alarm because its the best I found and free.  I have been happy w/ it until now.  Is Comodo together w/ the free avast enough to protect my computer? 

I have at least 50 triangles and red circles...I am looking though...

Thanks...

[Im4gzusgrl]

As far as testing the firewall myself by changing the settings to ask...I followed the directions you all explained, but I am not sure how that tests the Firewall?

When I go onto the internet or access dif. programs zonealarm always asks me if I should allow, deny, and/or remember settings.   This means the firewall is working? 

[mauserme]

Is Comodo together w/ the free avast enough to protect my computer? 

Comodo is a very good firewall, and also free.

It is enough?  Well, many of us use Spyware Blaster and some spyware/adware scanners like AVG Antispyware, SuperAntispyware, AdAware, Spybot S&D ... as additional tools.  But avast! and ZA or Comodo with safe surfing habits is good.  The latter is the most important part.

When I go onto the internet or access dif. programs zonealarm always asks me if I should allow, deny, and/or remember settings. This means the firewall is working?

If the firewall recognizes and blocks the connection attempt until you allow it, then its working.  Usually you would want to put a check in  "Remember this action" for programs known to be safe so you won't be asked about them every time.  This is especially important for programs that update automatically, like avast!

[Im4gzusgrl]

Found the following msgs. w/ yellow triangle/red circle:

*The avast! Web Scanner service terminated unexpectedly.  It has done this 1 time(s).

*The Application Management service terminated with the following error:
The specified module could not be found.  
- at least 15 of these here and there from today

* Windows saved user YOUR-5A46F7298D\user registry while an application or service was still using the registry during log off. The memory used by the user's registry has not been freed. The registry will be unloaded when it is no longer in use.

 This is often caused by services running as a user account, try configuring the services to run in either the LocalService or NetworkService account.
- three of these same msgs.

....Do these mean anything?

[Im4gzusgrl]

It is enough?  Well, many of us use Spyware Blaster and some spyware/adware scanners like AVG Antispyware, SuperAntispyware, AdAware, Spybot S&D ... as additional tools.  But avast! and ZA or Comodo with safe surfing habits is good.  The latter is the most important part.

I also use spybot S&D - what other ones from above or others would you recommend?  All of them...or?

I use WinPatrol and bugoff as well.  Do you know anything about them?


If the firewall recognizes and blocks the connection attempt until you allow it, then its working.  Usually you would want to put a check in  "Remember this action" for programs known to be safe so you won't be asked about them every time.  This is especially important for programs that update automatically, like avast!

Well then it must be working because it always asks me that...I just don't understand why it isn't appearing on security suite anymore.  It used to say it there...I am off to check out comodo...

Thanks so far for all of your help!  Very appreciated!

[mauserme]

I also use spybot S&D - what other ones from above or others would you recommend?  All of them...or?

I use WinPatrol and bugoff as well.  Do you know anything about them?

Yes, I use WinPatrol too, but I'm not familiar with bugoff.

I like a full toolbox so I have all I listed installed on my computer.  They are non-resident so they don't use any resources - just a bit of disk space and a little time to keep them updated.  I scan with them occasionally as a double check, but my feeling is that if an infection does get onto my computer I would rather have the needed tools at hand rather than scrambling to install them after the fact.

The event viewer, imo, can be as frustrating as it is helpful.  If there's a single event, like the Web Scanner terminating unexpectedly, I would check again later to see if it recurs.  But in the absence of a recurring problem I don't think it gives you much to work with.  Realistically isolated "glitches" happen now and again.

With the Application Management Service problem - were you trying unsuccessfully to install something about that time?  Maybe somebody else knows more about these.

EDIT:  I finally get your name   

[DavidR]

there are many things under the list - what should I be looking for?  Thanks!

As mauserme said the Yellow triangle and exclamation mark, anything that isn't a a speech bubble with an i (information) in it.

You can narrow it down as I said previously by checking entries with a time close to when the problem occurs.

[Im4gzusgrl]

Sry - what do you mean by non-resident?  

If it's not too much trouble perhaps you could list the recommended "toolbox" programs that most of the "knowledgable ppl" here typically have, so that I can do the same?  I def. want to take preventive measures as this is a brand new computer and I want to take care of it as well as possible.

Thanks for the explanation about imo - guess it's alright then.

W/ the application mgr. thing I was uninstalling some things today to clean my harddrive - so perhaps something happened then.

I got rid of Zone Alarm and have Comodo now.  Seems better so far (at least to me).
Any idea if Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe is a real threat - its coming up as suspicious behavior and being blocked - its described as an invisible application.  Also, I told it to allow avast, but under medium severity applications reported Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSV.exe is blocked a couple times.  Does this mean anything to you, and does it seem to be a problem?  To me, as soon as I see the name avast I think, oh thats good and should be unblocked, but maybe that's not the case?  

I got the name from a friend long ago - Im not that clever lol

[galooma]

A resident utility is an active one such as Avast "standard shield" which is constantly monitoring. Avast has seven of them which you can see if you right click the A ball.
Non resident is an inactive program which consumes no processing until you turn it on.
As for toolbox programs, most people list them in their signatures along with their os and system specs so others can see and compare.
If your system is new then the likeleyhood of ashMaiserv needing access is less likely to be a problem . You might have a resident mail program' OUTLOOK EXPRESS' or 'THUNDERBIRD' which is regularly checking servers for mail.
The other possibility is malware trying to send spam without you knowing. This is something you need to determine.
Good luck

[mauserme]

Non-resident means the program is installed on your computer, ready to run if you need it, but it doesn't load at start up and doesn't use any memory or processor power under normal circumstances.  The opposite of this, a resident program, means the program loads when you start Windows and resides in memory in the background.  Zone Alarm, Comodo, and avast! are resident in that they are constantly monitoring, and therefore using some of your computer resources, as you surf the web or just open programs on your computer.  The point about having a lot of non-resident tools is that it doesn't "cost" you anything in terms of computer performance to just have them installed.

Sometimes on forums we use abbreviations for commonly used sayings.  IMO, for instance, means "in my opinion", so what I was saying is that the event viewer, in my opinion, can be very very frustrating.  I recognize others may have differing opinions about it so I didn't want to imply that my statement was an undeniable fact.

C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe is normally not a threat at all - its the Internet Explorer.  Comodo will sometimes show this as a hidden process that needs your attention if it opens in a covert way.  For example, some help files within a program contain links to on-line help pages.  When you click the link, the program you are working with opens an instance of the Internet  Explorer as a hidden process in order to display the help page.  In a situation like this its perfectly fine to allow the connection because you can identify the reason for its occurrence.  In other cases there might be some form of malware  trying to get an internet connection through a program like Internet Explorer that your firewall thinks is safe.  Its a way to trick some firewalls into allowing a connection.  If you ever see this happen - Internet Explorer (or anything else for that matter) trying to connect when you don't expect or or can't reasonably explain it - its best to block the connection and investigate.

What I have on my computer is probably more than you want.  I have some specialized malware removal tools that I've never needed but can open in order to give advice to others that might need to use them.  I also have some overlap, like AVG Antispyware and A-Aquared, that you might not want to bother with.  But if you have the following you should be good:

avast!, plus a back-up virus scanner (non-resident) like ClamWin or Bitdefender Free
Comodo Firewall
Ad Aware SE
Spybot Search & Destroy
AVG AntiSpyware
SuperAntispyware
WinPatrol
SpywareBlaster

Some would recommend an alternate browser like Firefox, but Internet Explorer is OK imo 

EDIT:  Sorry Cloussau - I duplicated some of what you said but I spent so much time typing it I didn't want to start deleting things.

[Im4gzusgrl]

A resident utility is an active one such as Avast "standard shield" which is constantly monitoring. Avast has seven of them which you can see if you right click the A ball.
Non resident is an inactive program which consumes no processing until you turn it on.
As for toolbox programs, most people list them in their signatures along with their os and system specs so others can see and compare.
If your system is new then the likeleyhood of ashMaiserv needing access is less likely to be a problem . You might have a resident mail program' OUTLOOK EXPRESS' or 'THUNDERBIRD' which is regularly checking servers for mail.
The other possibility is malware trying to send spam without you knowing. This is something you need to determine.
Good luck

Thank you for your clear explanation...

concerning ashMaiserv how do I determine if it is malware trying to send me spam?  I don't use outlook express or thunderbird, although I have outlook express on my computer as I have MSO.

[Im4gzusgrl]

Non-resident means the program is installed on your computer, ready to run if you need it, but it doesn't load at start up and doesn't use any memory or processor power under normal circumstances.  The opposite of this, a resident program, means the program loads when you start Windows and resides in memory in the background.  Zone Alarm, Comodo, and avast! are resident in that they are constantly monitoring, and therefore using some of your computer resources, as you surf the web or just open programs on your computer.  The point about having a lot of non-resident tools is that it doesn't "cost" you anything in terms of computer performance to just have them installed.

Sometimes on forums we use abbreviations for commonly used sayings.  IMO, for instance, means "in my opinion", so what I was saying is that the event viewer, in my opinion, can be very very frustrating.  I recognize others may have differing opinions about it so I didn't want to imply that my statement was an undeniable fact.

thanks lol - my online abbrev vocab is limited.  It is very frustrating to me b/c I have 1% idea whether something is a problem to be concerned about.

C:\program files\internet explorer\iexplore.exe is normally not a threat at all - its the Internet Explorer.  Comodo will sometimes show this as a hidden process that needs your attention if it opens in a covert way.  For example, some help files within a program contain links to on-line help pages.  When you click the link, the program you are working with opens an instance of the Internet  Explorer as a hidden process in order to display the help page.  In a situation like this its perfectly fine to allow the connection because you can identify the reason for its occurrence.  In other cases there might be some form of malware  trying to get an internet connection through a program like Internet Explorer that your firewall thinks is safe.  Its a way to trick some firewalls into allowing a connection.  If you ever see this happen - Internet Explorer (or anything else for that matter) trying to connect when you don't expect or or can't reasonably explain it - its best to block the connection and investigate.

Is there some sort of list that explains how to tell when something is harmless or a problem?  There was a place on Comodo I checked out...but it didn't explain anything of help to me.  I often don't know whether or not to okay a program, just as I didnt know with Zone Alarm. 

What I have on my computer is probably more than you want.  I have some specialized malware removal tools that I've never needed but can open in order to give advice to others that might need to use them.  I also have some overlap, like AVG Antispyware and A-Aquared, that you might not want to bother with.  But if you have the following you should be good:

avast!, plus a back-up virus scanner (non-resident) like ClamWin or Bitdefender Free
Comodo Firewall
Ad Aware SE
Spybot Search & Destroy
AVG AntiSpyware
SuperAntispyware
WinPatrol
SpywareBlaster
[b]
This all will take up a decent amount of memory.  While these are non-resident programs will the amount of memory used not slow my computer down at all?  It makes sense that the less memory used the faster my computer runs...true or false?[/b]
Some would recommend an alternate browser like Firefox, but Internet Explorer is OK imo 

Im just getting use to Opera - so I will have to stick w/ IE as my alternate for now.

EDIT:  Sorry Cloussau - I duplicated some of what you said but I spent so much time typing it I didn't want to start deleting things.

[galooma]

if you dont have a resident e-mail client active (this is a good policy) and are content with web based e-mail then it is highly unlikely as far as i know for the spamming i suggested to occur.

If you feel you still need re-assurance that everything is normal you can try a little utility called HJT http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
This after installation will generate a log which gives a snapshot of whats active on your system and can be posted here or any other malware orum for advice. I suggest you read up on it beforehand so you understand it .
good luck 

[DavidR]

concerning ashMaiserv how do I determine if it is malware trying to send me spam?  I don't use outlook express or thunderbird, although I have outlook express on my computer as I have MSO.

ashMaiSv.exe, the avast email scanner monitors and scans ALL pop3 and smtp traffic, now that doesn't matter what program is sending email. When ashMaiSv.exe scans email an icon displays on the system tray and the avast ' a ' icon rotates. So if you aren't physically sending or receiving email at that time it is an indication something might be sending spam.

Even if you don't have an email client installed, some malware comes with its own very lightweight (about 16KB or less) smtp program, but the avast email scanner doesn't care what the program is if it uses the email ports it will scan the traffic.

I would suggest you set the Internet Mail sensitivity to 'High' as this can also give you an early indication if multiple identical emails are send in a period of time. Whilst avast isn't a spam filter it can gve early indication you might have an undetected spam bot on your system (time to run the anti-spyware tools like AVG-AS, etc.). So you should keep your other security programs up to date and periodically run a scan, I suggest weekly as part of your regular system maintenance.

Edit:
Sorry just reread your question I quoted and the short answer is you can't, spam inbound is just spam and may be coming from spam email lists (if your address is on it), a friends computer could be infected and sending spam to all in his address book. You simply can't tell, but that would only be going to your webmail account as you say you don't if you have a pop3 email account. Spam can't be sent directly to your computer it is sent to your email address server.

The information above this edit, is about unauthorised outbound email.

[Im4gzusgrl]

Is that HighJackers Try This?  I got that...I read up on it...but not sure how to interpret anything so didn't use it yet.

Thanks for the advice...I might try it out after I download the above suggest "non-residental items"