www.avast.com not accessible - "Unable to establish connection"

[bemymonkey]

Hi everyone,

I've just downloaded Avast! 4, and am planning on using it at home - but I can't access Avast.com to register. All three of my browsers (IE7, FF3 and Chrome) won't access the site.

Firefox elaborates a little, saying the site "seems" valid, but it can't connect...

Any ideas? Did a virus of some kind block the site? Obviously I can still access the forum ...

Thanks a lot in advance - I'd love to be able to register, Avast seems great so far.

-edit- Buddy of mine just suggested I try avast.de, and it works fine. I was able to register without problems, but I'd still like to know why avast.com is blocked - has anyone else had this problem?

[DavidR]

Can you connect using this link, http://75.125.223.2/, this is the IP address.

If so then it is likely that malware has edited your HOSTS file to block security sites, avast.com included to make it difficult to remove the malware.

-- HOSTS file redirect a common malware tactic to block AV sites making it difficult to remove malware - 127.0.0.1 check your HOSTS file using notepad or a text editor of your choice, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or do a search for HOSTS to find it if not there. Once open you are looking for entries with avast.com on the line, you may well see other AV sites, post the contents of the hosts file. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file

[bemymonkey]

Thank you David, that was it. 

[DavidR]

OK  now you have to edit your HOSTS file and remove entries that you didn't create.

This is a copy of mine it has no changes Vista may be slightly different (I have XP Pro).

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost

You can use hosts file protectors, though personally I have never felt the need.

You may have other stuff on your system so these would also help.
If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it, preferably in safe mode and report the findings (it should product a log file).
1. SUPERantispyware On-Demand only in free version.
2. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later.

[bemymonkey]

Already taken care of. Thanks again!

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

Welcome to the forums.