Installed avast 4.8, won't let me manually do a security scan

[AricM]

Hi there,

I just installed Avast 4.8 Free Home Edition, and I am having difficulty initiating a complete scan of my computer. I operate through Windows Vista, and when I double click the blue a-ball icon, it gives me a startup screen that runs a memory test. Once the memory test is complete, this screen simply goes away, and I get no other interface with which to work. I'm new to avast, so I don't know if this is normal or not, but AVG always had an interface that allowed you to run a complete scan. I'm also getting messages that my POPMAIL could not be protected. Help please, I want to be ready for this next virus!

--Aric

[scythe944]

You say that you had AVG?  How was it removed?  I think this just may be an issue of a previous A/V program still lingering on your computer.

You can use the AVG Removal tool listed on this page:
http://www.avg.com/download-tools

*EDIT*
I had the wrong link to the removal tool, it has been fixed.

[AricM]

I just uninstalled through the Ctrl Panel, and everything appeared successful.

[scythe944]

I understand that, but there usually are parts of A/V programs left over from un-installation processes.

Using the removal tool is the only way to be sure that ALL of the program has been removed.

[AricM]

Okay the removal tool worked, finally giving me access to the user interface, but now Avast is doing exactly what AVG 8.5 was doing...blocking my Internet browsers even though my wireless connection shows to be Excellent. Sorry to keep being a pain. For what it's worth, though, at least Avast is capable of scanning my files. AVG couldn't even do that.

[scythe944]

Cool, I'm glad the tool worked and you can scan files.

Now what do you mean by blocking your internet browsers? Which ones are affected.  What sites are affected?

[AricM]

All of them, IE8, Firefox, Safari...you doubleclick the icon to open a window, and you get "page cannot be displayed". You can do a diagnostic to check the strength of your signal and it will show excellent, but try to open a browser and you can't view something as simple as Google. Meanwhile I'm using my iPhone to send you these messages on the same wireless network.

[Marc57]

This sounds like a firewall issue, What firewall are you using?

[scythe944]

yuck...

Alright well, hopefully you have another computer that is connected to the 'net that you could use to save files to.

I think we'll need to have you download malwarebytes from http://www.malwarebytes.org and run a scan.

But, I'd like to know some other things first.

When you ran scans, did avast find anything?  Did it remove any viruses?

When did you lose all connection to the web?

[AricM]

Ok I had Malwarebytes on my computer earlier today. I ran a full scan with it and no malicious items were detected. I removed it after that because I thought maybe it was creating a conflict with the other virus program which, at the time, was AVG 8.5. Consequently, that was not the problem as the same browser issue persisted. I have not reinstalled the program since. As for Avast the complete scan is not yet done, but so far it is 67% complete and no malicious items have been detected.

Last but not least the firewall I'm running is the one that came installed on Vista, called simply Windows Firewall as best I can tell. It is turned on and Internet Explorer is enabled.

[AricM]

Update: scan finished, no infections. Avast was unable to scan 16 files. Eight were in the McAfee folder, and the other 8 were in the D file, i386, which I'm pretty sure are iPhone related. It said these were unable to scan, but it's likely that's just a conflict between avast and the authors of these products. I doubt there is anything harmful with them.

[AricM]

By the way I lost all connection to the web when the avast user interface became available.

[Marc57]

Then it wouldn't be a firewall issue. Go ahead and follow scythe's suggestions.

[sonnypeters]

I had the same problem.  I installed Avast and the scan started.  I couldn't use Firefox or IE.  I have Google Chrome installed and I was able to browse using it.  So it isn't a firewall issue, perhaps Avast creates a proxy and blocks request coming from the other more popular browsers. 

Also, I have not uninstalled AVG yet, but it is not running. I will do that next. 

[DavidR]

Wrong, because as far as I'm aware Chrome isn't on the list of supported browsers so it won't be being monitored by the web shield. The web shield uses a localhost proxy to monitor the browsers traffic so it is the ashWebSv.exe being blocked that commonly causes this.

So what is your firewall ?
Does it allow ashWebSv.exe internet access ?
- If it does delete the entry for it and reconnect to the internet, this will force the firewall to ask permission again.

Very important that you do uninstall AVG not running doesn't stop the low level drivers from being loaded. I would also suggest running their AVG Removal tool, link in Reply #1 above.