AVAST home stops me Browsing

[Ttail]

I have a problem. VISTA64 Bit Home premium, IE8,Firefox 3 and Safari Beta 4 as the browsers,AVAST home 4.8

From time to time on clicking on a link the browser just seems to hang. The small VISTA circle just keeps doing its thing and the page never loads. So I Shut down the browser and re start it. Now I am locked the Browser just sits there trying to connect to my homepage.
This occurs with all 3 Browsers.

The solution is to Exit the browser, turn of AVAST ON Access protection. Re start the browser which then works quite happily. I then shut down the browser and re activate AVAST On access protection and re start the browser. things are back to normal until the next time it happens. Its random but I get about 3 times a day.

[Lisandro]

Are you using just Windows firewall? Any other?
Which was your previous antivirus?

[Ttail]

Windows Firewall is Off. I also run Zonealarm Pro,Spybot SD and Spyware blaster. In testing I have turned all of these off so just AVAST running and the problem is there. Shutdown Avast, Open the browser and all is good. I then re-enable ZA,Spybot,Spyware blaster and AVAST and then carry on browsing ... till the next event

I have only used AVAST on this PC.

[Lisandro]

Remove avast entries from ZA programs allowed to connect.
Boot.
Allow avast again. Sometimes this is due to glitches on ZA handling the program entries.

Into the firewall 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\aswUpdSv.exe (avast! Update Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe (avast! antivirus service). Although, ashServ.exe sends ping packets to find out if the Internet connection is alive. You can turn this off by checking the "My computer is permanently connected to the Internet" box in the avast Program Settings > Update (Connections) page.

[Ttail]

Looking through my ZA settings that is exactly how it is set up. The problem is still there.

In other threads I read about an AVAST.ini Zome Alarm compatibility value is this appropriate ? Looking in my ini file I cannot see any Zone Alarm values.

[Lisandro]

Looking through my ZA settings that is exactly how it is set up. The problem is still there.

In other threads I read about an AVAST.ini Zome Alarm compatibility value is this appropriate ? Looking in my ini file I cannot see any Zone Alarm values.

The problem with ZA right now is that the free version will install the Pro trial unless the user unchecked the option in the installation of the free version. So the user downloads the free version but end up with a pro trial with all its features and avast shows the ZA Pro compatibility popup.
In this case, answer YES. If you choose NO with the Privacy function of the pro trial installed, youc could experience problems with logons.

Generally, if the question appears and you are using ZoneAlarm Free you should click NO, because privacy features are not present in ZoneAlarm Free this will not turn off webshield transparent mode proxy.
Use a text editor and edit the avast4.ini file, the default installation location is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini (I would advise you copy avast4.ini before editing it, just in case).
Locate the line containing ZoneAlarmCompatibility= and delete that line or, if you want to keep this line, set it to 0. Save the edited avast4.ini file.

If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro and Privacy Control in ZoneAlarm is set to High and if you click YES in avast comptability dialog box the transparent mode proxy in webshield will be turned off you have to manually configure browser to access internet. To manually configure your browser watch instructional video. In this case, the value ZoneAlarmCompatibility=1 should be at avast4.ini file.

More info:  http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=1647.msg15960#msg15960

[Ttail]

Thank you for the help.

I am using Zone Alarm Pro. Internet Privacy is OFF. i.e. Cookie Control is OFF, Ad blocking is OFF,Mobile Code control is OFF.
Looking in the Avast4.ini there is no mention of ZoneAlarm.

The problem is still present.

[Lisandro]

Looking in the Avast4.ini there is no mention of ZoneAlarm.

So, add the proper line, save the avast4.ini file, boot.

[Ttail]

Added the line so what I have in the Webscanner section looks like this:

[WebScanner]
AutoRedirect=1
HttpRedirectPort=80
LoadIsapiFilters=1
ISAPIFilter1=ashWsFtr.dll
IgnoreAddress=
IgnoreLocalhost=1
ZoneAlarmCompatibility=0

The problem is still there !

[Lisandro]

I also run Zonealarm Pro

If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro ... ZoneAlarmCompatibility=1

Added the line
ZoneAlarmCompatibility=0

I'm not following you

[Ttail]

We are on differrent pages, though your help is greatly appreciated. I will change the value to 1.

The confusion I think was caused by the issue of using or not using ZA Privicy controls. As i indicated I am not.

Anyway I will set the value to 1 and report back.

[DavidR]

Setting that value to 1 will mean that you have to manually set up your browser/s to use the avast Web Shield proxy. See tutorials, etc. below, you may have to adjust these depending on the browser version.

For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE
For IE - dialup users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (Dial-up)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox
Opera Users - Tools> Preferences> Advanced> Network> Proxy Servers, see image. E:\Images\CapturedScreenPrint\Opera-WS-Proxy-Settings.gif

[Ttail]

Tried the manual set up of the Proxy server ... just stops me browsing completely.

At the moment with the ZA setting to 1 browsing appears just fine, though I have no idea what Avast features I am loosing ?

[DavidR]

The web shield is enormously effective against on-line malware and especially hacked sites and they are on the increase, so it really is important to get it working correctly.

But with that ZA setting set to 1 is the web shield even scanning the port 80 http traffic ?
I suspect not, check the web shield detailed view, Last scanned: and Scanned count: fields they would constantly update if the traffic was scanned.

The avast 'a' icon would also rotate when web pages are being scanned too.

So if they aren't being scanned, you need to manually set the browser to use the proxy and if that doesn't work we are going to need to know exactly how you set it up, e.g. what browser and what you entered.

[Ttail]

The AVAST ball spins on every access of a web page. Looking at the web scanner in detailed mode , scanned count is zero.

I have followed the AVAST video guide explicitly. As they show in the video I set it to port 12080, the only difference is I am running IE8.
I note in the video they say port 1280 but all that is visible in their graphic is 2080

Also for what its worth I am running SpybotSD and Spyware Blaster.