Web Shield Problem

[XDarkShadeX]

Avast was always fine. I kept Avast 4 despite the fact that Avast 5 came out. Today when I went on Internet Explorer 7 and browsed some pages, Avast 4 kept on warning me of threats and aborting my connection to the webpage I was attempting to access. I thought it might've been some Avast 4 problem. So I unistalled Avast 4 and installed Avast 5. The problem however, is that despite doing so I still can't access perfectly safe pages. (I was warned of a web threat when trying to access Avast Homepage o.O) The only website that I could ACTUALLY access right now without being warned of a threat and disconnected is basically Google o_o. At first, it was terrible. I couldnt access anything except Google. But after changing and reversing those changes, I can now access some more webpages. O.o.

Edit: I can access any webpage if I stop Web Shield Protection o.o.

[XDarkShadeX]

Also, I'm running Windows Vista o.O.

[DavidR]

There is no such thing as perfectly safe pages, site hacking is a common means of infection now - See http://www.scmagazineus.com/Every-36-seconds-a-website-is-infected/article/140414/. Whilst this is an old article, the point is still very relevant and probably more prevalent.

Can you give some examples of the sites you are visiting (see below) - change the URL from http to hXXp or www to wXw, to break the link and avoid accidental exposure to suspect sites, thanks.

Of course you can access the site is you disable the web shield that is what is alerting and in doing so you could be leaving yourself open to infection.

You could also take a screen shot of the avast web shield alert as that information may help us. Also from the avastUI, Real-Time Shields, Web Shield, click the Show report file and scroll to the bottom of the file that contains the latest chronological alert information.

It could be that there is some sort of browser hijacking going on and that is what is being alerted on. IE8 has been out for some time and is more secure than IE7, especially on Vista where it should run in protected mode, So I would suggest that you get IE8.

If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it and report the findings (it should product a log file).

• 1.  MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM), 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.
• 2. SUPERantispyware (SAS). On-Demand only in free version.

Don't worry about reported tracking cookies they are a minor issue and not one of security, allow SAS to deal with them though. - See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie.
Also available a portable version of SAS, http://www.superantispyware.com/portablescanner.html, no installation required.

[XDarkShadeX]

Problem resolved itself on its own o.O. Anyways. Thanks for helping ^_^. Also. Avast Homepage >_>. It was a temporary problem.

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

If you haven't got those programs, they are a useful extension to avast, MBAM or SAS..

A belated welcome to the forums.