two questions: unexplained turn-offs and Behavior Shield confusion

[Alicat]

Hi everyone. Haven't been to the forum in about a year - happy to say I haven't needed to!

My Avast upgraded/updated itself a few days ago to 5.0.677, and I'm trying to orient myself to the new version. All seemed well, running smoothly, clean scans, and none of the problems I see that others have encountered. However, twice in the past hour, I got a "Dr. Watson" program error pop-up and Avast informs me that the shields are no longer on. I manually switched them back on, but am baffled about why this would happen, and cannot figure out how or where to seek out any information which may identify a trigger.

I actually only intended to ask a question about Behavior Shield, but got side-tracked giving the reason why I even noticed that section to begin with! So, looking around all the settings trying to investigate what may have caused the program to turn itself off, I came upon the Behavior Shield - which I didn't quite understand to begin with, since it says that "This shield has no settings" - even in Help!

Well, when I look at "show traffic history", Behvaior Shield has a couple of time periods over the past few days where it reports 6, 8, 10 infected items, and then several big red spikes on the graph over the course of an hour last night: 17, 20, and then 246, with a conclusion that in the past week "Infected items: 540 total, 246 max 1.325 average" (Oh, and nothing today at all).

What on earth does all this mean? If I have no settings, and this is supposedly monitoring for unusual activity, how am I supposed to use this?

Oh, and when comparing to traffic history for the other shields, which show zero infected items, the corresponding time stamps for that high spike of 246 show no activity whatsoever. Is the unusual behavior the fact that Avast wasn't scanning anything?


Thanks 

[RejZoR]

Yeah, the Behavior Shield is a bit confusing at times. I also had few red spikes but i have absolutely  no clue what caused it.

[Lisandro]

I wish someday the avast team explain the behavior of the behavior shield...

[ArminPasalic!]

Try installing:

Malwarebytes - http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html

SUPERantispyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/downloadfile.html?productid=SUPERANTISPYWAREFREE

Scan with these, and provide a MalwareBytes Log(When done scanning copy/paste the log text here)  if it finds something malicous.

" Avast informs me that the shields are no longer on." This COULD be malware attack/or a simple bug

[Alicat]

Try installing:

Malwarebytes - http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4716-malwarebytes-anti-malware.html

SUPERantispyware - http://www.superantispyware.com/downloadfile.html?productid=SUPERANTISPYWAREFREE

Scan with these, and provide a MalwareBytes Log(When done scanning copy/paste the log text here)  if it finds something malicous.

" Avast informs me that the shields are no longer on." This COULD be malware attack/or a simple bug

Actually, now that I think of it, I was running a SuperAntiSpyware scan earlier! Would simply running that scan cause Avast to turn itself off? I don't keep SAS on, but update definitions and run a manual scan about once a week. It was clean, except for a couple of innocuous adware tracking cookies, which I recognized, and deleted. Avast turned itself off during the scan - but it was just scanning 

I run Spybot Search & Destroy continously, and last scan two days ago was also clean except for some tracking cookies. I also use Spybot to monitor any system, program or startup changes, and it only noticed Avast's update.

Oh, and I have Windows Defender and WinPatrol running as well. Everyone seems to get along without identifying one another as a problem, so I'm thinking I wouldn't need to introduce MalwareBytes to the party?


The Fix to turn Avast back on seemed to work fine, like a light switch, with no indication it had a problem doing so. But it just never told me why it went off - or even really informed me that it had - the Dr. Watson pop-up did. I haven't gotten used to the new orange icon in the notification area. It did look different, but I'm not sure the "off" indicator was obvious enough to alert me. The red against the blue of the old icon was pretty clear something wasn't right.

[YoKenny]

@ Alicat

It would be great when you get to 20 posts so that you can upgrade your PROFILE.

I have not run Spybot Search & Destroy since I got Malwarebytes (MBAM)

If you are running Vista or Windows 7 then make sure it is updated to its latest definitions through its portal:
Latest definition version: 1.93.374.0
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Definitions/ADL.aspx

If you are running XP you do not need Windows Defender. 

WinPatrol is good to have:
WinPatrol Free vs PRO
http://www.winpatrol.com/compare.html

[Alicat]

@ Alicat

It would be great when you get to 20 posts so that you can upgrade your PROFILE.

I have not run Spybot Search & Destroy since I got Malwarebytes (MBAM)

If you are running Vista or Windows 7 then make sure it is updated to its latest definitions through its portal:
Latest definition version: 1.93.374.0
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/Definitions/ADL.aspx

If you are running XP you do not need Windows Defender. 

WinPatrol is good to have:
WinPatrol Free vs PRO
http://www.winpatrol.com/compare.html

I was just thinking that I'll likely reach my 20th post soon - and will be so happy to at the very least update my profile to have the correct time display!

Should have provided all the relevant stats:

Windows XP, recently finally updated to SP3, IE7 (and for what it's worth, added more memory a few months ago, still pretty low at 768 RAM, but works, and forced to get new monitor recently after power outage killed old one, despite surge protector). I don't pay too much attention to Defender, but occasionally it will pick up on something before the others do, and it's something else which alerts me to changes and check whether I approve. I figure since everything else is Microsoft and Windows, I should have at least some pseudo-protection from the company itself

I do have WinPatrol - actually, I think it may have been on your suggestion when I had problems last year!

I'm reasonably happy with Spybot, so reluctant to switch to yet another program, such as MBAM. It takes me a long, stressful time to adjust to changes or new things computer-wise    no matter how much healthier it may be to do so. Took me this long to finally risk leaping to SP3, lol.


@Tech and RejZoR, thanks for the feedback that I'm not alone or simply naive in my bafflement!

[YoKenny]

IE8 is so much better than IE7.

Increased performance
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/faster.aspx

Stay Safer Online
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/safer.aspx

You just need to get used to new shoes.

[Alicat]

IE8 is so much better than IE7.

Increased performance
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/faster.aspx

Stay Safer Online
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/features/safer.aspx

You just need to get used to new shoes.

lol. Actually I experienced IE8 on other computers, and there were a number of things I found uncomfortable, that I don't think would just be a matter of breaking in a new pair of shoes, but a bad fit. I don't remember exactly what, but some things with the design and interface really made me prefer to keep with IE7. Recently had an opportunity to re-visit an earlier version (IE6?), and for all the problems, it made me miss having the larger "Refresh" button, among other things that I eventually was forced to get used to with IE7, but never liked.

A lot of enforced "improvements" and updates/upgrades are not necessarily suitable for older computers, putting a lot of resource demands which not all are able to handle without negatively affect overall performnance. Mine isn't ancient, but my phone (Moto Droid 1) has better capacity and works faster on many tasks!

[YoKenny]

I guess you are suck in the alley with the cat having to eat leftovers.  :'( 

[Alicat]

I guess you are suck in the alley with the cat having to eat leftovers.  :'( 

a commentary on my board name?

My cats have been known to cause all kinds of computer havoc with a strategic "misplaced" paw on the keyboard (not to mention "accidently" sending emails before they were ready, or adding text without my noticing). When a website inexplicably redirects to a catnip supplier, I know not to suspect malware but feline mischief.



Geez, still not at 20 posts yet, but maybe someone else might have some input/insight about the protection shields turning themselves off and the Behavior Shield mystery?