update process (avast.setup) interferes with computer bootup

[DavidR]

Virtually any half decent 3rd party firewall allows Program level Control over internet access.

It also rather depends on what OS you have as to what control the windows firewall has, XP's firewall has zero outbound control, Vista and win7 firewall have outbound protection but a) it is disabled by default and b) it is rules based, you have to define the rules and isn't very user friendly.

The growing list of permissions isn't just associated to ZA but virtually all firewalls as there doesn't seem to be any way to remove entries when you uninstall an application. The other problem is there is so much redundancy as when you install an application, it will have many little temp setup files, etc. that will only be used once, but if you allow it (other than once) it is added to the growing list.

[drakester303]

Virtually any half decent 3rd party firewall allows Program level Control over internet access.

It also rather depends on what OS you have as to what control the windows firewall has, XP's firewall has zero outbound control, Vista and win7 firewall have outbound protection but a) it is disabled by default and b) it is rules based, you have to define the rules and isn't very user friendly.

The growing list of permissions isn't just associated to ZA but virtually all firewalls as there doesn't seem to be any way to remove entries when you uninstall an application. The other problem is there is so much redundancy as when you install an application, it will have many little temp setup files, etc. that will only be used once, but if you allow it (other than once) it is added to the growing list.

I'll give Outpost a try. I notice you are using that on your rig, and you seem to know a thing or two. Thanks again.

My system is not the best behaved. This morning, on powering up, it displayed a black screen with an error message. "WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM is missing. Please insert Windows Setup and press 'r' to repair." I inserted the setup CD, rebooted, and then it did some crunching for a couple minutes, a longer than usual boot. Then just before the desktop was about to load, it rebooted without ever letting me press 'r' to repair or do anything. I popped the CD out, and it rebooted like normal as though nothing was wrong. I did a quick virus scan with Avast and nothing was found. So, I don't know what's amiss, if anything. Apparently the system had a bit of gas, but once it was passed it was OK.

[DavidR]

Well I have been using Outpost for many years starting way back on the outpost free firewall 1.0. But soon purchased the Outpost Firewall Pro on version 3.0 on a lifetime license deal (couldn't resist). But they also do a free suite http://free.agnitum.com/, the old stand alone free firewall isn't offered.

However, when installing the free suite it detects avast and asks confirmation that you have avast installed, answer yes. It won't install the AV, web control or anti-spyware modules to retain compatibility with avast.


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- Whilst Outpost would have you exclude its folder from avast scans, I don't feel that is required, if outpost is running in its compatibility mode with no AV, anti-spyware and no web control modules running.

Personally other than a single file exclusion I don't believe you need exclude the Outpost folder, I haven't in all of the time that I have been using avast and outpost together and that is many years.

This is the file and path that I have in the File System Shield, Expert Settings, Exclusions section, C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall Pro\wl_hook.dll (easiest it to copy and paste this full path). This file is as its name implies a hooking tool that outpost uses to monitor activity also and is the only file where I ever had any issue with avast.