Avast Internet Security and IPv6

[mikkri]

I have Avast Internet Security paid till 2013. I'm changing ISP right now and will be getting native support for IPv6. Apparently Avast Internet Security doesn't support IPv6. When do you plan to implement such support? What do you recommend your customers to do before such support is implemented?

[Lisandro]

Hope they implement the support for v6 soon.
Until there, I recommend you use both AIS and Windows firewall (if you're using Windows 7) at the same time. They do not conflict and can run side-by-side. Windows firewall will give you ipv6 support.

[DBone]

So W7 firewall and AIS firewall can be used in parallel? I have always been under the impression that you should never have two software firewalls running at the same time. Not that I don't believe you, and please don't take it that way, but is there any official documentation from avast! on this? I'm curious because I run AIS with W7 firewall disabled (not just set to off).

[mikkri]

Same here. I have Windows Firewall disabled. And you are correct, it is Windows 7 on all computers these days.

[Lisandro]

So W7 firewall and AIS firewall can be used in parallel?

Yes, they can.

I have always been under the impression that you should never have two software firewalls running at the same time.

No, not really. Firewalls are not antivirus. Network traffic is not the same as files.

Not that I don't believe you, and please don't take it that way, but is there any official documentation from avast! on this? I'm curious because I run AIS with W7 firewall disabled (not just set to off).

Other avast staff posts. They already confirmed they can run both at the same time.
My personal experience confirms it.

[DBone]

Thanks Tech.  I just re-enabled W7 firewall, set it to home network and reset it to the default settings (I didn't have any custom rules, and I wanted W7 to start from fresh with AIS FW running). So far, so good. Neither FW is complaining and my system is as snappy as ever. I have ran all of my programs too. Still feels weird having them both running!

[mikkri]

I actually had Windows Firewall running all the time.  Yet it doesn't answer the question.

[Nesivos]

I have had both AIS Firewall and the Windows 7 Firewall running together on my computers for almost a year without any complications

Windows 7 Firewall

Support for stateful firewall handling of IPv6 transition protocols

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 include support for an IPv6 transition technology called IP over HTTPS (IPHTTPS). IPHTTPS is a tunneling protocol that embeds IPv6 packets inside an HTTPS datagram inside an IPv4 network packet. IPHTTPS allows IPv6 traffic to successfully traverse some IP proxies that do not support IPv6 or some of the other IPv6 transition technologies, such as Teredo and 6to4. For a Windows Firewall inbound or outbound rule, you can set the TCP port to IPHTTPS instead of a number to have Windows Firewall automatically recognize and handle the connection appropriately.

In addition, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 include support for an IPv6 transition technology called Teredo. Teredo is a tunneling protocol that embeds IPv6 packets inside a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) datagram inside an IPv4 network packet. For a Windows Firewall inbound rule, you can set the UDP port to Edge Traversal instead of a specific port number to have Windows Firewall automatically recognize and handle the connection appropriately

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755158%28WS.10%29.aspx

also see here

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=79218.0

More here

Summary of IPv6 Enhancements in Windows 7

http://sourcedaddy.com/windows-7/summary-ipv6-enhancements-windows-7.html

[Lisandro]

Yet it doesn't answer the question.

What question?

[Nesivos]

Yet it doesn't answer the question.

What question?

I think the question the OP is asking is:

Does Avast Firewall support IPv6?

As far as I know it doesn't but the Windows 7 Firewall does and the two Firewall are compatible with one another as my 10 months of using them both together shows.

The one caveat on this is that I believe the Windows 7 Firewall has to be configured for IPv6.

[Lisandro]

Does Avast Firewall support IPv6?

No, it doesn't.

The one caveat on this is that I believe the Windows 7 Firewall has to be configured for IPv6.

Isn't it automatic, i.e., by default

[Nesivos]

Does Avast Firewall support IPv6?

No, it doesn't.

The one caveat on this is that I believe the Windows 7 Firewall has to be configured for IPv6.

Isn't it automatic, i.e., by default

You are correct, however it is configurable.

Configuring IPv6

As with IPv4 configurations, with IPv6 you can either set an automated address configuration through DHCPv6 or configure an address manually. The Netsh command gives you the ability to set all parameters but in this article we will focus on configuring the interface using the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) GUI from the Network and Sharing Center.

The only advantage of using the GUI over the netsh command is the GUI which makes the job of adding addresses easier for users unfamiliar with the command line interface! In the following procedure we will be setting a static private address that is, a static site-local IPv6 address for the local network connection adapter:

http://www.windows7library.com/blog/networking/configuring-ipv6/

[MAG]

I just disabled ipv6 connectivity on my mchine until ais supports it. Seen no downside so far.

[mikkri]

My question was - when will Avast support IPv6?

[MAG]

My question was - when will Avast support IPv6?

Only the developers could answer that.

Here is the latest word from them (back in January) that I found with a quick forum search.

Quote from: Lukas

Hello Steve,

trully, IPv6 is now not supported. It is on my TODO list, but it needs quite a lot of work in the whole avast project, not only firewall. We would like to have avast supporting IPv6 in all parts at once. Are you already using it? I doubt that nowadays. Personaly I know just a very few addresses on the Internet that are accessible via IPv6. At home, where I am right know, it is out of question anyway – UPC, my cable provider does not support IPv6 here, but this can change very quickly in the future, I know.
Version 6 is planned early in 2011, it will not support IPv6 in the first builds, but we will probably add the support during the year.

Lukas