6.0.1289: Yellow exclamation mark on the wireless tray icon

[Vlk]

Sorry for the confusion. I currently have both recommended fixes enabled. The IP fix, and the "Well known browser" fix too. Since I posted earlier, I have rebooted about 8 more times with both fixes enabled, and I have not seen one yellow! on my taskbar. So far, so good Vlk.

Well the first fix (checking that box in WebShield's settings) is confirmed to "fix" the issue. However, it's not really recommended as it slightly degrades the level of protection.

We were hoping that the second fix would solve the issue as well, but it seems that not really...

Vlk

[mantra]

I have about 10 reboots on the IP: 213.199.181.90 exclusion, and all came back good. No exclamation mark here, but to be fair, I didn't have any after I checked the "only well known browsers" setting in the Web Shield, so I'm not sure which one fixed it, but so far, so good.

Not sure I understand. When you put the IP address to the exclusion list, did you uncheck the "only well-known browsers" or not?

The IP address exclusion was supposed to help even if it the box stays unchecked (which is the recommended configuration).

Thanks
Vlk

may i ask which ip address should i add?
i have not always the same ip

[Asyn]

may i ask which ip address should i add?
i have not always the same ip

Read the thread..!!

[jrace]

I don't know whether it helps or not to find a solution:

In the last time during "Win7 Backup" of my system partition, I do that about once a week, my WLAN icon in the system tray half way through allways got a yellow exclamation sign or went totally off line. Both situations covered about 50 % happenings each.
Since I never had the idea it could be connected to avast! operation I was just living with that.
The situation could be cleared only by either rebooting the machine or by deactivation and activation of the WLAN driver in the device manager.

Reading this thread I applied "just for fun" the second proposed fix: "ignored IP 213.199.181.90"

Since that time during multiple backups the WLAN system stayed allways untouched.

Magic....?       or what....?   

[zfactor]

please hope to have a fix soon i have a number of clients i recc avast to and now i am getting calls about this from people who are frustrated....

[ady4um]

please hope to have a fix soon i have a number of clients i recc avast to and now i am getting calls about this from people who are frustrated....

But what about the set Vlk suggested as workaround (web shield -> expert settings -> well known browsers only) ?

All other users in this topic seem to "solve" the problem, either by manually recognizing the connection, or using at least 1 of the 2 workarounds.

[zfactor]

i understand that and yes it does "fix" it. BUT many of my every day customers are not going to know how nor are they going to research it here. they expect it to work out of the box...properly. i deal with a TON of older people and mom's etc who (and i am NOT singling them out here) who are not computer savy. so they call me wondering why things are not working normally...

[ady4um]

i understand that and yes it does "fix" it. BUT many of my every day customers are not going to know how nor are they going to research it here. they expect it to work out of the box...properly. i deal with a TON of older people and mom's etc who (and i am NOT singling them out here) who are not computer savy. so they call me wondering why things are not working normally...

I'm sorry to hear that. I guess it will take some time for Avast Team to find a real "automatic" solution.

But I do want to express my opinion on this particular setting that Avast added in the latest program update.

The "wise" default setting, IMHO, would had been to keep the setting so to make Avast work just as before. That means, at least for program updates, to scan traffic in well known browser only. So users changing this setting would know to test it and change it according to their needs. By forcing the new setting to make Avast act in a different way than before, they caused this type of potential problems.

When the potential problems only arise in a very little percentage of users, it is "handable". This time, it seems not to go so well. Leaving the default setting to make Avast act as before would have make the transition gradual, while finding solutions for any potential problems.

[DBone]

I own a license for paid Sandboxie, and I force IE9 to open in Sandboxie, so I decided to uninstall avast!'s web shield. After I did the program change, I reset all avast! settings to factory default, then did a repair (just in case), then set all of the settings to my liking. Since I have uninstalled the web shield, I have not had a single yellow !

[lukor]

i understand that and yes it does "fix" it. BUT many of my every day customers are not going to know how nor are they going to research it here. they expect it to work out of the box...properly. i deal with a TON of older people and mom's etc who (and i am NOT singling them out here) who are not computer savy. so they call me wondering why things are not working normally...

Hi guys, just wanted to add that since 2011/09/08 the IP address in question (here known as the fix #2) which is used by MS to test the availability of the Internet is no longer scanned by avast, no matter of your settings or your mom's.

My understanding is that the detection of internet availability is unreliable and unpredictable. I am getting the yellow warning on a notebook without avast, zfactor was reporting these problems with previous versions where WebShield *ALWAYS* worked as if the checkbox "Scan only known browsers" was always checked - yet now it seems that turning it that way again is a magic fix.

For sure there are many factors which may fool this detection of internet availability, and it seems that having avast installed may be one of those, in same cases. We will try to find out more. The great thing is we are here talking just about the icon, and not about any connectivity problems or troubles with the Internet, just the icon is wrong; which is - from the programmer's perspective - very relaxing to know.

[ady4um]

I own a license for paid Sandboxie, and I force IE9 to open in Sandboxie, so I decided to uninstall avast!'s web shield. After I did the program change, I reset all avast! settings to factory default, then did a repair (just in case), then set all of the settings to my liking. Since I have uninstalled the web shield, I have not had a single yellow !

By not installing Web Shield, you are effectively using "workaround #1" of Vlk, so, for other users (wthout Sandboxie), this is NO suggestion / NO recommendation to uninstall Web shield.


@lukor,

So this is not "really" a "connection" problem (as in "users should still be able to connect"), but a display/GUI problem, and Avast is only one of the many possible "triggers" of the display/GUI problem?

[zfactor]

i understand that and yes it does "fix" it. BUT many of my every day customers are not going to know how nor are they going to research it here. they expect it to work out of the box...properly. i deal with a TON of older people and mom's etc who (and i am NOT singling them out here) who are not computer savy. so they call me wondering why things are not working normally...

Hi guys, just wanted to add that since 2011/09/08 the IP address in question (here known as the fix #2) which is used by MS to test the availability of the Internet is no longer scanned by avast, no matter of your settings or your mom's.

My understanding is that the detection of internet availability is unreliable and unpredictable. I am getting the yellow warning on a notebook without avast, zfactor was reporting these problems with previous versions where WebShield *ALWAYS* worked as if the checkbox "Scan only known browsers" was always checked - yet now it seems that turning it that way again is a magic fix.

For sure there are many factors which may fool this detection of internet availability, and it seems that having avast installed may be one of those, in same cases. We will try to find out more. The great thing is we are here talking just about the icon, and not about any connectivity problems or troubles with the Internet, just the icon is wrong; which is - from the programmer's perspective - very relaxing to know.

i do appreciate your continuing work on this. its not though at all just me and my mom's systems as i said now i have actual clients (i own a shop) calling us about this since this is one of our go to recc's for a great product to customers. and they dont bother to even click on the broswer to see if they can connect they see the icon and assume they cant so we get called. and when dealing with the general public even though its just a icon problem as you say its still a issue and something doesnt work right. and of course since we recc it they call us first. im not sure what you mean about previous versions though.  this started after the last v6 before the last set of betas it was fine set to whatever default was before that version 1203 i believe. so this started with the first beta this last time around that vlk posted not any earlier versions. and then it continues through to the newest release and never changed through those builds.

on every system i have tested which is more than 10 if i uninstall avast the problem goes away so something is def releated there. im not at all knocking avast here i own 12 lic's till 2016 and personally this will not move me to something else but as i said again its a pain to have to explain why its doing this to cust we turned on to avast. what was changed in webshield to cause this? as it never did it prior to the last set of beta's as i keep stating. i just want to be on the same page with you guys. i understand its just a icon but imo remember how many people use avast and they are not all as knowledgable as most here are was my main point with my previous post so to them this is important.

thank you

[DBone]

I own a license for paid Sandboxie, and I force IE9 to open in Sandboxie, so I decided to uninstall avast!'s web shield. After I did the program change, I reset all avast! settings to factory default, then did a repair (just in case), then set all of the settings to my liking. Since I have uninstalled the web shield, I have not had a single yellow !

By not installing Web Shield, you are effectively using "workaround #1" of Vlk, so, for other users (wthout Sandboxie), this is NO suggestion / NO recommendation to uninstall Web shield.

I NEVER said that anyone should uninstall the web shield or do what I did. My comment was aimed at Vlk, the developers and mods, to give them as much info as possible so that they can, and eventually will, fix this issue.

[ady4um]

By not installing Web Shield, you are effectively using "workaround #1" of Vlk, so, for other users (without Sandboxie), this is NO suggestion / NO recommendation to uninstall Web shield.

I NEVER said that anyone should uninstall the web shield or do what I did. My comment was aimed at Vlk, the developers and mods, to give them as much info as possible so that they can, and eventually will, fix this issue.

@DBone, I never said you were recommending that to other users. We are on the same page here . I was aiming to other users, to prevent a future message such as "I uninstalled web shield so to have the same shields as DBone and it solved my problem". Of course that many users won't even post a message like that, and they will try it without posting, which is even worse. Users may (mis)interpret posts in "strange" ways, even when you were NOT recommending that procedure.

The other part of my post is anyway relevant, since the problem is, at least in part, related to the new default setting in Web shield. Changing that default setting would turn Avast to behave as in previous versions. By disabling web shield alltogether, you are effectively provoking the same consequence (in relation to this specific issue).

I hope I was clear now.

[DBone]

Sorry, I misread your post as "DBone, you idiot"!