No Internet after renewing Avast Pro

[Eggball]

My wife renewed her Avast Pro subscription and now cannot access most Internet sites. One notable exception is our bank's site which is an https://www1 secured site. She can also get updates for Java. So her connection to the Internet is working, but for some reason, she's getting blocked from most sites.

She's tried uninstalling Avast Pro and re-installing it. She's also checked to make sure Avast Pro is an allowed exception for Windows Firewall.

By the way, she's running Vista. I understand some users have experienced problems? Is there a fix or update for Vista?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael      

[DavidR]

HTTPS (secure encrypted) traffic isn't monitored, that is the whole point of HTTPS, to keep prying eyes out.

It sounds like not only renewing the subscription happened, possibly a program update at the same time (avast 6.0.1203 has just been released) ?
This sounds more like a firewall blocking avastSvc.exe.
What is your firewall ?
Does it allow avastSvc.exe internet access ?
- If it does delete the entry for it and reconnect to the internet, this should force the firewall to ask permission again.

[Eggball]

Yes, she updated to version 6.0.1203 at the same time as the subscription renewal.

She's using Windows Firewall.

avastSVC.exe wasn't listed in the exceptions. We added it (and tried accessing the Internet with no success) and then deleted the entry as per your suggestion. Windows Firewall didn't ask for permission.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Michael 

[DavidR]

Well the windows firewall doesn't have outbound protection enabled by default (Vista, win7), so unless you have Vista or win7 and outbound protection enabled that shouldn't be the reason.

I don't know what version of avast (build number) was installed previously but it may be best to do a clean reinstall of avast.

- Download the latest version of avast, 6.0.1203 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_pro.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn't save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 5.x and 6.0.x).

• 1. Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 5.x if previously installed and then for 6.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

[Eggball]

The Uninstall Utility did the trick. Some files from version 5 were still hanging around. Everything works fine now.

Thanks,
Michael

[galam]

Thanks Eggball & David. I started having the same problem yesterday (July 6th)- the web shield took a hissy fit and started blocking websites. I found that if I switched off the web shield, everything worked fine.

So I tried your advice and it's all back to normal now. I suppose it was just some glitch in the update system, or maybe in the connection.

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

The Uninstall Utility did the trick. Some files from version 5 were still hanging around. Everything works fine now.

Thanks,
Michael

Thanks Eggball & David. I started having the same problem yesterday (July 6th)- the web shield took a hissy fit and started blocking websites. I found that if I switched off the web shield, everything worked fine.

So I tried your advice and it's all back to normal now. I suppose it was just some glitch in the update system, or maybe in the connection.

Welcome to the forums.

[danstoyshop]

DavidR you ROCK!! The uninstall function didn't work, but the clean-up file did. Apparently I had an old version (Home 4) installed.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

[DavidR]

No problem, glad I could help.

Welcome to the forums.