Rpcss.exe...

[robertbj]

...when checking taskmanager, I do not see rpcss.exe loaded any more.
Can anyone tell me if there has been a change? Or would it not normally be always active?
robt

[Vlk]

What OS do you use?

If Win2000/XP, it's actually never there. RPC runs in one of the svchost.exe's that you probably see in the task manager.

We have made no changes to avast, and don't plan to. As I said many times, RPC is an integral part of Windows and programming a Windows application without it makes life more difficult. There are many ways how to prevent RPC from being a security risk -- e.g. by using a firewall and disabling its access from/to the network.

Vlk

[robertbj]

vlk: pardon my oversight! Win98 OS!
Yes, I use firewall, zonealarm.
 I have have set it to 'ask' permission for server, 'allow' for Internet access.
The reason I was asking is only because RPCSS used to appear in TaskManager, but now does not.
rb

[Vlk]

I don't know then. Under Win9x, avast uses RPC for Virus Chest only. Does the chest work (click the skull icon in the Simple user interface of avast)?

[robertbj]

vlk:
Yes, virus chest works. Once I activated it, then rpcss.exe showed up in taskmanager.
robt

[oz]

I have just recovered from the Blaster Worm which caused no end of problems.  I am using Window 2000 Pro.  I had problems getting the RPC started but edited the registry to force it to start.  The avast on access protection control will not start stating the AAVM detected an RPC error.  Any ideas??

[whocares]

Any ideas??

yes..
a) next time you should not tweak the registry, but use the usual way to deal with important services
-> the Services Panel in PC-Administration or use SafeMode
(how to deal with eventual forced reboots or RPC-Performance probs: see blaster topics here or the usual AV-Sites; sorry Pavel , that's still missing from AVAST's blaster-description)

b) can you reenable RPCss in the services panel (set it to automatic) ?

c)  if you get RPCss started and set to automatic, a clean un- and reinstall of Avast should help if further problems arise with avast <-> RPCss

d) finally: reinstalling SP4 might be the last resort (before a WIN-reinstall), if above is not helpful  


Oh, and Administrator-Login for all of the above, of course