Avast 7 and Comodo Firewall

[CraigB]

Outpost is superior concerning mobile broadband.

 craigb did you get yourself a lifetime license when you got your Outpost Pro FW

Sure did, bought two of them for $30 each if i remember correctly 

[wasgij6]

Here is a reply from the comodo developers about the situation

Hello Guys,

The issue is avast intercepts WEB connections at the driver level and redirects connections to its own local proxy.

Because CIS operates at NDIS layer i.e. the lowest layer of the protection, it sees the actual connection i.e. avast proxy. Normally CIS should have blocked the loppback area connection to the proxy however because of the limitations in Windows 7, it fails.

CIS uses TDI, WFP and NDIS to provide its firewall functionality. WFP maybe enough ti implement an average firewall but it is not enough for a firewall like CFW so that it could not be used alone wihtout the support of the other 2 technologies. Windows 8 allowed us to use WFP more than previous windows editions and it should not be a problem with the next CIS editions which support Windows 8.

[Hellion]

Hello Guys,

The issue is avast intercepts WEB connections at the driver level and redirects connections to its own local proxy.

Because CIS operates at NDIS layer i.e. the lowest layer of the protection, it sees the actual connection i.e. avast proxy. Normally CIS should have blocked the loppback area connection to the proxy however because of the limitations in Windows 7, it fails.

CIS uses TDI, WFP and NDIS to provide its firewall functionality. WFP maybe enough ti implement an average firewall but it is not enough for a firewall like CFW so that it could not be used alone wihtout the support of the other 2 technologies. Windows 8 allowed us to use WFP more than previous windows editions and it should not be a problem with the next CIS editions which support Windows 8.

That's nice, but how about fixing CIS so it will work with windows 7?

[Sceleron]

Hello all!
I can confirm this, I made a lot of tests: this is an exclusive Avast bug. The same behaviour written in first post it happens with:
Avast 6 OR Avast 7,
Comodo OR Privatefirewall,
Win 7 OR Vista,
in any combination.
So, this is not a matter of Comodo or Privatefirewall, Seven or Vista problem. The sole common factor in all combinations is Avast, 6 OR 7. When Avast is disabled and the common factor gone, all the setups are working well.

And a little offtopic: beggining with the first release of Avast v.7 and its database (available for v.6, too), many well known apps, like FotoSketcher, UltraISO, WinTools.net and Cool Edit (yeah, I now, it's old) are detected by sandbox as possible dangers.

I think this version of Avast was made in a big hurry and without the old respect for this brand, sorry.

Tnank you for your attention!

[Vladimyr]

So it's an "exclusive Avast bug" that only occurs in combination with other products. 
(My brain hurts!)

[CraigB]

Hello all!
I can confirm this, I made a lot of tests: this is an exclusive Avast bug. The same behaviour written in first post it happens with:
Avast 6 OR Avast 7,
Comodo OR Privatefirewall,
Win 7 OR Vista,
in any combination.

Privatefirewall works fine with avast, i spent a week recently testing that firewall and no problems at all except for detection of mobile broadband networks.
You need to add exclusions between avast and privatefirewall for them to function correctly, outpost and online armor firewalls also function without problems so i believe the problem lie's with comodo but im not willing to test that one 

[DavidR]

Well for me the First post in this shows an inadequacy in the firewall if it can't determine the process using the localhost proxy.

I did a simple test, blocked the network connection for firefox.exe in my Firewall Outpost Firewall Pro (image1) and then tried to read unread posts (image2) and no content. So it wasn't able to tunnel through the avastSvc.exe proxy undetected.

[Sceleron]

So it's an "exclusive Avast bug" that only occurs in combination with other products. 
(My brain hurts!)

Yes, THIS specific bug, in this thread, is exclusevly related to Avast. The combinations only, and only them, with a single constant, reveal the "owner" of the bug. You'll not be able to know there is a bug in a soft if this is only on your cd or dvd. There, in dvd case, all softs are perfect. Your brain hurts because you have it AND you feel it. And yet, only the brain hurts, exclusively...
It hurts, ah?

Hello all!
I can confirm this, I made a lot of tests: this is an exclusive Avast bug. The same behaviour written in first post it happens with:
Avast 6 OR Avast 7,
Comodo OR Privatefirewall,
Win 7 OR Vista,
in any combination.

Privatefirewall works fine with avast, i spent a week recently testing that firewall and no problems at all except for detection of mobile broadband networks.
You need to add exclusions between avast and privatefirewall for them to function correctly, outpost and online armor firewalls also function without problems so i believe the problem lie's with comodo but im not willing to test that one 

Thank you, I'll try, perhaps. But too many headaches for an AV. Maybe it's time to change. Or go back to the 4.8.   Thank you again.

[Hellion]

Hi All,

@Sceleron.

No need to go to 4.8. Version 6 works just fine.

Also, this issue is caused by avast, but should be fixed by Comodo.

It's shocking that a proxy service is able to bypass their Firewall... What a disgrace.

What's even worse is that this bug has been live for so long and they have done Nothing!.

[Vladimyr]

So it's an "exclusive Avast bug" that only occurs in combination with other products. 
(My brain hurts!)

Yes, THIS specific bug, in this thread, is exclusevly related to Avast. The combinations only, and only them, with a single constant, reveal the "owner" of the bug. You'll not be able to know there is a bug in a soft if this is only on your cd or dvd. There, in dvd case, all softs are perfect. Your brain hurts because you have it AND you feel it. And yet, only the brain hurts, exclusively...
It hurts, ah?

I got/get what you're saying. All I meant was that the problem can't simultaneously be "exclusive" and occur "in any combination".
'Exclusive" means, (a) on it's own, (b) not with or apart from anything else.
Ergo, "exclusive" use of AIS 7.0.1426 causes me no problems on My Windows 7 machines.

As well I don't think it's best described as a "bug" in avast!
If any antivirus using MS approved methods and APIs can bypass the outbound monitoring of a firewall (Microsoft's or Comodo's), I tend to think that fixing it should be a priority for the vendor of the functionally-compromised component.

[Woombat_Avast]

Wish I had found this thread before I asked about installing Avast Internet Security without it's firewall earlier today.

I see nothing but the blame game going on here, but simply it looks like don't use the vsn 7... end of story.

WELL, I did pay for a 2 year license a few hours ago BUT NOW I CAN'T download the Internet Security version at all (not a copy that works at least).

Just comes up with an error 1006. NO MATTER WHICH method / browser I use, same problem when it tries to auto extract on VISTA. And yes everything that normally may interfere with the download is switched off / shut down.

So, with a half dozen downloads I'm just paying out for wasted bandwidth and apparently for a software combination that doesn't work anyway.

Also why oh why do they send an EXE file instead of a zip?

Now I have to go through the charge-back hoops... and no AV S/W.

[lukor]

Wish I had found this thread before I asked about installing Avast Internet Security without it's firewall earlier today.

I see nothing but the blame game going on here, but simply it looks like don't use the vsn 7... end of story.

WELL, I did pay for a 2 year license a few hours ago BUT NOW I CAN'T download the Internet Security version at all (not a copy that works at least).

Just comes up with an error 1006. NO MATTER WHICH method / browser I use, same problem when it tries to auto extract on VISTA. And yes everything that normally may interfere with the download is switched off / shut down.

So, with a half dozen downloads I'm just paying out for wasted bandwidth and apparently for a software combination that doesn't work anyway.

Also why oh why do they send an EXE file instead of a zip?

Now I have to go through the charge-back hoops... and no AV S/W.

Sorry I don't see how the problem, that some firewalls (COMODO e.g.) does not support Windows7 redirect API and is not handle to filter such network events is related to the situation where you are not able do complete the download. Maybe you might want to start a different thread, I bet there are millions of people who were able to download Avast AIS from our servers.

[lukor]

Guy, I want to clarify few things here:


Avast version 7 uses supported API of Windows 7, that is created solely for the purpose of redirecting network connections. It uses it to redirect connections. It is new in avast7, however Windows7 is not such a brand new OS and the redirect api (REDIRECT layers in WFP) are there since the Win7 launch (2 years? More?). There is no other supported way of doing it.


In some of the previous comments from COMODO, they said they use TDI as well as WFP on Win7 and stated that they are not able to fully filter all traffic on Windows 7. TDI interface is entirely deprecated with Windows 7 and almost banned in Windows 8 (no compatibility Logo with TDI drivers for example, performance hits on Win7). Avast is trying to be more compatible and nicer to newer OSs and this is why we are also trying to eliminate TDI drivers from our code and replace it with the Microsoft supported equivalents. The first step was this redirect driver, previously on TDI, now correctly on WFP.


We will never change it back and will continue to remove other TDI drivers from our products.


Thanks.
Lukas.

[Woombat_Avast]

A worrying trend, out of context comments by a product rep to defend a problem.

I didn't at all infer the topic of this thread was the cause of the download probs.

Just that had I read it earlier I wouldn't have wanted to risk paying for the new product at all. It's apparently dodgy enough to avoid especially for VISTA it seems.

As for the download probs, you have the error code I noted above and I keep getting it after all downloads via multiple different download mechanisms.

So I've just paid for a 1 year license of "Pro" which applied to the trial install without hassle. That will get me by why I continue the check out AV programs!

[Hellion]

A worrying trend, out of context comments by a product rep to defend a problem.

I didn't at all infer the topic of this thread was the cause of the download probs.

Just that had I read it earlier I wouldn't have wanted to risk paying for the new product at all. It's apparently dodgy enough to avoid especially for VISTA it seems.

As for the download probs, you have the error code I noted above and I keep getting it after all downloads via multiple different download mechanisms.

So I've just paid for a 1 year license of "Pro" which applied to the trial install without hassle. That will get me by why I continue the check out AV programs!
 

Hi Wombat,

Lukor is an avast team member with detailed knowledge of how the Avast software operates.

This thread is about Comodo being unable to keep up with Windows and Avast.

Your Download issue is quite the anomaly, I've never had problems downloading avast. Have you tried downloading from another machine?

Please open a NEW thread and see if any good suggestions come up.