Conflict between new K9 Web Protection update & Avast Free Avtivirus

[Rifkin]

I've received the K9 update 4.3.188 on three systems today, 3/27/2012, one Windows XP 32-bit & two Windows 7 64-bit.

All three systems have Avast! Free Antivirus 7.0.1426 (current) & all three systems have all but lost their internet.  It verified it with Chrome, Opera & IE9, plus even Avast could not reach it's servers.

Even the K9 Administration page takes forever to load.  Setting K9 to Supervisor Mode, corrects the problem, until it times out.

I have also found that if I turned Avast's Real Time Protection off, that it also corrects the problem.  I have narrowed it down to the Web Shield part of Avast's Real Time Protection causing the conflict.

I am in contact with K9's support & I working with them to find either the settings needed for Avast's Web Shield to avoid the conflict or verify, then correct the conflict with-in K9 itself.

[DavidR]

I don't know how K9 works now, a very long time (many, many, years) since I used it, but it to must be acting as some sort of proxy to be able to filter content ?

If so there may be some sort of conflict between the two or it could be firewall blocking K9's changed processes, which may well be inadvertently blocking the web shield.

What is your firewall ?

Something you can try also, though I'm not sure of its benefit if previously K9 and avast were working ?, is:
-  Try opening the avastUI, Real-Time Shields, Web Shield, Expert Settings, and check the 'Scan traffic from well-known browser processes only,' option.

As I said though if it worked with the 7.0.1426 version of avast before that shouldn't change anything, unless how K9 works has changed.

[Rifkin]

I'll try your suggestion.

As for K9, yes it is a web filter.  But it can control where, when & how long someone is on the web as well.

Myself, I use it to kill ads, stop redirects, etc.

[Rifkin]

My thanks to DavidR, as his suggestion did the trick. 

[DavidR]

You're welcome

Though as I said I'm surprised if it did work before with 7.0.1426 and the update to K9.

[Lisandro]

I have WebShield only for browsers and K9 is working...

[Rifkin]

What do you mean WebShield only for browsers?

Is that a separate program than the Real Time Protection - Web Shield included with Avast Free Antivirus?

What version of Avast are you using?

Do you have the same settings as suggested by DavidR?

[Lisandro]

What do you mean WebShield only for browsers?
Is that a separate program than the Real Time Protection - Web Shield included with Avast Free Antivirus?

It's a "setting" inside of the same avast! you're using...

[Rifkin]

I have WebShield only for browsers and K9 is working...

What do you mean WebShield only for browsers?
Is that a separate program than the Real Time Protection - Web Shield included with Avast Free Antivirus?

It's a "setting" inside of the same avast! you're using...

Ok, however Web Shield is not only for browsers, as I noted above the conflict was stopping Avast from downloading updates as well.
Do you have the setting checked as DavidR suggested as above?

[Lisandro]

Do you have the setting checked as DavidR suggested as above?

Yes.

[Rifkin]

I'm sorry Tech, when I read your reply that you are using DavidR's suggested setting & are NOT having any problems, it just didn't click....

So did you already have it set that way or did you do it to fix the conflict?

Note: I tried switching K9 to Monitor only & unchecked Filter HTTPS & the conflict was still there.

UPDATE: Reply from K9 Support.

"Thank you for the assistance with discovering the conflict. We have been informing users with Avast installed to add k9filter.exe to the processes exclusions list in the Web Shield Advanced area. This seems to resolve the issue. Because K9 does active filtering we sometimes have issues come up when we update or sometimes when the Anti-Virus software updates. We try to find work-arounds for the issue because we cannot change what the Anti-Virus software puts in place.
Kindest Regards,

K9 Web Protection"

This thanks goes to you also, DavidR & Tech, because it's your help & suggestions that I passed on to K9 along with my own findings.
They know where their help came from, the users of the Avast Forum.

[Lisandro]

So did you already have it set that way or did you do it to fix the conflict?

I did nothing. My settings were the same. K9 and avast! updated themselves.

Note: I tried switching K9 to Monitor only & unchecked Filter HTTPS & the conflict was still there.

My K9 settings are to filter and I do not filter https. Take into account that Web Shield can't scan https traffic (as obvious: it's protected and encrypted).

[Rifkin]

My K9 settings are to filter and I do not filter https. Take into account that Web Shield can't scan https traffic (as obvious: it's protected and encrypted).

True, since K9 filters based on address, it can block HTTPS sites, which a lot of porn & malware sites have changed their addresses to, to avoid being blocked or scanned.

[Lisandro]

True, since K9 filters based on address, it can block HTTPS sites, which a lot of porn & malware sites have changed their addresses to, to avoid being blocked or scanned.

I will test for a while and post back if have detected any issue. Thanks.