Firewall warning baloon on startup

[Jorgo]

I am running XP with SP2 installed, when I start Xp I get the warning baloon as mentioned in the FAQ's, thats OK, however I have installed Avast 4.5 on my daughters computer and do not get this message.

Both computers appear to be setup the same, the only difference I can see is that I upgraded mine from Avast 4.1(if I remember the version right)

Also I cannot find the program "Mail Protection Wizard"

Can anyone help with these problems


Regards

Jorgo

[S.Z.Craftec]

Well, you have to be aware of the difference between firewall program and antivirus program. avast! is not firewall. You need to install some good software firewall if you wanna be protected on that field too.

Even avast! 4.1 is well recognised in SP2 built in firewall, so no problems with avast! at all... doesn't matter if you run 4.1 or 4.5 version.

Post exact screenshot of the notification message you get on Windows startup. It will be much easier to locate your problem, but from this point, it already looks like you don't have forewall installed and SP2 alarms you. At least, enable SP2 built in firewall... any protection is better than nothing.

If you are interested, you have some very good freeware firewalls out there... something like Sygate, Outpost, ZoneAlarm etc...

You don't need mail protection Wizard because you stated that you are using Windows XP. Under Windows XP mail protection in avast! is totaly automated... no action from users required at all...

In case you need to see that wizard, go in your avast4 subfolder and search for ashPopWz.exe. That's the Mail Protection Wizard

[Eddy]

Could be that on neither system a firewall is installed, but that on the daughters system the messaging is disabled in security center.

[Jorgo]

The actual balloon message is " Your computer might be at risk, Your firewall is not switched on, Click this balloon to fix this problem"

message appears 90 secs after avast A icon appeats and lasts approx 1 sec.

XP firewall is switched on, I have even turned it off and turned it back on, still with the same message.

The reason I believe that it is being generated or caused by Avast is the Avast FAQ's, Quest "what should I know about using avast 4 together with a firewall" where it states "you will be receiving warnings by your firewall, because avast tries to connect to our servers"

That is why I believed that my machine was correct and my daughters machine was in error

I am going to delete avast from my machine and reinstall it to see if the problem goes away, however, any further info would be appreciated as I can't see how 2 computers set up the same could cause this problem

Regards

Jorgo

[S.Z.Craftec]

The reason I believe that it is being generated or caused by Avast is the Avast FAQ's, Quest "what should I know about using avast 4 together with a firewall" where it states "you will be receiving warnings by your firewall, because avast tries to connect to our servers"

Again, this message from FAQ doesn't have anything to do with those messages you're receiving...

1.) your SP2 Security center is alarming you that your firewall is not enabled even you enabled it (or are you 100% sure you enabled it ?   ). If you can prove your firewall is enabled, than it's a Windows installation itself and that has nothing to do with avast! You should try to search for help on one of those Microsoft Windowx XP related forums for further help.

2.) Message from FAQ "you will be receiving warnings by your firewall, because avast tries to connect to our servers" is something completely different and it's not even close to the info message you're receiving at the Windows startup. You are receiveing message from your Windows Security CEnter that your firewall is NOT enabled, not message from your firewall that your avast! is trying to connect. Avast! is trying to connect only when it's checking for new updates and/or your mail client or e-mail notification program is receiving on sending e-mails. Even if you didn't set your firewall let avast! to connect you shouldn't get message that your firewall is not installed. Antivirus doesn't have anything to do with the fact that your firewall is not recognized in Security Center. Firewall is built in SP2, so it must be recognized if it's turned ON. If it's still not recognized, then it's a Windows or SP2 Installation fault.

Again, post your screenshot and you'll see that what I'm talking about is true...

[S.Z.Craftec]

And now, take a look in here... first one is showing something very similar to what you get when you start your Windows... in my case I just turned off my Sygate firewall to simulate your problem...

You stated above:

The actual balloon message is " Your computer might be at risk, Your firewall is not switched on, Click this balloon to fix this problem"

Well, click on balloon and see what options you have. 99% that your firewall is not turned on, at least because of following 2 causes:

1.) your XP SP2 built-in firewall is turned off, or...

2.) you are using some other third part firewall that is not recognized by Windows Security Center. I am using Sygate and it's not recognized either... that's why you have to put checkmark inside the Window on the screenshot I posted in my next reply (I have firewall solution and I'll monitor it myself)... of course, that's only in case you have some third party firewall installed and you don't wanna use SP2 buil-in firewall... but again, you didn't mention anything about having another firewall installed... Post screenshots like I did, and we will see...

[S.Z.Craftec]

On this picture, you can see what you get if you click on that balloon... you can put checkmark in there, but only if you are sure you have some third party firewall (Sygate, Outpost, ZoneAlarm, Kerio etc.) installed and enabled... of course, from there you can control the way you wanna receive or not, those messages from security center...

[S.Z.Craftec]

And this one is from your Control Panel / Windows Firewall. If you don't have any third party firewall installed on your system, you should enable your built-in Windows firewall... see attachment.

Again, message you are reciving is directly pointed to non-enabled firewall in your system. It has nothing to do with avast! existance... avast! is an antivirus.

Sorry if this one looks stupid, but I don't have any screen recording software, so I had to produce animated gif to picture this to you...

[Eddy]

Besides using the Windows firewall, also use a decent firewall as MS itself is advising.

[DavidR]

You have been given some excellent advice, not to mention the screen shots.

By all means uninstall avast, if nothing else it will confirm that the message has nothing to do with avast (an anti-virus, not a firewall program), but that really would be wasted time and effort.

[gavindyer]

I have the same on my system sometimes but it seems to correct itself after fully loaded  on start up!

[Jorgo]

I am definately getting "firewall on" messages and when I turn it off I get the warning balloon that is fixed and three times the size of the one I was getting

Any way to cut a long story short, I uninstalled Avast, reinstalled XP SP2 and reinstalled Avast again.

This has fixed the problem, however it has proved another problem that I have but will post that later on.

Thanks for the help it was much appreciated

Jorgo