Avast Free Antivirus overrides my firewall rules? Please help

[venomblade]

Alright, well I was at wits end trying to find out what was causing this. I even switched from Windows Firewall to Comodo because I thought that was the cause. So, here's my issue, I specifically set a block rule for an application so it won't have any internet in or out, and even though I had done this, the rule wasn't working at all, internet was still working on it. So I decided to disable all Avast shields, and low and behold it works now. I really don't want to have to get rid of avast, so if somebody could help me stop Avast from doing this, that'd be great. Thanks.

edit: I've tried with each shield disabled individually and found out that it's the Web Shield that keeps bypassing my firewall, so what should I do from here?

[AntiVirusASeT]

the issue here is comodo firewall has a design flaw which allows connections going through proxy applications to bypass it (avast is an example here).

u will experience this problem when web shield is enabled because this is the component of avast which scans internet connections (all internet connections from ur system have to go through it to connect to the internet)

if u want outbound protection, u might need to use alternative firewalls at the moment until comodo fix this. eg. online armor free, zonealarm free firewall without antivirus, outpost firewall pro

edit: please note that windows firewall also has this flaw, thus ur identical problems with both firewalls

[venomblade]

The same thing happened with Windows Firewall. Shouldn't avast and other various firewalls be able to work seamlessly together?

[Charyb-0]

In windows firewall, add 12080 along with port 80. I think 12080 is the webshield redirect. I need to verify this though so give me some time to find it in the knowledgebase.

EDIT: I can't block outgoing with windows firewall either.

[DavidR]

@ venomblade
It isn't that avast overrides comodo's firewall rules, but that comodo is not capable of determining what program is using the webshield localhost (avastSvc.exe) which is obviously allowed by comodo.

This is a known comodo issue (other topics in these forums) and they are meant to be working on it. But there is no information when it will be done, but they are certainly taking their time about it.

[venomblade]

I see, so do any of you recommend a free, lightweight firewall that doesn't have a problem with Avast?

[AntiVirusASeT]

refer to post #2 

edit: http://www.online-armor.com/ (free)

        http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en/trialpay-za-signup.htm (free)
 
        http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ (paid)

[venomblade]

refer to post #2 

edit: http://www.online-armor.com/ (free)

        http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en/trialpay-za-signup.htm (free)
 
        http://www.agnitum.com/products/outpost/ (paid)

Alright thanks, I'll give online armor a try.

[venomblade]

After trying at least 5 different firewalls and having the same problems, or other problems. I went back to Windows Firewall and did some reading. And I came upon a fix! So if anybody had the same question, all you need to do is go to Avast's Web Shield Expert settings and check off
"Scan traffic from well-known browser processes only"

and now all my outgoing rules work! I'm sure it would work for comodo as well, as I've read. Just an FYI to anyone who was wondering.

[Dch48]

I had the same problem when using Windows Firewall Notifier which turns on the outgoing protection in the Windows Firewall. The Web Shield was causing some rules to be bypassed just as described and setting it to scan only browser processes was the workaround.

[DavidR]

As has been said:

It isn't that avast overrides comodo's firewall rules, but that comodo is not capable of determining what program is using the webshield localhost (avastSvc.exe) which is obviously allowed by comodo.

This is a known comodo issue (other topics in these forums) and they are meant to be working on it. But there is no information when it will be done, but they are certainly taking their time about it.

So the web shield isn't causing anything, but the inability of a firewall to know which application is using the localhost proxy.

If I disable iexplore.exe (Internet Explorer) and try to connect to the internet using IE it is blocked by my firewall Outpost Firewall Pro.

[Dch48]

Why blame the Firewalls when the same problem exists with the built in Windows Firewall? To me, this is an Avast issue completely.

[DavidR]

Sorry but that is wrong or my firewall wouldn't block IE as in my image and that goes through the web shield localhost proxy, but is blocked from the internet.

This is an acknowledged problem in comodo and they say they are fixing it but appear to be in no rush to do so. The fact that the windows firewall has the same issue doesn't mean that it is avasts' problem.

Why then aren't we seeing this in the forums from other 3rd party firewalls.

[Para-Noid]

This might seem lame but, why would anyone want to block their anti-virus? 
I like having avast to have an internet connection for the obvious reasons. 

[Charyb-0]

This might seem lame but, why would anyone want to block their anti-virus? 
I like having avast to have an internet connection for the obvious reasons. 

What? I think you are missing the point here. ??