avast! and Zone Alarm Pro

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I use both IE and Firefox and have changed the proxy server settings to make avast! work with ZA Pro’s privacy controls. Everytime I reopen IE, I must re-check the proxy server box (localhost and 12080 are saved). This does not happen with Firefox. Any suggestions?

In the Web Shield basic settings page (the Customize button), there is a box for “Redirected HTTP ports”. Do I need to add any ports, such as 12080?

I like ZA Pro’s privacy controls for the ability to designate which cookies are saved or deleted and to block web page ads. If avast! will work better with the privacy controls disabled, what alternatives do I have for the privacy control features?

Thanks for your help,

ScottR

2

I use FF and IE7 and have no problems with cookies or ads and zapro privacy functions are off

3

Welcome to the forums, ScottR! :slight_smile:

Even with IE6 you can block cookies you do not want so there is not much need for that in ZA. To do this in IE6 or IE7 Beta2, follow these instructions:

Controlling Cookies

By default, Internet Explorer allows the use of cookies; however, you can change your privacy settings to prompt you before placing a cookie on your computer; or you can prevent your browser from accepting any cookies.

To limit the cookies that will be deposited on your computer via Internet Explorer:

  1. Open Internet Explorer.

  2. Choose Tools.

  3. Choose Internet Options.

  4. Click the Privacy tab.

  5. Click the Advanced button.

  6. Place a check mark in the box next to Override Automatic Cookie Handling.

  7. Under First-Party Cookies, click Prompt.

  8. Under Third-Party Cookies, click Block.

  9. Make sure Always Allow Session Cookies is UNCHECKED.

10.Click OK twice to finalize the settings.

When you change your privacy settings, the changes will not affect cookies that are already on your computer. If you want to ensure that all of the cookies on your computer meet your privacy settings, you should delete the existing cookies on your computer (see below). When you return to Web sites that previously had saved cookies on your computer, the Web sites that meet your privacy settings will save cookies on your computer again. The Web sites that do not meet your privacy settings will not be allowed to save cookies on your computer, and might not function properly. Some Web sites store your member name and password or other personally identifiable information about you in a cookie; therefore, if you delete all cookies, you might need to re-enter this information the next time you visit the site.

As you surf, you’ll be prompted whenever a cookie appears and given the choice of accepting it or blocking it. If you’ve subscribed to the site, or if you trust it, or plan to visit it again, check Apply My Decision To All Cookies From This Web Site and click Allow Cookie. If you don’t want a cookie from this site, check Apply My Decision To All Cookies From This Web Site and click Block Cookie.

You can always unblock a cookie:

  1. Open Internet Explorer.

  2. From the Menu Bar, select Tools, then Internet Options.

  3. On the Privacy tab, click Sites.

  4. In Managed Web Sites, find the cookie you want to unblock, right-click it, choose Allow.

Take these steps without changing your email address and you may see a reduction in new spam; take them immediately after you change your email address and you may see a dramatic reduction in all spam.

How Do You Know If a Website is Sending You Cookies?

  1. Go to the Website you believe is sending cookies.

  2. Click on View on the Internet Explorer’s menu bar.

  3. Scroll down to Privacy Report and click on it.

  4. A dialog box appears listing all the cookies that are going out from the Website.

  5. Read down the list and right click on any cookie that you don’t want. You will then have the option of choosing whether or not you want to “always accept”, “reject”, or use “default setting” for that particular cookie. If you choose “reject”, then you can move down to the “Summary” and click it to see that the bottom button is marked with “Never allow this site to use cookies.”

Customize Your Privacy Settings For An Individual Web Site?

  1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

  2. Click the Privacy tab, and then click Sites.

  3. In Address of Web site, type the complete address of the Web site for which you want to specify custom settings. For example, http://www.microsoft.com

  4. To specify that you want Internet Explorer to always allow cookies from the specified Web site to be saved on your computer, click Allow. To specify that you want Internet Explorer to never allow cookies from the specified Web site to be saved on your computer, click Block.

You can view a list of Web sites for which you have specified custom settings in the Managed Web Sites list. To remove a Web site from this list, and delete its custom privacy settings, click Remove. When you remove a Web site from the Managed Web sites list, your privacy settings for all Web sites without custom settings will apply to that Web site.

How Do You Remove Existing Cookies From Your Hard Drive?

  1. Open your Internet Explorer browser.

  2. Select Tools on the Menu Bar.

  3. Select Internet Options.

  4. In the Temporary Internet Files box, select Delete Cookies.

  5. Click OK.

I hope this helps you. :slight_smile:

4

Thanks for your help, CharleyO. With your suggestions and realizing URL-blocking will limit ads (correct?), I disabled ZAPro privacy controls, eliminated the manual proxy settings, and now seem to have what I want.

I do have one exception. Occasionally, I use a browser called Netcaptor which is one of the original tabbed browsers. It overlays IE (not independent) and allows me to connect to some websites which are not readable with Firefox. Because it overlays IE, it uses the exact same internet options pane as IE. My puzzling problem is that, having made the above changes, Web Shield will scan IE, but not Netcaptor. When I had ZAPro privacy controls on and manual proxy settings configured, Web Shield would scan both IE and Netcaptor. Any suggestions?

5

You have to make the same changes to NetCaptor (that you did within IE) to use the web shield proxy those settings are independent of IE and are browser specifie no matter what the underlying rendering engine is.

6

I checked the connection settings in Netcaptor and they are the same as IE - no manual proxy settings.

7

You may have to set these for unknown/exotic or low user volume browsers (to avoid conflict), try setting it to use the web shield proxy and see if that resolves it.

8

I changed the settings in Netcaptor to the proxy (localhost, 12080) and Web Shield now scans. However, changing the settings in Netcaptor also changed them in IE. I guess that is OK?

Also, in the Web Shield basic resident task settings, there is a box for redirected HTTP ports. Should any port numbers be in that box? I am using XP.

Thanks for your help.

9

If it’s working I would guess it’s OK.

Normally the redirected HTTP window should have 80 (the http port) in there which may well be empty, depends on how you answered the Zone Alarm compatibility question.

When you avoid using the transparent proxy of web shied because some firewalls cann’t differentiate between the program that is using the localhost proxy of web shield and web shield.

This can leave a security hole where any program using port 80 to connect will be detected as web shield and since web shield is allowed access, bingo it’s through. So by clearing the 80 in the ‘redirected HTTP window’ nothing is automatically redirected through the web shield and you have to manually set up your browsers to use the web shield proxy.

10

I had ZA Pro with privacy controls enabled when I first installed avast!. I do not recall an actual question regarding compatability. I think there was a message which directed me to the manual proxy settings, which I did initially. I then began searching the forum for related info. With CharleyO’s suggestion, I decided to go back to the transparent proxy by disabling the ZA privacy controls, eliminating the manual proxy settings, and editing the avast.ini file. Thats when I discovered that all the browsers would be scanned except Netcaptor. Now, Firefox is set for transparent proxy and IE/Netcaptor are set with manual proxy server settings. All seem to be scanned by Web Shield.

From your comments, I should leave 80 in the “redirected http ports” window? Should I add 12080?

11

I would say leave the 80, there is no need to add 12080 as that is done in the browser/s, all that statement is saying is redirect http port 80 to web shield.

For what ever reason you have ended up with this set-up, by manually setting up your browsers it would be possible to remove the 80 and I believe it would still work. I think you are somewhere between having it set-up to use the transparent proxy, yet having to manually set-up the browsers.

Read this perhaps it will give you more information on web shield and zone alarm, http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html.

12

I think it is both. Firefox, Opera, and IE can be scanned using the transparent proxy; Netcaptor cannot. Manual setting of proxy server for Netcaptor, so that it can be scanned, simultaneously sets-up IE. Currently, Firefox and Opera use the transparent proxy; Netcaptor/IE use the manually set-up proxy server. At this point, do I just live with it?

Thanks for staying with me on this, DavidR!

13

Your welcome.
It is probably down to Netcaptor not being a fully supported browser and having to be setup manually to use the web shield proxy and as you say that inadvertantly effects IE.