I am using Avast free edition and have spent far too long trying to figure out why my wi-fi printer (an Espon xp-6000) cannot be printed to - it’s on the network with a valid IP on the same subnet as my PC but simply cannot connect to the printer to print.
Almost the last think I thought of was AV software and indeed if I disable Avast before having attempted to print it works perfectly.
My current version is 19.5.2378, build 19.5.4444.505) - I’m not sure the exact version makes any odds and I have the same issue on two Windows 10 x64 Pro machines.
My question is how to make Avast allow the printer - indeed given I don’t have the firewall, how to make Avast allow everything on my subnet.
Any pointers appreciated as it would be a shame to have to abandon the product!
It’s unusual to see this kind of issue with a network device when using Avast Free (this kind of issue is usually connected to the Firewall component in paid version of Avast). The most likely source of the issue is that one of the Core Shields is interfering with the connection. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to add an exception for everything on your subnet due to the way the shields function.
Can I ask if you had to install any utility application from Epson in order to be able to connect to the Wireless printer? If so, can you try to exclude the application from Avast by clicking “Menu” in the top right of the screen > “Settings” > make sure “General” is selected in the leftmost column > Select “Exceptions” in the central column > click “Add Exception” and use the “Browse” button to find and add the Epson application.
If you do not have any such application installed, or adding the exception didn’t work, can I ask you to try disabling the Core Shields one-by-one to help identify which one is blocking the connection? To do this, please click on “Protection” on the left-hand side of the Avast window > click the “Core Shields” tile > click the green “ON” toggle underneath the Shield > select a time-frame to stop the Shield for > click “Yes” on the component stop pop-up.
Please let me know which Shield (or combination of shields) you needed to turn off to allow the connection if adding the exception failed to work.
I’m on Windows 10 and use an Epson ET 2650 Series printer which connects via wifi.
I also run the free version of Avast without any problems. I have a total of 4 systems that all use that printer without problems.
I use the firewall that comes with Windows 10. What firewall are you using ??? What other security related programs are in use ???
Are you using any other wifi connected devices ???
Ok I started to reply to this earlier but have now spent 2 hours fighting with the blasted printer - Avast is not the guilty party (well certainly not the main problem) because I completely uninstalled it, it looks like the printer may actually have a connectivity issue as it seems to be both dropping connections and more often than not only accepting connections from the first machine that connections. Something definitely screwy but it’s not avast
