Avast interferes with Spybot

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

When I have avast’s Standard Shield resident protection running and try to run Spybot, Spybot stops/hangs scanning at certain files. If I turn off Standard Shield, Spybot immediately starts scanning again. Anyone any idea why?

2

What OS are you using?
What files does it hang on?

3

I’m using Windows XP Home. I can’t remember exactly which files it hangs on. It used to (and may still do) hang/get vert very slow while Spybot checked C2.lop but the only one I can remember at the moment is that it hangs while Spybot checks for some sort of scratchcard.
The avast icon spins rapidly while this is happening.

I’m not working on my own PC at the moment so will not be able to check until tonight. I’ll post again then.

Have you come up against this before?

4

Hi,
for info on C2.lop /Spybot problems read here (only in German):

http://www.free-av.de/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=001957

the gist is:

  • C2.lop refers to a rather a large Group of malware, so even ideally the scanning might take a while

  • Spybot has/had admittedly some sporadic problems/bugs with c2.lop scanning (see there homepage/Faq/knowledgebase). a complete removal of spybot including registry cleaning; and installing a new version might help.

  • or you could exclude c2.lop scanning and use other scanners, maybe Ad-Aware/lavasoft; even avast detects (some/all?) variants of (c2.)lop-malware as Win32:Swizzor [Trj] or Win32:Trojan-gen. {Other}

  • lastly most Ad-/SpyWare scanner vendors advise to temporarily disable resident AV-monitors during the Ad-/spyware-On-demand-Scan
    :wink:

EDIT: spybot-c2-link
http://security.kolla.de/index.php?lang=en&page=knowledgebase/faq/faq022

5

whocares - interesting link about C2.lop. I do have the problem of Spybot hanging whilst checking other files as well. As soon as avast is turned off Spybot speeds up immediately.
So is the official advice that avast should be turned off while doing a spybot scan?

Any idea how/why they interfere with one another as this is not a problem I’ve seen with my previous anti virus (PC-cillin)

6

mmh,

did you maybe change the default settings for avast shield ?

7

I can’t remember whether I’ve got it set to high or custom. Can’t check until I get home tonight. I’ll look and post this along with the details of which files Spybot hangs on

8

I´ve not experienced any trouble working with SpyBot (or SpywareBlaster) under XP Pro system :-*

9

me neither > runs smooth !

10

Keep in mind that the higher you set the sensitivity of Avast, (or for that matter any other program with that can have sensitivity adjusted), the more chance of false positives, or interferance with other programs.
Start at NORMAL, and increase it to high only if you find that it will not cause interferance.

Good luck.

11

Howdy

I too have problems with avast and spybot, while spybot is scaning
avasts stops responding though,(had to reboot) then to with spybot…stopped responding
Yep ive got it set set to standard(normal) but have but have
customized ,to advanced >show detail’s and on the basic tab have all checked.
which by the way is sure nice the show details part ! :slight_smile:

simply pause the active shield before using SpyBot, right ?

Lonny

12

Note, SpyBot eats a lot of RAM. Use the menu Settings for Scan Priority “lower” or even “lowest”. I just run SpyBot 1.2 (whith all itens available immunized and data files updates) with avast (updated) without any trouble. The problem does not seem to be with avast.

If it helps, try RAMBooster 1.6 (http://www.sci.fi//~borg/rambooster).
By the way, I can update both programs at the same time without troubles :o.

13

Hi that link resuls in an 403 error(forbidden) Besides I have cacheman installed, is it similur to ramboost

Im Not faulting Avast.
I’ll stick to pausing the resident ,turning off other programs to, when sing spybot, gee if i set it to use a lower scan priority it would take to long.
May the reason you dont have problem’s using both at the same time, besided the scan priority thing is well maybe you’ve more memeory and possible XP .
do you have the avast resident set with all the bells and whistels

Our PC is with win ME with 192MB.
have noticed a strange symtomBut i’ll have to wait to be sure, seams like our PC isnt making any auto system restore points ,since I installed avast. Ive yet to see PC health do its thing either.

Regards Lonny

14

System restore? Windows Me or XP does not offer a good solution. Try GoBack from Roxio Company.
I´ll continue trying to help but, by now, I don´t know what is happening… :cry: