Avast Pro stopped my browsers working (free was fine)

Although there is a similar thread below, I’d better add this cautionary tale that today, after happily running Avast Free I paid up for Avast Pro. Then neither of my browsers (Chrome, Firefox) worked. It was then that I realized that the only way of getting Support was via a browser! - The Free Help Line accounced that I would be charged since I was outside the US. And that is a costly thing. Luckily I had a download of an older version which allowed me to get online reasonably safely to get to the support page. So far, the only solution posted has been to disable the Web Scanner but isn’t that what I was paying for? So I could surf safely.
I’ve put in my ‘Ticket’ to technical support and I will update. In the meantime, I’d recommend anyone of thinking of upgrading to keep their money in their wallet.
(PS I haven’t found a way to get my money back either. I’ve been a keen supporter of Avast and have recommended it but I guess it is no longer valid :frowning:

Hi and welcome.
Many users are stating issues with the Online Security Add-on and the recommendations are to either “Disable” the add-on in your Browsers or Go to Add and Remove/ Programs and Features, chose avast to Change what is installed. Untick Browser Protection. :slight_smile:

Evwool… disabling or removing Avast Online Security (in the list of items it is called “Browser Protection”) and doing so does NOT diminish your protection. The Avast Web Shield is more than sufficient protection. I have run Avast Internet Security with Online Security removed for the past six months and Avast Free under the same conditions for some time before that, with nary a problem on the web. I suspect that this indeed would be your best solution for your problems.

If, for some reason, this does not solve your problems with the paid version, please come back here and let us know, but if I may make a suggestion if/when you do? In your posting, please include your O/S, Avast version (full… mine is 2014.9.0.2013), and any other security software that you are running (e.g. a firewall, Malwarebytes, that sort of thing). This will aid greatly in helping you find a solution and will save a great deal of time from us not having to ask for this information. :slight_smile:

Gregg

thanks, both of you. I had removed my copy of Avast Pro so that I could get online I wasn’t sure what version I had installed. Good point about operating system and other software - I’m running ZoneAlarm free as my firewall and I use Windows 7 Starter as my OS. My browser is either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, depending on what I’m doing.

Thanks for explaining that Browser Protection was different from WebShield. It just sounded like it was the same thing and I couldn’t think why anyone would want an Anti-virus program which didn’t protect you when you were using a browser! I’ll try going back to Pro again. I only just bought it yesterday, so whatever the latest version is, that is probably when I’ve got. I haven’t got a reply back from my web-form message to Customer Service, but then it is a weekend.

evwool also keep in mind that ZoneAlarm is not compatible with avast at this point in time.

Thanks everyone, I’ve re-installed Avast Pro. I followed Schmidthouse’s useful tip to untick Browser Protection in Add Remove programs.
Firefox still won’t go online (my heart sank), but I can live with that. However, Google Chrome is working fine to my tremendous relief. (I couldn’t find anywhere in Firefox itself to disable browser protection when I tried doing it there, or in Google Chrome, but that’s irrelevant)

to Craigb
I’m using Zone-Alarm Free and I’m not getting any signs yet from Avast or ZA that they are clashing. Perhaps it’s just the Pro version of ZA that’s incompat. with the Pro version of Avast. Any idea what symptoms are showing?

Good if your not affected, I remember seeing a few recent posts about the forum of ZA users having problems which were fixed when they removed ZA but I cant remember exactly what the problems were.

Im very upset about this.
It times out pages or slow it down so much I disabled it one day, Then I went to a page and they had some java script to steal info credit card was stolen.
Fix it or im done on over 134 computers on our network

My jubilation was short-lived. When I tried to restart my browser (both Chrome and Firefox), I got the same problem as before - it won’t let me browse. And this is after disabling Browser Protection. Here I am back with Avast Free and all is immediately fine again: which seems to indicate that the problem really is something in Avast Pro. If it is Zone Alarm, I’m not really prepared to try buying another program to help the first program I purchased to work. I give up! Especially as I have to keep installing/uninstalling Avast Free/Pro each time I want to go back online again to look for a solution. I’ll wait a couple of days to hear from Customer Services and if nothing concrete happens there, I’ll have to find out about how to get my money back. I have a horrible feeling that this won’t be easy either.

Seems you lost 66 computers since your last complaint http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=137162.msg1017474

Nope avast lost 66 not I, I changed to new anti-virus on them. The remaining computers still have avast.
But things like this keep turning us away. Got a problem with it?

No! I have no problem, you can do what you like with “it”

As said before. ZA and avast are not compatible. Remove ZA and everything should be fine.

Info: so far I never heard about a problem between Avast and Opera

mjclark1,
don’t blame avast since it was you that decided to go online unprotected.

I was online uprotected due to it timing out my browsers.
Not just one computer it seems to be on all that have avast.
None have zone alarm installed and never did.
So how is this our or my fault we pay for protection to work as it should.
This is on all avast pro accounts or premium. Free as some state works fine.

Update: I have had a reply from Customer service which advised disabling Browser Protection (as already advised by GreggH). When I replied that it didn’t work, they suggested installing Avast 8 and said I could ‘download it here’ (there was no link in the email - I’ve tried file hippo but the download which was labelled version 8 turned out to be version 9 :frowning: so I’m still using version 6 which at least works

  1. Dump ZoneAlarm.
  2. Use either Online Armor or Comodo Firewall v5.12
  3. Try a clean install…

Download and save the avast uninstall tool.
Download and save your choice…
Free
Pro
Avast Internet Security
Premier
Run uninstaller from above. You will be directed to reboot into safe mode…click “yes”.
Reboot
Install choice from above. Choose the “custom install” and untick the “browser protection”.
Reboot and either register or insert license. You may need another reboot. :slight_smile: