I just upgraded to Avast IS 12.3.1280 (build 12.3.3154.23) from Avast IS 11.
Since then, periodically Avast announces it has detected my regular internet connection, and placed it in the Public/High Risk zone. This is always the same network.
This didn’t happen with Avast IS 11.
I am running Windows 7 SP1, in a Parallels Virtual Machine on a Mac. This tends to happen after Mac returns from sleep, but not necessarily immediately. The VM uses resources on the Mac for networking.
The firewall Rules log doesn’t show much. The lolg shows a series of reports of such “detections” clumped around a short time period a couple of days ago, and doesn’t show anything recent, but the problem continues to happen.
I’ve included attachments of the alert and the log, with my network name obscured. It is the same name each time, however.
This has started happening to me, too. An update to either Windows (7) or the Netgear driver means that if the PC goes to sleep, the connection is broken. When I wake the PC (say, after making coffee), the notice you see is presented. Then in background, the modem reconnects, and the message appears again.
So maybe you are having intermittent connection issues?
It seems to happen primarily when my Mac returns from its own sleep state. The Windows virtual machine is running like any other Mac application, and as a whole goes into sleep in the same way any other Mac application is put to sleep. The Mac application which serves as the “container” of Windows is going to sleep, not Windows itself.
(It looks like I could make Windows itself sleep or hibernate, as those options are on the Windows shut down menu, but I’ve never tried it. I do, however, use the Windows Shutdown, Restart, and sometimes Logoff commands.)
I have done no Windows Update since upgrading Avast; nor upgraded any other application or driver; nor modified any Control Panel setting. Windows Update is not set to automatically install anything - in fact, I manually check for updates.
It seems very plausible though that the network connection is temporarily broken when the Mac goes to sleep, and is re-established when the Mac wakes up.
I was running Avast 11 for nearly a year and never saw this problem. Or if I did, it was so long ago I have forgotten.
Show notifications about automatic profile switching
And then the only Network profile listed is the one Public profile I have - the one that is always announced as being detected and its Public/Private mode changed. (Which makes no sense - if it’s being detected as a new network, its Public/Private zone can’t be “changing” - it’s being set.)
Avast help for this page states:
You can select the default profile (i.e. Public/Private mode) for each network saved in the list.
Mine is set to Public, and I never change that.
And:
If you check the box for Show notifications about automatic profile switching, Avast displays a message when you connect to a network and the firewall profile changed (i.e. from Private to Public mode).
That is the message I see. The Help there states “Avast displays a message when you connect to a network AND the firewall profile changed” (Emphasis mine.) I don’t know if they really mean “when you connect to a network” OR “the firewall profile changed.” Either way - I don’t see why it applies.
Are these Network profile alerts related to the problem? Are these settings new for Avast 12? Or did I have different settings for Avast 11?
While I backed up my Avast 11 settings before upgrading - I actually saved the Firewall settings in their own backup, and also saved all settings in another backup - the .avastconfig backup files are not humanly readable, so there is no way for me to look at them. I wasn’t about to screencap every setting page just to be able to review them later.
The backed up settings of Avast 11 may not even be entirely compatible with Avast 12, which lacks several Avast 11 features.
Apparently this is related to a known annoyance new to Avast 12, reported at least as far back as September. I don’t know if there were earlier discussions of this, nor more recent discussions.
In that case, the user is suggesting his Profile has been Private (and is apparently still Private - no change).
The solution at the time appeared to be to shut off the notifications.
This notification toaster about Firewall profile being set is show every time that a FW profile is set for a network.
What this means is that whenever you connect to a network, switch network to a different one or reconnect back to a network after being disconnect, this notification is show because that is when the FW profile is applied.
When putting your PC to sleep, it disconnects from the network. When it wakes up, it reconnects > FW profile is applied > notification is shown.
As you correctly discovered, if you do not want this notification to appear, you can disable it in settings.
To disable the notification, go to Settings > Components > Firewall > Network profiles and uncheck the “Show notifications about automatic profile switching”
I’ve been having a similar issue where the notification will repeatedly display multiple times in a short span. It wasn’t the exact issue the OP reported {since I never let my PC enter “Sleep mode”}, however, when I went to “Settings > Components > Firewall > Network profiles” to uncheck the “Show notifications about automatic profile switching” option, I noticed I had at least 7 different profiles. Since I’m using a desktop & never connect to a different ISP {well, not in nearly a year, hence the old profiles}, I removed all but the currently connected/correct profile.
While this hasn’t resolved the issue entirely, it has decreased the frequency of the notifications. I also went through my packet rules & removed any old programs that had previously created a rule.
I haven’t actually unchecked the “Show notifications about automatic profile switching” option at this point. And I don’t feel I should have to… This didn’t ~5 months prior & the only 2 things that have changed is the version of Avast I’m using {upgraded to 12.3.2280 soon after it was released} & my ISP’s name {but not their backend or which network I connect via them… or so they claim}. That being said, I feel Avast should strive to determine why version 12 seems to have triggered this issue when it was either non-existent in version 11 {or at least infrequent enough to not be annoying}.
I’m currently using a Windows 10 Pro 64 bit OS, upgraded from Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit via the free upgrade last year {early 2016} & I’d be more than willing to provide Avast with answers to any questions they may have about various aspects of my system if it might help determine the cause of the issue {Avast 12 & a W10 update misbehaving, for instance}.
I am asking myself if “Show notifications about automatic profile switching” checked should be the default option.
To be honnest, regarding that most Avast users are novice/average users, I don’t think so : It only bothers them.