Avast SecureLine VPN won't connect

calidicusdio · 2017-03-14T19:40:18.000Z

Running win7 64, and bought a year license. Using Avast for AV, and Comodo for firewall. Game mode is OFF for both and no warnings. Nothing is “blocked” in Comodo that doesn’t need to be.

I’ve had the service for about 2-3 months now, and the issue is becoming more common where it either drops the connection randomly, or will NOT connect at all, which is the case today. I tried several US servers, then tried some overseas ones. Most common error is after the router, and my archaic win 7 connection diagram is showing the red “X” between the router and internet. With Secureline OFF, obviously I can connect and write.

Other issues is it’ll say “you are connected” but in fact the red X persists. Kinda frustrating when a paid product just doesn’t work, or barely works. Any ideas?

calidicusdio · 2017-03-26T11:24:43.000Z

Don’t trample yourselves trying to help here. Issue has gotten to the point almost every server won’t connect. The couple that do connect, are dropping after 30 seconds roughly. A few rare occasions, after 2-3 minutes, I can connect online as the browser will open the home page, then the damned thing drops the connection again. Why am I paying for a broken service? Please help or I want a refund!

Asyn · 2017-03-26T11:30:22.000Z

Contact support: https://support.avast.com/support/tickets/new

calidicusdio · 2017-04-16T12:18:56.000Z

Support was no help. The night I added a complaint to the bug section, it all of a sudden miraculously started working w/o doing anything on my end.

The auto reply eventually came to the bug report, and stated “repair” avast. Thinking my “magical” connection was a fluke, I decided to repair anyways (loosing all my blocked sites in the process, thanks for no warning there) and nothing changed as like I said, it magically started working AFTER I complained but BEFORE doing anything.

Are you guys selectively manipulating the connections? Because it’s back to that infinite “connecting bar” and I can’t even connect now. The stupid program states you are connected, but nothing can be accessed or it immediately drops. WTF already?

Asyn · 2017-04-16T13:04:11.000Z

Post your ticket-ID.

Eddy · 2017-04-16T13:24:32.000Z

Remove Comodo completely and see if it makes a difference.

calidicusdio · 2017-05-02T04:06:50.000Z

It seems more like a traffic issue as it’ll connect, load up a page, then decide to dump the connection. Eventually it’ll connect and remain semi-connected but this takes upwards of 5-10+ attempts, and I have to actually WATCH the connection status constantly.

Ticket report just said to “fix/repair” installation, which didn’t help.

If comodo was at fault, I’d never get through. It’s not griping either and ALL Avast + MS .exe are allowed and/or granted permission.

calidicusdio · 2017-05-17T15:02:57.000Z

UPDATE:

Comodo tried updating itself during a windows update :o which failed halfway through, and caused an infinite loading situation at the Win 7 Welcome screen which took forever to correct as it wouldn’t allow itself to be repaired, and it’s comparable to a worm in the fact it leaves traces of itself EVERYWHERE after “uninstalling”, which blocks a fresh reinstall despite removing all registry and file locations (that I could find with autoruns and cccleaner after uninstalling via control panel). Even more annoying is it left drivers in place, which blocked windows built-in firewall from interacting with the modem despite the fact everything was removed. And even offline (plug pulled) it wouldn’t allow earlier versions (that worked before) to be installed as it still managed to detect the failed update as being successfully “running and installed” thus unable to modify. They lost a customer after nearly 10 years for that garbage.

Anyhow, I gave up on Comodo and tried TinyWall instead. After about a 10 minute whitewash session of adding everything avast including the openvpn.exe and saving, Secureline connected right away and thus far seems to be holding a connection.

During the numerous failed reinstall attempts of Comodo, the installer has the option to switch to “secure comodo DNS settings”, which I didn’t remember from 2 years ago, which was the last fresh win7 install I’ve done. My guess at this point is THAT choice might have been impeding Secureline from being reliable with comodo, though it’s only a guess.

My humble advice is drop comodo if you have it. If you uninstall it and get a hung “Welcome” screen all of a sudden, go into safe mode: run box ->msconfig, prevent comodo remnants from starting at start up, reboot; remove any Comodo drivers still attached and re-enable windows firewall and reboot. Don’t make the mistake I did where I started investigating the DHCP Client (yellow triangle for tray icon appeared after already having internet the night before) in Services and accidentally made matters worse by unticking the “This Account” password I’d never seen before, preventing the thing from restarting (sighs) all because some left over driver didn’t get removed!! For the record, if you did that and somehow find this, select DHCP in services from task manager, then select “Services” button in lower right; right-click DHCP Client in new window, select properties, Log On; if “This account” was changed to “Local System account” : by accident, it won’t allow the DHCP to be restarted, and the password part threw me as I’d never entered one before. Typing “Local Service” (might need to browse and verify the Local Service) then use your win7 log on password and confirming it, then applying should hopefully correct that and allow it to be restarted.

mchain · 2017-05-18T00:14:30.000Z

Jeesh!

Been where you were more than once.

Bookmark this site as it has the vendor uninstall tools links you will likely need sometime in the future: https://singularlabs.com This site has more than one page to it, so explore around.

Avast: https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB11#artTitle

Never did like Comodo or their founder either, so there’s that.

Eddy · 2017-05-18T00:20:20.000Z

Well, if someone has Windows 7 or up there is no need for a third party firewall anyway.
And of course best firewall is a good hardware one.

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