Avast suddenly having problems with Sygate Personal Firewall

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Windows 98SE, Old Sygate Personal Firewall 5.5.

Never had a problem before. Now I keep getting pop up windows from Sygate personal Firewall that says:
"avast antivirus Update [avast setup] is trying to connect to [75.125.223.82] using remote port 80 [HTTP-World Wide Web]. Do you want to allow this program to access the network?

Note: this application was launched by avast! antivirus service [ASHSERV.EXE]. If you do not recognize this program or you do not think it should be able to access the Internet, please click the “No” button to deny network access to this program."

I keep telling Sygate Personal Firewall to allow access and to remember my answer and not to ask me again about this application. But it doesn’t work, and the pop up window keeps popping up and keeps sending more and more of these popup windows.

Another window says “avast antivirus Update [avast.setup] is trying to connect to download208.avast.com [75.126.203.66] using remote port 80.”

Another one says “avast! antivirus Update [avast.setup] is trying to connect to [209.62.112.162] using remote port 80.”

The popups stack up, and they are a pain in the butt.

Been doing this since yesterday, and I’m getting really tired of clicking. Sygate doesn’t seem to want to save the okay, and I can’t seem to get connected to the avast site.

HELP!

2

I’d say try to delete the existing rule (for avast.setup) from the list, and then let it be created again (when it connects the next time).

3

I deleted the rule from Sygate Personal Firewall.

Then I tried to manually update avast! Which I did, and I’m already up to date. I have avast setup set to ask when it wants to access the network, and I can okay each request fine, but automatic okay seems to be the problem.

Should I try to Repair avast? Or re install the Sygate? Or should I try and uninstall the old Sygate and switch back to Zone Alarm, since Sygate is no longer free?

4

:slight_smile: Hi :

I have used both Avast ( just upgraded to the latest 4.8.1290 ) and Sygate
Personal Firewall for several yrs and have not experienced the recurring
PopUps ; have you configured your Sygate according to the “SetUp Guide”
at www.kotiposti.net/string/SPF_eng/SPFGuide.html !?
Sygate is still “Free” at www.filehippo.com .

5

[i]Thanks for the info Spiritsongs…

I’ve been using SPF for many years myself and haven’t had any problems whatsoever… 8)

I can only imagine what Symantec has done to SPF other than charge for it… They have a habit of ruining perfectly good software… >:([/i]

6

It won’t hurt.

I think it’s not necessary, just follow Igor’s advice.

7

avast.setup changes frequently. Reinstalling avast would not probably help - there is nothing wrong with it, avast does not display the messages, sygate does. If there is an option you should choose to ignore changes in avast.setup file and allow access to the net.

8

:slight_smile: Hi all :

In my Sygate Settings, Avast ( SetUp ) is set to “Allow”; however, in its
“Advanced” Settings, I have unSelected the “Act As Server” Option , which
is One of the Recommendations of the Sygate SetUp Guide .

9

I found this link where they had the same problem. This solution seems to have worked for me, although I updated the Avast IP addresses/ranges.

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?action=printpage;topic=4558.0

===

Title: Re:avast + sygate Firewall probs
Post by: beck on May 17, 2004, 03:08:16 AM

Uninstalling and reinstalling either program will “fix” the problem, but probably only until the next program update from avast. To work around this problem, in Sygate:

  1. open Tools, then advanced rules.
  2. In there, pick Add, enter whatever name you want the rule to have (such as avast).
  3. click allow this traffic.
  4. pick all interfaces (or the one you want)
  5. Click hosts and click IP addresses.
  6. Enter the following addresses:
    195.70.130.34,66.98.166.72,216.127.72.135,216.12.202.5,66.98.196.85,67.15.0.83,67.15.0.90,217.31.49.244,195.47.75.50
  7. click ports and protocols.
  8. in protocol pick TCP.
  9. in traffic direction pick outgoing.

You can pick a schedule or not. No application since that setup.avast changes all the time.

Sygate is doing what it should be doing by blocking an on the fly changed program from connecting to the outside world.

What this will do is to allow ALL outgoing traffic to connect to the avast servers and stop asking you over and over if it can connect.

OR, you can go into Tools, Options, Security and uncheck the anti-application hijacking option. However, if some virus/trojan/worm/whatever does what this option protects you from, you would not be protected. I decided that I didn’t want this turned off, so used the above approach.

Either one of these works for me and several others I installed avast on their systems.

===

Try these IP ranges (these are by no means comprehensive, but they are working for me for now):
70.86.91.130, 74.52.200.66-74.52.201.58, 74.86.96.165-74.86.232.37, 209.62.90.50-209.62.112.226, 75.125.244.66-75.126.203.66, 74.55.28.162-74.55.74.138, 207.44.148.210

I hope this helps someone.

:slight_smile:

Paul

10

The local file C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\servers.def and the downloadable one, http://files.avast.com/iavs4x/servers.def, have the list of the servers that can be used for update.