I’m also experiencing the issue whereby Avast Free Antivirus 6’s Web Shield appears to be blocking my internet access. I’ve got Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with SP 1. I originally had McAfee Security Center on here, but when it expired, I got rid of it and downloaded Comodo Internet Security instead - but its antivirus kept crashing the computer when I did a scan, so I got rid of the antivirus but kept the firewall and downloaded Avast antivirus instead. It’s always worked brilliantly on my laptop, which is running Win XP, so I figured it’d work great on my Win 7 desktop as well. But this morning I turned it on to discover that while things like Outlook were working fine, I couldn’t access webpages in a browser (neither IE or Safari) unless I first disabled Avast’s Web Shield.
I have searched the forums. None of the other suggestions I’ve found seem to work:
Uninstalling and reinstalling didn’t get rid of the problem
My TEMP folders and the registry keys are all set up properly already
Disabling and then re-enabling the web shield (or all the shields together) does NOT grant me access, like it does for some users
I tried updating to the latest pre-release 6.0.1044(?), but that didn’t help either.
If you have’nt already ! go to here http://uninstallers.blogspot.com/ and get the McAfee removal tool to get rid of any leftovers off your system, you may have to do a clean install of avast just in case it has been corrupted and also make sure to add the exclusions to avast and your firewall.
OK thanks. I’ll try the uninstallers. How do I do the exclusions thing, though?
Also, I find it odd that I’m having this problem on my desktop (Win 7) but not my laptop (Win XP), even though I’ve now set them both up to have Avast Antivirus and Comodo Firewall.
EDIT: OK, I ran the McAfee uninstaller then rebooted and now everything seems to be working properly.
Should I still do the exclusion thing? Or is it not necessary?
EDIT 2: OK, so while I can now access the internet with Web Shield up and running, Avast now appears to be unable to successfully update its virus definitions.
I turned off Windows Defender, but that didn’t make a difference, so I ended up just uninstalling and then reinstalling avast. So far so good.
I figure it’s OK to have Windows Defender turned off anyway, though, since I’m using Comodo Firewall/Defense+ - and it says having more than one can slow down the computer.
Windows Defender in advanced mode (configured via the membership options, rather confusing) prevents automatic adding of autorun and other stuff). Quite possibly messed up your Avast install. Given the overhead WD adds for not exactly great results, I tend to ditch it everywhere.
I don’t use defender (disabled) 'cause it’s really unneeded while running Avast but if it was not disabled, it certainly wouldn’t prevent a correct Avast install. I sometimes, following a new Windows install, forgot to disable Defender a few hours/days, got Avast installed, up and running during that time and never had a problem with that.
WTF?! I’ve just turned on the computer and Avast is at it again! >:(
This time I’ve got no ideas. It worked fine all of yesterday. I didn’t do anything in terms of updating Windows or any other software for that matter. I didn’t fiddle with any settings or anything. It was just business as usual yesterday. And now the Web Shield is back to blocking my internet connection again! What gives?! It seems like everything I’ve tried so far has only suppressed the problem for a day or two rather than actually fixing it.
Anyone got any other ideas? This is getting very frustrating.
EDIT: I just tried updating to the 6.0.1044 pre-release. Didn’t help.
Well I think your OS is simply messed up and would best be reinstalled. Sorry if this is not what you would like to hear, but the behaviour you are describing does not sound like a sane system.
Uh, yeah, that’s not really helpful. If anything, this is the sanest computer I’ve ever had! This issue with Avast aside, it runs like an absolute dream. In fact, Avast is the ONLY program I’ve ever had an issue with, so I’m more inclined to think there’s something wrong with it rather than my system. For the record, it’s a Dell Studio 540S.
I’m thinking I may have to just give up on Avast and find something else.
Seems to be working OK today. But Windows Update wants to download IE 9. We’ll see how things go after that. (Before someone says, “IE? Well there’s your problem!”, whenever I do have this Web Shield problem, it blocks the internet in Safari as well.)
EDIT: OK, so I can still access the internet after updating to IE 9. But all day so far I’ve been getting an error message from Avast whenever it tries to update its files. I was getting one last night when I was using my Win XP laptop as well.
Seems like I can either have internet access or updated data files but not both. LOL.
OK scratch that. Today the Web Shield is blocking my internet access and Avast can’t connect to the file update server.
Anyone got any suggestions for the next best free antivirus besides Avast? I tried Comodo’s free antivirus, but it kept crashing whenever I tried to do a scan.
pukunui… you had problems with avast and CAV…
Seems remains of other antivirus/firewall are blocking the correct installation and working of the antivirus.
The only other antivirus software that was on this system was McAfee, and running the uninstaller was one of the first suggestions in this thread. I thought it had solved the problem initially, but now it seems to be coming and going every other day.
