Bug? After Windows 7 SP1

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

After installing Win7 SP1 (and a few other MS patches) I cannot connect to the web when starting the PC.

I have discovered the issue is Avast (6.0.1.367)

The way around this, is I have to disable Avast, then start the web browser to get a connection going, then start Avast again.

It seems Avast is blocking the wireless connection to my router ?? It allows connection if it sees that connection already running.

Any advice would be appreciated. thanks.

2
  1. What is your firewall ?
    Does it allow avastSvc.exe internet access ?
  • If it does delete the entry for it and reconnect to the internet, this should force the firewall to ask permission again.
  1. Try a repair of avast:
    XP - Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.

Vista, win7 - Control Panel, Programs & Features, uninstall a program, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.

You may need to reboot after the repair.

  1. If that doesn’t resolve it then a clean reinstall may be needed. Cross that bridge if necessary and we will give instructions on how to do it then.
3

Thank you for the swift reply.

I’m running PC Tools Firewall Plus. I did try stopping this independently however Avast still behaved as it did. Yes the avastSvc.exe is allowed in the Firewall.

I have also noticed there is a big delay in opening a web page, say google.com, with Avast running. However if I disable Avast for 10 mins, web page opening is “significantly” faster during that time.

I’ll try the Repair and see what happens. Thanks.

4

As I said if the entry exists, delete it to force the firewall to ask permission again.

Ensure that you have the latest version of the PC Tools firewall as I believe there were problems with it before. I don’t know if that firewall has been dropped now as it seems you can only buy the security suite now, or get the free version from a download site.

Majorgeeks has it, http://www.majorgeeks.com/PC_Tools_Firewall_Plus_d5470.html, version 7.0.0.123. Thought that version dates from 2011-05-17 so I don’t know if it is developed any longer. If not you would be best looking for a replacement which is still in active development.

5

I’m in the same boat. Programs that use the http ports seem to be blocked. Programs like IM clients, and games that use network connections are fine, but firefox,chrome, internet explorer and programs that need to use the internet to update don’t work.

This is on a fresh format of Windows 7 Ultimate x64. No firewall yet, and disabling windows firewall doesn’t change anything. I have to disable avast to access the internet.

6

Hello DavidR, as I mentioned it has nothing to do with the Firewall. I have verified that carefully.

I have just completed trying to do the Repair of Avast but that made no difference.

However, I then uninstalled Avast, Rebooted, and Reinstalled Avast. Everything is now working fine. Although there is still some delay (about 3 seconds) for a web page to appear as opposed to pretty much immediate when Avast is disabled. Is there some fine tuning I can do for that ? thanks.

7

Yes it is trying the least hassle options first repair and then reinstall if that failed.

I can’t hazard a guess on delay as that would depend on A) the sites you were visiting, if they are media/script intensive and B) your system specifications, though with win7 x64 ultimate they would need to be reasonable.

So is there a particular site that you experience this delay on ?
The avast forums can be one such issue at times and that has nothing to do with the avast AV.

8

I’m just going for the standard Google.com I have tried a couple of other pages as well.

However I think you may have not read my message correctly. Irrespective of the page, Avast Off - it’s fast, Avast On - it’s slower. 2 seconds compared to say 5-8 seconds.

9

With avast on it is going to be scanning the http traffic, so there would be an overhead, but with a half decent system it shouldn’t be anything close to 2 seconds.

This snippet from avast staff, not word for word, but from my recollection (I’m just an avast user); there should be no appreciable difference browsing with the web shield on unless you are using an internet connection in excess of 50Mbps. I think that they may even have said 100Mbps.

So I don’t know why you are experiencing this as I haven’t experienced it. We have seen it in some firewalls slowing I/O with the avast web shield localhost proxy, I don’t know is this may be the same with PC Tools Firewall or not.

We used to recommend PC Tools Firewall as fine with avast some time ago, but that recommendation dropped off the radar some time ago. Possibly due to it no longer being actively updated.