have tried several times to put my web shield on custom level so I can block certain URL’s but after I hit OK and go back it, it reverts back to level High which is the previous setting. What am I doing wrong?
I doubt you will get emailed, but I suggest you remove your email unless you’re partial to spam. The forums are publicly available and could be trawled by spambots harvesting email addresses.
You can’t set to Custom as you aren’t changing anything that essentially changes the scanning. Click the Customize button, then the URL Blocking tab and there you can enter the URL/s.
Personally I feel this is wrong as it really isn’t best suited to general URL blocking, this is more a Firewall task or you can use the HOSTS file to do this. Both of which are likely to be easier to achieve and maintain.
The URL Blocking won’t be in the avast 5 version when it is released in the not to distant future, so the other options are probably better.
thank you so much for your reply and warning about the email address. my yahoo is 99% spam anyway, but it’s not like I need more of it.
I suppose I will have to find a good firewall to take care of my problem. I just bought this computer and am presently using McAfee for 30 days and it doesn’t give me the option of blocking a particular url.
Ok, I clicked customize then added a url to the block url list, then clicked ok and it still went back to high.
It doesn’t matter if it goes back to High, as I said you haven’t changed the way the web shield works overall, so doesn’t stay on Custom.
You can add it to the Hosts file.
Check your HOSTS file using notepad or a text editor of your choice, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or do a search for HOSTS to find it if not there.
Once open you are looking for entries with avast.com on the line, you may well see other AV sites, post the contents of the hosts file. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file
Following some of examples at Wiki or in the Hosts file:
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host127.0.0.1 localhost
This is I believe the line entry you would enter after the last entry in yours.
127.0.0.1 blocked-domain.com
The 127.0.0.1 is your local computer, the idea is when your system tries to go to the blocked-domain.com it is redirected to the local computer, effectively blocking it.
I have never used the Hosts file for this purpose (that quoted text is a copy of mine) I never felt the need. I also have never felt the need to add one to my firewall either though. There are also tools to manage your Hosts file adding bad sites to it.
There is also http://www.opendns.com/ which you can control content, blocking domains, etc using the Dashboard function.