a neighbour is running Avast (home) with Zone Alarm and ran into a problem with some of his provider’s servers suddenly being blocked by ZA …
For the time being we uninstalled ZA because we couldn’t find what was happening …
Question is : how safe is he (on a dial-up account, so short connection times) behind the XP ‘firewall’ and WebShield ??? Until we reinstall ZA or another firewall like Kerio).
tia !!
Hello,
Well, I use the Xp Firewall and I didnt have any problem until now. Web shield works fine, and I never got attacked. Xp firewall works fine for me, I never had problems with intrusions or something like that… And its a very light resource firewall too.
Thanks for your time,
Elminster
i think webshield can be thought of as a lightweight firewall…but i do recommend any free firewalls for eg. sygate or kerio etc 
if i remember correctly…windows firewall does not block outgoing connections
ZA didn’t suddenly block Web Shield (ashWebSv.exe), it should have notified you/them and given you/them the option to allow or block, it shouldn’t have acted on its own, it requires user interaction.
the following require Internet Access, ashWebSv.exe, ashMaiSv.exe, ashUpdSv.exe and avast.setup. The avast.setup is not a permenant file, only being created at the time of an update. They can manually add/modify these processes to allow access in ZA applications/programs list (you wil need to find this I don’t use ZA).
They are all located in the C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4 folder assuming the default location was used when they installed avast.
To be honest, since I reinstalled my pc two weeks ago I use the firewall that came with the MS Windows XP servicepack2. I did a few tests on pcflank.com and they state I’m “stealthed”. I realize it’s only protecting incoming connections, but for the moment I’m perfectly happy with it. I’m on dsl but didn’t have any trouble yet.
I don’t know if I’m up to trying ZA or Sygate again. Maybe Kerio, but for now I’m staying with Windows firewall. (Had enough work installing Windows and all of the additional programs last two weeks…)
If in doubt, do the test at http://www.pcflank.com
Dag landgenoot,
Fast.
where did I say that ?!
I said that suddenly some of his provider’s servers were being blocked … other stuff worked just fine, like getting Avast’s updates.
I made an assumption that it had blocked ashWebSv.exe (Web Shield) based on the subject title ‘How safe is Web Shield’ and your comment that getting updates was ok.
I said that suddenly some of his provider's servers were being blocked ... other stuff worked just fine, like getting Avast's updates.Which leaves two other avast! providers that require access the internet, ashWebSv and ashMaiSv.exe
That is neither here nor there which provider it blocked, ZA shouldn’t/doesn’t suddenly block anything, it usually requires user interaction.
Was this Zone Alarm Pro or Basic?
Ah ! I see the confusion … we’re talking about 2 different things : I mean his Internet provider’s (ISP) servers !! not the Avast providers (servers/services ??) …
Basic, the free version …
I’m sorry if I don’t get it, but now that ZA is removed, is he able to reach his providers servers again, or is it still blocked ?
If so, it could be a webshield issue.
What exactly is being blocked ? Startpage of the provider ?
Is it a Dutch provider/domain ? Lately there are issues with a few Dutch providers, due to “mixed” content on a number of pages. Could this be the cause ?
Please provide more info.
Fast
yes, when shutting down or removing ZA, everything works as it should … he had problems with the startpage of ‘HetNet’ and their mailservers too.
when he called their helpdesk, they said he wasn’t even dialled-in (?!), but he was as he just saw Avast downloading new signatures.
maybe someone pressed a wrong button when ZA popped up a warning or something … we will probably reinstall it next week and see what happens.
I was just wondering if the XP firewall and WebShield would be enough for the time …
If it’s the firewall of XP servicepack 2 then the answer is: YES.
Remember one thing, the Windows firewall only protects you from incoming traffic.
Outgoing traffic is not protected.
Should you get infected with some malware, your personal information could be at risk.
The choice is yours.
for mal/spyware I installed AdAware and HijackThis … and i’m thinking of installing Microsoft’s beta anti-spyware on his PC.
have you installed servicepack 2 already ?
Ad-Aware doesn’t provide on-access protection (Ad-Watch) unless you’re referring to the professional version, however… I’m not sure about the MS spyware program.
i reckon it should be relatively safe for the moment till u reinstall a firewall next week…best of luck