A few days ago I allowed Avast to auto update from version 7 to version 8. After the installation and after rebooting I couldn’t access the internet. I figured something must have gone wrong so I uninstalled using add/remove programs, downloaded the latest version from Avast and proceeded to install Avast 8 manually.
After installation and reboots etc all seemed well, everything seemed to be working as it should. However, the next day I booted up my PC and noticed that the Web Shield was not active. Avast itself says “PROTECTION STATUS: SERVICE STOPPED, Please run the Avast! service first to activate the shield”. I tried to figure out what could be wrong and had a look on the net but couldn’t find anything specific other than maybe I should have used the Avast! uninstaller from safe mode when I removed my initial “bad” update. So I downloaded awsclear and re-downloaded a fresh install file to my desktop and proceeded to remove Avast 8 from safe mode then installed it again after rebooting normally. Once again, after this process all seem fine and working as it should, Great!.. or so I thought.
The next day I turn on my PC to again find that the Web Shield Service was not running and once again I couldn’t get it to run trying multiple reboots and stopping and starting of the Avast services. So I once again looked on the net and found a post which said I should run awsclear for all versions that had been installed, starting with 7 (as that was the first version on this relatively new PC). So I re-downloaded fresh versions of the uninstall utility and install file and done the process again, removing the install path for Avast 7 and then 8 using awsclear in safe mode and then reinstalling Avast 8 after booting back in normally. Again this seemed to solve my problem with the Web Shield and once again all seemed fine.
I boot up my PC today and I’m back to square one… Web Shield not running, service stopped, and I can’t find any more info on what to do next.
I never had any issues with Avast 7, it always worked perfectly for me.
I’m running Win 7 64bit and have Zone Alarm installed
Avast version installed is: 8.0.1483
Any help would be appreciated, I do still have my Avast 7 install file so I could revert back to using that but I’d prefer not to.
First thing I would try is to delete ALL references to avast! in ZoneAlarm. Once you do that, reboot the PC and when ZoneAlarm asks you if you want avast! to access the internet respond yes.
If that doesn’t work then I would try turning OFF ZoneAlarm, rebooting and see if that fixes the problem. If it does then at least you have narrowed down the problem to an interaction between avast! and ZoneAlarm.
A lot of people on this forum will advise you to get rid of ZoneAlarm anyway since it has been know to cause issues with avast! . . . .
Thanks for the reply, I tried what you suggested but it didn’t make any difference. However a few reboots later (after using the PC in between) the web shield seemed to start working as it should again. All was well for another few reboots (again using the PC in between) until yesterday evening when I booted up and the web shield had broke again and with multiple reboots etc, it didn’t seem like it was going to start working as it should. This is indeed strange.
I also noted that when I disable the remaining shields and re-enable then the mail shield will fail to work as well.
I would also note that I have used Zone Alarm alongside Avast AV for a number of years now and don’t ever remember having any conflicts between the two programs, as I mentioned in the OP this PC is relatively new but my old PC had ZA and Avast on it before with no issues. Avast has been a decent AV program for me over the years, it’s been a long time since I have been infected with anything, in fact the only time I seem to get any issue with it is on a major new version release.
Due to the lack of replies on this thread and being unable to find any useful info on my problem I’ve had no choice but to uninstall Avast! 8 and revert to a Avast 7 version I had downloaded earlier this year as I just cant risk having no web shield. I guess I’ll try Avast 8 another time in the future after a build update or when someone can give me a solution.
Out of curiosity, what would you consider to be a good, or the best, free firewall to use alongside Avast free? Although ZA has been good for me I must admit that I’m not keen on the UI and usability since a major build update a while back and would consider looking at alternatives that I feel would preform as well.
I have the same issue, except it runs fine on booting, it does this after I disable the shields and then enable them. Never had this problem with the last version.
I’m on an XP SP3 machine with Avast! 8.0.1849 and Comodo Firewall. When I go to do something offline and don’t want the antivirus running in the background, I block all internet traffice and disable all shields in Avast. Later when I’m finished I re-enable my firewall and then re-enable all shields on Avast. All the shields come back except for the web shield, with Avast showing the message “Protection Service Stopped - Please Run The Avast Service First To Activate This Shield”. I looked into my services and only see one Avast service, and it’s already running.
Avast and Comodo get along very well together, I’ve never had an issue before this newest update, so I don’t have an idea why it’s doing this.
