Hi I hope someone can help. I’d read very good things about Avast, so I’ve just installed it on a friend’s new computer, but I’m having some real problems, namely:
When it tries to update it cannot connect to the server.
When I try to access the internet it says the connection is interupted - I turn off Avast and it works.
I’ve turned off Windows Firewall, this has not helped.
I’ve tried connecting through my work’s LAN and using a 3G USB modem, both have the same results.
The machine’s a Compaq, Presario CQ60 running Vista Home Premium SP1, it did have Norton 360 v2 on it but this has been uninstalled (and sent back to the shop). There is no other AV or Firewall installed as far as I can tell (it’s brand new). I’m logged on as the administrator.
I see lots of ex Norton users needing the Norton Removal Tool at http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039 to get rid of the last remaining traces of the product. Windows firewall should never interfere; it only blocks incoming. I run avast! on two Vista machines with no problems, but neither of them was ever touched by Norton. Which avast! providers are you running? You should be able to go to “On Access Protection Control” and see what avast! is actually scanning in Webshield in particular and that the intercepted ports are properly set under “customize”.
EDIT: Also, turning off UAC at least temporarily can make these things easier to diagnose sometimes
Glad it worked for you. I have been using avast! on several (5 now) machines for several years and have had very few problems, and usually quick responses with fixes/workarounds when I have had issues. Post again on the forum if you have other problems-there are a lot of helpful people here.
Certainly turning off UAC is a controversial item, especially if you don’t use a good HIPS or one of the UAC substitutes. But for diagnostics, UAC is known to interfere with finding many problems, particularly because of the virtual storage features, since not all programs with Vista upgrades are quite Vista compatible. I have several programs that won’t run correctly with UAC on, and may never see a compatiblility upgrade unfortunately, so they have no more protection than they did with XP. And even Windows 7 is toning it down selectively, as can UAC users. But I didn’t mean that everyone should turn it off either; just that doing it temporarily may help in finding problems.
You missed the crucial bits, ‘temporarily’ to make it easier for ‘diagnosis’ as sded mentioned and you quoted. Fault finding is hard enough without something like UAC getting in the way.
Here is a free little utility that allows one to easily and quickly turn
UAC off and on. You can also put UAC in quiet mode with it.
TweakUAC™ is a free software tool that you can use to quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or to make UAC operate in the quiet mode. This software is FREE, no strings attached.