Lost internet connection (need help for girlfriend)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

The problem is that it’s not my computer and I don’t have ANY access to it. I’m not even sure what version of avast! is installed, even though I’m pretty sure it’s 4.6. I’m in the process of finding out.

I’m currently away from my girlfriend (she’s travelling for work) and woke up this morning to find the following message from her (using another computer):

Baby, help!!!

I think I stopped myself from getting internet.

Got a signal this morning (sent you messages) and then an
avast! popup came up asking about allowing Linksys WLAN to
access internet. I hit “no” and then I lost internet
connection! How do I undo that? I looked through the avast
log and “help” but I can’t figure it out.

:frowning:

I honestly have no idea why she’d click on “no” to prevent Linksys, her freaking wireless card, from accessing the internet.

I don’t even know if this is an avast! problem, but since I don’t use the software myself I’m not sure. It sounds like a firewall issue to me. She’s using ZoneAlarm.

I’ve sent her instructions on how to allow ZA to let the Linksys card use the internet, but in the mean time, thought I’d ask you kind folks to see if it might indeed be some setting in avast! that she needs to change.

Thanks.

Oh yeah, she’s using a laptop and PCMCIA (Linksys) wireless 802.11b/g card.

[edit]

Forgot to mention that I’ve also told her to allow ashWebSv.exe to access the web. That’s the only thing I saw from a quick browse of the FAQ.

[/edit]

2

Well, I can’t imagine what could block your Internet access unless ashWebSv.exe was blocked into your firewall…
By the way, I bet on a firewall trouble… If she disable ZA, will she connect?

3

That was my immediate thought as well - that it’s a firewall problem. It certainly sounds like that but I just don’t know if avast! has any feature capable of doing that i.e. prompting her to allow a program to access the internet. Does it?

Like I said, I’ve e-mailed her back to tell her to allow those things in ZA but will take your suggestion and have her disable it as well if that doesn’t fix the problem.

Thanks for the response.

4

See the html pages at C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\English\HtmlData
Is there any of them that she is seeing?

It does not solve, it’s a workaround.

Into the firewall settings, the following programs should be allowed to connect:
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashServ.exe (avast! antivirus service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashWebSv.exe (avast! Web Scanner)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashMaiSv.exe (avast! e-Mail Scanner Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashUpdSv.exe (avast! Update Service)
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\avast.setup (avast! Update executable)

5

Will ask her. Will have to wait to call her later tonight in around 5 hours, so won’t know right away…

Sure, but I’m the “computer tech”. I should be able to solve it once she’s back and I have the computer in front of me. It’s just difficult doing this over the net when I’m sure she doesn’t even recall properly what she did.

Thanks. Will pass this on.

6

If your girlfriend clicked on No for the Linksys WLAN then this should be in the blocked programs, all she need do is manually allow access in the programs/application area of ZA. Sorry I can’t describe it better, it’s years since I used ZA.

If it is more than that and relates to the Web Shield, insufficient information to say for sure then if she temporarily terminates the Web Shield provider in avast is she able to browse?
If so this is another indication ashWebSv.exe is being blocked.

I would say that if she had to disable one or the other, the preference is to terminate Web Shield rather than zone alarm as this provides inbound and outbound firewall protection.

ZA used to a nasty habit of forgetting the settings of what programs were allowed internet access.

7

Yeah, I don’t use it either. Prefer Outpost myself.

But, at the time I installed all the software on her computer a year and a half ago, Zone Alarm seemed like the simplest solution.

In any case, I have used ZA, and even though I can’t remember perfectly how to change it’s options I recalled enough to be able to send her instructions on how to enable programs manually. Downloaded their manual and took some screenshots of the diagrams as well to send her a visual guide through the steps.

I don’t think so. From her e-mail that I posted above (which is the only info I have so far) it would appear that she completely disconnected from the internet. Looks like she was using Outlook at the time.

This seems to support that it’s probably not avast!, but rather ZA.

Honestly, no clue… We’ll see later when she checks and “fixes” it in ZA (if it’s being blocked).

I’d have to agree. I told her to disable avast! first and see if that fixes the issue. If not, try ZA.

I never much cared for it. Used to use it ages ago when I first got on the net and learned about firewalls, but soon switched to Sygate and now Outpost. I’ve been meaning to upgrade her software for some time now. Guess this is good incentive.

8

Good luck and welcome to the forums.

9

Thanks David.

10

Just an update.

Like we all kind of thought, it was ZA and not avast! Got the problem sorted out. Silly g/f ;D

Thank you all for your help.

11

Eh Eh :wink: ;D