I kept getting the following warning message since Jan 2, 09 til today -
Network Shield: blocked access to malicious site dns://www.afreecodec.com [ C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe ]
It seemed that it happened when I was accessing the website - www.freewarefiles.com.
Is it normal ?
Note: Had done boot-time scan and complete scan by superantispyware. All clean.
The network shield now has an additional piece of functionality, that of blocking sites with malicious content, if you weren’t specifically visiting this site (appears not) then that ads to the suspicion).
Visiting free codec sites can be a high risk business as many are used to download files you believe to be codecs only to get infected. I’m not saying that is the case here, but for the most part you shouldn’t need any codecs over and above what are already on windows.
The afreecodec.com domain is registered in the US.
I visited the freewarefiles.com site and no alert from avast on afrecodec.com ???
So was there a specific area or thing you were doing on freewarefiles.com ?
Also try MalwareBytes Anti-Malware form safe mode, On-Demand only in free version http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/malwarebytes/mbam-setup.exe, right click on the link and select Save As or Save File (As depending on your browser), save it to a location where you can find it easily later.
The warning message came out the moment freewarefiles.com webpage showed up.
I tried malwarebytes in normal and safe mode full scan. all clean.
Avast did the job of blocking the website but just wonder what triggered it to access without me doing anything. I never visited afreecodec.com.
I confirm and concur with the experience of David above, the freewarefiles.com site provoked no concerns from avast. However, the afreecodec site did cause the Network shield to block access as you report.
It would seem likely that some choice of yours on an earlier visit is directing you to the site that is causing the avast response.
In response to another thread in this forum I have somewhat deliberately placed my system in harm’s way to see what transpires so I am a little hesitant to go too much further with this thread at present.
If you look at the alert message again you will find that avast blocked it at a very early stage, e.g. when access was made to a DNS (Domain Name Server) to find the corresponding IP address for the domain, so you would never have got to the afreecodec site.
So I don’t know how I managed to get to the afreecodec.com site as now avast does block it and firefox reports the site couldn’t be found. Perhaps I had the Network Shield paused as I too had been doing some testing that day.
I’m still however able to visit the freewarefiles.com site with no associated alert.
I found out why I got warning message from network shield when visiting freewarefiles.com.
There is a link to afreecodec.com on freewarefiles main page and I have firefox add-on interclue enable. I think interclue is trying to access all those links. No warning message if interclue is disable.
Since avast stop the malicious website, I thank I do not have to worry, right !
Thanks every one.
Yes if you had some fort of pre fetch to make loading links on pages quicker, that I’m sure would trigger the network shield as you are effectively trying to access that site.
I must admit I had a quick look for that sort of thing but I didn’t see the link.
I think you are in the clear now and able to access freewarefiles.com, just don’t visit that codec site.
You’re welcome, glad you found the true cause and we could help.
Just for the knowledge of other users, the link is at top line of the main page, under the name of " Video Software".
Thanks for that, I wonder if freewarefiles.com are aware of this site being blocked by avast and less than glowing results on WOT, http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/afreecodec.com.