I’ve just installed avast!4Home in a WinXP pc running Sygate Personal Firewall Pro without a hitch. Now the smaller problems started popping up.
The help files speak of a Mail Protection Wizard accessible via Start–>All Programs–>avast! Antivirus which, in my case, has turned invisible. How come?
The avast FAQ files state that I must allow avast to access the following (avast) IP addresses:
While the above list is useful for verification purposes, it would be much better for the purpose of writing firewall rules to augment the list by adding protocol, remote port number, and the avast executable that must be allowed to connect. Could anyone of the knowledgeable folks around do this and then post it in the FAQ files as well for posterity?
1]
The help file also tells you that the mail protection wizzard is only in 9x / ME systems and not on NT based systems.
2]
What files need to be allowed has been explained many times on this board. You can find it if you use the search option.
(ashmaisv.exe & avast.setup)
How you exactly setup the firewall depends on the firewall (and version) you have, and your personal preferences.
I copy from the Help Files under Mail Protection Wizard:
“The avast! package contains the Mail Protection Wizard that can be used for easy settings of mail protection. This program can be started via Start button on Windows taskbar, Start ® Programs ® avast! Antivirus ® Mail Protection Wizard”.
I fail to see any statement re WinAnything in the above or neighboring paragraphs. Nevertheless, let us say that the above is true for Win9x/ME only. What about WinNT, etc.? How can one set values for the mail protection parameters accessible through the Mail Protection Wizard?
I am not looking for files. I am looking for the port, protocol, and executable for each listed IP address. Of the many styles you mention, mine is to allow each connection to a specific IP address, for a specific protocol, port, and traffic direction as well as for a specific executable. So far, I have seen firewall requests for ICMP (0 and 8 ) as well as for TCP (two-way traffic) and for an avast executable other than the one the firewall sees. A search revealed 3 or more avast executables present. So writing a proper firewall rule, short of allowing access to everything by everyone, does require some extra info than what is available in the avast FAQ files. As for the recommended search, it did not uncover anything to shed any light on the above.
MS Outlook or Exchange clients are automatically protected by avast! and there is no need to set anything. To protect other e-mail clients, like Outlook Express or Eudora, it is necessary to change some settings to make the mail protection fully functional.
This is true up to avast! 4.5. If you use avast! 4.5 or newer and your operating system is Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003, you don't have to do any special settings, even for other email clients. avast! 4.5 features a new method of email protection that is very easy for the user - it works completely automatically.
2] As you can see from the url’s, it is HTTP. Standard port for http = 80. 8080 is sometimes also used.
I also copy from the help file, the paragraph above the one you quoted.
MS Outlook or Exchange clients are automatically protected by avast! and there is no need to set anything. To protect other e-mail clients, like Outlook Express or Eudora, it is necessary to change some settings to make the mail protection fully functional.
This is true up to avast! 4.5.[i] If you use avast! 4.5 or newer and your operating system is Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003, you don't have to do any special settings, even for other email clients. avast! 4.5 features a new method of email protection that is very easy for the user - it works completely automatically. [/i]
The file that you need to allow access is avast.setup (it only exists at the time of checking for updates), this is what checks if updates are available for the iAVS and avast! Program updates. T ease server load it can be routed to anyone of the listed IP addresses given.