no more alerts

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello;
I have no more alerts from avast 4 free edition since afew months. What must I do? Thank you very much for your help. (I have windows Xp home edition)

2

What arerts are you talking about, virus alerts, VPS updates, etc. what ?

3

virus alerts only

4

If you do not have virus alerts that means you’re clean. Why are you so worried?
Why don’t you schedule a boot time scanning with avast or run a thorough scanning into Windows to see if you’re clean.
Do you have any other security program? (firewall, antispyware, etc.)

5

By virus alerts, that is what we hope for, not to have any infections so the system would be silent. I guess your concerned because of past experience of alerts and you want to be sure avast is working.

You can test alerts by use of a harmless test file.
Web Shield Test - Click this link directly http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com and you should get an alert

There are others at http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm, but they do pretty much the same.

You can test the security of your email system here: http://www.gfi.com/emailsecuritytest/

So as Tech said, do you have any suspicion that you might be infected but avast hasn’t alerted ?

6
You can test alerts by use of a harmless test file. Web Shield Test - Click this link directly http://www.eicar.org/download/eicar.com and you should get an alert

I did not get an alert.
I thought it was because I changed my configuration to connect directly to the Internet.
So I changed Firefox connection to manual
HTTP Proxy name: localhost port: 12080
shut down Firefox
rebooted the computer
started Firefox
double clicked on the weblink quoted above…
all I got was my browser asking where to save the file.

This was not the case when I did a similar test in May or June of 2007.
If Avast! did this then I would have remove it from my computer.
If this software does not alert you about a test malware file I think there is a problem.

Avast! did find the three files that got passed the Web Shield test when I manually scanned them or manually scanned the download folder.
Avast! did not alert me when I double clicked one of them. And that scared the #$@% out of me.

Any ideas about what is wrong?

thanks for reading,
bearz

I forgot to mention I manually updated Avast! during this test. It is build Sep2007 (4.7.1074) VPS file version 071031-1
I am using Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2

7

Are you sure the web shield is running, check the on-access scanners, or What avast processes are running in Task Manager, they begin with ash or asw, see image (particularly ashWebSv.exe) ?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/for-dwr/ashresources.gif

You shouldn’t have to set the proxy in firefox as with XP the web shield proxy should be transparent, e.g. you don’t have to make any changes to your browsers.

8
You shouldn't have to set the proxy in firefox as with XP the web shield proxy should be transparent, e.g. you don't have to make any changes to your browsers.

That’s what I thought I did not remember having this issue earlier this year.
I just had to be sure it was not a configuration issue.

I attached a clip of which 5 ash*.exe files are active.
It looks to be the same files.

9

Which is your avast proxy settings?
Which is your WebShield redirection settings?

10
Which is your avast proxy settings?
HTTP Proxy name: localhost port: 12080
Which is your WebShield redirection settings?
port 80

the only Avast! configuration changes I made are:

  1. turned off the voice alert
  2. delay loading of Avast! services after other system services
  3. combine icons
  4. stopped the spinning icon
  5. changed the sensitivities to high
  6. turned off the email tagging

I did not change Avast! port configurations or WebShield redirection settings.

11

You should change…
Port 80,12080
Uncheck the option to ‘Ignore local communication’.
Close everything and boot.

12
You should change... Port 80,12080 Uncheck the option to 'Ignore local communication'. Close everything and boot.

Tech;
I applied the configuration changes you posted.
It does not work unless I change the Proxy configuration for the browser.
I thought the WebShield would be a something transparent to the user, like no user configuration issues.

Now can you explain to me why double clicking on the eicar.com file that got pass the WebShield did not cause an alert.
Please understand I do not want to flame, troll or belittle but I have recommended this software to several friends and relatives.
Most all of them would not know the difference between a proxy and a cloud in the sky. Now I feel really down about recommending this anti-virus software.

DavidR;
Could you please share your Avast! and browser configurations.
Are you running a software firewall? If so which one?
I am making the assumption you have gone to eicar.org recently (like today) and got an virus alert when you tried to download the eicar.com file.

I really really really hope this is a problem on my end. I am going to try not running Zonealarm version 6.5.737 to see if that solves the problem.

Tech & DavidR thanks for your help.

thanks for reading,
bearz

13

When in a non-transparent mode you must change both.

Unless you use a local proxy… Sorry, I’ve messed two threads about it and now I realize that you’re not using a local proxy… so the scanning should be transparent… My fault.

I never thought you were flaming or trolling… don’t worry. Just that we aren’t able to solve your problem at the first time.

14

I found my problem…
First I set Zonealarm not to start with windows then booted.
Still no alert at eicar.org.
I uninstalled zonealarm then reboot.
Avast! worked as it should. I got notes about things coming down the pipe. And got a virus alert from eicar.org as I should.

I did make changes in zonealarm about allowing servers for every file that started with ash* it still did not work.
This gave me the reason I needed to dump zonealarm. Now Comodo is the new software firewall.

Would love to know what changed to screw up my anti-virus security.
I think that an update came in and fouled up Zonealarm.
It never asked about permission changes for updated Firefox software today.

So I can say the WebShield problem was here. The family and friends are not as unsecure as I had feared.
I never recommended ZoneAlarm to family, only to very knowledgeable friends.

Now about that double click issue…

15

I don’t think it was a case of avast fowling ZA but the bug in ZA when run under Vista as mentioned by Vlk.

Now with ZA running under Vista for some reason the transparent functionality of the web shield proxy was disabled. So it wasn’t scanning anything, even when you stopped it running on boot there are as Tech said some virtual device drivers loaded in the registry legacy keys.

avast may well have seen those and disabled the transparent proxy, but that is speculation on my part. Or when asked about the compatibility question you answered incorrectly for the ZA version you had and that would disable the transparent proxy, I think this is the more likely reason.

As for double click issue, it would get past the web shield if the transparent proxy wasn’t enabled then nothing was being scanned by the web shield.

16

Whoa dude I run Xp pro.
I have come to realize the problem is with ZoneAlarm Pro 6.5.737
One person I recommended Avast! to is running ZA Free 7.x. in Xp Home. She does not have the same problem I did.
My son’s computer has XP Pro with Zonealarm 6.5.737 free. He does not have the same problem.
I don’t remember Avast! asking about ZoneAlarm during the installation. If it had I know what version I have.
(I have big issues with ZA Pro. Another topic maybe.)

I did not mention before that I removed everything Avast! from ZA permissions list and rebooted.
ZoneAlarm should have asked about for new permissions for at least two Avast! services on startup and it did not.
So I uninstalled Zonealarm pro. Then tried again at eicar.org and Avast! worked as it should on the HTTP download it did not work on the HTTPS download. Can not have everything. I am glad I found and fix the problem.

I think Tenny should look at his software firewall.

Who is vlk? And why is he/she accusing me of running Vista ;D.

17

It won’t work on https as that isn’t http traffic, it is encrypted traffic the whole point of encryption is to keep prying eyes out, including AVs, so the web shield 'can’t scan encrypted traffic, nor can any other AV.

If you have ZA Pro avast should most certainly have asked about compatibility as the issue is with ZA Pro’s privacy function.

http://www.avast.com/eng/webshield_issues.html
  • ZONE ALARM - AVAST Web Shield compatibility dialogue - Install/Update Question - YES or NO

If you are using ZoneAlarm Pro and Privacy Control in ZoneAlarm is set to High and if you click YES in avast compatibility dialogue box the transparent mode proxy in web shield will be turned off you have to manually configure browser to access internet. To manually configure your browser watch instructional video

If you answered incorrectly, Locate the line containing ZoneAlarmCompatibility= and delete that line (avast will ask again, answer YES) or change the value to =1. Save the edited avast4.ini file.

Use a text editor and edit the avast4.ini file, the default installation location is C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\avast4.ini (I would advise you copy avast4.ini before editing it, just in case).

Manual browser setting tutorials:
For IE - broadband users: - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE
For IE - dialup users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for IE (Dial-up)
For Firefox users - Tutorial - Web Shield Proxy Set-up for Firefox

The later versions of ZA 7.x on seemed to be fraught with problems.

Vlk (is one of the Alwil team, an avast developer) isn’t accusing you of anything, he said in a different topic, ZA has a bug relating to Vista (and subsequently the web shield), it was my assumption that you were using Vista not Vlk.