Problem : Mail/Web Shield "Cannot detect"


http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/185/capturedcran20120407035.png

The Avast error message suggests me to reinstall the app, what I did.

And I do not know if there is a relationship, but Mail.app is unable to reconnect to my iCloud/Hotmail accounts.


http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3834/capturedcran20120407040.png


http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/3834/capturedcran20120407040.png

Edit :

Every time I start the app I have this message :


http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4908/capturedcran20120407191.png

I had a similar issue yesterday when I installed avast for mac for the first time.

Check your syslog for errors. Mine were related to my hosts file. Avast didn’t like any host entries with underscores “_”. Once I commented them out, everything was fine.

Hostnames are not allowed to contain underscores, see the corresponding RFCs (952, 1123, 1035)

The state of “cannot detect” happens when the shield should be running according to the configuration, but the shield does not seem running, or its PID file is missing.

Can you check the process “com.avast.proxy” is running (use e.g. Activity Monitor and select “All processes” in the combo)?
Can you check if the file /var/run/avast/proxy.pid exists and contains the right process ID?
If you start the GUI app. and it asks to repair, it generates a file /tmp/avastinstscript-[NUMBER].log. Can you provide it so we can see what the repair does? (There should be two files from about the same time corresponding to the repair, send both).

Thanks for the report.
Mity

“com.avast.proxy” is not running.
I have “com.avast.fileshield” and “com.avast.macvast.MAD” x2

I have not found /var/run/avast/proxy.pid. Just “fileshield.pid”

The files log :
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28512354/Rapports.zip

I have this too :

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9554/capturedcran20120408171.png

When I try to disable Mail/web Shield in PrefPane i have an error message.


And a question : how i can disable completely Avast, without uninstall him ?

thx

Can you please post here the contents of your /etc/hosts file? (lines 39-41 should be sufficient)

I deleted all lines in the hosts file. I rebooted, Avast seems to have “completely installed”. Files and processes mentioned above are now present.

Everything now seems to function normally. I have also provided the lines of my original hosts files, and again everything seems to work fine.

One thing to note. I am not an expert with the logs (and I did not look carefully, just quickly) but it seems to me that before I can make manipulation, when I tried to delete lines posing problems one to one , the problem still persisted on line 40 that was so different.

I convey to you even when the content of my hosts file. (please, no comment on it ;))

127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 obdev.at
127.0.0.1 dl-vlc.com
127.0.0.1 www.royalcactus.com
127.0.0.1 market1.the-adult-company.com
127.0.0.1 www3.lesseigneurs.fr
127.0.0.1 www.gambling-france.com
127.0.0.1 www.cashtrafic.com
127.0.0.1 tous-les-concours.com
127.0.0.1 telecharger-vlc.org
127.0.0.1 fr.minisite.diamondsquest.com
127.0.0.1 3dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com.*
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 crl.verisign.net
127.0.0.1 CRL.VERISIGN.NET.*
127.0.0.1 ood.opsource.net
127.0.0.1 209-34-83-73.ood.opsource.net
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.*
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.newoa
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.ntp
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.ipp
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 installer.nemetschek.net
127.0.0.1 piracy.nemetschek.net
127.0.0.1 secure.nemetschek.net
127.0.0.1 obdev.at

I also had this message that was displayed continuously and very regularly. I already put a capture before, I will defer a more detailed.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6686/capturedcran20120411050.png

I can not send mail with Mail.app. so I try to disable MailShield. At that time, the problem came back …

Agreed. I am using an ads block hosts file from mvps.org (http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt), which is where the underscores came from - there are about 10 records in it that incorrectly have underscores. other users who do the same will have similar issues until they comment out the offending lines.

Can you please post here (or send to my mail) the entire /etc/hosts file? The fragments you posted seem to be OK.

There is nothing else. :slight_smile:

Mea culpa. I saw only the visible code fragment…

The problem are the stars (*) on lines 28, 37 and 41.

I am having the exact same issues and I’m not sure where to find the logs you are talking about to post…

Can you explain what it is you need from me to post and where to find it?

I’d love to get this working!

I had the exact same problem and the avast process wasn’t running.

What I found was that first, I am using Snow Leopard. When Apple upgraded, they made some changes to the system and how it acts. To make a long story short, the host file contains 4 addresses to start with in everyone’s system. The last being
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

In most hosts files, people add after that last entry.
Therefore, you need to move it to the end. so, a hosts file example is:

Host Database

localhost is used to configure the loopback interface

when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.

127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
fe80::1%lo0 localhost

A quick note, if you don’t want to waste time with terminal in order to edit the hosts file, download textwrangler from bare bones software (it was free). use the option to open a file, then in the pop-up enter
/etc/hosts

You can then move the fe80::1%lo0 localhost to the end and save. This will save you the hours I spent trying to fix this. Hope this helps.

Fantastic! It’s Working thanks!

Thx, it works !

Hello
I have exactly the same problem … have the solutions you offer above!
Explore what track to solve it?
I do not process “com.avast.proxy” running and when I try to disable the shield in the mail or web preferences I get an error that prevents me to do: (

Hey.

I’m having exact the same problem. But none of the offered solutions are working for me. :frowning:
Other ideas?

Greetz

  • Which version…??
  • OS…??
  • Other security related software installed…??

The newest Free Version for Mac.

Mac OS X 10.7.3

Other Software is just “Little Snitch”.

Thx