Reporting Comodo Firewall was blocking the Avast update with "Host Unreachable"

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello !

I first came to report that
«
I’m Using Avast Antivirus free, and it’s been 5 days program tells me an update is available, I launch the update process, choose the free version, we reach the step 2 of 3 (sending statistics), and when this step is apparently done, BAM!, failure, “host unreachable”.
Look at this screenshot : http://i.imgur.com/fZ8yEJ4.jpg
This isn’t a hosts file issue, I checked. Rebooting didn’t help either.
»

However, just in case, I turned off the Comodo Firewall protection feature (free program version number 7.0.317799.4142) and re-ran the update, and this time, magically, the update worked !

And so, instead of coming to help with updating my program, I’m coming to report there’s a problem between Comodo and Avast ^^;;

More details, in case Avast staff members are interested. I opened Comodo, and then from inside the program browsed until I found how to export the internet activity events log.
Turns out they were blocking numerous events of the same nature, with only a small increment in the outbound port, for instance
«
[i]

2014-11-23 23:20:01 C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast5\Setup\New\instup.exe Bloqué Sortant TCP 192.168.1.12 60401 173.223.10.26 80 [/i] »

My Windows 7 Ultimate security center recognizes both Avast and Comodo, so I wouldn’t have imagined one would turn against the other.

Well, that is it. I thought you might have been interested in reading this report, perhaps ? If you need more information about it, feel free to ask.

Cheers !

2

This is not a problem between Comodo and avast.
You just didn’t set the correct rule(s) for avast in Comodo.

3

Eddy, come on, am I SUDDENLY supposed to MANUALLY MODIFY my firewall so that it allows my antivirus to connect to the internet ?

I never did this with Comodo, and if Comodo asked me if I should allow Avast to connect to the internet that must have been a long time ago, when I installed Avast.

That’s what I came to report.

  • it used to work
  • suddenly, nope

Maybe in such a case the logical reaction would be, rather, to test for yourselves, confirm the problem, and see where something’s wrong between Comodo and Avast, and perhaps contact them afterwards.
Rather than just reply “add a new rule to your firewall”.

4
must have been a long time ago
Things change. Sometimes you need to create a new rule and/or delete a old one. Just remove the rules for avast and try to update. If Comodo asks if you want to create a new rule, say yes.
5

Thing is, Comodo never mentioned to me he was suddenly blocking the program from updating. I had no prompt, no warning, nothing at all.
It’s just out of sheer suspicion that I tested and discovered it was Comodo’s fault.

I don’t call myself a power user, but I definitely don’t call myself a newb either. And even I, in such a situation, I wouldn’t have suspected my firewall : it was only in step3 of the update that the block took place, there was first an apparently successful download, then a second step to gather statistics, and only when step 2 ended did the updating process shutdown itself with “host unreachable”.

That’s not something the average user or the newb would suspect. They’ll just stay with unprotected computers for a while, and then move on to using another AV program after somet ime.

6

Everything is working now?

That's not something the average user or the newb would suspect.
Indeed, but fact is that almost no-one who is using a computer even takes a little time to learn how things are working.