I just installed SuperAntiSpyware at the suggestion of a forum member and it found a few things Avast didn’t pick up.
After that I went to MajorGeeks.com and downloaded a free firewall, Sygate.
Now when I go to update SAS, it says it can’t connect and to make sure your firewall isn’t blocking SuperAntiSpyware.exe. I go into Sygate and click the SAS icon and change it to “allow” and still get the same message. Even when I check “allow all” or shut off Sygate completely, I still get the message.
Any ideas? Or should I just delete Sygate and get a different firewall?
There should be no incompatibility, they do different things.
The job of a firewall is to block unauthorised outbound connections or challenge changed processes, when the firewall still blocks when you have clicked allow, delete the entry completely and that will force the firewall to ask permission again.
All that said I wouldn’t use Sygate, it is old and unsupported so isn’t being developed and when effectively dropped had some vulnerabilities. So I too would suggest looking at another firewall which is still supported and being developed.
Then in theory it isn’t a firewall issue but another problem.
Though I don’t like the term “I deleted Sygate from my computer” as it doesn’t imply a correct uninstall, which could leave remnants of the firewall that could still cause issues.
Do you have problems updating any other security software ?
Try MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (MBAM), 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. Once installed see if you can update that.
Although it probably does not matter at this point, I have BOTH Sygate and
the FREE Version of SUPERAntiSpyware on my computer for years and have
had no problems updating SUPERAntiSpyware .
You MAY want to contact the Forums of SUPERAntiSpyware at http://forums.superantispyware.com to see IF there has been a similar
problem reported and resolved and/or start your own “topic” on those forums !?
Well now we have two security applications that have problems updating so I start thinking malware blocking rather than firewall blocking.
– HOSTS file redirect a common malware tactic to block AV sites making it difficult to remove malware - 127.0.0.1 check your HOSTS file using notepad or a text editor of your choice, C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts or do a search for HOSTS to find it if not there.
Start of entries inserted by Spybot - Search & Destroy
…and then a long list of entries. I don’t even have Spybot on my computer anymore!!!
Am I looking for certain things in these entries? Or should I be looking for entries put there by other antivirus/malware programs? Not sure what to do with this.
Scrolling thru the list, it contains ONLY entries put there by Spybot. At the end of the list, it says “end of list of Spybot entries” or something like that. I’m not sure I understand your instructions on what to do with it, though. Am I deleting the whole list but saving it first in a separate file in case it screws something up by deleting??
Still the same remove the entries I mentioned only, as a list that isn’t maintained is worse than useless, and it isn’t easy to look through it to ensure that something hasn’t inserted anything into it.
So this line and above it is OK:
127.0.0.1 localhost
David, ran into a problem. I first had to right-click the file icon to open it and selected NotePad. I highlighted and deleted the long list of entries. When I went to save it, got a message saying it “couldn’t create the WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\host file - make sure the path is correct” . It only let me save it with a new name as a txt. file. But the host file is still in the “etc” folder and when I open it again, all those entries I deleted are still there!
(by the way, I haven’t seen that annoying popup in Yahoo Messenger since downloading the NoScript and logging out of that Chat/Text window following the instructions on the link I found)
I see that you now have more than 20 posts which will permit you to update your profile to include signature information.
Go to PROFILE then Modify Profile then Forum Profile Information then Signature: and put information about your system if you like just like my sigature.
If you are using Vista or Windows 7 then the HOSTS file can only be replaced in Administrator mode so you have to select Notepad to Run as administrator.
Didn’t you do as suggested and select the All File option:
Now save the file, make sure that you have the Save as type: value set to All Files and ensure that a .txt value isn't added to the Hosts file name.
Whilst the NoScript add-on is good for when you visit sites for the first time, if you allow sites you visit regularly to run scripts then this protection is lessened. When I make permissions for a site permanent, I only do it for that site, not third party sites which may also have scripts on that site.
There may well be some 3rd party scripts that will need to be enabled fo it to function fully, that is done by enabling (temporarily) them one at a time to find the essential one/s. You then disable those that aren’t essential and perhaps allow permanently those you consider essential. Whilst this seems like a lot of leg work, it doesn’t take long to sort the sites you visit regularly, but the added protection is worth the hassle I believe.
David, I tried selecting the All Files option but it still only saves it as a .txt file.
Even though the name of the file shows in the subject line as simply “hosts” and not hosts.txt, the only new file that appears in the “etc” folder is a new “hosts” file that is a text document. The original ‘hosts’ is still there with all those entries from Spybot intact…
Hi Jet :