The dreaded http connection block problem... What's up with AVAST ?!?!

I’m using Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, IE9 and the latest Chrome.

I’ve been using AVAST for a couple years already and nothing else has never been installed on this box as far as security software goes (beside Malware bytes).

Everything was working perfectly until yesterday, when I updated AVAST database/engine.

All of a sudden, no more HTTP connection can be made, even local (router admin). HTTPS works fine.

Temporary workaround: I unchecked “Scan web (HTTP) traffic”, everything back to normal, but I guess I’m now missing this protection.

What wrong with AVAST?

I’ve read an official blog post from AVAST about a similar issue back in April, could they have brought back the same issue again?

I have 2 virtual machines on this computer (VMWare workstations) both running XP and AVAST, same version, same DB and Engine update version installed, they connect just fine to HTTP with web traffic scan ON.

I’ve tried uninstalling/re-installing AVAST (twice with the AVAST cleaner) 3 times already.

I’m not going to change anything in my firewall (windows 7 default) as nothing has changed in there and everything was working just fine until the latest AVAST DB update.

I’ve performed a full scan, including a boot time scan with AVAST, nothing found.

Performed full scan with Malware bytes, nothing found.

I did a system restore to the date before the last time AVAST updated its DB/engine… HTTP working fine! Updated DB/Engine, BOOM, no more HTTP connections working, HTTPS works fine.

The strange thing is that on my VMWare XP virtual machines, this isn’t happening, even with the same DB/engine. Could it be a problem between W7 and Avast this time around?

It’s really annoying… I’ll run AVAST without web traffic scan for a little while and see if others report the sime issue on W7 or if AVAST team reports something, but if nothing comes up, I’ll just remove it and got to something else…

Thoughts? Ideas?

I thought I would add this:

My daughter has a laptop with Windows 7 HOME on it, running AVAST. The virus DB is 110530, same as me, BUT, the Program version is 5.1.889 and everything works fine, including web traffic scan.

I will not be updating her program version… I’m wondering if the issue could come from the 6.0.1125 program update then…

from reading your info, all signs point to the firewall in my opinion. its obviously not anything avast related since the update works on 2 vm’s and your kid’s computer. the quick fix should be to delete the avast rule in your firewall and force it to be re-created

Well, I’mm 99.999% sure it’s not the firewall. For one, nothing has changed in my firewall and it was working just fine with v5.1.889. Two, if I turn off my firewall, it still behaves the same, no HTTP connections going through, HTTPS fine.

I can PING and traceroute just fine.

It does work on my VMs and my kid’s laptop, right, but system configs are different. The VMs are running XP, and the laptop is running AVAST 5.1.889…

I would strongly urge you to upgrade from 5.1.889 to 6.0.1125. There were too many issues and/or glitches with 5.1.889. You will find 6.0.1125 is more stable and stronger.

  1. download 6.0.1125 http://filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/download/1f05c500f7b63ab5059bc878c34ae345/
  2. use the uninstaller (follow the directions)http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
  3. use CCleaner http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/4fb7421e246bf93c9debbe95dce27ce1/
  4. install 6.0.1125
  5. relax and let avast do its thing. :slight_smile:

What firewall are you actually using? Do you have avast! excluded from being monitored? Note that the folder to exclude can be different in avast! 6 than in avast! 5. Do you log anything as blocked?

As mentioned 2 posts above, the firewall has nothing to do with this issue… read what I’ve posted… even with the FW turned OFF it’s not working. And for what it’s worth, I did check the firewall settings just in case and AVAST is allowed in and out without restrictions.

I’m using the default Win7 firewall by the way…

Yeah I’m watching AVAST doing it’s thing all right, it’s blocking everything on my computer since the 6.0.1125 update! :wink:

By the way, I went ahead and updated the laptop to 6.0.1125 and its working fine…

So, what else could be blocking all HTTP traffic with web traffic scan enabled?

So far, I’ve been told:
-Firewall (this is NOT my issue)
-Winsock catalog corruption (I’ve already tried the netsh “fix” twice…)
…?

Is there anyone from AVAST actually browsing this forum or are the only support resources are end users of the product?

FIXED

Fact: Problem was NOT the firewall

How I fixed it:
I followed some german guy’s suggestion in another thread, related to the registry entries for windows temp folder…I had mine setup as:

TEMP: %WINDIR%\Temp
TMP: %WINDIR%\tmp

His post was actually mentioning that the windows’ temp folders should be set to:

%SystemDir%\Temp
%SystemDir%\tmp

I tried that, rebooted… bingo works! I thought it couldn’T be that stupid… so I set them back to what they were before, rebooted… no more HTTP connections working!

Got them back to proposed entries, working…

Sooooooooooooo, looks like AVAST was having a hard time with my default windows settings, that is strange since %WINDIR%\Temp and \tmp were both valid as far as my stsem goes…

No idea why all of a sudden it became an issue…

Cheers.

Glad to hear that your problem is now resolved. Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns in the future.