I recently installed avast! Free to replace mcafee in light of the recent .dat disaster but have found since then that i an unable to access two of my secure banking (https) sites. Login page (https) will load but no further access granted on one, while the other will load incompletely.
Strangely other banking sites will load, just (obviously) not these two important ones. Using a windows vista PC, I usually run mozilla, but have tried with IE also with the same result. No specific extra firewall, using the windows vista one (Defender?). Am also running noscript, but was using prior to avast! install without any problems with the two sites concerned. Am connecting via wireless through a secure network.
I’m wondering if this is something anyone else has encountered? i found a topic from 2005 on the subject which seemed to be sorted by loading a new version but am running the latest avast! free available at present. Another 2 topics in 2008 (Topic: I AM HAVING TROUBLE LOGING IN TO ASSOCIATED BANK ONLINE BANKING/ Topic: Secure site log ins, such as banks…settings?), seemed a bit vague and have tried suggestions from there to no avail.
Online support from the banking people has been of little help and am hoping someone out there might have some ideas!
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
First avast doesn’t monitor https traffic (secure encrypted) that is the point to keep prying eyes out. So it shouldn’t be getting in the way so there is something else in the mix.
I’m thinking it may be remnants of McAfee - You didn’t say which McAfee version, so here are the various tools:
had a go with the uninstall programs. just for good measure ran both MCPR.exe (as administrator on vista) and VScleanup (as administrator). MCPR came back with a incomplete log but asked for a system restart anyway, which i did. VScleanup raised a command prompt window, initalised run after asking me to hit any key to continue, then flashed a few command screens and nothing else happened (as far as i can tell…), no complete or successful notifications or the like. Not sure if this is what’s supposed to happen?
Tried to log on to secure sites again this AM, no change to what i described in previous post. Oh and Noscript is set up to allow both sites.
Attempted to attach the MCPR log post run but file (500KBish) was too large. Not sure if it’s of any use to you though.
From my reading and what you’ve described about avast! wondering if it might be something to do with the wireless router/modem? This admittedly is getting somewhat beyond my computing know-how (which is limited) so apologies is thats a stupid suggestion.
There was a similar thread here a number of weeks ago, and it turned out that the clock on the PC was way off.
If your PC does not have the correct day and time, the remote site may make the assumption that a man-in-the-middle attack is being attempted and will refuse to create a secure connection.
I wouldn’t have a clue how to interpret the mcpr log, I haven’t ever used McAfee so haven’t had to go through this process.
What is your firewall now ?
As some have privacy functions that might block the transmission of data between http and https pages.
How do you log on to your bank ?
e.g. do you start of on an HTTP (normal web page) and enter your log on details and it is validated and you are transferred to HTTPS (secure encrypted traffic) page.
If this doesn’t ring any bells/isn’t familiar/relevant - try a repair of avast. Add Remove programs, select ‘avast! Anti-Virus,’ click the Change/Remove button and scroll down to Repair, click next and follow.
If this is still the same try a clean re-install of avast:
Download the latest version of avast, 5.0.545 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/setup_av_free.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn’t save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear5.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for both 4.8 and 5.0).
Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can’t do that start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode, first for 4.8 if previously installed and then for 5.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.- 3. install the latest version, reboot.
Well I don't know if it might be associated with the wifi router as that is likely to impact on all pages and not logging on to banking or secure sites, unless that router has an outbound firewall function (which most don't).
the log-in page is already an https page (https://www3…) This page loads but once log in info is placed, no further action.
Firewall as far as i can determine is Windows Firewall with Advanced Security for Vista 32bit. Vista is upto date. There is no outbound blocking enabled.
I also have spywareblaster lastest version loaded, not sure this is relevant as this was on prior to the problems.
@Pedro, thanks for the suggestion, tech support from sites also suggested and has been updated and seems to be right now for the UK.
Regarding re-install of avast!:
Attempted repair, seemed to work fine. No change to log-in status.
Uninstalled via add/remove program, however unable to enter safe mode to run aswclear5.exe (I have a Thinkpad and this is - as i’ve now discovered, a common complaint dt lenovos propriety software ‘Thinkvantage’ God forbid i’ll actually need safe mode…).
attempted log-on with avast! no longer installed, no change to log-in
re-installed avast! as getting jittery w/o virus protection!
Regarding router firewall:
Appears router has a hardware firewall (Firewall: Enabled)? Have attempted to access using manual to disable but it’s all jibberish to me.
Looks like avast may not be the issue (as i was coming to suspect anyway) but if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, help would still be greatly appreciated!
I don’t know if this (Advanced Security for Vista 32bit) is like or another name for Vista Firewall Control, which is a more user friendly interface for outbound control.
If this Advanced Security for Vista handles outbound connections which it seems, then out this information it might help ensure that avastSvc.exe has full permission, http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=239750. Though it shouldn’t need it since you are only experiencing a problem with some sites and since this is a direct connection to an https page so I’m at a loss as to why there is any hiccup.
SpywareBlaster shouldn’t be an issue as it is a passive immunisation process rather than an active defence.
If you have problems entering safe mode you could try running it from normal mode after having uninstalled avast and rebooting.
As you suspect, I too think that there is something else in the mix. Does this happen if you run the safe version of Firefox, from the All programs (don’t know what it is in Vista, windows start, all programs in XP), find Mozilla, Firefox, and choose the Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) option. This runs firefox without any add-ons (not too hopeful since IE doesn’t work either), it may ask if you want to permanently disable extensions/add-ons or words to that effect, answer NO, you only want to do that temporarily.
Firstly thanks for the assistance working through everything.
Just to let you know, have resolved the problem and as we suspected avast! is not the culprit
It was a router firewall issue which we successfully negotiated and https site load perfectly now.
Cheers again!
