I’m posting here for a friend who previously had Avast. She uninstalled it today and now cannot access any web pages. She’s still online and can connect to things such as Windows Messenger, but she can’t access web pages at all.
Here is what she has to say:
I had noticed that when I turned Avast off, that I would be unable to access any form of web pages. As soon as I click either IE or FF it simply says ‘Cannot display this page.’ I decided to simply remove Avast because of issues where I believed it was blocking me from logging in to certain pages. Photobucket, Facebook, Deviantart, or anything else that I needed to actually sign in on. Now, with
Avast off of my computer, it does the same as when I had turned Avast off. I can’t access any pages at all. My MSN works perfectly, I can log on, and it even displays the current news and goings on. But as soon as I click onto one of the links it does the same. Not allowing me to see the page. I have tried system restore twice. It will restore Avast, but Avast refuses to work for me again.
What is the problem and what’s the best way to fix it?
Well the reverse should be true if avast isn’t installed she should be ale to connect, as the time that this happens is when avast is installed and a firewall blocks avast.
I believe that ‘she has modified the proxy settings in her browser’ to use the web shield proxy (not done by avast) and by removing avast, the browser is still trying to use it.
So have her check the browser connection proxy settings and remove any reference to localhost and port 12080.
Unfortunately that is the only thing that I can thing of that would cause anything like this.
Based on the comment you say she made I had noticed that when I turned Avast off, that I would be unable to access any form of web pages.
That is indicative of a proxy having been set and when the web shield is disabled there is no proxy and a failure would occur, though there should normally be an associated error message relating to a proxy not being available, etc.
The manual proxy settings would also have to have been checked in the IE settings also.
Have (or did) she another Anti-Virus installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?
The problem is that avast doesn’t really hook the internet connections other than its localhost proxy redirecting the http port 80 traffic. This should either work or fail for all sites (http) across all browsers and not just for some pages, it is this inconsistency that is throwing me.
Now at no point was it mentioned how she ‘removed avast!’ as if it wasn’t via the windows add remove programs then there could be some remnants of avast.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, find it here aswClear5.exe and save it to your HDD.
Now uninstall avast! (using add remove programs, if it is still on the add remove list, if it isn’t, start from the next step), reboot.- 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility from safe mode for the version of avast she had installed, once complete reboot into normal mode.
She said she uninstalled it from control panel and it uninstalled normally, didn’t give her any errors along the way. I’ll have her check her IE settings when she gets on.
I haven’t asked her, but I don’t think she has messed with the web shield at all. She tends just to leave that stuff alone, and her internet only stopped working when she didn’t have Avast enabled.
Anyway, I’ll grab this and send it to her and have her use it. Once it’s done I’ll let you know what is going on.
EDIT: By the way, she says that Safe Mode with networking allows her to access web pages just fine.
I had her use the program in Safe Mode, but there has been no change in status when she isn’t in Safe Mode. Anything else that it could be?
As she uninstalled avast and even used the uninstall utility, i don’t think the problem is related to avast.
She can download free Ccleaner to clean her system/registry. http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
You should check if any firewall is running and blocking the net. Also check for proxies.
asyn