I have problem with avast on my laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Everything is OK for some time than Avast (Web Shield) blocks all web pages. All communicators work, VNC etc.but not web browser.
When I stop the Web Shield everything is OK.
I was using Avast more than 3 years maybe more and never have any problmes.
Can you help me.
My firewall is Zone Alarm free edition Avast has permision to access the web. The auto update is working fine.
Avast is UP to Date.
Believe me stranger things have been known of ZA and ZA has form for forgetting the permissions for files that should be allowed access and are shown to be allowed, yet don’t.
Delete the entry as suggested by Tech.
Personally from what you describe there is something else in the mix as avast I don’t think it would be involved in VNC (Virtual Network Computing).
Have you just updated ZA Free ?
The reason I ask is that it installs the Pro trial which comes with the Privacy function and this seems to get involved when there is a transfer of a password or other privacy data involved. We have seen that in the past too where the Privacy function locks horns with the web shield.
Did you happen to have got a compatibility screen pop-up relating to ZA and the Web Shield ?
i had installed free version of Zone alarm with only the firewall component nothing else.
I was running Avast and ZA for years with no problems so I’m in shock what is going on with my laptop maybe it is something with vista??
ZA and Avast are up to date with all actual updates.
I will try to uninstall all today and reinstall first avast than ZA.
I have the very same problem. Avast Home, Vista Home Premium, ZA Free and get random lockups. Firefox locks up and I have to hit the power button to get out. This is a new Lenovo Y430 and I did run the Norton and McAfee removal tools before reinstalling ZAF and Avast. I’m not sure it is actually Avast as I have a friend with the same problem but using NIS. He is constantly hitting his reset button. Looks like it is some sort of conflict with Vista. I’m ready to go back to XP.
If I were you, I’ll isolate the problem uninstalling ZA and trying to get a stable situation.
Then, already running avast, we can try the firewall.
Just to be sure, run the specialized tools to remove McAfee and Norton again (the Control Panel, Add/Remove is not enough).
Should mention that I uninstalled ZAF and went with the Windows Vista firewall. I installed Sphinx Vista Firewall Control which gives you control of outgoing with the Windows firewall. It locked up Firefox too. How it all connects I do not know. Still trying.
I just installed the latest version of Avast on my wife’s Vista Home Premium machine and am seeing similar behavior. All http connections are blocked, but https is fine. The problem is definitely Avast related as I have repeatedly uninstalled and reinstalled a number of times and got the same behavior every time. Each time I have used the aswclear.exe to remove Avast in safe mode. I have also gone through and attempted to remove all other antivirus software as some threads have suggested that this may be the problem. I am a long time Avast user on XP, but am very disappointed with this performance on Vista. Has anyone discovered the solution to this problem? I’m prepared to make a few more attempts if there is a good solution/suggestion, but I’m nearly ready to jump ship and install AVG instead.
For any of you who have application firewall (Zone Alarm, Online Armor, Comodo, any other), you should start your PC, wait for the boot completion and you should see a popup from the firewall informing you about new program trying to communication on the Internet. (ashWebsv.exe - WebShield). If you did not see that, it is also possible that your firewall has automatically allowed our process, you should than verify that in the application rules or whatever means the firewall has to control its behavior.
In case of problems I recommend the following:
log in
terminate the WebShield provider
verify that the ashwebsv.exe process is terminated in Task Manager (there are times where firewall may block the initial network initialization in webshield and the whole process remains blocked until actually terminated)
if ashwebsv.exe is still in Task Manager after a minute or so, terminate it from there (you might need to disable Avast Self Protection to be able to do this)
open your firewall application control and remove any references for the ashwebsv.exe process. There should be some - if not, your firewall appparently failed to spot the process started
now start the WebShield provider, if you have removed all references in firewall you should either see a popup informing you of automatic detection of good program, or you might see a question whether you want WebShield to be allowed or not. Please answer yes.
If this dialog does not appear, or ashwebsv.exe does not automatically show in the application page in firewall and Web does not work - then again the firewall failed to work properly.
if you answered yes, it should work properly now and for several milions of new users on both XP and VISTA each month this process completes perfectly
This is also true after any update of avast program. You should be notified that the program ashwebsv.exe has changed. If not, your firewall might be too benevolent, if the web stops working without any popup - your firewall might have troubles detecting network requests during boot.
The reason why you see this is the fact, that WebShield as a service starts pretty early in the boot process. Usually the user is not yet logged in when the WebShield starts and wants to listen on the localhost interface. Now, if the firewall wants to display the popup message for you it can’t since the user is not yet logged in. How the particular firewall handles this situation then differs for every product. Some display the popup later, and all that is needed is a new restart, some don’t display that at all, and they silently block WebShield network activity, and some somehow manage to handle that unnoticed. (the WebShield process is signed by Alwil Software and can be easily verified to be unmodified, so handling this automatically is possible for the firewall).
We have seen problems of this kind with Zone Alarm and lately with Online Armor but in general every firewall should notify you about the fact, that the program has changed and suggest some solutions for you.