Web Shield Blocks Wikipedia Images (upload.wikimedia.org)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

i have never experienced with such a wierd problem as this.
a month ago, i’ve encountered a problem with wikipedia- images won’t load, no matter if i use chrome or internet explorer, and i didn’t do any changes in the computer.

i thought it was a problem with wiki’s server (upload.wikimedia.org) but… it hasn’t been solved, since now!!
i figured out that there are 2 main suspects that ran along with internet explorer and chrome while the images weren’t loaded:

  • Comodo Firewall
  • Avast AntiVirus
    ok so i closed comodo for a sec, no luck.
    but then! i closed web shield, my last hope… and then! wow! after a month! full month! i can see pics on wikipedia again! turned web shield on and again, no pics anymore.

the server (upload.wikimedia.org) returns a fast ping to my computer using cmd via ping.
i checked all the settings in web shield (and i never even changed 1 setting in avast, not talking about web shield!) nothing that even remind me of wikipedia.

Note: Web shield won’t popup while accessing upload.wikimedia.org via wikipedia, nor network shield or any other shield (sounds like web shield bug).

Avast 7
Comodo Firewall
MBAM scan-on-demand
Sandboxie

somebody? :o

2

update: scan http traffic unchecked/checked in the web shield settings won’t fix the images problem.
seems like a conflict between web shield itself and wikipedia.

it started with avast 6 and even after updating to 7 the problem is still kicking.

3

someone?

4

hmm try checking the ‘scan traffic from known browser processes only’ under expert settings?

if that does not work, i suggest

  1. Download a fresh Avast! 7 package from http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download (to reduce chance of corrupted install)
  2. uninstalling Avast! the normal way with windows
  3. run Avast! uninstall utility http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility (please do it in SAFE MODE! :slight_smile: )
  4. run the uninstall utility (2 TIMES) total, one for Avast! 7
  5. reboot and go into safe mode once more, second time for Avast! 6 (this is because i noted u have updated to Avast! 7 from Avast! 6)
  6. reboot again, this time to normal windows mode
  7. install the fresh package
  8. please report ur findings here =)

note: i am just a normal user here hahas please be patient and wait for Avast! support ppl to post here. they r not robots :wink:

5

did everything you said already, except from the first part, which im familiar with- it has nothing to do with wikipedia and it was designed for problems between web shield and non-browsers traffic.
anyway, thank you for your help.

im not sure if its avast’s fault or not.

6

I’m confident that if this was happening, for a month, to everyone using avast and visiting wiki sites, this would have been brought up sooner.

I’m not saying that avast is not related at all. I’m saying something in your particular system might be having some conflict that results in this strange behavior.

I don’t know how much it could help, but maybe you could attach 2 screen shots, with and without the problem (“attachments and other options”, to the left of “post”).

7

it started without a reason… and its more like 2 weeks.
screenshots won’t help in this case, im sure that it has to do something with avast fault.
i even reinstalled the program after a full uninstall.

web shield doesn’t let upload.wikimedia to go through, not only its blocking it without loggin anything, the data isn’t even logged (when i go into upload.wikimedia it doesnt even scan the link).

8

someone?

9

…

10

avast doesn’t block upload.wikimedia.org images for me.

11

Apparently no one else on the forum has experienced your issue or if they have, they haven’t run across your post yet. Or, it just can’t be duplicated. I recommend opening the avast GUI/maintenance/support and opening a support ticket. When you receive an adequate solution will you please post back here so we will know next time?

12

What browser?

If you are using Firefox with AdBlock Plus, some filter subscriptions may interfere. Malware Domains, Easylist and EasyPrivacy have wikimedia filters in them. Be sure to disable AdBlock Plus on wikimedia.

13

chrome and ie

not ff no adblock or any other addons.

14

someone?

15

up

16

is there any chance that u are using comodo DNS servers? (by default installation of comodo firewall, it changes the DNS servers to theirs)

i remembered not too long ago, i had a problem accessing facebook/twitter while using its servers (about 1 month ago)

found out that comodo DNS server is blocking access (it has some malware blocking capabilities but something went wrong on their side)

try changing the DNS back to your broadband service provider’s default primary/secondary DNS

please report back :slight_smile:

17

comodo DNS was always disabled, as it is now.
i found out that while connecting to upload.wikimedia.org with avastsvc.exe the bytes in (view by comodo firewall) is 20bytes, and it keeps like that, and it wont get more than 300bytes.
without using avastsvc.exe chrome.exe/iexplore.exe will download from upload.wikimedia.org with 65kbps

wierd huh
tried everything, even tried while comodo and sandboxie were closed = NOTHING

18

waiting for new ideas…

19

up

20

maybe someone?