Just a heads-up that the Web Shield problem is back – ie: where Web Shield blocks all access to the internet.
I am running Windows XP Home SP3 (fully patched), plus the very latest versions of AVAST 5 (v5.1.864) and COMODO Internet Security, Firewall only (v5.3.174622). I have 5 other PCs with similar security configurations (including Win7 and XP Pro), but so far this is the only one impacted.
The cause is unclear since it occurred immediately after I updated to the latest releases of AVAST and COMODO, plus applied updates to the TOR/Vidalia suite and installed a new FireFox Addon called HTTPS Everywhere (which seems a bit half baked so don’t think I’ll keep).
It was too complicated to roll back and selectively reinstall, particularly since only one platform was impacted.
The only solution I could find was to reset Winsock (as previously reported some time ago as being the solution for a similar problem under Windows 7).
Run:
netsh winsock reset catalog (resets winsock entries)
netsh int ip reset reset.log hit (resets TCP/IP stack)
Reboot PC
I’d sure like to know what the real cause is and why AVAST seems so prone to this kind of system disturbance. But for now I have a fix which works for me and so I thought others may also be interested since clearly this long running problem hasn’t gone away.
Just 30mins ago I download what I thought was (should be?) the ‘latest’ version (874?) from the official AVAST website; but that turned out to be the same old 864 (and thus I blew another precious 56MB off my extremely constrained 3G download limit).
[BTW - why doesn’t AVAST update to the ‘latest’ version when I run the Update Program option under Maintenance+Update?]
I don’t know what caused the problem in the first place so can’t recreate it, but since I’ve now ‘fixed’ it by resetting Winsock and the IP stack, I think I’ll wait ‘til the next stable version hits the streets before changing anything else.
The reason for my post was just to let the developers know that the Web Shield demon has reared its ugly head again, and to remind everyone else that at least one effective fix exists.
