I’m new to Avast! (after finally having abandoned NAV) and am trying out Avast! Home Ed 4.6.691 on a Windows 98SE system.
With WebShield activated some HTTP port 80 connections seems to bypass the WebShield proxy.
These are detected as coming from the local computer’s IP - 192.168.0.2 (not from WebShield or IE), caught by the firewall (ZA Free 5.5.094) and are blocked.
This happens to a few (typically 2 or 3) HTTP requests when visiting “link-intensive” pages like www.expressen.se or www.aftonbladet.se (Swedish newspapers, BTW…).
As far as I know, this can happen if a connection attempt from the browser is unsuccessful, which suggests that the WebShield proxy has a problem handling many requests at once, some kind of overflow problem?
The last page you mentioned is opening witout any problems here with webshield enabled.
If it is: net > za > avast
Then it can be logically explained why the where blocked by za and Avast did not respond to them.
Since ZA already blocked them, they can’t reach Avast.
All three links open fine with firefox and webshield enabled, I’m using win XP Pro and not win98 however.
Have you manually set your browser to use the web shield as this is required with win98?
Extract from avast help file:
The provider works as a local proxy server. On NT-based operating systems (Windows NT/2000/XP/20003) the protection is completely transparent and it is usually not necessary to configure anything special. To enable the Web Shield on Windows 9x/ME operating systems, it is necessary to modify one setting in the Internet Options - in particular, the address and port of local proxy. So, if you want to use Web Shield on an older operating system.
[b]Windows 95, 98, and Millennium[/b]
Well, these are outgoing connection requests, from IE to the proxy (WebShield) that are blocked by the firewall after bypassing/overflowing/“leaking” from the WebShield proxy?!
I’d say it’s: IE > Avast (proxy) > ZA > net (via router)…
Could be a pure Win98 issue, then…
(Guess the problem will be solved with my planned upgrade to XP Pro…)
Have you manually set your browser to use the web shield as this is required with win98?
Yes, proxy: 127.0.0.1 port 12080.
By enabling "show detailed info...", I have verified the WebShield proxy works OK with all "normal" pages. It's only with "extreme" pages that some connection requests seem to bypass/overflow/whatever the proxy.
In Win98 webshield captures only connections that are explicitly directed to it. That is why you are telling your browser (Internet Explorer) to use the proxy server on localhost:12080. Any app that ignores this setting (or simply uses it’s own methods of specifying proxies - if proxies are supported for the app at all) will of course bypass WebShield. Sorry to say that, but that’s how it works.
I have a similar problem that we haven’t been able to resolve yet. When I try to open Google’s main page with Web Shield enabled, the page does not load. Instead, I get a popup stating that I’m about to download an application/octet-stream and it asks if I want to save it or open it with another application. This happens only when both Web Shield and Comodo Personal Firewall are enabled. It does not happen if either is disabled.
This is apparently stumping the Avast people and the Comodo people. Since I don’t feel like changing firewalls again I’ve just disabled Web Shield for the time being.
There are several threads talking about the same issue. I did not start those threads but I commented that I have a similar issue.
Perhaps you can merge them?
To be fair, this is a really strange problem. It is complicated by the fact that, in my case, the Avast software and the Comodo software received updates on the same day. So, it’s kind of hard to tell which update created the problem. It’s also possible that only a certain combination of software and settings creates the issue.
I can recreate it at will, but so far that hasn’t helped much with the troubleshooting process.
Since my home page is www.google.com, and that is one of the sites that nearly always has a problem, the problem occurs by simply opening my browser. It doesn’t happen 100% of the time, which is odd, but it happens most of the time.
I’ve also noticed that once in a while things will work as they should for a while before the problem occurs. I have no idea why. Sometimes I can open Google or gmail with no problem, and both of them usually have the problem. In those times, I usually will get the problem immediately if I close my browser and try again.
I don’t have anything else running that would be interacting with the network. My resident programs are Picasa, a Kodak program for my digital camera, Gmail notifier, Avast, Comodo firewall…and that’s about it.
I’m fairly certain that I don’t have any other resident nasties running because I do regular scans for spyware and that sort of thing using multiple programs.
I agree that this is a very strange problem, and I wish I could provide better information!
WinXp/SP2 + latest fixes from MS.
IE6 + latest SP and fixes from MS.
Avast 4.7 HE, auto updated as needed.
Comodo Personal Firewall, latest version (I believe, not at home right now).
Windows Live messenger (does it matter?)
Homepage set to google.ca
Avast has WebShield turned on (turning it off fixes the problem)
CPF has Application Behavior Analysis turned on (turning it off fixes the problem)
Reboot.
Start IE6.
Instead of going to the homepage, IE displays a popup as below:
