I just installed Avast 5.0.545 on my XPHomesp3 computer. It went well, although it took a while to update (I had granted access to every ZA prompt) and manually updated which was successful.
What are these .exes that are in Zone Alarm:
Avastsetup.exe (I believe this is the updater)
Another Avastsetup.exe in local settings\temp file
AvastUI.exe (shows orange ball icon)
AvastSvc.exe
Avast ashwebSv.exe (I think this is the webscanner)
I gave Avastsetup.exe and ashwebSv.exe trusted server rights and local and internet rights. What rights do the other .exes require?
I have a question about the Action settings. The default are Move to Chest, if fails Delete, if fails No Action. I changed these to Repair, if fails Move to Chest, if fails ASK. I did this because I’m concerned if a system file appeared to be infected and got deleted that could cause problems.
Can anyone explain if a system file would get deleted? And if something goes into the chest if its a false/positive can it easily be removed from the chest? Should I revert back to the default settings?
It is avast.setup and not with the .exe file type, it is what handles the updates. So I have no idea what this .exe file is that you have posted. Requires internet access.
This is the avast User Interface and amongst other things displays the avast tray icon. Requires internet access.
The avastSvc.exe is the mail avast Service and handles all the scanning as such the various Shields, etc. Requires internet access.
The ashWebSv.exe is the old 4.8 web shield and is a redundant entry in zone alarm (it isn’t a part of avast 5).
The repair function is most likely not to work in a very high percentage of instances. The repair will only work in the case of a virus infection where a) only a small part of a file has had infected code inserted and b) that virus infection has a cleaning routine associated (this isn’t possible for all virus infections).
Thank you, David. It seems I had a couple of Avast 4 items listed in ZA. I tried giving
avastSvc.exe no rights and I got a connection interrupted, page contains no data message. I couldn’t even access my modem. I gave it local and internet rights and was able to get online again.
I am in the process of changing the Action settings to the default. I appreciate your help.
Hi Asyn, I’ll keep an eye out for problems with ZA and Avast. Thank you.
Sorry my bad, the avastSvc.exe does require internet access for the shields that connect to the internet. I have modified my previous post for those who may read it in the future.
I just noticed ZA shows “Avast Service blocked from listening to ports TCP:12080”. I questioned this once before and was told Avast listens to port TCP 12080. I just checked the Avast Web Shield and it shows this forum as the last site scanned.
I don’t understand this. Do you have any idea about this?
That is how avast (web shield) intercepts the http traffic and scans it, it redirects port 80 traffic to localhost port 12080 so that it can be scanned. I can’t believe ZA is having a whinge about listening on localhost ports.
I just checked it again. ZA says it’s blocked, but when I went to a different website, it showed as being scanned in the web scanner. Thanks for explaining how that works.
Well, I don’t know how to change it to allowed. Here’s a screenshot of the notice and the Avast settings in ZA. Do you think the Avast Service needs trusted server rights?
(As I previously mentioned, the Avast webshield seems to be scanning web pages.)
Unfortunately it is many years since I gave up on Zone Alarm, so I’m not familiar with its settings. As in I have no idea what activity ZA would consider being a server task.
The other problem is that your image as large as it is doesn’t show the most important thing, the file names, not all avast files require internet access and in theory only avastSvc.exe may need server authority as that entirely depends on ZA’s interpretation of acting as a server.
One thing for sure if you did give trusted server status it wouldn’t change how avast works. What is crucial is how is it working ‘right now’ with the settings as in the image ?
Thank you everyone for your advice. DJ Bone, you were correct. I gave Avast Service local server rights. The computer required a reboot for the change to take affect in ZA. When I just checked it, it showed Avast Services running in Trusted Zone only (as opposed to blocked.)
Here’s a screenshot of the notice and the Avast settings in ZA. Do you think the Avast Service needs trusted server rights?