Tag Archives: firewall

AVG 8 firewall won’t switch off

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently installed AVG 8 onto 2 PCs on behalf of a customer.

This was the paid-for version… not the free one.

After it was fully installed, I couldn’t see the other networked PC, and I couldn’t print over the network. From either PC.

From experience, I know this is a firewall issue. I spend 5 minutes trying to figure out the AVG firewall, but It’s just too complicated.

So I decide to just disable it from the AVG control panel… but I still can’t see the remote PC.

Ok, I’ll restart both PCs, but still not go… Hold on: are my eyes playing tricks on me ? ! The AVG firewall switched itself on again!

I try a few different options, but the firewall disables the windows firewall and enables itself.

Even uninstalling and re-installing AVG doesn’t fix the problem!

Ok time to get heavy-handed: I go to control panel -> Administrative Tools -> services

I find the entry for AVG firewall, double click, change the startup option to “disabled”, hit OK, restart, and luckily, AVG doesn’t try to restart the service.

Just re-enable the windows firewall, and everything works great!

trend pc-cillin rivalling norton in quality…

Computer Aid Posted on by

Trend is starting to annoy me almost as much as norton.

I saw another customer, whose internet connection dropped out. I ask if he installed anything new, or changed any settings… nope.

I look at a few things, but I just cannot connect to the modem to see if its connecting to the net correctly.

Ping doesn’t work, and vista is falling back to the 169 ip address.

He is connecting using a usb cable… so I try ethernet, but I get the same problem.

He happens to have a work laptop (which he couldn’t connect to the internet, since he hadn’t installed the usb drivers… well, with ethernet, that is no longer an issue.

The XP laptop connects to the internet perfectly.

Back to the main vista PC, I decide to disable everything within Trend (firewall, spam filtering, the lot). But still no internet.

At this stage, my only options are: either uninstall trend (and maybe run a cleanup program), or reinstall vista.

I uninstall trend, and after a reboot, the PC can finally get to the internet. I reinstall Trend pc-cillin, and everything is working normally again.

We briefly discuss creating a business website, and I’m on my way again.

I’m starting to encounter so many trend problems, its starting to look like trend is trying to out bid norton in the bad-quality software stakes!

vista, norton, optus internet security suite 2008 = no internet and 6to4, isatap problems

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another customer calls, saying her internet mysteriously stopped working.

But only with broswing websites (page not found)… email and messenger still worked.

Its burdened with Vista and 512MB RAM… not a good start.

Soon, I see the PC is running both Norton internet security (with an expired license), and optus internet security suite 2008…

It gives a new meaning to the word “slow computer”

Since norton came with the new PC (A nasty trick, as far as I’m concerned), and once it expired, the customer installed optus ISS2008 (without removing norton first)

I spend most of the first hour trying to uninstall norton.

It got stuck right near the end, but eventually completed.

But browsing still wouldn’t work (pings work just fine)

At that point, I said: I need to work on this at the office, as there are too many possible causes, and I need to access a quick computer with internet access to fix this efficiently.

I disable the firewall, but still no browsing.

I get tired of waiting for vista, so I open up the PC, and install an extra 1GB RAM

I figure I might as well uninstall optus ISS2008, as it might somehow be blocking browsing… but I still can’t browse.

I take a look at device manager, and I see about 9 network adapters… I’m no longer sure which are real adapters, and which are used by vista as “virtual” adapters… but I see a few duplicate adapters… it looks strange, but not too concerning… after all, if they caused a problem, then they wouldn’t stop browsing only.

I do an ipconfig /all … and I’m given details on 60 network adapters :-O

Holy S… batman!

There are 43 X 6to4 adapters, and 11 X ISATAP adapters

A search on the net only shows things like “microsoft is aware of the error message… just ignore it, as it won’t affect anything”

Well I’m not buying it… it might have been caused by running 2 antivirus programs simultaneously, but I can’t leave all those adapters in place.

So I go through the registry, looking for isatap and 6to4, and find a few places where they show up. I’m careful when they show up in a group of 60 entries… So I delete almost all entries (except for the lowest number for isatap and the lowest number for 6to4.

I reboot (and cross fingers)… and vista starts without a single problem.

ipconfig looks normal, and a ping works… but still no browsing!

I install firefox and opera, but they cannot browse either.

Ordinarily, I’d say this is a firewall problem… but I’m really running out of options.

I reset the vista firewall back to default settings… still no browsing.

I remember that norton took a long time to uninstall… so I figure: maybe it didn’t fully uninstall.

So I get the latest norton removal tool, run it, and then restart the PC

Once Vista is running (more like crawling), I find I can finally browse 😀

But I’m also fuming at the piece of S… software from Symantec.

It’s now getting to the point where I sometimes have more problems with norton, as I have with infected systems… Grrr.

very messed up XP system (firewall: some settings are controlled by group policy)

Computer Aid Posted on by

A new customer called, wanting a price for Service Pack 2 for windows XP.

It seemed a bit odd, but since I didn’t take the call, and the customer was on my way home, I told Mandy to relay a price of $10, and that I’ll be there in about 30 minutes.

Turns out he had just reinstalled XP, but needed SP2 before he could connect to the internet via a USB 3G connection. So I copy it onto the laptop, and also write down the names of programs he should download and install (once SP2 is complete).

I know there is a bit more to reinstalling XP than just running the installation / recovery CD (install drivers, security, defrag, setup MS office (or openoffice), do all the MS updates, etc). But I don’t mention any of that… I don’t know the customers technical expertise, so I just leave it at that.

Well, a few days later, the customer calls back, saying he still cannot connect to the internet, and would I be able to fix his non-working USB ports.

Seems like I need to complete the XP reinstallation… so I fix most of the drivers (he doesn’t have a driver CD, and there is no recovery partition on the HDD.

After that, I notice a few strange things: the XP firewall is off (and is greyed-out… so it cannot be enabled). There are some strange programs that startup, and usb drives work correctly, but not his USB 3G modem.

I remove the HDD, and scan it from the office PC… and it detects about 30 infected files… I remove the infected files, and put the HDD back in the laptop.

I ring the customer, but he doesn’t know how he reinstalled windows… OK, he probably did a repair install, and so the prior infection lingered on.

But even after I removed all the nasties from the laptop, it still behaved strangely: firewall still wouldn’t switch on; some important services were off (and wouldn’t switch on); once on the internet, I could ping, but not get any web pages (neither ie7, nor firefox!).

So I go through the laborious task of enabling the appropriate services.

And when they wouldn’t start, find a fix on the net (usually a registry setting).

Same with the firewall: when trying to start the firewall service, it would fail with: some settings are controlled by group policy.

A long search of the net finds about 3 different ways to fix this… I find I need to try all 3 before the firewall finally switches on.

Once the firewall is on, everything else starts to fall into place: I can perform windows updates, I can view websites, the 3G modem starts working correctly, etc.

Funny how customers can make a simple request (fix my usb ports), but its actually the tip of an iceberg (of work!)

microsoft update generates a 0X80072EE2 error

Computer Aid Posted on by

After updating a customer laptop to XP SP2, doing a windows update generated a 80072EE2 error message.

A quick search showed that it can be caused by a firewall.

Thats odd. The PC had no firewall before I installed SP2, so the “pristine” XP firewall should be fine.

But since I’ve seen the XP firewall occasionally stop working correctly, I decide to reset it (control panel -> windows firewall -> advanced -> restore defaults).

And thats all that was needed to fix the 0x80072ee2 error 🙂

defender 0X80240022 (no updates) on xp

Computer Aid Posted on by

While doing some other work for a customer, I noticed that windows defender hadn’t been updated for about 8 weeks (from end of Nov 2007 to end of jan 2008).

I tried a “manual” update, but it kept giving an 0x80240022 error (and the last update timestamp wouldn’t change).

Since I was running late, I asked the customer to call me back if it continues to give the error.

About mid february, he calls me back, saying it still won’t update.

when I take a look, I notice that the update timestamp is around the 5 feb… Looks like it got updated since I was last there, but not reliably enough.

I try a few simple things like disable the xp firewall, reinstall WD, but nothing works.

Looking around the net and I see many suggested solutions ie:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2478331.php

http://help.lockergnome.com/vista/Code-0x80240022-Windows-Defender-update-ftopict19351.html

I try them, but after I now end up with a 0x8024402f error.

Another trawl around the net led me to:

http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=693166

but none of those suggestions worked either.

So we decided to just dump defender and go with something like avg anti-malware (since customer was already using avg anti-virus, then AVGAM would have been a simple step.

And there starts another story…

vista update code 8024402C and windows defender 0X8024402F

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer had just purchased a brand new acer PC. They had just got it out of the box, but didn’t feel comfortable with the vista setup. And they also needed me to setup their new ADSL internet.

Everything goes smoothly, except when windows defender updates, it generated an error 0x8024402F.

I try windows update, and I get a very similar error: 8024402C

From experience, I know that a windows restart usually fixes defender errors, but not this time.

A quick search reveals that one option is that the internet connection is being blocked, usually by a firewall.

Well, the only firewall on the system is the vista firewall.

I disable the vista firewall, and then both updates work correctly.

After the updates, everything seems to fall into place, and vista is working normally again (even after the firewall is re-enabled).

cannot connect to windows XP folder share

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had an ongoing problem with a customers network.

He had 2 PCs (XP home and XP pro), and in sharing folders, the pro pc could see the home shares, but the home PC could not see the XP shares… the pro pc would show up under “my network places”, but when trying to view the folders, I got the usual “you might not have permission to use this network resource”.

I tried all sorts of tricks to make it work. The workgroup was the same, I created an identical admin user on both PCs… It should have worked.

A few months later, this customer bought a third PC (vista home premium). I setup the network shares for this as well, and I get a similar issue: the vista and “XP home” shares are visible by all PCs, but the XP pro shares are only visible by the pro PC itself.

After a lot of digging around, I find some evidence that Link Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) Responder (KB922120) could fix the problem. So I install it to the pro PC, but it has zero effect.

The error messages from vista a slightly more descriptive than those from XP… and I start to suspect a firewall problem.

I take a look at the XP firewall on the XP pro pc, but it all looks normal. Nothing unusual being blocked.

I disable the firewall, and suddenly the shares on the pro pc are visible by the other PCs…

OK, hit the advanced -> restore defaults, and the XP firewall is back to behaving normally.

Who would have thunk it?

yahoo.com blocked by Internet Explorer

Computer Aid Posted on by

This one had me stumped for a while:

Customer has dial-up access to the internet, and says she cannot access yahoo and her email.

I figure its probably something blocking the internet connection, eg a connection problem, or a firewall acting up.

Once there, I realise that she cannot access yahoo.com and her yahoo mail… but other websites seem ok.

When trying to connect to yahoo, IE gives an error (I didn’t make note of the exact error, but it mentioned trying again later, check your DNS settings, make sure you are connected to the internet, etc)

Ping yahoo.com.au works correctly.

I notice she is using NIS. I’m suspicious, since I’ve seen norton blocking legit traffic before. Given it has already expired (last update was 18 months ago), I uninstall it… but the problem with yahoo persists.

I figure maybe a bad DNS cache, so i try: ipconfig /flushdns
but still no yahoo!

It must be something with IE… I’m tempted to try firefox… but it would take too long to download.

I look at internet options -> content (but content advisor is not enabled)

I look at internet options -> privacy, but that looks normal.

I look at internet options -> security -> restricted sites (but none are restricted)

I look at internet options -> general, and try deleting all cookies, and all temp IE files (including offline content), and also clear the history. After that yahoo finally works.

I figure there must have been a corrupt entry in the temp cache (or a corrupt cookie), so clearing the cache and cookies, forced the website to download non-corrupt copies.

I install antivir, spywareblaster, and winpatrol, and then my hour is up, and I leave another happy customer.

Update:

I got a call 2 days later… customer can get into yahoo website, but cannot login to yahoo mail anymore. I make an appointment for a second visit, but a day later, she calls to cancel, as the problem has fixed itself (by restarting the PC).

Tricky virus infection

Computer Aid Posted on by

Found a virus infection that could not be cleared easily :-(.

Customer is running Norton IS (suprise suprise), but the kids did a lot of instant messenger (also seems to happen a lot), so this is what I suspect happens:

  • Children and teens are much more suceptible to social engineering attacks, compared to us cynical adults.
  • As kids do the messaging, they occasionally stumble across an offer to download and install 'messenger plus'.
  • They think: wow, the emoticons/smiley faces are much cooler than boring microsoft & yahoo messenger
  • The desire to show their friend their new 'cool' messenger overrides any boring warning messages that a firewall / antivirus / anti-malware program might pop up.
  • Malware is now installed & its downhill from there

In this particular case, Norton said everything is fine, but occasionally, a red box would pop up in the bottom left hand corner, saying something like: warning, your system is infected by a virus.

I think: ok, I'll install and scan with antivir (www.free-av.com) and ewido (www.ewido.net) but they also find nothing!

This is looking like a true virus infection (probably an infected dll)

I take the laptop back to the office & have a think of the best way to fix this.

I can think of 2 options:

  1. I can create a boot CD with the latest anti-virus
  2. I can plug the drive into my main system (as a drive D: ie: not the main drive), & then do a scan from my already up-to-date antivir

Since I'm short on time, I decide option 2. I find some nasties (mostly trojans) & clean them up. Most trojans are very recent (they were added to the antivir list just 6 weeks prior to my scan!).

After that, everything is just fine.

Now, I just need to find a simple way to implement solution 1. above, while making sure I always have the most recent virus definitions… Maybe a boot disk & a virus def. file on usb.

Unless someone has a suggestion, it looks like I'll be spending some time reseaching the latest antivirus applications.

norton IS makes it difficult for most people

Computer Aid Posted on by

I diagnose a faulty DVD drive for a customer.

When I go back to install the drive, he also asks me to see if I can setup the laptop to print remotely to the printer connected to his desktop system.

I had previously setup the laptop, so it can connect to the internet, so I know that the network connection is fine.

I start by sharing the printer. The systems can ping each other (only the IP addresses, not the network names), but the windows networking doesn’t want to play ball. The desktop system has a “my network places” icon but within that, there is just a “MSN” logo… Odd… looks like something is amiss with the registry. Since I know the networking to the internet is working, I don’t want to muck around with finding a registry cure at this stage.

The laptop is new, so its networking setup looks normal.

I try disabling norton IS on both systems, & I can now setup the shared printer on the laptop… I complete the setup (after finding the printer install CD).

Of course, the printer stops working once the systems are restarted (Norton is blocking the traffic somewhere).

I cannot see how norton I.S. could be sold to average people (or worse, be bundled with most laptops sold to people)… there must be a lot of people out there who run their computers & home networks in a very limited fashion, thanks to norton crippling the network & the difficult to use and understand user interface.

Of course not having any security in place is worse, but norton I.S. needs to be more intelligent… to know what is legit local traffic & what isn’t

Anyway, the solution is buried in the N.I.S. firewall, I need to make a change to the advanced settings, in order to allow printer traffic.

An awkward solution, but it works.