[DKTaber]

I frequent a restaurant less than a mile from my house that has public wi-fi. The first time I took my Toshiba laptop there, it said it was connected, but had "No Internet access". I asked one of the waiters to reboot the router, which he did, but it made no difference. Nobody was available who knew anything about the system.

The 2nd time I tried it, the owner was there. I had the same problem, but two people at the bar had smart phones and both had Internet access. The owner told me that as soon as you connect, you're supposed to see a "Terms & Conditions" statement (a mini EULA) that you have to agree to before you can have Internet access. It did not appear on my Toshiba. I immediately concluded that something on my computer was blocking the "EULA". First thing I tried was to disable Avast's shields. The instant I did, the EULA appeared, I clicked OK and had Internet access.

Why does Avast block my computer's access to the EULA? Which shield is doing it, and how do I tell it not to block this and in fact all public wi-fi connections?

(I have also posted this on Avast's forum, but have never had much luck with responses from it)

[hewee]

Look at Avast "Real-time shields" and I think the Web shield is what you want.

avast! antivirus 7.0 contains the following real-time shields:

File system shield - checks any programs at the moment they are started and other files at the moment they are opened or closed. If anything suspicious is detected, the file system shield will prevent the program from being started or the file from being opened to prevent any damage being caused to your computer and data.


Mail shield - checks incoming and outgoing email messages and will stop any messages containing a possible virus infection from being accepted or sent.


Web shield - protects your computer from viruses while using the internet (browsing, downloading files etc). It will detect and block known or potential threats coming from the web e.g. hacked web pages infected with (potential or actual) malicious scripts. If a virus is detected while downloading a file from the internet, the download will be stopped to prevent the infection from reaching your computer.


P2P shield - checks files downloaded using common peer-to-peer (file sharing) programs.


IM shield - checks files downloaded by instant messaging or "chat" programs.


Network shield - monitors all network activity and blocks any threats that are detected on the network. It also blocks access to known malicious websites based on the avast! database of infected URLs.


Script shield - detects malicious scripts and prevents them from being run. The script shield will detect and block not only malicious scripts coming from the web (remote threats) but also scripts coming from other sources, such as web pages saved to disk or in the browser cache etc (local threats).
Unlike the web shield, the script shield can also detect and block malicious scripts that come from HTTPS (encrypted) connections.


Behavior shield - monitors all activity on your computer and detects and blocks any unusual activity that might indicate the presence of malware. It does this by continuously monitoring your computer's entry points using special sensors to identify anything suspicious.

Your see number/number on each one like 10/0 and then number on the right is what is blocking.

Once you find out you can then under that shield click on "Exclusions".

Also this may get fixed on updates if you have been here in the pass with no trouble because I had this happen to me once in the pass and later a update fixed things.

[DKTaber]

OK, I'll try your suggestions. I was going to go down to the restaurant today, but the temp is 93+ with 80% humidity, so I'm putting it off until tomorrow morning.

[lunarlander]

Avast probably think the EULA was malicious because you did not initiate a request for that web page, but it was sent to you. Hackers are known to do that.

[DKTaber]

Originally Posted by lunarlander

Avast probably thinks the EULA [is] malicious because you did not initiate a request for that web page, but it was sent to you. Hackers are known to do that.

That sounds like a good explanation. I was going to go down to the restaurant yesterday to run tests with Avast, but it was 93 and so humid you could see the haze, so decided not to. May try later this morning.

[hewee]

Good luck and stay cool.

I lived in Dover and Townsend, Delaware on the 1960's so know how the heat is back there.

[DKTaber]

Hewee: FYI, I was born in Dover and lived in a house on The Green. We had to live there because my father was the State Forester. He wrote and illustrated the book "Delaware Trees".

But enough reminiscing. I just went down to the restaurant (Stanley's) to run some connection tests with my Toshiba laptop. . . and came away totally baffled. Here's what I did: Sat down on a bench just outside the building. Booted the laptop. Found the Stanley's connection and clicked "Connect". It connected as usual: Says "Connected. No Internet access". Opened Avast and disabled ONLY the Web Shield. Didn't help. Turned the Web Shield back on and disabled the Network Shield. Bingo (I thought); EULA appeared. Clicked OK and had Internet access. But while connected to the Internet, I re-enabled the Network Shield to see if it caused the computer to lose the connection. It didn't; still had full Internet access. Rebooted the computer to start all over again. Computer connected automatically, EULA came up automatically, clicked OK and had full Internet access with all shields intact.

At one point in this experiment, I got a pop-up balloon telling me "Additional information may be needed. Click to open browser". When I did, the EULA came up in the browser. Happened only one time.

What the he** is going on here? Is this a case of Windows and/or Avast "learning" that this connection is OK and suddenly doing everything right? Mind you, my Toshiba is not the only one that initially blocked Internet access. Have a friend who brought his Toshiba (my old one that I sold to him) and it did the same thing: Connected, but no Internet access. Only after you monkey with Avast, either by disabling all shields or disabling only the Network Shield, does it thereafter behave the way it should. ???????????

[hewee]

Thinks it's all Avast learning or trying to learn.

I moved thunderbird mail from one PC to another but for two years I had to use the run-as and use the Admin account to get the mail to hook up to comcast.
After one of the thundebird upgrades all the trouble went away on it's own.

So what or how your never know. I think it misses getting something right so locks you out tell you play around and the setting gets redone.

So now to have your setting stay for the next time at the place.

[DKTaber]

Well, as I say, I'm not sure what happened here, but it works now, so I've marked the thread as 'solved'.