Blocked internett access.

[Reodor]

Luckily it is still Beta (4).
All of a sudden: FF cannot connect.....
IE7 Cannot connect....

Checked my Dells, no problem. Did a speed-test on the line, no problem.
Shut down PCTIS no problem.
Re-activated PCTIS no problem.
But there is a problem.
In Beta 3 I experienced some odd lost connection problems from time to time, no it seems to have changed to will not connect from time to time. So far no lost connection when on the net, only when going on. (Opening FF/IE7).

[Support]

Thank you for your feedback,

To troubleshoot the issue, please try disabling either the AntiSpyware, AntiVirus or Firewall components of Internet Security one at a time, to find out which of the three is causing the problem.

[AChen]

Luckily it is still Beta (4).
All of a sudden: FF cannot connect.....
IE7 Cannot connect....

Checked my Dells, no problem. Did a speed-test on the line, no problem.
Shut down PCTIS no problem.
Re-activated PCTIS no problem.
But there is a problem.
In Beta 3 I experienced some odd lost connection problems from time to time, no it seems to have changed to will not connect from time to time. So far no lost connection when on the net, only when going on. (Opening FF/IE7).

Reodor, so everything works ok with beta 3 and FF regarding the internet connection? Did this occur straight after installation with beta 4? Does this affect only IE and FF or is this the connection in general?

I also saw in you're other thread where FF is slow and in another shuts down randomly? I'll keep all these FF issues in this thread so that it is easier to follow up and I can pass any additional information to the developers.

It would really help if you could provide additonal info to each problems with FF and we'll try to re-create these problems and implement a fix.

[Reodor]

In Beta 3 I had incidents with FF just shutting down in the middle of sessions, but I am beginning to believe that might be a FF problem as it have even happened on one of my Dell's/McAfee. I did not have any connection problems with FF in Beta3 when opening FF or IE7.
In Beta 4, twice yesterday, when opening FF, it never connected to the net. (No blinking activity in the 'double screen' in sys tray). Closed FF and opened IE7 and same result. Disabled PCTISS from sys-tray, re-tested with both FF and IE 7 and was back to normal and on the net. Re-activated PCTISS and still no problems.
Have not yet tested by deactivating/shutting down individual parts of PCTISS like Firewall, A-V etc. Will do next time it appears.
The slow-down refferences is relative to 'nothing installed' except McAfee site advisor. Normally takes a trip around between un-install and re-install of new versions and the difference is remarkable, but far less than when I used SD V5 (252) and AVG (Free). Worse in IE7 than FF, so I normally use FF.
CPU does no longer spike as high from McAfee site-advisor activity at idle as it did before (B1), but tested with screen-saver and cpu-hogging was back, triggered by the saver-activity. Downloaded an aquarium-saver, the fish 'died' as described in another thread, the original windows savers stopped from time to time, like a streaming video on 'buffering'.

[Reodor]

Blocked again both in FF and IE7.
Opened GUI -disabled Firewall -minimized to bar -restarted FF =OK, restarted IE7 = OK!
Sut down FF and IE7, re-activated firewall; Everything works again.

Problem seems to be in the Firewall.

[SteaG]

Hello,

I am currently trying Internet Security for the first time, and I have the same problem : everything is fine for a few minutes... but just for a few minutes.

In my case, it seems it's Site Guard fault. As soon I deactivate it, any application will connect fine to the net. And as soon Site Guard is reactivated, they won't.


By the way, I am very impressed by the huge performance boost brought by Internet Security, you've just won a new customer :)

Thank you !

[Reodor]

Hello,

I am currently trying Internet Security for the first time, and I have the same problem : everything is fine for a few minutes... but just for a few minutes.

In my case, it seems it's Site Guard fault. As soon I deactivate it, any application will connect fine to the net. And as soon Site Guard is reactivated, they won't.


By the way, I am very impressed by the huge performance boost brought by Internet Security, you've just won a new customer :)

Thank you !

You most likely have one or more app frequently trying to access the net for some reason. Download Process Explorer and find them, then be sure they are on 'allowed' list in both Firewall and Site Guard.

[AChen]

Hello,

I am currently trying Internet Security for the first time, and I have the same problem : everything is fine for a few minutes... but just for a few minutes.

In my case, it seems it's Site Guard fault. As soon I deactivate it, any application will connect fine to the net. And as soon Site Guard is reactivated, they won't.


By the way, I am very impressed by the huge performance boost brought by Internet Security, you've just won a new customer :)

Thank you !

SteaG - What other security software do you have installed?

Reodor - You only have ThreatFire installed, is this correct?

[Reodor]

SteaG - What other security software do you have installed?

Reodor - You only have ThreatFire installed, is this correct?

I have nothing but PCTISS and McAfee site advisor.
Have not been 'locked out' lately.

[AChen]

I have nothing but PCTISS and McAfee site advisor.
Have not been 'locked out' lately.

Ok cool :) Thanks. Let us know if the problem returns.

We'll need to investigate SteaG issue with SG disconnecting the internet :)

[SteaG]

SteaG - What other security software do you have installed?

None. I am on Windows Vista Home Premium x86, if that can be of any help.



You most likely have one or more app frequently trying to access the net for some reason. Download Process Explorer and find them, then be sure they are on 'allowed' list in both Firewall and Site Guard.

Hm, I can only find an exception list in the Site Guard settings. And... if I have to put in that exception list all the applications that connect to the internet, I am not sure of the interest of Site Guard ;).

In my case, all the applications were allowed by the firewall. With Site Guard on, their access to the net was blocked, some of them became completely unresponsive, and an important detail I forgot to mention : Internet Security was responsive only if it was in the taskbar (it was impossible to get the GUI from the system tray icon, the only solution was a reboot...).

I have just reactivated Site Guard, and... erm... just to make me feel embarrassed, everything seems to be fine :). I will keep you informed if something strange happens again :).

[SteaG]

Ok, the problem is back once the computer is powered on or rebooted.

Some details, so I hope you will be able to reproduce it :

Once Windows is loaded, I open the Internet Security to be able to switch Site Guard on/off. Then, I launch Pidgin, Skype, Firefox and µTorrent. With Site Guard on : Firefox won't load a new link ; the right button menu on the µTorrent icon in the system tray don't appear (so, I can't access to the application as it starts here as iconified) ; Pidgin is responsive but if I disconnect, it can't reconnect (haven't tried to send a message yet).

As soon as Site Guard is off, everything is fine.

I hope it helps :)

[Reodor]

Ok, the problem is back once the computer is powered on or rebooted.

Some details, so I hope you will be able to reproduce it :

Once Windows is loaded, I open the Internet Security to be able to switch Site Guard on/off. Then, I launch Pidgin, Skype, Firefox and µTorrent. With Site Guard on : Firefox won't load a new link ; the right button menu on the µTorrent icon in the system tray don't appear (so, I can't access to the application as it starts here as iconified) ; Pidgin is responsive but if I disconnect, it can't reconnect (haven't tried to send a message yet).

As soon as Site Guard is off, everything is fine.

I hope it helps :)

Site Guard and U torrent is probably a 'dead end'. Got the same mess trying another torrent downloader. Bottom line was: run torerent down-load, off with all site-guards as You never know where the torrents comes from! Even Pidgin might create problems if it gets used by a 'bad site' for messageing. Skype sometimes creates a different problem. I run 3-4 comps on a router and when using Skype all other comps are blocked off and unusable on the net. Disconnect the net cable and they work ok, but with net-cable connected they sometimes freeze. I have a 100Mbps connection.

[Reodor]

Blocked off again.
Disabled firewall -everything worked.
re-enabled firewall - everything worked.
Same as last time.

[hdavid]

SG and FW uses the same TDI driver (so disabling and enabling might fix the issue in TDI driver). Could you please try to see if you can reproduce the problem when FW is disabled?

[Reodor]

SG and FW uses the same TDI driver (so disabling and enabling might fix the issue in TDI driver). Could you please try to see if you can reproduce the problem when FW is disabled?

Disabled PCTIS FW, enabled Windows. Will keep it running like that and see what happends, but it might take some days?????

[SteaG]

SG and FW uses the same TDI driver (so disabling and enabling might fix the issue in TDI driver). Could you please try to see if you can reproduce the problem when FW is disabled?

In my case, I can reproduce the problem with the firewall enabled or disabled.

[Reodor]

In my case, I can reproduce the problem with the firewall enabled or disabled.

Do You have the same blocking WITHOUT uTorrent, Pidgin and Skype enabled?

[SteaG]

Do You have the same blocking WITHOUT uTorrent, Pidgin and Skype enabled?

You're right, without µTorrent and Skype, everything seems fine with SG enabled.

[swannie]

With SG enabled I can access Skype so far. IS asked me if I wish to access it and I chose allow and no problem. Haven't tried with utorrents as I'm not using it at the moment.( If this is of any help to the discussion)

[Reodor]

Then it was time again.
Blocked access. Tried to shut down PCTISS -but ended with error:
wait operation timed out: Error 258.
The suit did not shut down, the comp froze, left was the big OFF button and reboot.
Rebooted and up and running again.

[tom.tdw]

hi,

uTorrent is probably the root of the problem, won't be able to allow it on the global action list (otherwise you will be venerable to bittorrent viruses)

[Reodor]

hi,

uTorrent is probably the root of the problem, won't be able to allow it on the global action list (otherwise you will be venerable to bittorrent viruses)

Got no uTorrent, got no 'funny' programs at all. Was reading a news paper online when it happened! Had been reading, closed firefox and opened a spreadsheet for some work (Microsoft office 97), tried to re-open Firefox and go back to my newspaper when it happened.

[AChen]

Then it was time again.
Blocked access. Tried to shut down PCTISS -but ended with error:
wait operation timed out: Error 258.
The suit did not shut down, the comp froze, left was the big OFF button and reboot.
Rebooted and up and running again.

Reodor, can you attach a screenshot the next time it appears? and how often does this occur?

[swannie]

Then it was time again.
Blocked access. Tried to shut down PCTISS -but ended with error:
wait operation timed out: Error 258.
The suit did not shut down, the comp froze, left was the big OFF button and reboot.
Rebooted and up and running again.

This exact thing happens to me when I try to shut down PCTIS. Yesterday I did a clean install and couldn't shut down as I had the error 258. I just rebooted and uninstalled but it's a problem somewhere.
Often lately Ihave had a freeze like you Reodor. I have no uTorrents and Skype is off. When I use Skype I have no problem, though. I have the big freeze when I try to do a full scan but that may be the fault of a screensaver. I've now turned that off and a full scan went right through last night. Now with the new install I'm waiting to see what happens.

[Reodor]

Has not occured since last post.
Screen shot difficult as the comp froze ,but the text in message box was same as in my post.
when rebooted PCTIS was off and had to be 'manually' started. Sys tray icon gave no 'sign' of comp not protected.

[debls]

I experienced the same thing on Thursday evening. Firefox was up and when I tried browsing several different sites it would freeze. I could hit stop and try another site and now luck. Closed firefox and could not restart it. I disabled all on guard and everything worked fine. As soon as I enabled everything had the same freezes. Finally had to do a hard shutdown which I hate to do.
Have not tried it today as I am now at work. Will see how things go when I get home.

[swannie]

Well, don't know whether it's a coincidence but since the new install I haven't had the same problem with freezing, Firefox 'stopped' etc. I haven't tried to Shutdown PCTIS yet to see if I still get the Error 258 but will do it when I have time.

[Reodor]

And then blocked again.
This time I managed to shut down the PCTISS without problem and got 'connected' again.
Re-enabled the PCTIS and back to normal.
I miss the opportunity to disable individual guards and firewall in the right-click drop down menu.
Opening the GUI and disable individual guards is more of a hazle than just 'shut down'.

[Reodor]

Blocked, frozen, crashed, Timed out: error 258 = BSOD!!!
If related to my 'Does guards work' question or not, who knows.
But I was blocked out again.
Tried to shut down: Error 258, wait operation timed out. The rest on top.
Nothing left than 'pulling the plug' and re-boot.
Had to re-start PCTIS after re-boot, it was 'off'.
Did an intelli scan that came up clean, but now the sys tray icon keeps on running in scanning modus!!!
Had to do a START - RESTART to get out of that problem.
Seems to be working again, time will tell how long?

[swannie]

Hi all,

I still have the problem that if for some reason during an Intelli Scan I want to stop the scan I cannot. Sometimes (quite often) it freezes and I want to stop it. Even if I leave it for hours it does not close - only a reboot can get PCTIS back to the point when I can do a new scan. Anyone have this problem?

Haven't tried closing down PCTIS recently but ALL previous times I got the same 'Error 258, wait operation timed out' as Reodor.

Also with Site Guard on I often have a problem with Firefox. It freezes and just says 'Stopped'. No Site Guard no problem but then, we need it to be on and working.

[AChen]

Hi All,

Looks like there are 2 issues in this thread:

1. Error 258 upon shutdown (This one has been logged)
2. Firefox freezes when browsing the net and disabling SG solves the problem.

If I have missed anything, please let me know.

[Reodor]

2 issues, but probably linked.
1: Firefox freezes/non responsive.
2: Shutting down PCTIS seems to work and get FF started again, but sometimes shutting down PCTIS ends in 258 and pulling the plug.

[swannie]

Ok - Issues 1 & 2. Have you tried just shutting down 'Site Guard'? That gets Firefox up and working again. It's impossible for me to Shutdown PCTIS - I always get Error 258.

[AChen]

We've been able to recreate some Firefox issues if another security software is installed with the PCTIS. Uninstalling other apps appears to resolve the some of the problems. If you guys could uninstall any other security apps and see if the problem occurs, that would help us to investigate this further.

Debls - do you have any other security programs installed?

[Reodor]

Have nothing but McAfee site advisor and PCTIS.However this has never happened when testing 'bad' sites, sometimes just by reading some news paper online. Just switching page and caboooom.

[swannie]

Only other security software running here is Threatfire... I have SAS, Spyware Blaster and AVG AS only for on demand scans and they aren't running when this happens. Is it one of those? Like you Reodor, Firefox stops when I am reading the newspaper or checking the weather forecast!!!

[debls]

I have PCTIS, Threatfire and Win Patrol on my PC. I've removed all other security software.
I had a problem this morning where Firefox was open and it just froze. I could not even close it. Had to run so I minimized and left it in the tray. When someone went to use the computer later they said it was on the Saving Settings screen as though it were shutting down. All they could do was a hard shutdown.

[Reodor]

Only other security software running here is Threatfire... I have SAS, Spyware Blaster and AVG AS only for on demand scans and they aren't running when this happens. Is it one of those? Like you Reodor, Firefox stops when I am reading the newspaper or checking the weather forecast!!!


I think we may have to go for the paper versions of the news and look out the window for the weather.:D

[swannie]

I'm seriously considering it!!:D

[Reodor]

Blocked again and tried a different approach.
Did not close Firefox, but left it open with the 'timed out' message. Closed PCTIS from sys-tray, pressed 'refresh' on Firefox and problem solved. Re-enabled PCTIS and all back to 'normal'.

[Reodor]

And again!!
Beginning to get tired of this, but on the bright side: Only a few days left!;)
Same procedure as yesterday to get it working again.
I'm beginning to suspect it all to be related to up-dates that for some reason messes it up.

[Reodor]

And off it went again, but this time with a new twist.
Was doing some work with Excel when all of a sudden I was kicked 'off' and PCTIS flagged up red: Smart update failed, please check Your history.
This is partly funny, as I many times have requested the updates to be included in the history files. However I did check, and nothing there as usual!
I tried to do a 'manual' smart update without success. Tried to open Firefox: Firefox cannot connect.....
Shut down PCTIS, lucky this time, and pressed 'refresh' on Firefox - all worked.
Restarted PCTIS, tried a manual smart up-date: OK!

However 'old' friends at the balcony: Please reserve a seat, I might soon be up there.;)

[Reodor]

It seems to be a 'cat and mouse' game.
Today it flagged up the usual : Updates available, but today I did not want to get disturbed and pressed: NO!
I think it, PCTIS, got the message wrong.
'Pages unavailable' was the immediate response as I tried to browse around the recent disasters in the world stock markets. (Hopefully it turns around or I would have to go for 'Free-bee's' in the future and collect falling coconuts for dinner!:D
Tried to do a manual update: Update failed!
Tried to turn PCTIS off, still blocked, had to re-boot the lap-top to get it working again.
Now even the manual update worked like a charm with a bunch of virus update files and some more.
But there is one thing that keeps on working, even if everything else stops: The 'Yellow' reminder of 'remaining days' do You want to renew?
My Compaq has survived both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean some years ago and was used as my main chart and navigation aid. It has survived storms and lightening stroke.It was grasping for air during the V5 introduction where I had to add a pacemaker (+256RAM) to keep it alive. The PCTIS Beta was almost like a light breeze. Something just seems to happen when these programs gets into final release.
I just hope it will survive 3 days more!:)
But as I stand here, almost alone, on the stage with Allibears eggs dripping off my face, I hear the 'bells' of Vecchio's golden medals calling from the Balcony. Saxels diplomatic soft whispers I have not heard for a long time, but now and then I have noticed Keith's comments in the corners. How nice it would have been to have You all down at the stage again, and we might be able to wake up the sleeping Maestro in the orchestra ditch. I think he might need a kick in the but to get the players in the orchestra tuned in again before they start on the old refrain from V5.

[allibear]

However 'old' friends at the balcony: Please reserve a seat, I might soon be up there.;)

Shall I get the eggs painted up in lots of nice bright colours for you?

After all Easter is fast approaching.:D

[AChen]

Hey Reodor,

We'll continue to investigate this issue and if we require some additional info, I'll let you know.

[Saxel]

Hi Reodor
Saxel still takes a seat in the balcony from time to time but these days spends more time over at the SAS forum - but unfortunately the entertainmant value is not so high.
With all the leading players leaving the stage is the play or should I say farce about to end ?
Perhaps we really do need a dedicated PC Tools ex user forum where we can reminise together.
Very best wishes to you all.