"Removed by HIPS FW"

Foolishly, having received CA ETrust/Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware for free at a trade show, I decided to install it.

I didn't like it. (Wouldn't update, slowed down my bootup, etc, etc)

I tried to uninstall it with the various uninstallers. Lots of problems.

Tried to manually delete it, but there are bits of it somewhere because some frames in some websites I visit in both Firefox 2.0.0.3 and IE show "<-- Removed by HIPS FW -->". And it also seems to be doing something weird with my http_referer.

I've searched the whole c: (including system and hidden files) for "HIPS FW", nothing.

What I've deleted:
everything in c:\program files\CA
all the registry entries for CA
all the registry entries for HIPS (I think)
I've disabled, but haven't managed to delete "HIPS event Manager", "HIPS Firewall Helper" and "HIPS Policy Manager" from services.msc
I've run HiJackThis and I can't see anything related to CA or HIPS.

Sometimes, the <-- removed by HIPS FW --> is just annoying, other times it makes some pages useless.

Aargh. Wits end.

Oh yes, it's Windows XP SP2. AntiVir Personal Edition, and Comodo 3.0 (v2.4.18.184)

Help.

 

Hi, FishIsGoodForYou

Welcome to Wilders Forums.

Have you looked in hidden devices, for left over drives.

My Computer>Properties>Hardware>Device Manger>View>Show hidden devices.

If any are found, right click on them to uninstall, you will need to reboot.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

System Restore might be an option (if you have a suitable restore point).

It's not clear, from what you are saying, exactly how much was removed by the official uninstallers; whether they failed to run succesfully or did run but didn't do the business. Sometimes these problems occur when you fail to fully disable and exit from the progs before running the uninstaller, and then fail to reboot after the uninstall; the reason being that if parts of the prog are still running in the background you won't get a clean uninstall. Also you need to ensure any other security progs (FW etc) are disabled and exited before running the uninstaller (and installer of course) in case they interfere with the uninstallation.

If you get into a muddle with an uninstallation and then attempt to manually uninstall all the files and Reg entries this can lead to problems so, if this was me, I think I'd probably bite the bullet and start all over again. Namely, I'd fully disable AntiVir (better still, uninstall it, followed by a reboot) and disably my FW and any other security progs; then re-install the CA AV prog, reboot, run the uninstallers, reboot again and see if that time you have better luck.

 

Thank you TheQuest!!!

I didn't know there could be hidden device drivers. Found kmxfw, kmxcfg, kmxstart and uninstalled them. Rebooted. One explorer.exe hang, restarted, rebooted, then, everything was normal. Beautiful.

Thank you. That was the vital info I was missing.

TopperId,
it's been ages since I started down this road, so I don't remember the exact error messages with the de-installation. But, I do remember that the uninstaller would complain about something missing, and, when trying to do a reinstall over the top, it would say that there was an installation in progress already (yes, Installation, not uninstall).

The main symptom was that, in "normal mode", updates wouldn't work. Then some parts of the client interface would start up, but only with complaint, ie, very slowly, and not all the menu options were available.

Somehow the installation was broken. Probably some incompatibility with all the stuff I'm running, somehow.

I really didn't want to do a manual clean up because I knew it would be ugly.
I tried everything I could to remove the software before trying this.

Anyway, while in theory, a system restore could be a way to put the machine back to a state before the CA AV install; the system restore would also wipe out all the other installations/changes that had happened on the system between the install and the de-install. Keep in mind, I ran it for about 4 weeks before deciding it was doomed.

Thank you everyone who read about my problem and thought "I'm glad I'm not in his shoes"

Keep up the good work.

PS: For completeness, I'll list the registry entries that I deleted:
anything relating to UmxPol, UmxFwHlp, UmxCfg and UmxAgent

 

hi.. i installed CA Internet Security Suite about 6 months ago, and reading the things about the HIPS i wonder if this is the culprit or not.. (im a bad speller at times to hang in there)...

it just recently, this week, decided to show me the removed by hips fw thingy.. and i know i might have done that cuz i was tweeking with somethings.. but i dont know what to undo.. i restored my settings to a previous time in CA and AVG.. i have both suites of the programs...

so do you think it just might be my browser or the program...

I have Mozilla Firefox by the way

 

Re: "Removed by HIPS FW" ... NEED HELP

I'm new to this site and probably not very "tecky", so need all the help I can get. I use Mozilla Firefox and have also been getting the Removed by HIPS FW message for some time and don't know what to do. I read somewhere that I may have tried to uninstall something and didn't do it correct. That's possible, but doubt it. I also read about checking for hidden devices but didn't find anything there, either. I'd appreciate any help someone can offer. I, too, recently downloaded CA eTrust Notification. Is that an issue? What really makes this maddening is I recently paid big $$$ for ancestry.com and now it's practically useless. Thanks for any help anyone can offer ... in very elementary language, please!!

 

It's the CA Internet Security Suite. I never thought I'd dislike a product more than I did Norton, but tada! Anyway if you uncheck the disable web bugs it'll go away. It's under cookie control. Sadly enough I wrote out full instructions on my blog so if you need more specific instructions go here. Thanks for the conjecture about what might cause the problem, it's the only reason I figured it out.

 

I have successfully removed HIPS FW.

I too have CA security but have removed the firewall portion and installed a Kerio firewall(free demo for 30 days) which I have used before. I have also turned the Windows firewall OFF as this upsets our system also.

cheers
Codebreaker