Prevx 3 cannot connect to the interent

[speedlever]

on my daughter's netbook. The netbook connects to the internet just fine and I can browse at will. But every time I try to run Prevx 3.0, I get the same msg. A search here did not turn up any hits on this problem.
"Prevx 3.0 cannot connect to the internet to detect the newest threats."

OS: XP/sp3,
avira,
SAS,
XP firewall,
spyware blaster,
Windows defender

Any suggestions?

[speedlever]

And the same occurs on my son's netbook. I d/l Prevx 3.0, ran it and got the same error msg.

[PrevxHelp]

Originally Posted by speedlever

And the same occurs on my son's netbook. I d/l Prevx 3.0, ran it and got the same error msg.

Hello,
In addition to the above programs, is it possible you're using K9 Web Protection? We have a known compatibility with K9 which causes the issues you're describing.

If not, let me know and we'll investigate further

[BryanW]

Dear Prevx customer support,

I have the same problem with Prexv3 as described. The problem appears on all of our three computers:

1. Vista 64 / ESET 4
2. XP SP3 / NOD32 Ver 4
3. XP SP3 / AVAST FREE

These computers connect to the internet through a Vietnamese IPSTAR satellite. I connected the computers directly to the satellite modem bypassing the wireless router and still have the problem.

If I connect to the internet through a GPRS mobile telephone, then PREVX 3 connects to the internet without any problems.

I have searched the internet for solutions, but have only found a couple of unsolved posts in other forums. All my other connections to the internet function without problems.

Sincerely,
Bryan

[PrevxHelp]

Could you both let me know what internet speed you get when downloading/surfing online and if it says that it can't connect to the database when the scan is first starting or if it occurs later in the scan?

The initial connection to the database is slightly under 1KB so it shouldn't take that long

[BryanW]

Thank you for your reply.

I connect to the internet with 256K download speed.

The error message appears just a few seconds after I initiate a scan. Latency might be a problem. Ping time between here (Laos) and Bangkok is about 1100 ms.

If I click to check for Prevx updates, I receive a response every time that my software is the newest.

Thank You

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by PrevxHelp

Hello,
In addition to the above programs, is it possible you're using K9 Web Protection? We have a known compatibility with K9 which causes the issues you're describing.

If not, let me know and we'll investigate further

Yes. All PCs with the connection issues are running BlueCoat K9 web protection. I'm the one communicating with you over at the Prevx help page about this. I just stopped by here to update the issue and found all these replies.

We are on TW cable (RoadRunner). Speedtest. net shows one of the affected netbooks at 10.68 Mb/s down and 0.36 Mb/s up.

The connection issue occurs at the beginning of the scan.

If you like, I can post an image here with the relevant error msg that comes up. Oops.. looks like I don't know how to post an image on this forum. Oh well, check the link at the bottom of the page.

The affected PCs are running:
- XP/home.sp3 with Avira, Windows defender, Superantispyware, spywareblaster and the XP firewall (for now).
- Vista/32 bit with Avast, SAS, WDefender, spywareblaster and Vista FW.

http://i31.tinypic.com/2h2mayx.png

[speedlever]

Thanks for that assist Bubba. I need to read up on how to post pics here.

[PrevxHelp]

Hello speedlever,
This sounds like the issue many of our other customers have reported - could you try looking at the list of blocked addresses within K9 and then allow:

g*.prevxinfo.com

to the list of exclusions? I'm not familiar with the exact workings of K9 Web Protection but they do have an exclusion list which will show an address like the one above where the * is a number from 1 to 99.

Let me know if you have any questions with this and I'll investigate further on the exact procedure required

[speedlever]

I'll try that when I have a chance and will respond here.

[BryanW]

Dear Prevx,

Here are the settings from the ipstar satellite modem. Are you able to find anything here that might prevent Prevx from connecting to the internet?

I am not running K9 software.

Sincerely,
Bryan

[PrevxHelp]

Originally Posted by BryanW

Dear Prevx,

Here are the settings from the ipstar satellite modem. Are you able to find anything here that might prevent Prevx from connecting to the internet?

I am not running K9 software.

Sincerely,
Bryan

I don't see anything which could cause an issue and I've tested the DNS servers as well which work fine It is possible that latency or ISP issues could be the problem. Can you try running:

ping g50.prevxinfo.com and then
tracert g50.prevxinfo.com

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by PrevxHelp

Hello speedlever,
This sounds like the issue many of our other customers have reported - could you try looking at the list of blocked addresses within K9 and then allow:

g*.prevxinfo.com

to the list of exclusions? I'm not familiar with the exact workings of K9 Web Protection but they do have an exclusion list which will show an address like the one above where the * is a number from 1 to 99.

Let me know if you have any questions with this and I'll investigate further on the exact procedure required

No luck with this. See image below:

[trjam]

go into web catagories to block and custom, untic "suspicious" and it will work fine.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by trjam

go into web catagories to block and custom, untic "suspicious" and it will work fine.

Thanks very much. That did the trick.

[BryanW]

I solved the problem of Prevx3 not being able to connect to the internet to access the online database.

Through tests on www.lagado.com I was able to determine that my ISP uses a stealthed transparent proxy cache. I was able to solve the problem by installing OpenVPN with a connection to www.SwissVPN.net

Please let me know if there is another solution.

[PrevxHelp]

Originally Posted by BryanW

I solved the problem of Prevx3 not being able to connect to the internet to access the online database.

Through tests on www.lagado.com I was able to determine that my ISP uses a stealthed transparent proxy cache. I was able to solve the problem by installing OpenVPN with a connection to www.SwissVPN.net

Please let me know if there is another solution.

Very interesting - I'm unfamiliar with this technology but I will ask our web team in the AM what they make of it and report back with what I find.

Thank you for the diagnostic work!

[Cretemonster]

Hey Joe and Speedlever,

I have email K9 several times but to no avail, has anyone been able to establish a line of communications with these people?

I have 2 netbooks now, Asus and Acer and have zero issues connecting at all, Im also the one in support that was trying to sort this original issue.

g* makes me wonder does the application even support wildcards, seems to be very stiff in its rules, making it difficult to work with at all.

[PrevxHelp]

Originally Posted by Cretemonster

Hey Joe and Speedlever,

I have email K9 several times but to no avail, has anyone been able to establish a line of communications with these people?

Sadly no I suspect we will need to bring it up with them at a higher level as this has been an ongoing problem.

I have 2 netbooks now, Asus and Acer and have zero issues connecting at all, Im also the one in support that was trying to sort this original issue.

g* makes me wonder does the application even support wildcards, seems to be very stiff in its rules, making it difficult to work with at all.

I suspect you're correct that g* won't work for them, but it is a finite list of URLs, g1, g2, g3, ... g97, g98, g99.

A note of caution to anyone who has fixed a K9 installation to work with Prevx - if you reinstall Prevx, the "g" url may change to a different number which could cause you to have to re-configure the bypass.

Reports of this incompatibility died down a month ago or so and we suspected that it was fixed... but apparently it isn't so we will attempt to re-initiate contact with K9 to hopefully get this resolved.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience!

[thanatos_theos]

When you check prevxinfo.com on the K9 website it is unrated and still being evaluated. If you do the check in the K9 client it is rated as Suspicious. You could just actually put prevxinfo.com in the Always Allow list and prevxinfo.com and all its subdomains will be whitelisted. You can contact K9 with regards to website rating/review using filtering(AT)bluecoat.com. HTH.