Outpost 4.0 Service Hung on Startup

I've been running Outpost 4.0 for a few days and I noticed two problems. It takes a long time to load on startup and NOD32 and Spysweeper no longer auto update. The XP event viewer shows an error that the outpost service is hung on startup. It does eventually load and run fine but this means I must manually update those other apps. My guess is that I have no internet connection until outpost fully loads and those other apps are attempting to update in that timeframe. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

I am using Outpost 4.0 with NOD32 (not Spysweeper), I have no problem auto-updating my virus signatures.

For the slow start up problem, may be you want to try excluding Outpost folder in NOD32 settings?

Optimising Outpost Firewall Pro to work concurrently with antivirus software.

 

There are a number of people experiencing problems using Outpost with Spysweeper http://outpostfirewall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18564

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I added Outpost to the NOD32 exclusions. Another thing I tried which helped is I changed the outpost service from auto to manual. Then removed the /waitservice from the startup in the registry. Outpost now loads in a reasonable timeframe.

Another odd thing I noticed is Outpost uses around 55 megs ram for the first 10 minutes after bootup and then settles down to around 8. Everything seems to be working OK now.

 

I too have been having some issues, with logging on after my daughter has been using the family PC and logs off and then I log on the desk top comes up and with no icons and it just hangs the only way to unhang is a cold shutdown and system (PC) restart. Then everything is just fine.

Also sometimes if my daughter (under her nonAdmin.) leaves the system up without using for a while we lose the wireless internet connection. Sometimes using the XP wireless repair feature it will fix itself but sometimes not it can not reestablish the IP address. Cure is a system reboot.

I have none of the programs described here in this thread that are not auto updating. All programs listed in my sig. auto update just fine no issues.

After reading this thread I took a look at my event viewer as well and I too have "a faulting application error outpost.exe 4.0.582.6830, faulting module unknown,..." o. k. at least now I can trust my daughter again no more what have you done and where have you been

I of course am behind a router with a working hardware firewall so perhaps I will do a manual start as well of OutPost and see how this works.

 

This problem of system hanging, has nothing whatsoever to do with any other software, at the moment it is a stability issue with the outpost SandBox file. to resolve system hanging do the following:

Start Computer in Safe Mode:
Open Outpost Firewall and disable the self protection, there is an icon with a small green tick on the Outpost interface, or click options and remove the Self Protection tick, either will disable it.
Go to C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall\Kernel and rename the SandBox file to sandbox.sys1 close outpost and restart your computer. This will resolve the problem at hand You may now also reactivate Outpost Self protection.

 

What does the sandbox.sys do ? - self protection?

 

SandBox allows data transfer in both directions In/Out, too much data being sent at the same time can cause programs to stutter on startup. renaming to sandbox.sys1 adjusts the flow of data.

 

In my case it the renameing sandbox to sanbox.sys1 didn't work. When I clicked to reactivate Outpost Self protection I got a popup saying it couldn't reactivate Outpost Self protection because the file was locked by system. I clicked OK to the popup but then selfprotection activated. I restarted a second time just to make sure. Outpost freezes at startup, I have mailwasher set to check the mail at startup and apon startup I get "Unable to check mail because there is no internet connection". But 30 second later if I check the mail it works and checks the mail no popups.

 

This indeed seems strange! this technique has worked 99% of the times Ive known about it. next solution:

Again Start in Safe mode:
Open Outpost and disable self protection:
Go to C:\Program Files\Agnitum\Outpost Firewall and this time rename the file wl_hook.dll to something like wl_hook.dll.1
Then click on the kernel folder, and again rename the SandBox to sandbox.sys.1 make sure it says exactly that.
Now go to start/Run and type regedit Click the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and scroll down to software. right click on the Software folder, and in the window on the right right click and a prompt askin for a new value, tick DWORD Value. Rename this new value to
EnableAWINLog then right click on the new value and click modify. Change the 0 to 6 Close everything, and reboot. and Enable Self Protection.

Let me know if you have the same problem

 

I saw the same thing with this 'workaround', in fact if anything it actually slowed things down because it was trying to load the driver it could not find.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20061027 Minefield/3.0a1 Firefox/1.5.0.7 ID:2006102704 [cairo]

 

That was it, unfortunately Windows just regenerated the original value and gave it the name "new value #1" the Dword I added + value was still there. The problem came back so I checked the registry. the renamed files were ok.

 

I'm confused a little here? did you do everything? it must be named as this exactly EnableAWINLog and not something like this >> enableawinlog. Then you must click on the value so it enables. delete the key you mentioned windows regenerated to "new value #1" and the key you created, and create again exactly like this >> EnableAWINLog and click on it to enable it.

 

I am just as confused as you are, I followed everything including the capital letters in EnableAWINLog...changed the value from 0 to 6 like I was supposed to clicked yes in the Dialog box. Closed everything, restarted..reenable self protestion. Restarted several times, appeared to work. Left for work..when I got back I started the Computer. Then I saw the problems were back. I just went back into safe mode disabled self protection to check if EnableAWINLog was still there just like I typed it, it was.I deleted EnableAWINLog then I deleted New value#1. Created new dword EnableAWINLog changed the value from 0 to 6 closed up;restarted; re enable self protection.

 

I have had some issues with Self Protection too. Some software updates are not allowed using it. I have it disabled currently. I did not go into safe mode I went to OutPost tools drop down and unchecked it. I feel my other security is strong enough that self protection is not needed. Not saying you did something wrong, but I am extra careful what I do in safe mode.

 

Something really fishy going on ? just cant put my finger on it though, I do sugest you rename back the wl_hook.dll file in the Outpost Firewall folder though,to wl_hook.ddl you should be able to do this now, by just disabling Self Protection in Outpost, without Safe Mode. If not Startt in Safe Mode again and do it that way. If this Hanging problem continues, my last choice would be to uninstall Outpost totally and reboot. Then install Outpost again, and see if it recognizes any software that it says could cause stability issues, it comes up with a sugestion box on install and asks you to keep thoise sugestions ticked to exclude them from Outpost. If the system freezes again after a fresh install. follow the previous instructions i set out in my first post, good luck I'm doing my best here dude to resolve this for you

 

Sandbox.sys and wl_hook.dll implement Outpost's self-protection and anti-leak so please note that renaming them will disable (at least partially) these features.

 

wl_hook.dll disables antileak, but as I said earlier, to rename back this file from wl_hook.dll.1 to wl_hook.dll to re-enable antileak I wanted Carver to do this to see if it had anything to do with the problem at hand, at present it apears not, but I'll wait for his next reply.

 

It has no effect, the problems remain.

 

Damn! obviously something is conflicting with Outpost the Only other alternative is this.. go to start/run type msconfig and disable everything in the startup section ,except for Outpost, and then reboot,and see if the problem repeats itself. If not, enable one item at a time and reboot for each, and see if any repeat the problem, if so keep it disabled, unless you sincerely need it to startup with windows. things in the msconfig startup are generally not needed, only antivirus, and spysweeper programs should really be set to startup with windows, and of course Outpost too. Items that you have no idea what they are, generally dont need to be started by windows, as windows only loads 2 items itself on a clean install, and they are irrelevant anyway. you can see what these startup programs are, by dragging the command section in the window to the right. Try this,and then get back to me.

One other thing? I expect you are running Service Pack 2 on XP ? if your not! theres your problem right there!

 

I am running XP Home and SP2, support for SP1 has been discontinued as of the end of October (I forgot what day). My list of Start up that cause delays in loading are:
1.Adobe Gamma loader
2.Drag to disk-Roxio
3.Tea Timer.exe-spybot Search & Destroy
4.qttask-Quicktime
Microsoft doesn't make testing easy to test, nag screens to activate every step of the way.

 

Just recently i was also running outpost 4, nod32 and spysweeper on my laptop and i did notice with this combo it took a considerable amount of time to load up. But my apps had no problems auto updating from what i remember. It was mainly the noticeable slowdown that occured when doing many tasks.

 

Since my initial post I've gone back to version 3.51. My only problem with it is after bootup it uses 46 megs ram. If I double click the system tray icon to run the GUI and then close it out, the memory usage drops to 2.5 megs.

 

OK Carver, looks like we have got to the bottom of this In my oppinion you dont need those 4 programs on autostart, so I would dissable them if they are causing the problem. Tea Timer (Spybot) didnt really work for me, without Outpost installed, so I threw it out. A good Anti-Spyware, that plays nicely with Outpost is AVG-Anti-Spyware 7.5, and its reasonably priced to at about $20+ but no more than $30 or Counterspy which plays nice to at only $19,95, NOW THAT IS A GOOD PRICE YOU'D HAVE TO AGREE Anyway its up to you, but if removing those items from startup fix the problem, I know what I would dont forget though, after you have fixed it up, rename the wl_hook.dll back to its original, then you'll pass pcflank leaktest too

 

Your right, the onlything I use spybot for is the tools, I have AVG and Super-Antispyware and Quicktime-I rarely use it, I can get winAmp or jetAudeo to cover the filetype