PG and Outpost 2.5

Discussion in 'ProcessGuard' started by Rui, Nov 18, 2004.

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  1. Rui

    Rui Registered Member

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    Hi all

    I would like to report what it seems to be an incompatibility between PG v, 3.000/3.050 and Outpost v. 2.5 build 370.

    I was running last PG version and Oupost 2.1, with no problems. Right after upgrading Outpost to v. 2.5 build 370, and after rebooting, I began receiving the message error "Cannot open mutex 2". On the other hand, PG stopped to function adequately, as pgaccount.exe is not loaded on system startup.

    Outpost upgrade was performed manually, and after closing all running applications (including PG closed and with protection disabled).

    I tried solving the problem uninstalling PG and assuring pguard.dat, pguard.hash, procguard.sys and procguad.dll were all removed. Reinstalled PG again, but it gave me consistently the same error! And the same happened when I tried version 3.000

    Pgaccount.exe is not loaded!

    Reverted to Outpost v. 2.1 and the problem disappeared. It seems thar are times when upgrading is not a very good idea...

    Does anyonone running Outpost v. 2.5 has problems wiith PG v. 3.000/3050?

    Regards

    Rui
     
  2. wanchan

    wanchan Registered Member

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    I having running Process Guard 3050 and Agnitum Outpost 2.5.369 for a month already. Zero problem. The latest build of Outpost, build 370, may be problematic. My experience tells that Process Guard 3050 is very stable and does not conflict at least with Outpost and Sygate Personal Firewall 5.5.

    Did you check out www.outpostfirewall.com for an answer? I am a licensed user of Outpost 2.5 myself. I am delaying the update because build 370 does not sound that great...
     
  3. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    I don't have any problem too...
     
  4. Don Pelotas

    Don Pelotas Registered Member

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    I am running PG 3.050 + Outpost 2.5.370 with zero problems. :)
     
  5. Rui

    Rui Registered Member

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    Hi Wanchan

    Thank you very much for your reply.
    It is also my experience that PG is a very stable application. According to what I guess, Outpost, and not PG, is probably the culprit. Considering Outpost 2.5.369 problems, mentioned in the Outpost Forum, I decided to delay the upgrade from version 2.1 to version 2.5. Unfortunately, version 2.5.370 behaves so badly in my system, I will have to postpone the upgrade till a later build comes out. I regret I have already renewed my license!...
    Regards
    Rui
     
  6. Rui

    Rui Registered Member

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    Hi wanchan, VaMPIRIC_CRow and Don Pelotas

    It seems I have solved the problem of the alleged incompatibility (at least in my system) between PG 3.050 and Outpost 2.5.370.

    The instructions provided by Agnitum concerning Outpost upgrading (from version 2.1 to version 2.5) make the user suppose that you can upgrade installing version 2.5 build 370 over version 2.1. In fact, when performing the upgrade in such a way, the installation program recognizes the existence of an Outpost previous version, and one gets inded the message that this version is being uninstalled. I do not know why, but the upgrading process performed this way went wrong: hence the problems with PG, as well as having a new Outpost version which didn't work at all!!

    Taking your opinions in consideration, as well as recommendations from the Outpost Forum, I tried doing the upgrade in a different way. This means that, instead of installling version 2.5 on top of version 2.1, I uninstalled first version 2.1, rebooted the machine, and only then performed a "clean" installation of version 2.5.370.

    All went well, as problems with PG disappeared and Outpost version 2.5 is working smoothly in my system!

    So, my advice to anyone considering upgrading Outpost is: avoid problems uninstalling fully the old version before installing the most recent one.

    Thanks to all of you
    Regards
    Rui
     
  7. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    Yep, I've uninstalled the previous version and installed the new...

    I forgot to said that...
     
  8. Paranoid2000

    Paranoid2000 Registered Member

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    Did you shutdown Outpost first? If not, then the installer would have tried to - and would have then been blocked by Process Guard which could well be the cause of your problem!

    It is well worth keeping a sharp eye on Process Guard's alerts whenever installing or uninstalling an application for this very reason. Alternatively you could (temporarily) disable Process Guard but this is a little more risky (though only minimally so as long as you are disconnected from the Internet).
     
  9. Rui

    Rui Registered Member

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    Hi Paranoid2000

    I did shut down not only Oupost but all other applications running in systray - including, of course, Process Guard. Anyway, thanks for your concern!
    Regards
    Rui
     
  10. Paranoid2000

    Paranoid2000 Registered Member

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    Just closing Process Guard via the system tray would not have disabled its protection - the "Protection Enabled" box needs to be cleared. Did you do this?
     
  11. Tuggboat

    Tuggboat Registered Member

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    Outpost 2.5 build 370 seems stable after a clean reinstall here also. I did have some problems before the reinstall but they had nothing to do with PG.
     
  12. Microtao

    Microtao Registered Member

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    I am runing PG3.1 and Outpost v2.5.370.4626, work fine. :)
     
  13. MattG

    MattG Guest

    Hi
    I have experienced the same problems identified in the first post. In that upon reinstalling xp pro and PG I too go he 'cannot open mutex 2' error. Except in my case it totally messed my system up and I was unable to boot to windows. I couldn't even boot to safe mode or use the set up disk to fix the problem. Therefore I reformatted and re-installed xp pro. Everything was working ok until I installed PG. Outpost couldn't start because of an error and drwtsn32 was blocked from modifying it. This also caused a loss of internet connection. I uninstalled PG and now Outpost and everything else works fine. I don't want to not use PG so hoped someone migh be able to help?
    Previously (before first reformat) PG 3.1 and Outpost 2.5 (369) worked fine together.

    Cheers
    MattG
     
  14. Pilli

    Pilli Registered Member

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    Hi Matt, Try disabling OP completely (disconnect from the internet firat) so that it's service does not start when you re-boot with windows & the same for any other resident security programs.
    Re-install ProcessGuard and leave it in learning mode, reboot and enable the four general tabs, re-enable OP Reboot you should still be in learning mode, run your other security apps and reboot. You should now be out of learning mode.

    HTH Pilli
     
  15. MttG

    MttG Guest

    Hi Pilli

    Thanks for your reply.
    What do you mean by enable the four general tabs?

    Kind regards

    MattG

    PS sorry for posting twice!
     
  16. nick s

    nick s Registered Member

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    Hi MttG,

    I think Pilli meant the four General Protection Options.

    Nick
     

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  17. MattG

    MattG Guest

    Hi

    Thanks Pilli and Nick S for your help and advice.
    I done as you said Pilli and it has improved the situation a little. However about 1 in 3 boots result in the Outpost icon appearing in the system tray but when I hover the mouse pointer over it it disappears. I have checked to see if the process (outpost.exe) is running via task manager and it isn't! Which I assume means my pc is not firewalled? Upon further investigation it appears that PG blocks Drwtsn32 from starting and this in turn is causing outpost not to start. I am starting to think this is a problem with outpost rather than PG. I am a memeber of the outpost forum and have posted a thread there tosee if anyone can help.
    In the meantime could anyone advise of anything else I can do? Maybe I should allow Drwtsn32? Although previously that caused outpost to crash on every boot.
    If I have any success (or not) I will be sure to post my results.

    Thanks again for all the help!

    Regards

    MattG
     
  18. Pilli

    Pilli Registered Member

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    Hi Matt, Make sure that outpost.exe(s) are on the protection list, you may need to play around with the different allows to see what, if any, effects these have.
    OP is very funny about previous firewall installations or installation traces even its own previous versions in my experience, so it could well be an OP problem.
    Anyway here are my PG settings for OP2.5.375.4822 (374) Which was updated today. XP SP2 fully patched.
    Protect from. Termination & Modification
    Authorised to. Modify protected programs & Read from protected programs.
    I also have Secure Message Handling enabled but that is a personal choice :)

    HTH Pilli
     
  19. MattG

    MattG Guest

    Hi Pilli

    Many thanks for your help.
    The problem seems to have dissappeared! Not entirely sure why, but re-installing PG (properly, with other securities turned off) and denying drwtsn32 to start has done something. Also, outpost updated to a newer version today, so maybe this has also helped. My PG settings are the same as yours (Pilli) for outpost.
    I appreciate all the help I have been given here, this forum and the outpost forum are an excellent source of info and help!
    I am pleased to say my machine is back to running how it used to! (For now....!)

    Cheers!

    MattG
     
  20. Pilli

    Pilli Registered Member

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    Let us hope it stays that way :)
     
  21. MattG

    MattG Guest

    Pilli

    Just took a look at your homepage and hoped I could sneek a few questions into this thread?

    I have always thought I am quite well protected with my set-up (PG 3.1, Outpost 2.5, KAV, Ad-aware, Spybot, MS Antispyware), however after looking at your site I am thinking about TDS 3 and Wormguard. Is it worth me getting these and what are the advantages? Also, would I have any system problems or conflict problems?

    Hope it wasn't rude to post this in this thread?

    Thanks

    MattG
     
  22. Pilli

    Pilli Registered Member

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    TDS3 is a dedicated Anti Trojan program with many other useful tools and a resident Execution Protection module. Wormguard sits quietly using no resources and hooks any bad scripts or worms heuristically. There are no known conflicts with your current security list.
    Might I also suggest that you take a look at Port Explorer. the best port to process program around. :)

    Pilli
     
  23. MattG

    MattG Guest

    Cheers Pilli!

    I will cetainly look into those applictions. I think I'll ry one at a time and see how it goes, rather than overloading myself!

    Thanks for all the help and advice, I am going to sign up properly to this forum after the fantastic sevice I have received!

    MattG
     
  24. ding

    ding Guest

    Sorry for jump in and out of the topic a bit.

    I have seen OP2.5.275.4832 (374) working very well with PG3x; except for turning on SMH on OP might confuse OP's users for everytime a OP's popup, whatever users reply to it, PG pops up HCR to verify the action, the confusion is with whether that windows being terminated is just PG's popup child windows or being tricked into terminating OP's main windows by malwares. When running OP in normal mode, if shutting down main windows of OP, OP is terminated too; but running OP in service mode without GUI for OP.

    Hoope someone can help me more.
     
  25. Paranoid2000

    Paranoid2000 Registered Member

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    This is not just an issue with Outpost, but any application with prompt windows will trigger PG confirmations when these are closed. The best solution in my view is to have the ability to restrict SMH to specific windows.
    To get SMH working properly with Outpost, you do need to "train" it as per the PG help. I would advise the following steps:
    • Disconnect from the Internet since you will be disabling Outpost;
    • Hold down the Insert key while selecting either File/Exit and Shutdown from the Outpost main window or Exit and Shutdown from the Outpost system tray icon menu - Outpost will pop up a confirmation, answer "No" to this;
    • Hold down the Insert key while selecting Policy/Disable and Policy/Allow Most from the system tray icon - these need to be covered by SMH also since Outpost can be bypassed by changing its policy (unfortunately, the policy can still be changed via Options/Policy without triggering a PG confirmation so this is not complete protection);
    • Shutdown and restart Outpost to ensure that SMH is applied;
    • Test the Exit and Shutdown/Disable/Allow Most actions - in all cases a PG confirmation prompt should now appear before any Outpost ones.
     
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