VATSIM.net

I'm one of those users that have had serious compatibility problems with my antivirus and SquawkBox in Vista - all multiplayer traffic has been invisible to me.

The problem seem to be related to the Windows Common Firewall Driver (CFD), which many antiviruses seem to rely on. I use Trend Micro, but have seen similar reports from users of other antivirus products.

After over six months of correspondence with the Trend Micro support, including network sniffing and debug logging I got a reference to this hotfix (KB961775) from Microsoft, which seem to have fixed the problem for me:

http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=961775&kbln=en-us

Looks like it's not the antivirus vendors that are to blame in this case, but rather a bug in Microsoft CFD.

Make sure to click the link "Show hotfixes for all platforms and languages" if your system is not auto detected.

I hope this helps - it sure helped me and I can now fly online without having to uninstall the antivirus or disable the firewall driver in the device manager.

Post a note here and spread the word it works for you too!

Mike

PS
Kudos to the Trend Micro support staff who haven't given up - and kept investigating the error even when it is related to Microsoft Windows and not their own product. They even gave me a 2 year (!) extension to my license/update subscription because it took so long for them to find a solution.

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Michael Westlund
SAS1069
Scanvinavian Virtual Airlines

Michael

I've been struggling with the same problem and as a result of your post have finally resolved it. I also contacted
Avast via a formal request for support but I'm still awaiting their reply (not holding my breath). Will definitely
now consider Trend Micro as my antivirus seeing they at least care about their customers. Many thanks for you
post which I am sure will be of immense help to many others.

Regards

_________________

I use the registered (paid for) version of Avast.
Have had two issues over the past 6 months, one of which was FS related.
They (Alwil) replied to my email with 12 hours on each occasion and fixed the issue both times . . . different strokes .... different folks....

Hi, Michael. I’m working with a problem with AVG in a different thread. I’ll tack your resolution to the tail end of that topic as a suggestion.

I’ve never experienced a problem with either of the clients with any Third Party firewall/antivirus program. But I know the problems are not a myth.



Hi, Joaquin. I’m curious. Have you paid Avast as Michael has paid Trend Micro? I would be very surprised if Avast handled their paying customers any different than Trend Micro. It’s my experience that many companies that provide free counter parts for their applications have different level of support channels for their free and paying customers.

I haven’t found a need to contact Avast yet, but I’m almost certain that after having used their program for almost a year, if I needed help I’d probably approach them as a paying customer. But again, I’m sure it’s good that you have had the opportunity to test their product and find it’s not for you before you dole out money.

As far as Trend Micro, I’m sure they have a great support channel. I received email from them for one of my clients that were having problems with Microsoft Outlook. They read the messages my client had posted in my forum and sent me personal email with quotes from the forum. It turned out in that case that the culprit wasn’t Trend Micro, but the customer’s configuration of the Microsoft Outlook program.

-- L. James

--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames

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sticky:

Not a regular post, but a special thread/message stuck to the top with special meaning… containing important forum information.

For FSInn/VATSIM issues, please test the FSInn Installation sticky and linked FAQ. It really works!

Larry

I have been a paid up member of Avast for 3+ years and wrote a highly detailed email to the support team
explaining problem I have experienced trying to get FSInn to establish a multiplayer session and that the
only solution others and I have found, is to uninstall Avast Network Shield. Created exemptions for all relevant
FSInn executables in Windows Firewall and in Avast, just didn't seem to solve the problem. Since my original
email to them, I have sent them a reminder requesting if they could at least acknowledge receipt of my original
support request but to-date nothing has been received. I am also surprised by their lack of response, for they
have always been very prompt in replying to customers queries. Perhaps they are just too busy working on
Avast v5 to reply to support issues. A post in their Forum didn't ellicit any response either.

However the Microsoft fix which Michael kindly posted has sorted this problem for me at least, so I won't
bother chasing Avast again. Hope this fix will be also of help to others too, for I know how frustrating these things
can get when there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Regards

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Thats very good Michael.

Can I ask.

I see the link only cover Vista as I can see. I did read forum for some user problem seams come with Vista, while other people did have problem with XP as well.

Is there a fix for XP as well, or does this fix only solve some of the problem on Vista ?

Its good to know when spread the word.

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/ Lennart Vedin /

That’s a good question, Lennart. I hadn’t immediately noticed that it only had a hotfix for Vista. I saw a link for other OS’ and thought one would click on that if they were running something different. I was wondering why was the bug in all OS’ since, having discovered it in a previous OS it shouldn’t have carried over to the next.

I see there’s also a link to “Microsoft Updateâ€

_________________
sticky:

Not a regular post, but a special thread/message stuck to the top with special meaning… containing important forum information.

For FSInn/VATSIM issues, please test the FSInn Installation sticky and linked FAQ. It really works!

Since I run Vista and my support case with Trend Micro has only been about Vista, I really don't know, but I expected that there would be patches for all OS:es that use the CFD...but maybe not?

-Mike

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Michael Westlund
SAS1069
Scanvinavian Virtual Airlines

Thanks for answer, then we know at least there may or may not be a patch for XP.

_________________
/ Lennart Vedin /

Can we make this fix a sticky before it gets buried under 100 posts?

Thanks!!!!!

Good idea - but who do we talk to?

-Mike

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Michael Westlund
SAS1069
Scanvinavian Virtual Airlines

where do i put the hotfix i cant figure it out?

Download the hotfix.
Note the date and extract, using the relevant password.
Extract to a folder of your choice. Personally I chose c:\Hotfix
Navigate to this folder and run the hotfix.

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Norman
VP Conflict Resolution

It works! Many thanks!

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Joshua Black
------------------------------------------------------------
If God is your Copilot - you're in the wrong seat!

this still wont work i run 64 bit and when i run the hotfix it says the computer does not need to be updated

help