HELP !! No Internet after Update to 13.2.18

[MarcFL 26]

On 3 computers, we lost internet after Eset Updated to 13.2.18.  Tried uninstalling - no internet.  Tried reinstalling - no internet.   Tried uninstalling again - and then running Eset removal tool in Safe mode - still no internet.

Help!

 

[MarcFL 26]

Resolved - the long way:  I restored an backup image.  The 13.2.18 update was prepared but not installed.  I went into Eset advanced settings and disabled Protocol Filtering*.  Then uninstalled Eset and rebooted.   Installed 13.2.18 using the offline installer and internet is working again. 

*Could not do this with a fresh install of 13.2.18 because you can't get into settings without registering and you can't register without internet.  You can't even activate evaluation without internet.

Not happy Eset.

[Marcos 5,074]

Protocol filtering is a crucial protection feature that enables web and email protection to work. If you re-enable it does the issue with viewing websites return?

[itman 1,659]

8 hours ago, MarcFL said:

Resolved - the long way:  I restored an backup image.  The 13.2.18 update was prepared but not installed. 

I'm a bit confused here.

If you did an image restore, this would have taken you back to ver. 13.2.16. Are you saying that Eset 13.2.18 in prepared but uninstalled state was on the image backup? Or did Eset auto download ver. 13.2.18 after the image restore?

[MarcFL 26]

Marcos, re-enabling it with a clean install of 13.2.18 works fine.  The problem started when Eset automatically updated to 13.2.18 and broke the internet on 3 Win8.1 machines.   Suggestion:  Do not lock someone out of Eset settings just because Eset can't connect to register (evaluation or otherwise). 

Eset Issues:  Uninstalling should reset protocol filtering - it didn't.  The Eset Uninstaller Tool should have fixed it - it didn't.

IF THIS should happen in the future,  how can this be resolved?   I'm assuming there is something in the registry that Eset did no reset.  If you can point me to the solution, I will keep it for future reference.  Thanks.

itman, yes 13.2.18 was prepared but in an uninstalled state on the image backup.  If I had rebooted at that point, the internet would be broken again.  Instead, I disabled Protocol Filtering first, then uninstalled. Eset.

Notes:  I will never uninstall Eset again without disabling protocol filtering first.  This is a bug on some windows installations. 

I will also never unregister Eset until I'm sure internet is working, as you can not get into settings if it's not registered - this is a design flaw.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by MarcFL

[itman 1,659]

18 minutes ago, MarcFL said:

The problem started when Eset automatically updated to 13.2.18 and broke the internet on 3 Win8.1 machines.  

It is starting to like like there is a problem with the ver. 13.2.18 update on non-Win 10 devices not properly installing Eset drivers in certain circumstances. There have been multiple forum postings in this regard. Suspect this is what caused your busted network connections.

One reason you might want to upgrade to Win 10 is it has a built-in setting that will totally rebuild your network connection including reinitialize of TCP/IP stack in instances like this:

 

[MarcFL 26]

Thanks itman.  Yes, this happened to a total of 4 out of 10 Windows 8.1 machines in small business environments for me.  The Win10 workstations had no issues.  
 

Edited August 29, 2020 by MarcFL

[MarcFL 26]

It happened on 4 more Win8.1 machines and a Win7 machine. 

Is there anyway to do a Network reset on Windows 8.1 or otherwise fix this Eset problem other than restoring a Backup Image???

This is a serious bug.  Thanks.

[itman 1,659]

9 minutes ago, MarcFL said:

Is there anyway to do a Network reset on Windows 8.1

https://www.united-pc.com/how-to-reset-network-protocols-in-windows-7810/

 

[MarcFL 26]

itman,
Thanks.  Do you know which command will likely fix the Eset problem?  Which one to try first?

[itman 1,659]

14 hours ago, MarcFL said:

itman,
Thanks.  Do you know which command will likely fix the Eset problem?  Which one to try first?

It really is impossible to determine what the Eset update borked.

The commands are listed in preference sequence. Many just try the winsock reset first. The problem is whether one or all the commands are executed, a system restart is required. As such, most just run all the commands at once and then restart the system.

BTW - have you opened an Eset support request about this so the developers are aware of the issue?

Edited September 1, 2020 by itman

[MarcFL 26]

Thank you. Yes, I created a support request.

[MarcFL 26]

Eset Support refused to report the bug without logs (Case #438185).  Since the small business clients wanted their internet back immediately, we restored a backup image and the eset logs are gone.  I hope Eset management takes note of this issue and the lack of support by Eset.  Two clients have switched to Kaspersky and won't be renewing their eset licenses.  A simple update from Eset 13.2.16 to 13.2.18 should not kill all internet on Windows 8.1 machines and to top it off, uninstalling Eset did not restore internet either.  Even the safe mode eset uninstaller did not fix the internet.  Not good.

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by MarcFL

[itman 1,659]

BTW - Eset is going to try to update on those image restored devices. Are you blocking the update?

You could also try manually downloading ver. 13.2.18 and installing on top of one these trouble devices as an experiment. Then observe if this also trashes the network connections; doubt it will.

[MarcFL 26]

"BTW - Eset is going to try to update on those image restored devices. Are you blocking the update? "

What do you mean?  After the image was restored, we uninstalled Eset 13.2.16 and did a fresh install of 13.2.18.  No point in waiting for it to auto-update to 13.2.18 again and bork the internet.

The issue was that 13.2.18 gets staged and once the machine is rebooted for whatever reason, it's all over.  Internet is gone.  At that point you either try to reset network settings or restore a backup image.

 

 

[itman 1,659]

14 hours ago, MarcFL said:

"BTW - Eset is going to try to update on those image restored devices. Are you blocking the update? "

What do you mean?  After the image was restored, we uninstalled Eset 13.2.16 and did a fresh install of 13.2.18.  No point in waiting for it to auto-update to 13.2.18 again and bork the internet.

This is exactly what I meant. Glad to see a clean install of ver. 13.2.18 is running w/o issue.

[Marcos 5,074]

Program updates are tested both on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 but no such issues were observed during QA. Also our customer care has not received any reports of such issues and firewall developers had no clue either. On Windows 8.1 we leverage WFP so there should be no issues with network communication even if installation of epfwwfp failed. Further investigation and replication of the issue with the assistance of you local ESET support would be needed if you would like to determine the root cause.

[itman 1,659]

Given the update issues you have had, it might be advisable to create a backup of network settings on the client devices you are supporting. This can  be done via Admin level command prompt:

 netsh -c interface dump > C:\NetworkSettings.txt

If a future Eset update borks the network settings, they can be restored via:

netsh -f C:\NetworkSettings.txt

[MarcFL 26]

Marcos, this issued occurred in three separate offices, so it's likely you will be hearing more complaints.  If it happens to another machine, I collect the eset logs before fixing.
itman, Thanks good idea.  I saw that in the instructions for the Eset Removal Tool.