connections to a999sm.avast.com?

[inflex]

Hi Everyone,
With my Norton subscription expireing in a couple of weeks, I thought I'd give Avast a try.

The one one thing I'm noticing is the large number of connection ashwebsv is making to a999sm.avast.com - litterally hundreds of them.

Can somebody tell me what's up with that?

Here's a trace:

 4    21 ms    17 ms    17 ms  sl-gw38-chi-11-3.sprintlink.net [144.228.57.241]
 5    20 ms    17 ms    16 ms  sl-crs1-chi-0-15-5-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.2.17]
 6    18 ms    17 ms    16 ms  sl-st20-chi-13-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.20.3]
 7    19 ms    19 ms    17 ms  144.232.19.174
 8    25 ms    17 ms    18 ms  ae-32-52.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.68.101.62]
 9    60 ms    53 ms    53 ms  ae-3.ebr2.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.132.74]
10    48 ms    52 ms    53 ms  ae-63-60.ebr3.Atlanta2.Level3.net [4.69.138.4]
11    48 ms    50 ms     *     ae-7.ebr3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.134.21]
12    57 ms    53 ms    54 ms  ae-83-83.csw3.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.69.136.162]
13    50 ms    49 ms    49 ms  ae-34-89.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.68.19.134]
14    49 ms    49 ms    50 ms  THE-PLANET.car4.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.71.122.2]
15    57 ms    57 ms    57 ms  et1-1.ibr02.hstntx1.theplanet.com [70.87.253.54]
16    57 ms    57 ms    57 ms  et1-3.ibr02.hstntx2.theplanet.com [70.87.253.58]
17    58 ms    58 ms    56 ms  po2.car02.hstntx2.theplanet.com [74.55.252.102]
18    55 ms    57 ms    56 ms  a999sm.avast.com [75.125.29.226]


Thanks in advance for your replies,
Inflex

[Lisandro]

WebShield just scan the connections started by your browser (or other application).
It works like local proxy: Internet <-> WebShield <-> your browser.
So, which program are connecting to Internet (http) at that moment?
avast list of connected sites for update is defined in the file C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\servers.def.
You can try and download the servers.def file, http://files.avast.com/iavs4x/servers.def