Author Topic: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x  (Read 7870 times)

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HarlockTaliesin

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Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« on: May 27, 2007, 10:20:13 AM »
Heya all :)

I went to Avast (up to 4.7 now) when I switched to Windows XP 64b edition a few months ago (tried Vista, didn't like it, but wanted to go in a different direction besides the old 32bit version of WinXP.  It was one of the few AV programs I could find to support 64bit anything, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  So far I've not been disappointed with it in the least, but a question as arose recently about it.  I downloaded a copy of it that originally said it was a free registration that could be renewed online as free about once a year (if I recall).  When the renewal came up for it, and I chose to keep the home edition for free, it cannot find the avast.com website to get another free reg code for it, and has since disabled itself.

My searches online haven't helped much either, except to find an overseas version of the site, until I came across this forum.  Has the website moved to a new URL that the program doesn't know about (until now it was able to update itself for program/definitions with no problem)?

Thanks for any help you can provide. :)

If it helps, when trying to pull up the registration site (http://www.avast.com/go.php?verb=register-home&lang=eng) or the form to get a new key (http://www.avast.com/i_kat_207.php?lang=ENG) both just time out saying the site cannot be found.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2007, 10:35:28 AM by HarlockTaliesin »

Offline igor

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2007, 12:07:02 PM »
There's been some changes of the web, but both the URLs you mentioned should work fine.
What about www.avast.com - can you open the main page?
(then, it's just "Support" menu / Free avast! Home Registration).

Offline DavidR

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2007, 02:57:32 PM »
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

Offline Lisandro

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2007, 04:43:33 PM »
There's been some changes of the web, but both the URLs you mentioned should work fine.
What about www.avast.com - can you open the main page?
(then, it's just "Support" menu / Free avast! Home Registration).
Igor, just an unrelated info, but when I've gone to the registration page I've got a non-translated text...
The best things in life are free.

HarlockTaliesin

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2007, 09:06:09 AM »
It does appear to have been a DNS issue.  I was able to use the IP-based URL and connect to get the license key, many thanks.  :D

Now, I seem to have another issue to try to resolve.  Based on this new result I started doing some tests, and found that all websites except those of major antivirus/anti-spyware program makers (including avast.com) come up properly on my PC, in any browser I use.  I've ran a scan with the newly registered/updated Avast and have not found any viruses, and have run some spyware scans that have found only minor issues (which were easily cleaned off).

So, as near as I can tell, at some point in the last couple months a program I've downloaded has caused my PC to block access to the DNS listings of these security sites.  I need to try to find a way to remove or otherwise reset these.  I've already checked the restricted sites list in WinXP's Internet Properties, but it's blank.  I seem to remember there being a host file of some sort that windows also uses for this, but I cannot recall much about it.

Any ideas?

Also, I've tested to make sure it's not a network issue by hooking up a friend's laptop via my router, and it was able to get out to all AV/etc sites perfectly fine.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2007, 04:18:29 PM »
Look for C:\Windows\HOSTS file (without a file extension) and open it with notepad or any text editor. Check if there is a listing for avast.com and along side that 127.0.0.1 (local host), the idea being to divert the request to the local computer which because it doesn't have avast.com will fail.

By using the IP based address I gave you would also bypass any HOSTS file tampering as it isn't going to have every IP permutation for avast.com (and there are a lot), so it is possible that it could be a malicious diversion to localhost.

Based on that you can't get other major AV, this would seem to be the case, so in the HOSTS file delete the line entries for the AV sites with 127.0.0.1, save and exit.

What spyware scans have you run ?
Your problem is likely to be that some anti-spyware might not run on winXP64.

If you haven't already got this software (freeware), download, install, update and run it, preferably in safe mode.
1. AVG anti-spyware (formerly Ewido)
Or SUPERantispyware
Or Spyware Terminator
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security

HarlockTaliesin

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2007, 10:41:50 PM »
Thanks for the hosts info. :)  I checked the file (was under "c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\" in WinXP 64b, though oddly enough about the System32 part on a 64bit system), and it didn't have the URLs pointed to the loopback address (127.x.x.x), but did have them pointing to IPs that weren't correct (example: "180.78.122.242" for www.avast.com, and "105.94.46.61" for just avast.com).  When I rem'd them out with the "#" and re-saved the file, I was able to access avast.com and any of the others I tested perfectly fine.

The anti-spyware program I was using was AdAware, and it seemed to work pretty well on an x64 system.  I tried the one's you'd listed (minus the AVG one, as it stated on the site it was for x32 only), and didn't have any better luck.  Superspyware didn't find any new hits, and Spyware Terminator just found two false positives (that I sent feedback to the company about).

I think the reason none of the programs hit on the issue with the hosts file was that the IP addresses looked legit, unless you already have a database of the correct ones to compare to.

Question, though.  To be on the safe side I was considering just wiping the contents (just the address mappings) of the hosts file on my PC, but was wondering if it'd have any negative consequences to doing that.  As of now it doesn't seem to have any issues with a bunch of the lines being remarked out, but I wanted to be sure first.

Thanks for all the help, btw.  :D

Offline DavidR

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Re: Question about free registering of Avast 4.x
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2007, 11:28:44 PM »
No problem, glad I could help.

Loop back, localhost is just one possibility, the other is a redirect as you are showing, could in theory lead to a site that is a malware site which could attempt to infect you. I tried a reverse whois for both IPs and they both failed to resolve.

I would delete the entries in the HOSTS file rather than rem them out.

There is essentially nothing in the HOSTS file by default so you could clear the complete contents, providing there is nothing there that is legit (you or an application you use would have to have created entries).

I have only one entry that was ever in mine was when I was using B9 to reroute my email through a local proxy, since I no longer use that application that is gone. What I'm trying to say is you should be aware of any legit use of the HOSTS file. I don't see any negative impact of clearing the contents, unless one or more were set-up by you or with your knowledge, which by your comments I would say is false.

Welcome to the forums.
Windows 10 Home 64bit/ Acer Aspire F15/ Intel Core i5 7200U 2.5GHz, 8GB DDR4 memory, 256GB SSD, 1TB HDD/ avast! free 24.2.6105 (build 24.2.8918.824) UI 1.0.799/ Firefox, uBlock Origin, uMatrix/ MailWasher Pro/ Avast! Mobile Security