Cannot use manual update

[enchanter]

Hi all,
I've just installed the latest avast! Home Edition (4.1.289) on Windows 2000 Pro SP4 on a Dell laptop. Everything seems to work fine except updating the virus definition files (and the program files).

Here are the symptoms:
- Go to Settings/Update (Basic). Click on Update Now in the Virus Database section. The update window comes up saying that it's retrieving "servers.def.stamp". Kerio Personal Firewall pops up saying that avast01.setup wants to connect to 216.127.72.135:80, which I give it permission to do. Absolutely nothing happens. No data is transferred, no progress is indicated in the dialog. Pressing cancel comes up with a warning about not being finished, and the dialog goes away. avast01.setup stays around in the Task Manager and cannot be killed by any means (except rebooting). Trying to use any means of updating now results in no action (setup.log indicates that avast.setup is already running).

- Interestingly enough, pressing the Details button in Settings/Update (Basic) results in the interface totally hanging. It has to be killed using the Task Manager. I'm not entirely sure that this is related though as I know I've previously seen the details screen, and I was still having the same issues with updating. I don't use any proxy server either, so that isn't the problem.

What I've tried so far:
- Uninstalled (both manually and using avclear), then re-installed. No change.

- Checked that I'm setting the connection in Settings/Update (Connections) to dial up modem.

- As per other messages on this board, here are the processes running: ashDisp.exe, ashMaiSv.exe, ashServ.exe and aswUpdSv.exe. I've seen mention of a file called ashMon.exe in a message, but that doesn't seem to exist in my distribution. I'm not sure that it's supposed to.

Any ideas? This has got me beat.

[enchanter]

Well if that don't just beat all! Straight after writing that last message I changed the internet connection type to "always connected", rebooted, and now everything seems to work fine!

I'll give it a few days and see if it keeps working.

[Lisandro]

The option 'dial-up' is supposed to work if you don't have a permanent connection to the Internet (which is the most common thing in a laptop). The option 'always connected' will try to update (program and/or database) each 4 hours.

Could you see what is in your avast4.ini file with both options?
See value for AssumeAlwaysConnected: if you have a dial-up = 0; If you have a permanent connection (DSL) = 1

More information about the avast4.ini file you can see here

Just some shots:
Do you have any other antivirus application installed right now in your system?
Any error window or pop up appeared when the update failed?
What language of avast! are you using? Just English?
Has your version of avast! ever updated before?

If you use Windows XP firewall, try to disable it (Open the Control Panel > Network Connections, right click with your mouse on your connection. Go to Properties. Open the Advanced tab and uncheck the Firewall option. If you use a permanent connection (DSL) you must restart your computer).

[enchanter]

The option 'dial-up' is supposed to work if you don't have a permanent connection to the Internet (which is the most common thing in a laptop). The option 'always connected' will try to update (program and/or database) each 4 hours.

I'm at work at the moment, so I can't check. I know that the value of UseRAS was 1 for dialup, but didn't look at AssumeAlwaysConnected.

More information about the avast4.ini file you can see here

Thanks. That's helpful!

Just some shots:
Do you have any other antivirus application installed right now in your system?
Any error window or pop up appeared when the update failed?
What language of avast! are you using? Just English?
Has your version of avast! ever updated before?

This was a clean install of the OS. In fact, one of the reasons I had to do a clean install was that Norton got totally fried. I decided to give a free anti-virus package a go.

No error window comes up when the update fails. Well, actually I have seen an error window (the red "failed to update"), but it only happened once immediately after I logged in. I couldn't reproduce that though.

Only using English.

Prior to it suddenly working as I post above, no, it had never updated.

I'm also on Windows 2000, so there's no other firewall running except Kerio Personal Firewall. That doesn't seem to be the issue though.

Please, click on the 'a' icon (blue ball) in the system tray... Go to

Did you intend to finish this sentence? Not sure what you wanted me to check.

Thanks for the help. I'll have a bit more of a look this evening when I get home (I'm in Australia), and will let you know about the AssumeAlwaysConnected option. Any other opinions will be gladly accepted.

[Lisandro]

This was a clean install of the OS. In fact, one of the reasons I had to do a clean install was that Norton got totally fried. I decided to give a free anti-virus package a go.

No error window comes up when the update fails. Well, actually I have seen an error window (the red "failed to update"), but it only happened once immediately after I logged in. I couldn't reproduce that though.

Only using English.

Prior to it suddenly working as I post above, no, it had never updated.

I'm also on Windows 2000, so there's no other firewall running except Kerio Personal Firewall. That doesn't seem to be the issue though.

God save us from Norton!  
How I hate it  
If you want more information about Norton desinstallation, I posted the 'saga' here.

About Kerio, I'm opening a new forum because it brings me a serious trouble. See here.

Take it easy, the update trouble is not so deep... Could you perform a manual update?

Sorry, but right now I need to solve my own troubles and I cannot think what is going on your system...  :'(

Did you intend to finish this sentence? Not sure what you wanted me to check.

Sorry, was a copy & paste error  

[enchanter]

About Kerio, I'm opening a new forum because it brings me a serious trouble. See here.

Hmm, I've personally had very few troubles with Kerio PF. I'll be interested to see what your issues with it are.

Take it easy, the update trouble is not so deep... Could you perform a manual update?

Well, as stated in my second post things are currently working with it thinking that I'm always connected, so I'm not too worried.

I hope you get your issue sorted out!

[Lisandro]

Hmm, I've personally had very few troubles with Kerio PF. I'll be interested to see what your issues with it are.

The post is this one.

I'll try to figure out what is happening with your update trouble. Maybe the firewall...
Can you try again to go back to 'dial-up', boot, and see what happens?  

[enchanter]

Well, I've discovered what the problem was. It's an incompatibility between avast! and an internet accountability program I use called Covenant Eyes (www.covenanteyes.com). If I log in to Covenant Eyes manually before the update then everything works fine. However if I try to let Covenant Eyes log in automatically, avast! update hangs. So, the reason that everything was working in my second post above was that it had obviously already logged in before I tried the update.

Oh well. I've sent an email to technical support at both companies so hopefully a solution will be found!