Avast cannot connect to server for updates

[Squidhead]

Hi
I have Avast Home Edition 4.6.
The last few days i have been receiving an error message in a red box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

--->> "An error has occured while attempting to update"

Details-->>"cant select any server for downloading (from0)..total time 1s."

Any ideas as it has been running great,,still is ,,but it cannot connect for an update.

Cheers

oh isee i have my avatar..compliments of a young 13 yr ol kid who made it for me on yahoo,,,,,thanks dude

[DavidR]

What is your firewall?
It may be possible that it has forgotten or scrambled the programs allowed access. Check for avast.setup in the firewalls Programs/Applications section and if present delete the entry and do a manual update, your firewall should then ask permission, allow it.

[Squidhead]

hmmm,,,just did that....run a repair and install also.
yes the firewall does ask permission and it does allow it
but straight after the program is allowed it fails to find a server...??

So what could this be if not the firewall and not Avast???
They is obviously somthing missing here and after reading two other posts with no real solutions I would like to know if anyone has any ideas,,

wrong server?? registry entry???damaged port configuations???
XP firewall..??

I even disabled the firewall completely and started a manual update....no result.Avast could still not connect.
My connection is fine though I an wondering if avast is somhow working but with the wrong server address

cheers

[DavidR]

There would appear to be something wrong with this.

Details-->>"cant select any server for downloading (from0)..total time 1s."

The (from0)... strikes me as incorrect as it should at least have named a download server, so it may be that your C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\Setup\servers.def file is either corrupt or there is nothing in it (0KB). Mine is currently 7KB with 46 servers listed. There should also be a servers.def.lkg (last known good), that is probably empty also as it should be there as a fall back.

Delete the servers.def file and try an avast repair again it should be replaced or try a manual update, that too I believe would replace a missing servers.def fiel, although I'm not sure if it might use the servers.def.lkg one.

[Squidhead]

Thanks David
yes the sever.def file was completely blank.
I removed it and ran a repair ,,the thing is I ran the repair from the Instalation .exe file not control panel add/remove programs, Not sure but it did not update the server.def file.
When I tried it through control panel I had realised that I had also removed
another file as well.

So I did a full manual uninstall and registry edit then ran some reg cleans.
Totally removed AVAST from the computer and reinstalled it.

This worked and since I had the activation key handy I updated and registered it immediately.

Thanks for the information as a full uninstall I would only do as a last resort and next time ill will be a bit wiser on where to start.

cheers   

[Tomel]

I'm getting the same message and I know why, but would like to somehow suppress the message.

I've recently switched over from dialup to DSL.  When I switched over I changed the Avast connection setting to "My Computer is permantently connected to the internet."  Trouble is, when I'm not using the internet I turn off my wireless router and DSL connection for security reasons.  Avast, therefore, cannot find the permanent connection when it decides to check for an update and pops up the red error message.  When I'm connected, it updates perfectly.

I tried switching the Avast connections setting back to "dialup", which solves the red popup problem,  but then Avast doesn't seem to ever update itself even though I have the Update(Basic) setting set to automatic.  I've also tried checking both the "dialup" and the "permanent" box, but still get the red popup.

Any way to suppress the red pop-up and still have Avast automatically update itself when I have a live DSL connection?

[DavidR]

Have you not tried the suggested options mentioned in previous posts?

This is most commonly firewall related and you don't say what your is or if you have checked to see if avast.setup is allowed access, mentioned in my first reply.

Suppressing the Red notice won't resolve the problem of not being able to connect to the update servers, you just won't know it has failed.