Why is Avast engine pinging ?

[Frenchy]

Hello,

I've just downloaded Avast 4 Home edition, to test it. Seems a fine product, BUT...
Why is the engine (avast4 Antivirus service) pinging the net ? My firewall rings alarms because the computer Avast runs on tries repeatedly to ping 6 different systems on the net (and the pinging stops as soon as I disable the avast Antivirus service).

So my questions :
1/ why ?
2/ how to disable that behaviour (no pinging will ever be allowed through my firewall) ?

Thanks,

[whocares]

Hi,

probably because it's trying to find out if the pc is online and then search for updates

how do you connect ? if permanent connection, you might change some settings; see the FAQ's on the homepage
or disable automatic updates (not advisable)

which Win and which Firewall do you use ?

[whocares]

Info:
http://www.avast.com/i_kat_81.html#idt_1366
http://www.avast.com/i_kat_81.html#idt_217

[Frenchy]

Okay, the FAQ tells all (as usual; except I searched for PING before asking here, and did not find the proper link).
So I disabled pinging by defining AssumeAlwaysConnected=1 in the INI file.
Btw (to answer the first reply to my question) I'm using Iptables on my Internet-connected computer (which is not the one Avast is running on).
Thanks for the information.