Author Topic: Avast 5 outgoing connections  (Read 10330 times)

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Knuckles

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Avast 5 outgoing connections
« on: January 30, 2010, 11:54:20 PM »
I haven't really noticed before with previous versions of Avast or other AVs, but Avast 5 seems to have a lot of TCP Out connections according to my firewall. Is this normal? What are these for? See attached for example.


Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2010, 12:01:18 AM »
yeah, noticed that too, many hosted by theplanet.com and for various reasons I don't like this ISP/server...but OK, sounds like many legit sites (ie not only avast) can't live without theplanet.com theses days...

mhf

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2010, 01:34:24 PM »
Yes, me too - an incredible number of tcp connections either "listening", "established" or "closewait" coming from AvastSvc.exe (1088) - I never saw this with 4.8 - sometimes up to 50 or more. Surely this is taking up resources or slowing down connections ?

Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2010, 01:47:32 PM »
Yes, me too - an incredible number of tcp connections either "listening", "established" or "closewait" coming from AvastSvc.exe (1088) - I never saw this with 4.8 - sometimes up to 50 or more. Surely this is taking up resources or slowing down connections ?

doesn't slow down anything but see anyway what I posted there:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=54828.msg463899#msg463899

blocking all those doesn't prevent auto-update, so it has either nothing to do with that, or it's checking alternative servers... but it's mostly related to the IS ad. All these connections are of course not present in the paid version.

ps: to make things clear, the goal is not to block the ad, as I don't find it intrusive at all in the free version, but so many persistent connections isn't something acceptable. I don't run the "free" version anymore, so I'm not personally bothered, but I was tbh.

« Last Edit: February 10, 2010, 02:02:01 PM by Logos »

olddog

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2010, 03:15:21 PM »
Logos,

I believe you are correct - it is the IS advert. Every time the summary screen is opened AvastUI.exe will attempt an outgoing connection. If blocked from doing so, it will rapidly try up to 10 times, each to a different IP. It will then make no further attempt until you have moved to another of the Advast screens and return back to the summary screen - then there will be another 9 or 10 attempts to the same list of IP's.

If AvastUI.exe is blocked by the firewall, the advert is not shown. Presumably when it isn't blocked it should not need to go through the whole list of IP's each time to source the data for the advert.

Under normal usage, I would not bring up this screen very often - I usually do a full scan before making a weekly partition backup. The rest of the time I just let the AV get on with its job. Having the advert there doesn't concern me, and I would think the additional data downloaded each time for the advert would be fairly minor, so I will go back to leaving AvastUI.exe clearance through the firewall.

I find the approach rather interesting though!

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2010, 03:32:57 PM »
My only pain in the rear about this as a dial-up user, is the attempt to make a connection when you open the UI, that never happened in 4.8 avast was clever enough to wait until a connection was established rather than attempt to establish one.

I hate this in any program that attempts to automatically connect to the internet on my system to that end there are very few programs I allow auto update too, avast being one. Now the avast update is clever enough not to try to update when there is no connection 'and' it doesn't try to establish a connection, so why this logic can't be passed on the advert is beyond me.

The advert is relatively unobtrusive, much less than the in your face advert of 4.8, but what is obtrusive is the attempt to connect.

I would also have thought avast smart enough to cache the advert (as presumably it did in 4.8 ), so it was available and would populate the UI automatically without requiring a connection. When a connection is established it could then check for updates in a) the virus signatures and engine and b) if you have the free version, the latest advert. The updated advert could then be cached and used the next time the UI is opened.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2010, 03:34:51 PM by DavidR »
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

mhf

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2010, 04:31:24 PM »
Yes it's true about the advert, the connection(s) are constant. However they are from AvastUI - I was talking about all the connections from AvastSvc.exe (1088) : that's not the same thing !

Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2010, 04:37:37 PM »
Yes it's true about the advert, the connection(s) are constant. However they are from AvastUI - I was talking about all the connections from AvastSvc.exe (1088) : that's not the same thing !

all the avastsvc connections are normal and expected on my system. But my bad, I missed the avastsvc.exe in your first post.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2010, 04:41:44 PM by Logos »

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2010, 04:41:13 PM »
You should see a subsequent reduction in your browser making outbound connections as avast AvastSvc.exe (web shield) intercepts port 80 http traffic but I don't see any in my firewall listing for (1088) what ever that may be.
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

Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2010, 04:43:28 PM »
I think he referred to PID for 1088, it's actually 1288 here.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #10 on: February 10, 2010, 04:49:51 PM »
PID for me of 1420 for me but that PID is pretty irrelevant in the entries, unless it is something other than a PID.
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

Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2010, 04:51:49 PM »
PID for me of 1420 for me but that PID is pretty irrelevant in the entries, unless it is something other than a PID.

the PID reference is completely irrelevant in this thread if you want my opinion  ;)

Sesame

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2010, 04:55:29 PM »
It's normal.  Avast! 5 integrated all the local proxies of Avast! 4.8 to AvastSvc.exe.  So, it checks for major internet traffics for email clients, messengers, and browsers.

Hermite15

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2010, 05:00:32 PM »
It's normal.  Avast! 5 integrated all the local proxies of Avast! 4.8 to AvastSvc.exe.  So, it checks for major internet traffics for email clients, messengers, and browsers.

yep, just what I meant in one of my posts above. The thing is it's still weird that many connections persist for a little while even after the browser is closed for instance, sometimes they close fast, sometimes not that fast, and that would happen also without Avast. That's another topic.

Sesame

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Re: Avast 5 outgoing connections
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2010, 05:10:45 PM »
It's normal.  Avast! 5 integrated all the local proxies of Avast! 4.8 to AvastSvc.exe.  So, it checks for major internet traffics for email clients, messengers, and browsers.

yep, just what I meant in one of my posts above. The thing is it's still weird that many connections persist for a little while even after the browser is closed for instance, sometimes they close fast, sometimes not that fast, and that would happen also without Avast. That's another topic.
???  I thought you mistook AvastUI.exe, which seems to be related with updates according to igor, for AvastSvc.exe...  Everybody else seems to be talking of the latter.