New avast program update 5.0.418

[Branwynn]

Do you thing the windows firewall is decent or should I lookg for an external FW solution?

[mhf]

@ Branwynn - you could try : http://www.privacyware.com/personal_firewall.html - it runs on 64 bits (though I'm not sure if the process monitor does.

I use PrivateFirewall with avast! (free) and they work perfectly well together (I'm on 32 bits).

[Branwynn]

mhf,
Thank you very much for the advice. I will research this program and see if it's compatable with my system.
I bought the entire suit for 5 computers and I didn't realize I was going to have incompatability issues. This is frustrating at best.

Will Avast ever catch up to 64 bit systems or should I start scouting for a more compatable software?

[igor]

avast! is compatible with 64bit systems and works correctly there.

[djmega84]

definitions dont update automatically why?

[Lisandro]

definitions dont update automatically why?

Do they update manually?
Which is your firewall?
Did you set to do not use proxy at all (Update > Proxy)?

[EntitY]

Hi Branwynn, I use a router-firewall and Windows-firewall...I also believe using common sense online and a quality 3rd party web browser like SRWare Iron with Fanboy's Adblock List is as important as an anti virus.
Sandboxie is free software and also a good security approach.
"KIS - Keep It Simple"

" Myth: Host-Based Firewalls Must Filter Outbound Traffic to be Safe.
Speaking of host firewalls, why is there so much noise about outbound filtering? Think for a moment about how ordinary users would interact with a piece of software that bugged them every time a program on their computer wanted to communicate with the Internet. What would such a dialog box look like? "The program NotAVirus.exe wants to communicate on port 34235/tcp to address 207.46.225.60 on port 2325/tcp. Do you want to permit this?" Ugh! How would your grandmother answer that dialog box? Thing is, your grandmother just got an e-mail with an attachment that promises some rather sexy naked dancing pigs. Then this crazy dialog box appears. We promise: when the decision is between being secure and watching some naked dancing pigs, the naked dancing pigs win every time.
The fact is, despite everyone’s best efforts, outbound filtering is simply ignored by most users. They just don’t know how to answer the question. So why bother with it? Outbound filtering is too easy to bypass, too. No self-respecting worm these days will try to communicate by opening its own socket in the stack. Rather, it’ll simply wait for the user to open a Web browser, then hijack that connection. You’ve already given the browser permission to communicate, and the firewall has no idea that a worm has injected traffic into the browser’s stream.
Outbound filtering is only useful on computers that are already infected. And in that case, it’s too late—the damage is done. If instead you do the right things to ensure that your computers remain free of infection, outbound filtering does nothing for you other than, perhaps, to give you a false sense of being more secure. Which, in our opinion, is worse than having no security at all."

http://207.46.16.252/en-us/magazine/2006.05.securitymyths.aspx

[Branwynn]

avast! is compatible with 64bit systems and works correctly there.

Igor, with all due respect, my Avast internet security suite does NOT work correctly with my winXP pro x64 operating system. The firewall will not turn on and litterally all the advice I get is telling me it's incompatable with a 64 bit OS. Do you have a way to make my Avast FW work with my 64 bit system?

I need a security suite that does it all.... especially since I bought the upgrade for that purpose.

EntitY, thank you for the advice. I have my router FW on and I have win FW on also. Having been hacked pretty bad in the past I am paranoid yes... but I have my reasons. I have been advised to get a HW FW that hooks between modum and router however... while all this advice is awesome and I am learning quite a bit...

I would like to find out if the product I paid for can do what I bought it to do. If not, I am thinking Avast mignt let consumers know their FW won't work on 64 bit systems before they buy.

[Lisandro]

Igor, with all due respect, my Avast internet security suite does NOT work correctly with my winXP pro x64 operating system. The firewall will not turn on and litterally all the advice I get is telling me it's incompatable with a 64 bit OS. Do you have a way to make my Avast FW work with my 64 bit system?

Any other firewall was installed in the past? Any other security program that could interfere?

I am thinking Avast mignt let consumers know their FW won't work on 64 bit systems before they buy.

A lot of users have it working on x64 systems...

[Branwynn]

This is a clean install of the OS, no other antivirus programs or firewalls have ever been used. There is a "fix" button at the top I click to no avail. I try to turn the FW on, is doesn't turn on. When I loaded avast onto my lap top running 32 bit os, it runs fine and dandy.

I have asked in several forums, not only this one. If someone out there is running a WinXP Pro x64 bit OS and has this FW working fine, can you tell me the trick? I have seriously spent a lot of time here and as you know once you have put in more time in hours trying to get something to work than you had to work to buy the product... it's get frustrating.

Any and all advice on HOW to get it working would be gleefully welcome.

[Mr.Agent]

Im curious did you try to repair the installation ?

If no,

Maybe its worth to try ?

[Branwynn]

Im curious did you try to repair the installation ?

If no,

Maybe its worth to try ?

Yes unfortunately, I am vexed at this point. Only thing I haven't done is flash the bios.

[BigMaster]

There was an error in the offline update, whether what is he? 
Trial Version Avast! Internet Security 5.0.418 (7 days left).
I installed for testing purposes, it seems there are still some problems ....

[Jack Murray]

I had a problem with Windows Vista 64 bit and had to repair and went to a restore point and lost the use of Avast! v 4.8.1368 

Error: The AAVM subsystem detected a RPC error. and I can not reinstall Avast! v 4.8.1368, either.

The Icon is grayed out in the tool bar.

Help.

Jack Murray

[ladycharades]

I hate to say it, but after reading all the problems above, and with the problems I'm having, I am soooo regretting having removed version 4.8 and updating to 5.

On the current status page, it says my computer is unprotected and when I click the button that says 'Fix Now', nothing happens. Just below that it shows the following message:

'The avast! antivirus program has been stopped, or is an inconsistent state. Please re-start the program to resume protecting your system.'

To the right of that message is a small yellow bullet icon with 'Start program' button. I click that, nothing happens. I closed the processes in the process library to shut Avast down, then restarted it, and it still shows the same messages. I uninstalled the program, restarted my computer, re-downloaded the program from the site. When I went to run the install it said the program detected an issue that requires me to reboot my computer before I could run the installation, and if I continue to run the installation it could result in problems. So I canceled out of the re-install,  rebooted my computer, then ran the installation. At the end of the installation it wanted me to reboot again, so I did, and when I restarted, the program still showed the above messages. Nothing was fixed in the re-installation of the program.

Up until now I have never had a problem with Avast, and in fact, I absolutely love it. It was, in my opinion, the best antivirus program available, until now. If I can get my version 4.8 back again, I will continue to run the program, but seriously, something needs to be done with this new version, because it just isn't working. I honestly do not wish to have to revert to AVG or some other anti-virus program, so please, please do something to fix this new version so that it actually works!

Seeing as I can't seem to put in a signature on this site as I cannot find the option to do so, I'll post this info here:

System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3. Manufactured and supported by: eMachines Inc. eMachines.Sysem AMD Athlon (tm) Processor 2650e 1.61 GHz, 1.75 GB of RAM Physical Address Extension Avast! Free Version 5.0.545