updates notifications are gone

[ady4um]

There is no fixed cycle - the value is controlled by the serves, can change every day (if needed).
The notifications behave exactly the same as the automatic updates (regarding the time spread).
Since the spread is kinda "random"... sure, you can see a notification on one computer, but not on another machine of yours.

Should I have to point out AGAIN the discrepancies? The distribution cycle, whichever it is, can NOT explain the different behaviours. Please, READ carefully.

[DavidR]

This thread has turned into a book.
Most posts are long enough to be chapters.
<snip, shan't repeat what was already said>

These type of comments, absolutely missing the main point of this topic, as if you are NOT really READing any of the previous posts, or any of the other topics about this same issue, is the real reason why this topic became such a long one.

I don't think Bob is missing the point (you actually cropped it out of his quote), the topic is way too long and many of the posts too large, so people simply won't/don't/can't read it all.

So the actual point of the topic is lost.

[ady4um]

I don't think Bob is missing the point (you actually cropped it out of his quote), the topic is way too long and many of the posts too large, so people simply won't/don't/can't read it all.

So the actual point of the topic is lost.

He indeed completely missed the point, once again. I won't search, read and quote here all those useless posts in this topic that were repetitively completely useless. It is already evident that *I* can update manually. That was already suggested many times, and explained with a very logical answer, also many times.

The distribution cycle is NOT related to the discrepancies, as I already PROBED, so that fact simply makes some other comments also useless, expect, maybe for the "random" comment about the periods in only one of those comments.

Let's keep adding posts with no useful info, no real report, no testing conclusions, no contribution from Avast Team about the real discrepancies and the real problem :'( .

I already proposed to make a new clean topic, with a poll if you want. I already agreed that this specific topic is too long. We could simply quote the relevant info and the relevant reports from all the several topics. Instead of contributing with the potential options of the potential poll, or to give an alternative instead of the poll, the new posts are just repeating what was already discarded in the first 3 pages of this long topic. In a word: USELESS.

I know that several users in this topic are frequent users, so in theory I couldn't say that they are trolls. But after more than 70 posts in this topic, and less than 10 posts with useful info...

I made 2 mistakes. The first was to be polite enough so to answer all those recurrent posts with "answers" to an imaginary question that was never asked. I repeat here: *I* can uninstall and clean install if I want to; *I* can manually update with no problems; *I* am receiving the database updates. *I* am not the problem.

The second mistake, apparently, was to think that users in the forum could "think out of their own box", just a little, to try to test something that IS NOT WORKING CORRECTLY FOR MILLIONS OF USERS. Very few users actually contributed with reports. Almost all users simply looked the other way, and went ahead with manual updating before receiving any tray notification to report it here (or in any other topic about this same issue). In the context of this topic: USELESS.

Right now, I don't think I should keep answering posts with no useful info, no real questions, no reports, no tests.

Yes, my posts were long. They were long so to answer to all the possible questions from Avast Team, so to be helpful in finding the problem. Long, but useFUL.

It is CLEAR that frequent users are somehow "tired" of seeing this topic come back again, instead of providing useful comments or, even better, testing the issue.

I sincerely thank you all for all the reports, even for those useless comments. It is only a pity that simple users around the world won't benefit from ANY improvement in the context of tray notifications. My system? Oh, don't worry, *I* have no problem.

[bob3160]

He indeed completely missed the point, once again.

I did 
Judging by your post, I guess you still didn't get my point but that's fine.

You also seemed to have totally skipped over igor's reply:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=76977.msg647180#msg647180
but I guess that's also ok you at least where able to add another chapter to your book. 

[ady4um]

He indeed completely missed the point, once again.

I did 
Judging by your post, I guess you still didn't get my point but that's fine.

You wrote what others already suggested, and I already answered many times. *I* am not the problem, and the program updates tray notifications problems are NOT being taken care by Avast, for months now. Not one word from that post contributed to solve the real problem. You only said "get out".

You also seemed to have totally skipped over igor's reply:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=76977.msg647180#msg647180

No I didn't skip it. Evidently, you are not reading my long posts.

but I guess that's also ok you at least where able to add another chapter to your book. 

Since my latest useful report/post, I am answering useless comments. You can keep adding so useless comments so to trash this topic even more, instead of actually suggesting something, or maybe opening a bug ticket, or any other useful post (I indeed read useful posts from you in this same topic). The third option you have is not to trash it, and not to contribute to it.

I guess I'll have to follow your "suggestion", apply the program update (as I already planned to do some time in a few days), and wait for the next program update so to check if anything has been "automagically" improved.

[igor]

I'm afraid I don't follow your conclusions, so I don't see any discrepancies. But yes, I admit I did skip the long posts.

Vlk didn't say there's a 2 month spread - he said that by July, it should be finished. The spread might have been a year (don't ask me about the real value, I don't know it - even if anything like a real value exists, because as I said, the value may change in time, making the distribution hard to describe), ending in two months from now.

[Jack 1000]

I'm afraid I don't follow your conclusions, so I don't see any discrepancies. But yes, I admit I did skip the long posts.

Vlk didn't say there's a 2 month spread - he said that by July, it should be finished. The spread might have been a year (don't ask me about the real value, I don't know it - even if anything like a real value exists, because as I said, the value may change in time, making the distribution hard to describe), ending in two months from now.

Thanks Igor,

It sounds like these things are definite:

Avast checks for Definition Updates at 4 hour intervals by default
Avast generally releases 2 Definition updates each day
When Program Update Pop-Up Notifications are released, they are spread out over a seven day period from the time of any geological or server release, to prevent server overload.
GUI notifications from Avast appear within 24 hours of a program update release.
Pop up notices occur within 10 days of license key renewal

It sounds like these things are random:

Program update pop-up notices.
How those pop-up notices for program updates are distributed (Through server, country, OS type, previous version of Avast.)
When Program Update notice pop-ups appear.
The time interval when license renewals appear, once under 10 days out.

Can users infer that if Avast is updating the definitions and working properly under normal conditions, that the only time to be concerned would be after a repeated FAILED update notice or threat from Avast?

Therefore, when Program pop-up notifications come out, if they show up without error conditions, this is more important than when they show up?  Perhaps we are trying to decipher a random schedule of events, for program pop-up update notifications, and get it to a set schedule, which is not possible, because there is no set time frame?

Jack

[ady4um]

I'm afraid I don't follow your conclusions, so I don't see any discrepancies. But yes, I admit I did skip the long posts.

Vlk didn't say there's a 2 month spread - he said that by July, it should be finished. The spread might have been a year (don't ask me about the real value, I don't know it - even if anything like a real value exists, because as I said, the value may change in time, making the distribution hard to describe), ending in two months from now.

Too bad you skipped my long posts, because they actually resumed the real useful info and reports, and discarded the other comments.

I indeed understand what you mean about the 2 months cycle. I just meant that from 2011-MAY-11, when the latest stable released was published in the changelog, and up to 2011-JUL-11, when Vlk says the update cycle should finish, you have 2 months.

Whether this "cycle" means all servers will announce to Avast users that a new stable release is available (to update from the previous latest stable), or this "cycle" means finally updating all servers since last year (when the program update tray notification problems seem to have started), I don't know.

In any case, if Avast is releasing program updates, the final notifications "can NOT" take, say, a full year. Technically, they "can", but it is not very logical, speaking about security software.

The inconsistencies are (once again ) that, simultaneously, the MAIN GUI already knows about the update, but:

_ Some users can see both, database and program updates tray notification;
_ Some users have never seen both tray notifications simultaneously;
_ Some users only see the program update tray notifications, until they apply the program update, so only *then* they can see again the database update tray notifications;
_ Some users never see the PROGRAM update tray notifications, but only the database update tray notifications.

All these are discrepancies (all of them using default settings, "ask"), and other users are also reporting that the automatic program update is not working either.

The last option of the "ask" settings, and the "automatic program update" are affecting users that have no idea at all that there are program updates available.

I hope this post was not "too long to read" . For more details, please take the time to read this very long topic.

[ady4um]

It sounds like these things are definite:

Avast checks for Definition Updates at 4 hour intervals by default
Avast generally releases 2 Definition updates each day
When Program Update Pop-Up Notifications are released, they are spread out over a seven day period from the time of any geological or server release, to prevent server overload.
GUI notifications from Avast appear within 24 hours of a program update release.
Pop up notices occur within 10 days of license key renewal

Jack, just to be clear, specially with those users NOT reading my long useful posts, I don't know if those differential times are "definite". I don't have any indication of 7 days, 10 days, constant 2 months, 24 hours...

My experience with updates and their tray notifications until last year was more or less acceptable. For the last months (since last year), I have received almost no program update tray notifications, until some days ago, but the behaviour changed, as I already described in my previous reports, before all this nonsense of "long topic".

The behaviour of both tray notifications is not being consistent between users. Currently, this is the only "definitive fact", according to the reports; at least the only one that I know of.

[igor]

When Program Update Pop-Up Notifications are released, they are spread out over a seven day period from the time of any geological or server release, to prevent server overload.
GUI notifications from Avast appear within 24 hours of a program update release.

No. Those 7 days is exactly the value that can be, and was, changed - currently to those few months.
I'm not sure what the second line should mean (or rather, how it's different from the first one).

And it's not that the servers wouldn't be updated (if that was the case, you couldn't update even manually) - it's just the popup or auto-update that's delayed, randomly through the population.

[ady4um]

When Program Update Pop-Up Notifications are released, they are spread out over a seven day period from the time of any geological or server release, to prevent server overload.
GUI notifications from Avast appear within 24 hours of a program update release.

No. Those 7 days is exactly the value that can be, and was, changed - currently to those few months.
I'm not sure what the second line should mean (or rather, how it's different from the first one).

And it's not that the servers wouldn't be updated (if that was the case, you couldn't update even manually) - it's just the popup or auto-update that's delayed, randomly through the population.

@Igor, I already answered to Jack about that. I already said that all those times are not really known, and, more importantly, they are not relevant.

So, if you could please relate to what is *indeed* important, but apparently you simply skipped, your contribution might help. If not, then we keep trashing the topic. I don't think my last resume was too long to read.

Thanks.

[igor]

Well, I simply do not get how you can conclude that some users don't get any program-update notification or their automatic program updates don't work - if you don't know the spread, and the spread might have been quite long. So, maybe it just wasn't "their turn" yet.
That's the point I was trying to make.

[ady4um]

Well, I simply do not get how you can conclude that some users don't get any program-update notification or their automatic program updates don't work - if you don't know the spread, and the spread might have been quite long. So, maybe it just wasn't "their turn" yet.
That's the point I was trying to make.

Too bad you keep making your own conclusions, or refusing to accept mine, while you are not reading my previous posts (as you already said).

I am in a problem now. Either I repeat all my previous explanations (once more) with every detail, making this post too long to read too, or I repeat only what I said before: if you need more details, READ the topic, specially my long but USEFUL posts.

[DavidR]

Since Igor is one of the senior avast developers, if he doesn't know or have access to someone that know the avast update cycle then I don't know who does. So I think his conclusion is likely to be pretty accurate.

Whilst not wishing to put words into his mouth. He is saying that because this update cycle is variable to spread server load there really is no way to tell if someone has missed the update notification or they simply haven't received it yet; not that they won't get it at some point in the extended update cycle.

[Jack 1000]

Thanks everyone!

I understand the explanations given to this topic. 

Jack