Avast Pro Expired! What Now?

[brhokla]

My Avast Pro Subscription has expired and I don't know if I should re-subscribe or try one of the free Suites available.  Any ideas on what is a good suite without the cost? Thought about trying Comodo or some other Suite but I'm sorta loyal to Avast even with the problems/very few that I have had with it.

[nmb]

You can continue if you are satisfied with the product. But then it depends for what purpose you use the computer - home or business apart, do you use it just for checking mails and reading news? Or what else do you do? Advanced users need the pro and AIS versions as it contains features such as safezone and sandbox. Unless you dont do banking, dont use sandbox while browsing, and you dont want antispam, you are good to go with free version.

But it costs very less for multiple years. Decision is what you have to make

Try the link given by the program interface itself, as you can get offers which give you more discount.

[SafeSurf]

I agree with everything nmb posted.  However if cost is an issue, rather than go with a free suite as well as being unprotected now, you can also go with Avast Free and always upgrade in the future.  You would need to add a firewall, however there are free third-party firewalls available (like Online Armor, Outpost, Comodo without the Antivirus turned on) as examples.  But there are offers (discounts) available in the Avast GUI if you check, especially now for the Avast Internet Security (AIS). 

[DavidR]

Well if using avast Pro now, you will have to have been using a firewall, OS/3rd party one. So there really is no big change for you if you opt to re-subscribe no changes at all. If you uninstall avast pro and install avast free, that's it done as your existing firewall would be in place.

Personally I have never been a fan of suites of whatever flavour, I much prefer to be able to select the individual components that best suit 'my requirements' and not what happens to be in a suite.

[brhokla]

I agree with not using full suites.  I use Malwarebytes and Online Armour. I however turned Online Armour off for my uninstallation of Avast Pro 5.0 and the installation of the newest Avast Free.  Turned on windows Firewall till I get things set up right.  Have Avast checked for allow but cannot update through the servers.  Can't figure out why! 

[brhokla]

Got it fixed!  For whatever reason, even though Online Armour was OFF it still was running and preventing the connection.  Thanks

[Para-Noid]

Well if using avast Pro now, you will have to have been using a firewall, OS/3rd party one. So there really is no big change for you if you opt to re-subscribe no changes at all. If you uninstall avast pro and install avast free, that's it done as your existing firewall would be in place.

Personally I have never been a fan of suites of whatever flavour, I much prefer to be able to select the individual components that best suit 'my requirements' and not what happens to be in a suite.

I bought AIS just to try it out and see for myself. After all is said and done avast free would be all I really need. For now all I'm using AIS for is the firewall, which I could always replace. Since I paid for it...I'm going to use it. But in the end I don't really need a suite either.

[SafeSurf]

I however turned Online Armour off for my uninstallation of Avast Pro 5.0 and the installation of the newest Avast Free.  Turned on windows Firewall till I get things set up right.  Have Avast checked for allow but cannot update through the servers.  Can't figure out why!

Online Armor (OA) still runs in the background (drivers) even when disabled.  You can right click from the OA toolbar "Close and shut down OA" but drivers are still in your machine and working.

The Windows firewall is activated by default if OA is disabled as a security feature so you are protected at all times, and will deactivate once OA resumes...no need to do this manually.

It would help for you to put exclusions in both Avast and OA for each other since both are security software:

To exclude OA in Avast:
·   Settings > Exclusions > Add > search for Online Armor and click on the box to the left of it and add it, then click OK.
·   Real Time Shields > Expert Settings > Trusted Processes > Add > search for Online Armor and click on the box to the left of it and add it, then click OK.
·   Behavior Shield > Expert Settings > Trusted Processes > Add > search for Online Armor and click on the box to the left of it and add it, then click OK.  Also change action to take in Behavior Shield to “Ask.”

To exclude Avast in OA:
·   Open the OA GUI > Options > Exclusions > Add > click on the pop-up window and find C:\Program Files\Avast Software\.
·   When you reboot OA (to go into Learning Mode), make sure ALL Avast shields are left on.
·   Reboot your machine again; OA requires two boots.  After this second reboot, you may get a pop-up asking you if you trust Avast.  Answer the pop-up as "Trust Always" and "Remember My Decision" and you should not get any more pop-ups. 
·   Open the OA GUI > Programs > untick "Hide Trusted" so that you can see everything > look to make sure everything from Avast is not "blocked" (red) or "ask" (yellow).  If it is, right-click the item and change it to "Trust."  Reboot.

·   Open the OA GUI > Options > Backup/Restore > Save your settings once you have everything the way you want it.

FYI -- if you disable OA, you need to reboot to enable in most cases.

Make sure you have the latest versions of BOTH software:
- Avast v. 6.0.1125
- OA 5.0.0.1100

You can upgrade via the GUI on both.  Check your settings on both software to make sure you are getting them:
- Avast GUI > Settings > Updates
- OA GUI > Options > General > Check for Updates (set the time you want from every hour to Manual...I believe with the Free version you can only do Manual Updates whereas paid versions you can set the time)

You mentioned in your last post that you are using Avast 5.0, so I suggest that you upgrade or do a clean install to Avast 6.0.1125.  Let us know if you have additional questions.  Thank you.