Fired because of Avast - please help.

[MichaelS]

Please help:

I am an administrator for a small company and have recently decided to upgrade from Avast 4.8 to Avast 6.0.1125 on our 12 machines. We have a legal subscription to Avast Pro for all the machines.

After updating, and going through all the program settings to disable internet connectivity (company requirement), Avast is still trying to communicate with the internet. The connections are coming from AvastUI.exe. I need to disable these connection attempts, but see no way of doing so from within Avast.

My boss now thinks that Avast is spyware and is leaking company and user data to the internet. Unless I find a way of disabling these connections FROM WITHIN Avast, I will get fired by the end of the week. Please help - tell me there is some hidden setting in Avast to disable these connection attempt, or please provide me with a modified executable that does not behave in this way.

michael

[spg SCOTT]

Hi Michael, welcome to the forum

The connections by avastUI are for the news and the ad (free version).

If I remember correctly, there is a setting in the paid version.

In the top right, click on settings and there is an option to display external content or something to that effect.

I'll try and get the actual name.

EDIT: The actual setting:

Uncheck "show remote content in avast! user interface"


Scott

[MichaelS]

I have unchecked that setting before I posted - Avast still tries to connect.

[sded]

Under "community", uncheck everything if you haven't already.

[MichaelS]

I did uncheck everything under community.

Soon, I will post results from Wireshark so that you see more details about the connections.

[sded]

Did you also make both update choices under updates as manual?

[MichaelS]

Yes - both are set to manual.

[MichaelS]

Here are the logs:

untitled.txt contains wireshark log for connections only from AvastUI.exe

untitled.jpg contains Comodo alert.

[igor]

It's just a DNS query - it doesn't send any data anywhere.
I don't think there's any setting to change the behavior.

[MichaelS]

Unfortunately, my boss will not accept that excuse - from what he sees, Avast is trying to connect to the internet and that is all that matters to him.

Are you sure there is no way to disable it? Why would Avast programmers do such a nasty thing?

Is there any way of putting this to a wishlist for next version or to receive a modified executable?

[igor]

It's just a DNS lookup of the specific URL - in case it's needed later.
Yes, it's possible that AvastUI.exe connects somewhere (later) - e.g. to display the popups when the license is close to expiration.

[lukor]

And how does your boss look at the fact that avast frequently connects to the internet to check for the new virus updates?

[jimmy556]

Your boss needs to reach for the sky. I feel bad for you but seriously if he fires you over this i would take him to court because avast and a legit av company and that can be proved they don't steal info.

[Dch48]

I have found that when I have no internet connectivity, (ISP is down or such) that Avast totally bogs down and takes forever to even open the gui.

The main point however though is that apart from the necessary connections to update, Avast only connects when you open the gui. It has to connect to display the animations which are flash based just like on a web page. In it's normal running in the background state, Avast will only connect to check for updates and even that can be turned off. Your boss is being very paranoid.

[Hermite15]

block avastUI with your firewall, that's the only way. I used to do that when running the free version because these connections annoyed me.