AVAST on Toshiba Thrive tablet looks good (but have questions)

[Jan Gahura]

Hi,

Maybe we should say that we're not currently supporting custom ROMs because we give a higher priority to stock ROMs. But then we'll support as much custom ROMs as possible with respect to their popularity. I understand that if we're shipping rooted-only features then we should support custom ROMs which are sometimes the only way how to make a device rooted.

Jan

[Filip Havlicek]

Cooby, we have made some small adjustments to the next beta refresh that actually might remove the need to restart the tablet for the firewall changes to apply (no promises though).

Can you, please, try it after the next beta refresh arrives?

Filip

[cooby]

.1123 beta since yesterday.
1) Firewall no longer requires a reboot when change settings. Works fine in blocking of things I tested on, but see 4) below.

2) On demand scan ran quickly. There was something on the screen about Time, but it just flashed so fast when the scan ended that it was not useful.

3) Question - am I correct that the Privacy screen is a read-only list of permission groups and not a permissions editor?

4) Now comes a long story:
One application that I used to test the firewall blocking was FING-Network Tools v1.25. It includes ping and tracert, handy for tests. Normally when i click its shortcut it does its job and then the service persists even when I exit it (all that existing in android is confusing to me really, but that's OT). Also normally, if, using the android Settings shortcut, I can force close Fing. It closes and all is well.

Less normal behavior occured with Avast in the picture. I blocked it the firewall and that worked. Tracert couldn't run, actually I could not even click its button. Soon after, a message (android's? avast's?) came up to wait, force close or report. I tapped force close. The screen went black and none of those triangles responded. I tapped the avast icon (a in the notification area) and immediately got the same message.

I had to reboot.
I wish we had logs, perhaps that would show what went wrong. (Mentioned here as well http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90275.0)
I'm reporting it only because I have no clue whether this is a Fing issue, and avast issue or android.
Thanks for listening.

[Filip Havlicek]

1) Firewall no longer requires a reboot when change settings. Works fine in blocking of things I tested on, but see 4) below.

Great.

2) On demand scan ran quickly. There was something on the screen about Time, but it just flashed so fast when the scan ended that it was not useful.

What do you mean by that? The added line is to the "green result screen" if you are referring to the changelog of this beta refresh.

3) Question - am I correct that the Privacy screen is a read-only list of permission groups and not a permissions editor?

Correct.

4) Now comes a long story:
One application that I used to test the firewall blocking was FING-Network Tools v1.25. It includes ping and tracert, handy for tests. Normally when i click its shortcut it does its job and then the service persists even when I exit it (all that existing in android is confusing to me really, but that's OT). Also normally, if, using the android Settings shortcut, I can force close Fing. It closes and all is well.

Less normal behavior occured with Avast in the picture. I blocked it the firewall and that worked. Tracert couldn't run, actually I could not even click its button. Soon after, a message (android's? avast's?) came up to wait, force close or report. I tapped force close. The screen went black and none of those triangles responded. I tapped the avast icon (a in the notification area) and immediately got the same message.

I had to reboot.
I wish we had logs, perhaps that would show what went wrong. (Mentioned here as well http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=90275.0)
I'm reporting it only because I have no clue whether this is a Fing issue, and avast issue or android.
Thanks for listening.

This might be an issue with the FING application not expecting the connection could be blocked. If you encounter this again, try to send the report and we will see if something interesting arrives.

Filip

[cooby]

Re 2) "What do you mean by that? The added line is to the "green result screen" if you are referring to the changelog of this beta refresh." - it was on the Virus scanner screen where Scan apps, Scan SD card and green Scan now is. During the scan was a progress bar and application count on the right, then on the left was something about time and that's what vanished.

Re 4) "If you encounter this again, try to send the report and we will see if something interesting arrives." Sure. I can reproduce. Just wasn't sure if to report. Will the developers tell us what they saw?

Edit: I can't reproduce item 4 today. Fing shows "unreachable" and 100% packet loss, then I clicked < and that up arrow and even the avast icon and I can't break it. Did I tell you I hate when computers make a fool of me?

BTW, thanks for the nice update and your answers.

[Filip Havlicek]

Re 2) Really? I didn't notice that! There should be two lines below the progress bar, number of object scanned and scan timer.

Re 4) We won't know if the exact report came from you, but we see all the reports users send us via the "Send report" dialog and if we can tell the problem was on our side, we will of course try to fix it.

Filip

[cooby]

we were typing at the same time!

Yeah, I think there may well have been 2 lines. Happens too fast.

New item for today
5) I just installed something and did not see the Avast scanned... message. So I repeated. Same thing. Then I updated an application, also no feedback. Avast is running, but lack of feedback is a bit disconcerting for me. Has the feedback been removed in this 2nd beta? If so, I don't like it.

[Filip Havlicek]

Yes, it has. This will be changed in the future depending on the state of the notification icon checkbox in the settings. This change was made without me knowing it so sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Filip

[cooby]

Ok, no problem, thanks.

Back to item 2) the disappearing 2 lines after a manual scan of just applications. Indeed the 2 lines exist: objects scanned and time. But I do not get a chance to see the great statistics, since upon reaching 100% or close to it, it immediately changes to red letters on gray about 1 problem found, a "!", a Resolve all line and Eicar. So how can I pause it to see?

New item
6) I realize it's beta and probably not frequent virus updates. But I'm still looking at Dec14 updates (111214-1) and here it's Dec16. Any problem here?

[Filip Havlicek]

Re 2) Once you resolve the Eicar, you will see it It's like that because if there is a malware on your device, it's the most important thing - statistics are not being shown until you resolve the problems.

Re 6) Seems like it, guys in the other thread confirm this as well.

Filip

[cooby]

Re 2) - Hurray! Thanks Filip. All I had to do is deal with Eicar. Avast uninstalled it. That's ok. And the statistics are there plus that new (?) LOG button.

Re 6) yeah, I see the other thread. Thanks. Will see tomorrow.

[Filip Havlicek]

Re 2) No, the Log button was there from the beginning, were just your eyes playing tricks with you

Filip