Oh man, is this stupid AntiVir freakin retarded or something!?

I have the same problem. Many users have also reported it in avira's forum. i think it's a server problem rather than the program itself.

 

I agree, with server problem (or goad to upgrade, whichever one prefers.) I'll upgrade when $$$ permit, which should be the same time that the next version (that fixes this problem) comes out.

 

In my honest opinion, it would be better to behave somewhat more friendly towards providers of great freeware security software pieces, as Avira is certainly one of those. If all people would bash in your verbal manner at free software, I guess there wouldn't be anymore free software at all, know what I mean? The developers of those nowadays rare gifts would just think most people s... and simply do not deserve it.

No one here and neither the people at Avira have ever FORCED you to use their free version, or, did they?

Some hints for further bashing opportunities:
- no e-mail scan OMG!!!?
- no free antispyware included OMG!!!?
- nothing included but one of the greatest detection databases in the world
- way too cheap for the average software basher
- 10 other free avs combined will do just a little better

Concerning the update problems:

There are at least 9 update servers for your free Avira, as you might have noticed.
They are mostly on German servers, whilst free Avira seems to be really preferred by some (don't know how many) lots of people WORLDWIDE. So it depends on the time of day if your spontaneous update will work or not. The servers are down more often a day you will ever have recognized. I recommend on demand updates. Sometimes there are up to 10 updates a day. Which I think is not bad at all. On some days, though, especially at weekends, the "free" servers seem to not be able anymore to answer at any demand. If you can't live with that (I think I can) go use AVG or Avast or Clamwin or nothing at all. No AV, no update problems.

Or you could pay for the software to get premium update server access.
I was not able to update this night. Still, I won't change my system conf that worked so well with Avira (former Antivir) over almost a decade.

You could, by the way, try to become a programmer, raise your own SW co. and release something better for us. Hopefully free.

But don't be angry if someone will start to bash on your piece of art.

Greetings from Germany.
"Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul."
(you shouldn't wine about bad teeth inside a horse's mouth that was given to you as a gift...or something like that)

Period

 

If you are talking about RejZor, the source of the complaint was explained here

Other than that, I see no bashing going on. So please read the whole thread.

 

By the way, I remember to have read somewhere:

Even if the free version does lack an oh so exclusive e-mail scanner, it will recognize AND stop the execution of bad data if there's bad code inside the appendix whenever you try to open it. Now where's the real difference here?

I sincerely start to question the necessity of a separate e-mail scanning function PER SE. If I am wrong on that, correct me please.

And, just in case if interested what is the main sys conf of this ol' sucker o'mine at the mom... (If compatibility concers you somewhat)

Avira free, Sygate 5.5 free, good old ProcessGuard free, Regprot, AnalogX ScriptDefender extended, GRC free tools, a squared free, AVG AS free, BOClean. All free.
Not to forget hxxp://www.ntsvcfg.de/svc2kxp.zip

Some not en vogue, maybe.

I am still happy.
Have a beer and relax somewhat?

 

Well, Monty, I've already read through all those posts. And there certainly was bashing in his words.
Not only that, but it almost sounded as he was paid by Avast. Which I really do not believe, and I DO in fact respect Avast very much. Still, I think Avast is, in it's highest config, one of the most reliable av's out there, and I really don't say this because I'm german, I would be a complete idiot if trusting most of the progs released every day here.

Concerning the "bug". I don't really know if that "bug" occured anywhere but on HIS machine. I am not sure yet. The server problem, though, is about 10 years old now and has got a very long grey beard. And if you read carefully, this problem of free avira was again bashed on not only once HERE.

If it should turn out to be a single machine's bug, I'd be happy. If not, well, everyone makes a mistake.

Still a believer.

Cheers and xcuse my bad english.

 

Still, I think AVAST is, in it's highest config, one of the most reliable av's out there, and I really don't say this because I'm german

---->

of course I wanted to say AVIRA , but it's early in the mo(u)rning here, so forgive me... please

 

Hi, I'm an Avast user (with no problems whatsoever) and am trying to see what all this hype is over Avira. I've been using Avira 2 days now and I always do manual updates. I can not get an update today. I update in the evening and late night EST/US time which should not be a problem. I'm going to give this a fair shot as I commonly recommend both Avira and Avast. I'm also honest about my experiences with the programs. Are you saying that I can't get updates on the weekends and that's ok ? ? ? Aviras' main selling point is it's detection rate and that means up to date definitions.

I can understand someones frustrations when a program doesn't update. This has been an on going problem with Avira and quite frankly is the reason I have stayed away from Avira until now. By the way, nothing is free. When I or anyone types the word Avira, the company is getting its name out. I personally don't care how slow an update happens with a free program, I do care that it updates or not. Anyways, I'm giving Avira 'free' a trial and I'm using this as a learning experience. I'll keep it on board for a month or until a fatal problem arises.

Cheers, innerpeace

 

And, of course, my first reply here was hinting at RejZor, not at you, Monty.

The way he DID BASH this prog was not nice.

Just an example: If using the Faststone Picture Viewer (one of the best out there I guess) on a folder with just one corrupt video file inside it will probably crash. Not yet fixed (problem occured over two years ago...), at least not on MY PC. Will I therefore start to bash it? No. Do I still use it? Amongst others, yes.

Cheers

 

As I already said, I cannot update either today.
Servers seem to be down.

If that is horror for you, my friend, turn back to avast.
This is not sooo common, though. Normally you can at least update once a day.
Over the last weeks, I did updates up to 10 times a day, and, guess what, there were ones available every few hours.

The servers (1-9) are obviously totally down at the moment.
Maybe even because of friendly hackers. Don't know.

Avira is a great free antivir, I think it's something among the ranks of Kaspersky and NOD32, even without the comforts.

Maybe you'll be able to wait until the servers are there again, maybe not.
I would still give it a chance, shitty updates, reliable program.

Greetz from Germany

 

Oh of course, but you criticise the words of others and bash their questions as if whining.....go to bed!!!!

 

Did i bash aynthing? Sorry if something sucks, i'll tell about it (it can be just a part of program like AntiVir's updater). I'm a great supporter of avast! and i did complained about quiet few options and most of them got either fixed, changed or somehow perfected. In the end, users always win, even if i look bad and all in your eyes. ALWIL guys for example don't have almost the most perfect incrimental update system and over 50 update servers all over the world for nothing... They don't have to deal with people whining about updating process because they don't have any kind of such problems.
Sure there are few isolated incidents but even in this case most of them are related to local problems (badly configured firewalls, bad routers and stuff).
Whining is good, ppl should do it more often. And also compliment them when they do something right. Thats how AntiVir got incrimental update system and more servers even for free version...

 

All I ask is one update a day. I'm pretty easy to get along with .

I agree, there seems to be a problem.

Again, I agree. Aviras detection is second to none.

I do intend on giving it a chance for at least 30 days. I may even switch If I can get one daily update. I always recommend Avast as a reliable and complete AV and I always recommend Avira as an AV with great detection with the occasional update problem. I'm looking to experience this myself so I can back up my words with first hand knowledge. I don't question Avira as a top notch AV and I don't think anyone else does either. I however hope that they fix 'our' updates so they are more reliable. After all, great detection rates need regular and reliable definition updates. I think we all can agree on that .

Cheers from the US,
innerpeace

 

Companies that create free security products don't provide them because they think users 'deserve' it. It is a way to encourage people to try their technology, after which the company hopes people will pay money for products with more features.

An exception might be some open source projects but even then...

 

What incentive do I have to buy the Premium version of AntiVir when I see how crappy and problematic the update servers are on the free version? This just gives me a bad first impression. In my humble opinion, any free version of a product should be an advertisement for their paid version. If the free product sucks in some way, then who can expect anyone to want the paid version?

I do like AntiVir a lot, however, I do NOT like the update server problems at all..

 

No problem with updates at all here so i will stick with the free version.

 

The initial update after installation is the real pain (particularly in the morning EST). But after that updates seem to work just fine.

 

They are having server problems again

 

IMO you are 100% correct

 

The Classic (FreeAv & AvGate) Servers were down when I checked last night, back to normal this morning.

If you meant to download the Manual Update "fusebundle.zip" package, you can use the URL below (which is not on Classic Servers):

http://dl.antivir.de/down/vdf/ivdf_fusebundle_nt_en.zip use for version 7 on Windows NT, 2000, XP, XP 64Bit and Vista 32Bit.

Win98/ME Go Here:
zipDownload IVDF AntiVir incremental VDF update (IVDF) for the version 7

The above link is not an AvGate or FreeAv Server and should function. After download, open AntiVir GUI Console and select Manual Update from menu, point it to the fusebundle.zip

This package is now up to 16.5MB (>2 minutes on Hi-Speed, 55 minutes on DialUp modem) and should soon reduce by half by 'vdf 0's (approximately annual) update release. (VDF 1 is now as large as VDF 0 )

Be aware that the Manual Update package includes ALL of the Sigs (VDF's 0, 1, 2 & 3) and the latest Huerstic Search Engine, but no Program or License Update.

 

I agree with the comments of MysteriousWorlds -- to a degree. It seems to me that some folks are *somewhat* more demanding of free products than they are of products they paid for. The on-going bashing of Comode's BOClean is yet another example.

By the way -- even though Antivir finally converted to incremental updates several months ago, I have noticed a number of recent updates that were very large -- 5MB, 7MB & even larger.

Since Antivir is such a widely-used freebie, those big updates must be generating bandwidth usage of multiple multiple TERAbytes/month!!! Thus, while Avira works to fix Antivir's servers, maybe they also need to take another look at Antivir's incremental updating methods.

 

Completely agree. It's a pity that the Classic Servers give such a bad impression; the paid Servers are a different class but you have to jump through a number of hoops even to trial them. I am restricted to dial-up so I did not even consider staying with the Free version after experiencing the performance of their Servers. In contrast I never had any problems in updating AntiVir Premium.

Back on topic; any AV that is giving you persistent problems, just ditch and try another one.

 

Ditching stuff isn't a solution for anything...

 

Regarding reliability of any av.......isn't reliability somewhat dependant on the ability to update regularly?

AntiVir has improved the update process over what it was before.
Maybe they will look at doing something different with the size of updates.

 

I agree with you. The free products are essentially an advertisement and when a company fails to provide the necessary services for them, it makes them rather pointless and will reduce potential customers' faith in the commercial product. However, my point was not about the update servers... It was that these free products are not created as a favour to grateful and deserving people, as MysteriousWorlds was saying. They are, as you seem to agree, an advert.