Avira Sp2

Your using Premium hence no toolbar. Also the toolbar is a North American thing I believe for the free version.

 

Who said that?

 

I think that was the Uniblue thing. I’m in Australia and I got the toolbar. Everyone using the free version no matter where they are will get the toolbar stuff as it’s part of the installer.

Another thing is even if you don’t install the toolbar AnpStub(digital certificate Ask.com) accesses the internet on every reboot when it loads in memory for the slide-up. So I recommend a two-way firewall to block this and/or a Professional or Ultimate version of Windows so you can use SRP to stop AnpStub from loading altogether.

 

Any confirmation on this? Somebody else claims they have the newest version (10.2), but that their install said nothing about any toolbar, but that Apnstub is indeed in there with the update files. Seems people are having vastly different updates here.

Do you have to have product updates turned on in the config. to get this SP2 update?... or will it install even if you have product updates disabled and just want to update defs? For the ones you claim Avira says they're up to date even though they still have 10.0 (like the person I've quoted here)... do you have product updates disabled?

Just trying to make some sense of this. I know that I don't want this toolbar, or associated services/processes to install on my computer. Disabling and/or uninstalling it later isn't sufficient to me. I don't want any of it to touch my PC in the first place. And I don't want Avira crippled (closed umbrella) by refusing it either.

As you can probably tell, I've disabled the Avira scheduler service the past few days because I foresaw such problems. I wanted some info. before jumping into this with both feet. I still don't feel safe doing this update. I'd like to continue to just get defs in the process but I'm concerned it'll force SP2 on me, even though I have product updating disabled. That's why I highlighted that concern of mine.

 

The SP2 product update for Avira Personal has been reintroduced. In other words, they've worked on the SP2 update, to make it less troublesome for Avira Personal users, and turned the faucet back on.

Later....

Bob

 

I went into Safe Mode and deleted ApnStub.exe (AskStub), and ApnToolbarInstaller.exe from Avira's Program Files folder then rebooted back to Desktop. WebGuard was still enabled oddly enough. I then did a product update just to see what would happen. As expected the update process re-installed the two applications I had deleted. So it seems deleting these
applications is a wasted effort. They'll eventually show back up at the next product update.

BTW, you might want to include ApnIC.dll in your SRP/AppLocker Deny rules located at C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\AppnIC.dll. WebGuard still functions with it blocked.

Later...

Bob

 

But can someone explain because i do not understand what is so dangerous to have the files ApnStub.exe (AskStub), and ApnToolbarInstaller.exe in the AVIRA FOLDER ??

 

There is nothing dangerous about them.

 

+1

Most people were just too paranoid about the Ask toolbar

 

It depends on what you consider as "dangerous". I can't confirm this myself but over at the Avira AntiVir Personal forum there have been a few posts by individuals who claim their firewall alerted them about ApnStub.exe (AskStub) requesting an out-bound connection. One could assume that this AskStub application is "phoning home", so to speak. The request may be innocent in nature, or it may be, as some have stated, sending information about you to Ask.com. If the latter then I prefer to keep that information to myself. If my OS is capable of blocking this contact then I'm going to utilize it. Simple as that.

But, of course, you're free to do as you wish.

Later...

Bob

 

Hi all,

Just to clarify what was said here :
1. SP2 wasn't withdrawn.
2. An update has been published today to fix a specific issue : http://www.avira.com/en/support-sp2-closed-umbrella

 

is the Sp2 only available as update? no installer?

 

Hi,

The AV Premium installers with SP2 included are already available here : http://www.avira.com/en/support-download

The AV Personal installer with SP2 included will follow. SP2 for AV Personal is currently only available via update.

 

Something that they surely wouldn't have needed to do had there been an open beta instead of the clandestine one they apparently had.

 

thanks, but I don't understand why make other versions available but not the Personal...

 

Sorry, johnyjohn, but the SP2 update was indeed withdrawn for a time period yesterday. Like I said in an earlier post, after installing AntiVir Personal 10.0.0650 I then tried to take the SP2 product update but was told my system was up to date. Also, other people over at Avira's forum mentioned having the same thing happen to them. The new and improved SP2 update was released just this morning...

Today, 4:35am
We just released a correction over automatic update, please run the AntiVir update to solve this small issue.
Stefan Berka
Avira GmbH

My Sony XP Pro laptop has since taken this update and is running fine.

Just to be clear. .

Later...

Bob

 

Nevermind, I'm having the stupid toolbar slider whenever Avira updates, along with the tray icon.
The notification was already annoying, but this is unacceptable.

Therefore, I'll be disabling something for sure.

Strangely, I have an opened umbrella, even though there is no Guard .

 

Another bit of info, you might want to go into msconfig and uncheck Startup Item {StringFileInfo_FileDescription}. It's the Ask.com updater. I suppose if you uncheck this then you'll not need to make a Deny rule in SRP/AppLocker. Right? .

Later...

Bob

 

lol seems to me that umbrella is of no use no more my good friend

 

It's not there, because I haven't installed it. That's also why Avira keeps nagging me.

 

How many times has it nagged you about it?

 

Twice so far before I lost my patience.

 

Well I'll post my update experience. I figured the only way to really find out was to try it myself. I had product updating disabled, as I wanted to see if it still tried to give it to you. I noticed 15 new files, mostly the same old def. update files but some dat files thrown in there (webcat0.dat, webcat1.dat), 5 files like this (0-4), and prodinfo.dat. I never noticed these before, but I don't do product updates often so it's possible that's just normal stuff. But no mention of SP2. No nag screens, and an open umbrella. No prompt asking me to reboot either.

It wasn't until after I rebooted that I then saw a slide-up above the tray asking me if I wanted to "protect my computer better", basically. There were 2 options, as we've all seen, "Install Now", or "Install Later". There was also a big red X button at the top right to close it out, which I did, and did... and did (3 times and 3 reboots later), and now it's not coming up anymore.

So even if you have product updates disabled and choose not to install SP2 at all, you still get a nag screen that you must X out of 3 times, after 3 reboots. The only difference here is whether you have a box nagging you to install the toolbar, or SP2 altogether.

At least it appears for now I can continue to get definition/engine updates without upgrading to SP2. They both updated to newer versions, and none of that Ask stuff is on my computer. I'm going to continue on like this indefinitely, until either they remove this Ask bundle (unlikely), or I decide on a replacement.

Also, after receiving my daily update today (product updates turned off), I was asked to reboot my computer afterward. I hope this doesn't become a daily chore, as revenge for not installing SP2. I have been asked to reboot before after normal updates, rarely, so could be unwarranted paranoia. Only time will tell.

 

In former days the the CEO of Avira used the slogan "make software that does good things for my friends and family". Now we read that ask.com pays for every installation of their tool-bar. Is there anybody out there stupid enough to believe ask is paying Avira without earning money on the other hand?
Of course ask is earning money by showing up "sponsored links" of their advertisement partners when a user performs a search. For me this means that I do NOT get good things but bad/misleading search results while Avira claims this shall be an improvement in saftey.
Friendly said the way Avira foists this tool-bar is "misleading". Less friendly it is fraud, because they use their reputation to make the user install a search tool that is intended to display advertisement claiming this is increasing security. At least I do not see the intention of good things - but maybe someone inside this form is either family or friend and can explain...

 

Well, obviously it is going to popup again if you close it out. My dad and I have installed many different things, and usually when you close it without giving it an answer, there is always a time that it will return to haunt you (until you do).