free Antivir 7 - update problems

So finally I left the perfectly well working free AVG (not so well detecting according to some) - and installed free Antivir 7 - highly rated at AV-comparatives.

Installed fine - updated during install - but since then hasnt. "No connection to internet could be produced". Allthough it says it is connecting to all their servers, but still this explanation at the end.

They havent solved this at their own forum - but for some reason I am not allowed to post there - so I am hoping for you guys to come up with something?

I know I should try Avast - maybe I will, but right know I will not give up on Antivir. Some says its working like a charm.

Best Regards

 

You may have to find the time slot that updates work for you. I know that here in the Pacific US, I can only update from around noon to midnight. Any other time and AntiVir times out and can't connect. I don't know whether AntiVir is limiting access to their servers by region and time, or whether this is just some strange situation, but it's pretty much always been that way for me here. So I just schedule the update for a time once a day when it works..

 

Hm, i had problems in mid February, but ever since it's working smooth. It just updated smoothly today around 13:00 PM CET time (i've reinstalled OS so i had to do a full AntiVir update). But i'm on quiet fast DSL. Are you on dialup ?

 

Lowbudget ADSL 128 kb.

 

So, basically a dual ISDN... Where are you from (country)?

EDIT:
I see now, sweden...
Thats odd. AntiVir 7 just updated without any problems...

 

Updater ok here,uk.
After no notifier for awhile its just come back.

 

I am on dial-up and it updates (or reports that it is up to date) on each and every connection, average time is less than one minute. There are usually three updates issued weekdays and two on weekends. Out or 49 attempts, it has 'failed' 5 times since 12 February, no matter as my AntiVirus has never stayed so current, NAV was three a week average on auto-update.

One of the 'time-outs' was yesterday at 20 hours GMT and then it succeeded at 22 hours GMT, and it was a huge update of over 3MB (normal is 30KB).

Click here to see Traffic Rank for free-av.com

They have increased from 3 to 8 servers on free-av.com and that has helped a lot since the bottlenecks observed in early February.

Another caution on AntiVir, tried most all day yesterday to get an install of the Win98 version 7
on my old backup Dell Latitude LM p133 without success.

Turned out to be a corrupt program from an AVIRA 'Mirror'.

A Fresh Download from the top of the list on AVIRA's Download Page solved that problem with a slightly different program to install

 

Ive downloaded from different mirrors but seems not to help. Once I used v6 it updated 8 out of 10 times - which would be awesome.

I am accepted at Antivir forum now so I will continue there until I take the next descision.

Thank you!

 

Most likely your firewall is blocking it. Remove any rules that could apply, or switch to learning mode if there is one.

You may also want to check whether it is using the correct connection in the config panel.

 

At their forum there was a fix. Manual updates by clicking preupd.exe in the Antivir file - works like a charm - connects everytime - I just got my first update. Shortcut is now in my toolbar - will if I can get Windows to run it automatically.

Nothing to do with my firewall.

Could the download file be corrupt?

Cant find anything about connections via config - pls give detailed instructions.

Happy camper despite - will keep it cause its probably better than AVG.

Best Regards

 

Weird, works like a charm for me and i use it without any tricks or fixes.

 

Thats software for you - same type of discussion over at their forum. Even paying customers have problems and are neglected.

A think there is guy calls himself Wildman who know more than most about Antivir update problems.

Perhaps they should buy over a programmer from Avast or AVG or any of the others.

Best Regards

 

Yeah, they do need some guidance,especially if they knew how many people regard their program as very unprofessional with it's "nag screens" when updating takes place. This and their lack of customer support makes this company look pathetic.

 

Nagscreen?

 

Years ago the update size killed me on dialup. Are the updates still over a MB?

 

That refers to the 'Pop-Up' screen from AVIRA's Marketing Department, it had been gone for quite a while but resurfaced recently to inform users of the name change to AVIRA and also promote their Premium service.

It's 'AVNOTIFY.EXE' and you can easily block it from loading, it saved me from the first attempt by the 'Updater' to 'UpGrade'
my two week old version 6 to version 7.

When I saw that 11MB file downloading, I halted it as I had just seen that "Nagscreen" for the first time
and had clicked [Ok] and then thought that the 'Premium' was loading.

This gave me an opportunity to investigate (Forum) and properly prepare for a clean install of Version 7,
the only problem I have encountered was that bad 'mirror' download (last post) that would only load a "Demo" Version at best.

Second download worked perfectly, first dial-up connection last night did Auto Update with no problem.
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The Updates are now incremental, VDF3's (every few hours) are 20 to 30KB the last VDF2 was but 2KB.

There is a huge VDFo that I have never seen renewed and a VDF1 @ 1,391KB that seems to renew about monthly.

They also frequently install other new files (like the avewin32.dll Heuristic Engine) @ 989KB and avguard.vxd @ 557KB,
I am on 56K dial-up and it presents no problems at all.
________________________________________________________________

I do hope that a solution will be found for those with problems, but it is
plainly stated, before the install of the 'Free' Version,
that your only Tech Support will be from the Provided user/user Forum.

You must also be aware that if you had 'Paid' Support and phoned in with
most of these kind of questions, "(works on other's systems, but won't work on mine)"
that they are just gonna tell you to "ReInstall Windows"

I cannot fault them on Customer Support for a Free Product by maintaining a Customer Forum.

They could have gone the route of Norton @ $30 US Per Incident
or the other major competitor @ $3 a minute for phone support.

 

If it's nagging again, and you're on a NTFS system (2k or XP) then just set the 'avnotify.exe' file's properties to deny execution. Simple and effective.

 

Lol, whats the point of having an antivirus when they charge 30 bucks for cleaning tech support

 

Update problems workaround works well for me now. Got some help at the Antivir forum;

preupd.exe has been set to update 4 times a day via Windows scheduler and it works very well - quick - so there seems to be enough servers to do the job. Also manual update works fine.

I have never seen the notifier "nag screen" so I dont know what thats all about.

Antivir dont have realtime e-mailscanning, but since I nowadays mail and surf inside Defensewall Sandbox HIPS it doesnt seems so important with the mailscanner.

Think I made an uptrade in the free AV market when going from AVG to Antivir.

Best Regards

 

Glad you got it fixed, put 'invisible' instruction post on your thread. Will have to try that Sandboxie of yours, had to dump AntiHook

I do like to see what is downloading, during a 56K download of a huge file, up-pops ZoneAlarm about permission for Norton Update (not NAV, but perhaps WinFax Pro or something?) and the steady 56K stopped and then resumed at 44K, then along came Adobe with same request, denied again and now had to finish the download I wanted at 31K. This had added at least an hour to my download.

Now - how do I get this setup to update invisible? Thats the tricky one isnt it?

 

I like to believe that Defensewall is a way better - and also different - alternative than Sandboxie

Best Regards