I have been getting for some time a red box with the following on it:
“An error has occured while attempting to update. Check here for more information.”
When I click for ‘more info’ the box just goes away. How can I tell if I am
getting updates? (Simple explanation please).
Apart from this I like using Avast.
most of the time when that happens to me its either your firewall is blocking access to avast! antivirus update or another program you might have or your internet is down ;D
hope this helped in someway :o
Hello 
If this is tha case like drhayden1 said, you’ll need to allow to avast.setup and aswUpdSv.exe web acess in your firewall 
Which version of the program you use? - rigth click on the “a” icon in the system tray and choose “About avast!..” (the latest is 4.7.844)
What is your firewall ?
What type of internet connection do you have, dial-up, broadband, cable, etc. ?
I have been getting for some time a red box with the following on it:When does this happen, shortly after boot or during browsing ?
If it is only happening ‘recently’ then I doubt that it is the avast.setup not having permission other wise it wouldn’t have worked at all, unless you have recently done a program update. The program update would have caused avast.setup to change and your firewall should have asked permission again, if you inadvertently blocked it not knowing what it was you will need to correct that.
If avast.setup is allowed in your firewall, delete the entry for it and do a manual update and your firewall should ask again, allow it.
The about avast xmas mentions will also show what VPS version is on your system, the latest is 0626-3. You can also check in the avast Log Viewer (right click the avast icon), Errors or Warnings sections and see what is displayed about failed updates.