Major changes, as far I could notice, in avast 4.5:
New list of IM applications supported:
AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Gadu-Gadu*, gaim*, ICQ, Miranda*, mIRC*,
MSN/Windows Messenger, Odigo*, Psi Jabber Client*, Trillian, Yahoo! Messenger
(Protection of the programs marked by an asterisk (*) is available on
Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 only).
New list of P2P applications supported:
Ares*, BearShare, BitTorrent*, CZDC++, Direct Connect, Direct Connect++,
eDonkey, eMule*, iDC++, iMesh, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, LimeWire, Morpheus*
Opera’s DC++, Overnet, Shareaza*, SoulSeek*, StrongDC++, WinMX
(Protection of the programs marked by an asterisk (*) is available on
Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 only).
New resident provider: Network Shield. It protects the computer from
the attacks of Internet worms (e.g. Blaster, Sasser, etc.). It will show warning
messages in the system area (above the system clock) every time it detects
an Internet worm attack. There is a logging feature too: all attacks will be
recorded into a log file so that you can inspect their history, frequency, etc. The
last detected attacks will be displayed on the Last attacks page.
Network Shield provider will protect your computer from Internet worm attacks.
It works similarly to a firewall, even though it does not fully substitutes it.
The Network Shield does not require any user interraction. Note: This resident
provider will be available on Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 only.
New method of email protection. Mail Wizard Protection will only be
available for the operating systems Windows 95, 98, and Millennium.
Avast! 4.5. won’t need any special settings, even for other email clients
than MS Outlook or MS Exchange. The protection on Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003
will be completely automatic.
Skins: the Home version will be optionally skinless. If, for any
reason, you want to avoid using skins of the Simple User Interface, you can
turn them off very easily. When the skins are turned off, the appearance and
behavior of avast! Simple User Interface is the same as of any
ordinary Windows application.
ashSimpl.exe is the skinned interface.
ashSimp2.exe is the skinless.
Another possibility will be random choose the skin on application startup.
A new skin (chosen from the installed ones) will be selected and used
every time you start the Simple User Interface.
Enable SMTP authentication even while sending files from Chest for
virus analysis.
New archive protection and file support: 7zip, ISO CD images, NRG (Nero Burning Rom) images.
Did you get a beta of 4.5 or were you told about the new features?
I really like the sound of the network shield, hopfully it doesnt take too much RAM ;D
There will be also a Decompression Bombs detection (i’m not sure if this is only for Mail protection) and advanced archive scanning (scan only archives up to specified size)
Since I have my e-mail protected automatically by my account providers, and avast, so it’s not very likely I would ever get a virus though e-mail.
Would turning off Standard Shield and using Network Shield instead be sufficient for protection while on the net. I would prefer not to have the Standard Shield running if I don’t need it.
I don’t use any of Instant Messaging , or P2P software.
Network Shield provider protects your computer from Internet worm attacks. It works similarly to a firewall, even though it does not fully substitutes it. The Network Shield does not require any user interraction.
So it does not protect you from other malware. That is why you need the Standard Shield on. Why compromising the security of your system by shutting it down?
OK, I’m only asking this because sometimes the developers of some program could find an optimization in the code that will reduce the resources of that program…
Eddy, I’ll leave it turned on for a while. My computers are pretty well protected. I’m a pretty cautious user of the computer even though I do a lot of experimenting with programs. I always make an image of my C: drive before I install or update anything…that includes the new avast I just added.
