Since early this morning (4 Sept 2009) Avast hasn’t succeeded in downloading any updates. This is the current free-for-home-use version.
Automatic attempts have all failed, with the program reporting a Remote Procedure Call error and subsequently refusing to work. This error was remedied by restarting Windows (XP SP3).
When I attempted to manually update, Avast tried to download not an incremental update, but the full .vpu file of about 28 MB, usually with three attempts. But every time, it reported that the file was corrupted and urged me to attempt the update again. After three such tries, I restarted Windows, but the RPC error was reported and, this time, the on-access scanner refused to run, even with additional restarts.
I then tried uninstalling and reinstalling the entire Avast program (v4.8.1351, 17 Aug 2009). That operates, but it still won’t update, and obviously the database is severely out of date. (My VRDB was, of course, also lost.)
I have had no reports of incoming virii, trojans, etc., for 10 days. The firewall (Comodo) is operating normally. Nothing whatsoever has changed in my computer (1.5 GB RAM, 320 MB HD) or connection (2.0 mbps DSL) configurations since yesterday.
Avast simply would update on 3 Sept, and will not update, repeatedly reporting file corruption, on 4 Sept.
Any ideas? For example, is the update server reporting an incorrect MD5 checksum? Should I simply wait until another update is available, presumably tomorrow?
~ Greybird (Los Angeles)