After a recommendation on page 168 of the January 2004 issue of PC World magazine, I decided to try Avast 4. So on Thursday, December 18, 2003, I downloaded the home edition of Avast 4 and installed it on my home computer running Windows ME, Outlook Express and Juno for email, Internet Explorer and Opera for web browsing. If it worked well, I wanted to consider its use in a small business that I support. But immediately after installation my Outlook Express email quit working. A popup screen with a strange username kept asking for a password. I had no idea what it wanted. Furthermore, my system has been working for months and I didn’t remember what my email password was, if that is what it wanted. Finally, I found a FAQ which said to restore the mail servers to default if Avast4 didn’t work. But I didn’t know what these defaults were since I had set them months ago and Avast4 had now overwritten them. Why doesn’t Avast4 have an option to return the defaults to their original values? Furthermore, when I tried to turn off email checking, I got a message that asked if I wanted these values to “PERSIST.” This doesn’t make a lot of sense in American English and the term is not generally used in computer jargon, so I wasn’t quite sure what to say. In any event, I finally got email working again after talking to technical support at my Internet Service Provider. Juno continued to work throughout all this hassle so I knew that the hardware and the rest of the system were probably OK.
Then Internet Explorer and Opera both quit accessing my Yahoo account. I don’t know why, but I finally removed Avast4 entirely from my system and now everything works again. Needless to say, I don’t think Avast4 is a program that can be trusted. While I appreciate the efforts of the authors, and especially making it available for free download, I won’t be using it and I wouldn’t recommend it to friends.
Of course, avast! return mail settings to their originals if you run Mail Protection Wizard and choose ‘Remove protection from my accounts’ or either ‘Manual configuration of the protection’. Oh, you must close your mail program (OE) to do so. I don’t know if avast! is compatible with Juno. As further I know, the Internet Mail Clients supported are MS Outlook (including Outlook 2003), MS Exchange, MS Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Mail, IncrediMail and The Bat!
It’s a pitty, if you come here before and ask for help… You won’t find any other av with such a great and quick forum and help 8)
The usual suspects >:(
Okay, so let me see if I have this straight. You were unable to understand the install? Maybe next time you should blame the operator instead of the makers of a program that is apparently over your head. BTW, I’m an American and I understood what “PERSIST” meant. You’re going to be in a lot of trouble when the ACLU makes the computer industry get rid of terminology like “Master HDD” and “Slave HDD.”
I think you should install McAffee. Yeah, that’s the ticket! A nice, ineffective, and expensive piece of American ingenuity.
Roger, I’m sorry avast didn’t work for you. However if you’re still interested in using it, I’m sure we can help you solve the problems you were describing - there are lots of happy avast users who have about the same configuration as you were describing…
Then Internet Explorer and Opera both quit accessing my Yahoo account
I just wanted to ask what you mean quit accessing…? Is it like it gave you an error message, or you could not log on, etc…
Thanks
Vlk
that is true Vlk,…
I have to admit I had some probs with my Outlook Express after installing Avast and running the wizard. But that was because i didn’t close OE. : I should have read the instructions first,… but after some forum browsing and some FAQ all went fine,…
I do not think Avast! is bad software. I have been running other AV-progs before and I personnaly think Avast does a good job.
At home we have the free edtion running on 3 machines. (My dad’s, my sis and myself) - NO problem so far.
But you know, that is what software is like,… on some machines things work great,…on others its a nightmare :-\
Yeah ;D ;D ;D ;D
Installing mcafee will sort all his problems out
you have a K cookie from me 8)
I think you should install McAffee. Yeah, that's the ticket! A nice, ineffective, and expensive piece of American ingenuity.
Hey not ALL of our american products are bad
I was being facetious ;D
But McAfee is the worst
Roger,
Hopefully, I can mediate this thread. From your post, it seems that the installation was not properly performed and Avast was not configured to read the email client. This is easily remedied. As for Juno, other users have configured Avast to work with it, and we can help you do the same.
If you would only take the time in the future to research things before doing them, and if problems arise, seek support…then you might not experience the situation you did.
Avast is an excellent product whether Home or Pro. I have both versions available to me and use Avast with W98, Me and Xp. All work just fine. My Pro is configured to work with multiple email accounts.
I love Avast. FYI, I started here on the forum as a novice Avast user and have grown to be quite knowledable and a senior member. Do you think I would spend hours here on the forum helping others if the product was not worth it!
Give Avast a proper evaluation before you decide to walk away.
Thanks,
techie101
PS: Culpeper’s bark is a lot worse than his bite. He contributes much here on the forum, and his efforts are appreciated.
Alas, Tech101 is correct. I am the resident flame thrower around here sometimes. I provide novice support in tactical as well as civil situations.
Nice clip Culpeper
That’s gonna start something ;D ;D :
Good grief, now I’m gonna have to upgrade my streaming video and local connection just to get help here. ;D
Could be worse. He could start showing his baby pictures. ;D
The problem this person encountered was a very famous one.
It is the ‘pebsac’ error. (Problem Excists Between Screen And Chair) aka the user