Can I or Can I Not Control what the File System Shield Does?

Avast Business Avast Endpoint Protection
1

I “upgraded” from Avast! Pro 4.8 with ADNM to Avast! Business Pro 7.x with SBC.

Before I did this upgrade I had no problems with Avast on any of the nearly 90 workstations in my network. Most of those workstations run Windows 2000 Pro; some run Windows XP Pro, a few run Windows 7 Ultimate.

After the upgrade, I am having serious problems with the Windows 2000 machines.

Some of these machines are only a few years old; they are not slow.

However, it appears that the File System Shield drastically slows down operations on fast Windows 2000 machines even though it does not do so on similar hardware running Windows XP.

I had no interest in upgrading Avast 4.8; it was working fine. I was forced to do so because, I was told, 4.8 will stop working on January 1, 2013. I was also told that Avast 7 was fully compatible with Windows 2000.

We cannot afford to replace approximately 35 Windows 2000 workstations by January; if I had known I was going to have a serious problem with Avast 7 and Windows 2000, I would have purchased some other anti-virus software when my Avast license expired.

So now I am stuck.

Is there, or is there not, ANY WAY to permanently fine-tune how the File System Shield behaves using the Console?

I need to tell the File System Shield to stop scanning files not physically located on the workstations; most of the problems are happening when users try to access a flat-file database located on a server from a fat-client running on the workstation. (I do NOT use the Network Shield; this problem is not caused by the Network Shield, and in Avast 4.8, turning off the Network Shield is sufficient to prevent this problem.)

I also need a way to apply exclusions in the File System Shield to certain file types and folders on the workstations. Is there a way to use relative paths to do this? It’s apparently not possible to apply a global file-type exclusion without reference to a path.

I can’t even permanently turn off the File System Shield on individual workstations. I can choose the option to turn it off permanently on the workstations, but despite the term “permanently”, the setting does not persist; when the user reboots, the File System Shield is back on.

The File System Shield does not impede performance on Windows XP and Windows 7, but if I cannot tweak its performance, then I will be forced to use the Console to turn it off completely for the entire network, even though it is, according to Avast, “the main component of the Avast! real-time scanner”.

In my opinion, this would be an outrageous failure on the part of Avast.

2

Which console do you use? avast! Enterprise Administration or avast! Small Office Console?

3

We use the Small Office Console.

4
After the upgrade, I am having serious problems with the Windows 2000 machines.

avast! Endpoint Protection doesn’t support MS Windows 2000 machines.

Operating Systems Supported
Windows 7 - (any edition excl. Starter Edition) - 32 bit or 64 bit
Windows Vista (any edition excl. Starter Edition) - 32 bit or 64 bit
Microsoft Windows XP (any Edition with the latest Service Pack 3, 32-bit only, except Home Edition)

http://www.avast.com/endpoint-protection-suite#tab2

5

From the same web page that you sent me to:

"System Requirements
Operating Systems Supported

Windows 7 - (any edition excl. Starter Edition) - 32 bit or 64 bit
Windows Vista (any edition excl. Starter Edition) - 32 bit or 64 bit
Microsoft Windows XP (any Edition with the latest Service Pack 3, 32-bit only, except Home Edition)

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Pentium 3 Processor
256 MB RAM
300 MB of free hard disk space

It runs only on PC operating systems with Windows 2000 or later.
Older Windows operating systems (Windows 95/98/ME/NT) are not supported."

That clearly says that it does run on Windows 2000.

6

Open avast! Small Office Administration > NETWORK > Edit group settings > Shields Settings > File System shield > Exclusions and add the exclusions that you want.

If you need to tell the File System Shield to stop scanning files not physically located on the workstations, just add this exclusion: \*

7
Open avast! Small Office Administration > NETWORK > Edit group settings > Shields Settings > File System shield > Exclusions and add the exclusions that you want.

The interface is somewhat ambiguous. There is a “Shields” option under “Edit group settings”. If I choose it, I get a display that lets me check/uncheck boxes to turn various shields on or off. If I click on the text describing the shield itself, it checks/unchecks the boxes. The “Exclusions” section is available separate from the “Shields” option; they are both under “Edit group settings”. However, if I click the File System Shield text (and then re-check the checkbox to turn it back on), the File System Shield text will retain focus while I go to the “Exclusions” section.

This layout seems to imply that “Exclusions” are applicable to all Shields, not just the File System Shield.

So I did that, and added an exclusion as follows: \*

I saved it, logged out of the console, logged back in and confirmed that the exclusion was saved, logged back out.

I shut down and cold-booted a Windows 2000 workstation and attempted to use the software that accesses the flat-file database on the server. There was no improvement; it takes the software approximately 7 minutes to run an integrity check on the database files, which are located on a server and set up on the workstation as a mapped drive. (The integrity check attempts to open each of about 50 .dbf tables–most with associated index files–to verify that they are intact.) Running under Avast! 4.8 on this same machine, using the same network node, the integrity check took about 20 seconds.

8

You can try to make a new group and place those stations to that group. After that try to see if network shield if causing the issue, as I understood that database files are on a remote server.

9

Can you let me know what version of the management console are you using? Go to ADMIN > About avast!.