Can't Update the Virus Database

General Topics
1

Okay…I’ve been a loyal Avast user for a couple of years now and never had a problem with the program…until today.

Earlier today, I tried to update the program from 5.1.864 to 5.1.889 via the GUI. When I did that Avast kept telling me “Last encountered error: The system file cannot be specified.” After trying periodically for about an hour, the update finally worked, 5.1.889 downloaded and installed and I rebooted.

Shortly after I rebooted, I connected to the internet via dial-up (which is all I have right now), and was greeted with a message (pop-up message in the red box) by Avast saying something to the effect that the last attempt at updating was virus definitions was unsuccessful. I clicked “Update Now” and it seemed like Avast was trying to update, but then got the message “Last encountered error: The system file cannot be specified.” I have been trying to update to the last definitions afternoon but have getting the same message constantly. The update Avast is trying to get is 110113-1 and I have 110113-0 installed.

The other computer in the house is an XP machine with Avast 5.1.889 installed. It was able to download and install 110113-1 successfully today, but why can’t I get it to work on my Vista machine?

My system:
Vista SP2
2GB RAM
Avast 5.1.889
56K dial-up

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

Hmmm…okay…so after reading some of the other posts it looks like others are/were having the same issue. I took one user’s advice and changed the Proxy Settings from “Direct Connection” to “Auto-Detect” and 110113-1 downloaded successfully. Any ideas as to why I had to change the proxy settings?

3

Well, direct connection is usually for people that have an “always-on” connection through their LAN or WLAN.

Dial-up works a bit differently, but I don’t really know why that setting would affect it.

I haven’t been on dial up for about 10 years or so, so I can’t tell ya.

As long as it works now, right?

4

Well at some point you must have changed it to Direct connection as the default setting has always been Auto detect that uses the IE connection settings and this has in the past cause some problems. So much so as to need it changed to Direct connection (no proxy), which had nothing to do with the actual connection method.

So it is strange to see this in reverse this time round.

5

Honestly, man, I’m 99% sure I didn’t change any of the proxy settings before the problem started occurring. In fact, I didn’t even know you could change the proxy settings in Avast at all. Plus, it sounds like others had this problem as well.

Anyway, at this point it doesn’t matter and I appreciate the quick responses. Thanks.

6

I can’t explain how it might have happened, as I said previously that was what I had the Proxy settings set at ‘Direct connection (no proxy)’ but after a clean reinstall after the beta trial the default setting (Auto detect) was restored.

So I can’t understand why/how this has happened that some if they didn’t make these changes ended up with it set to Direct connection and I don’t like mysteries either.