Drep interfering with university and work

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

OK, so, apparently, you have this new “Drep” thing which means that you will block any and all software that has not been downloaded by many people yet (which ultimately means that all of your customers are blocked from ever downloading anything from any small time developer - or at least confuse them into thinking it’s a virus!) and there is no option for a white list, no ability to say “I trust this website or file”. Only an option to disable ALL antivirus protection ENTIRELY for a minimum of 10 minutes or have no web protection whatsoever. I take this VERY seriously, both as a student who NEEDS to be able to obtain files from peers and instructors, and as a developer who hates having to explain “No, I don’t have a virus. Your antivirus software is just crap now. Buy from someone else.”

But here, look, this is a backup directory of my own programs I wrote a few years ago. The website doesn’t get that much activity because it’s a personal archive, but you can see what I mean:

http://programming.etherealspheres.com/backup/My%20Software/

I would LOVE to be protected against Malicious URL’s but you have no option to disable this Drep nonsense and are treating ALL of my files as malicious as well as ALL of the files at my university. You should at least white list university domains if nothing else! Making millions of students hate your program is very bad for business! Other students in my class were asking the instructor about it as well unsure what to do and it’s causing everyone way too much trouble. NEVER have I seen such an ANTI DEVELOPER and ANTI STUDENT feature! and of course, removing web protection causes this big exclamation point that’s very visible that I can’t get to go away. Of course I’m not “fully protected” because “fully protected” means living in a freaking bubble that takes control away from the user. I wouldn’t be surprised if some larger companies sued you guys over this since this will DEFINITELY cause decreased sales. I’m just glad I only got a trial on my new computer. I was going to pay to upgrade, but no way now. I used to suggest Avast to others, but now I will tell everyone I know to avoid your software until you allow users to disable Drep and also allow them to “Download anyway”

Chrome, for example, flags an executable as potentially dangerous for the same reason as Drep, but does it take control away from the user? No! When you take away control from the user you just end up with people going elsewhere for their antivirus.

Looks like others are complaining about this elsewhere now too: http://www.basicsimple.info/2015/02/22/avast-blocking-download.html

2

See: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=163221.msg1164286#msg1164286

3
and there is no option for a white list
There sure is such a option: https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB229
You should at least white list university domains if nothing else!
Complete bullshit to do so. Malware can be everywhere, also on university domains. Next to that, new domains appear every day and old ones go. How do you think to keep track of that ?
I would LOVE to be protected against Malicious URL's but you have no option to disable this Drep nonsense and are treating ALL of my files as malicious as well as ALL of the files at my university.
There sure are ways. You can sign your applications, disable deepscreen, add the applications to the exclusion list etc.
Of course I'm not "fully protected" because "fully protected" means living in a freaking bubble that takes control away from the user.
The user has full control over the software he is installing and over the settings.
Looks like others are complaining about this elsewhere now too: http://www.basicsimple.info/2015/02/22/avast-blocking-download.html
No, they don't. That is a 1(!) year old post. A lot have changed since then.

It is obvious why you are a student.
You still have a lot to learn ;D

4

Hi Elliander,
DomainRep is a new feature of Avast. It blocks EXE files downloads if these conditions are all met:

  1. The file is not prevalent enough, ie. not enough Avast users tried to launch the file yet,
  2. The domain is not prevalent enough, ie. not enough Avast users tried to download (any) EXE files from the domain yet,
  3. The file is not signed or Avast does not trust the signature.
  4. The file was not added to our cleanset.

I understand you are worried that Avast blocks all the files you uploaded. I have added all the files that I could download from the link you posted to our cleanset, so they won’t be blocked again.

Also, if the university domain is a prevalent domain, no Drep detection will trigger (condition 2 above).