I have a problem with the internet in general using Avast 4 free edition at home. Now I don’t expect individual support for something I get for free, but I do recommend Avast for many people, friends and employers alike, and I feel this particular (and quite new) problem is something rather core to the Avast system. So it would be good for you (the developers) to consider it.
I’m finding http://filebeam.com to be a popular way for people to pass large files to each other across the internet, and Avast always blocks downloads from it.
It’s not because of the content of the file, but something filebeam do in their php scripting which locates the file being hosted on their servers.
Normally, I would set a Web exclusion on http://filebeam.com/download?.php* but it’s not actually the “WebShield” which closes the connection… It’s the “Network Shield”!!!
You can’t set exclusions on this module, and it gives very little information as to why the connection needs to be terminated.
Disabling the Network Shield when you request the URL and re-enabling it before the download completes is sufficient to get the file, and full scans afterwards show no adverse affect on the system. It almost seems like filebeam is “blacklisted” somewhere.
Either way, it would be good for both Avast and FileBeam if they could work together to resolve why this is happening, as both their users suffer from this action, and from my analysis (I’m trained in network maintainence and analysis, but not a security expert) it seems to be an excessive response to a simple misunderstanding.
If FileBeam are using non-http protocols to inspect your machine, or their script may take advantage of some browsers, then surely either we should be able to say “yes, but I don’t use that browser, and my network is secure from that possible threat” or they can modify their script to perform the same task without flagging themselves as a hostile attack in Avast.