How Can I Successfully Contact Alwil Tech Support?

Can someone please tell me what I need to do in order to get a response from Alwil’s tech support? I have tried posting to this forum (my original post from the avast4 server forum is pasted below), sending an email to support@avast.com with no response from them, and calling the phone number on the contact page of the website. The phone rings a few times then disconnects me. PLEASE HELP ME. :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

Thanks

Original Post
I have installed a SonicWall Email Security 200 Appliance. I seem to be having some relay issues. SonicWall says “It appears that what is happening, is that there is a zombie somewhere in your network. Zombies are a type of virus that uses your network to send out spam. The anti-virus module of SonicWALL e-mail security is the module that takes care of this kind of issue.”

I think they are unable to find the hole that needs to be plugged so they are finger pointing. I need to validate my suspicions or find the zombie, if indeed it exists. Can anyone help me out?

I notified the moderators about your post, hopefully you’ll get a reply from alwil soon … :slight_smile:

Thank you!

No problem at all , it’s just a few mouse clicks and a few keyboard strokes :slight_smile:

But still no reply from alwil … :-
Lately it seems to me that the alwil staff is too busy(i’m hoping they are programming like crazy trying to make avast v5 into a really kickass AV ;D ) to offer proper tech support perhaps they should consider hiring some people to do that work if they are too busy? Just a suggestion …

They do look busy these days

I sent some suspicious file from Bacalid

But they didn’t even reply

and the ols still can’t detect these files

I think part of the problem here is that this in in the General forum which they don’t visit as frequently as the others. That still doesn’t make it right, ther should have been a response from support @ avast.com, I don’t know if that response might have fallen foul to some spam filter, etc.

I would suggest that Shakti repost this in her original topic in the avast 4 Server forum, this would have the effect of bumping it up to the top of a forum which is more likely to be visited more frequently by the team.

They don’t usually contact you unless they need more information. The virus @ avast.com email address for submitting samples gets over 4000 emails a day so it can take a little time to prioritise and work through them. This is assuming that it got to them, samples should be zipped and password protected or sent from the avast chest to ensure they don’t get detected by an email servers anti-virus en route to avast.com mail servers.

Did you check the offending/suspect file at: VirusTotal - Multi engine on-line virus scanner ?
Or Jotti - Multi engine on-line virus scanner if any other scanners here detect them it is less likely to be a false positive. You can’t do this with the file in the chest, you will need to move it out.

Or maybe… they are simply turning into Microsoft :wink:

Somehow I doubt that ;D or the forum wouldn’t exist, to public ;D

True, true… ;D but I mentioned that because I still see forum exising here, but the technical support part is left on forum regulars and member’s shoulders… that’s why I thought maybe avast! “big guys” are turning into “Big Brother”. ;D

Well, someone from Alwil finally responded to my email support request Friday - about 48 hours after I submitted it. they asked me to run HiJack This on the suspect machines and send them the files. This leaves me where I started - having to touch every box on my network. I emailed them back to ask if there were something I could do from the management console. After all, that is the purpose for having a management console isn’t it? Here’s the response I got - after about 36 hours!

“You can try to perform boot time scan on all computers via ADNM console, but I am afraid that if it doesn’t help, then I will need some hijack this logs.”

Avast was in place when I started working here. I guess it works fine as long as you don’t have a problem. However, I don’t think I’ll be renewing and I will most certainly shout the inadequacy of their tech support from the hilltops! I don’t have time to go around and collect Hujack This logs from every box, let alone the fact that it would require me to interrupt every user. Most of our people don’t shut their computers down every night so I would also have to “encourage” them to restart or something in order to do the boot time scan. I am totally frustrated!!! :frowning: >:( :frowning: >:(

I am just a normal everyday Avast! user Shakti , and I feel your frustration. Unfortunately what you are experiencing is the end result of a Malware attack . They are a curse to us all ,especially in business and very time consuming to clean. I have had times with Microsoft where I’ve had the same reply ; " Send us some HiJackThis logs" and we will get a senior tech. to help you. My point is that Alwil aren’t to blame , it’s the damn Malwarecreators . :frowning:

We purchase anti-virus subscriptions to thwart the malware creators. If it weren’t for the malware creators, the anti-virus people would be out of business! That’s why I hold them responsible. In the first place, the darn thing should have been detected and blocked. Secondly, since the anti-virus software is installed on every box in my network, the resident agent should find it if it gets past the server. Since neither of these things happened, I should be able to use the management console that my company paid for in order to find it. At the very least, I should get a timely response when I request support and there’s no way that I think they can justify not answering the phone! To just disconnect the call is worse than being put on endless hold or being sent to voice mail h#$l. Are my expectations that unreasonable? ???

Hope this is not a stupid question
It occurs to me that maybe the AV component in sonic wall is not compatible with Avast!

Have you the means to isolate machines and test them with the Avast mail providers disabled to see if that stops the warnings from sonic wall?

Do you have a method of monitoring outbound traffic that might enable you to determine/disprove this further.

I guess I’m missing something here…
avast! is working on the machines, not detecting any viruses (i.e. it basically says that there’s no virus on your computers). Now, you install another program - which tells you that “something is wrong”. Now, you expect avast! to solve this suspicion? It doesn’t sound very logical to me, I must say ???
I mean, if the other program is telling you that something is wrong, it should also tell you what and where. If not, it’s just a speculation - what makes you think that it’s right and avast! wrong? If there was a spam sender on the network, it should be detected by avast! e-mail heuristics… if it’s not, it’s really not clear to me what Sonic Wall is actually saying.

Yes, it can happen that avast! doesn’t detect a particular malware - just as with any other antivirus. To fix that, however, the virus database has to be updated - so it’s not very likely that the boot-time scan would find it either.
If there really is a machine on your network that sends out spam, however, it shouldn’t be that hard to find out on the mailserver or firewall?

OK, maybe there could be some special option to run HijackThis (or something similar) on the clients in some of the future versions of ADNM, but I’m not sure if it solves much. If you get hundreds of logs from hundreds of machines, checking them all might be rather time-consuming.
(Actually, you may run a scan of “Auto-start programs” on all the clients; if you enable all (even “OK” files) in the report, you’ll get something like HijackThis log (even though not cathegorized). But it might be hard to spot anything suspicious in there.)

Igor,

I think you did miss something. In my original post I stated, “I think they are unable to find the hole that needs to be plugged so they are finger pointing. I need to validate my suspicions or find the zombie, if indeed it exists. Can anyone help me out?” The “they” I was referring to is SonicWall. I actually think that no virus, zombie or other form of malware is present on my network. I agree with you that “it [the other program] should tell me what and where” something is wrong. I believe they are trying to sell me their anti-virus module and I don’t think I need it. However, in order to get SonicWall to take responsibility, I need to disprove their theory.

I realize that any anti-virus program can miss something. My frustration with Avast stems from my inability to get a timely response and efficient method to scan my network. I still need to do that.

My virus database is up to date. I would like to try adjusting the heuristic settings and capture the logs. I have found information about changing the settings in the avast help files but can’t find where to check/change the settings. Can someone get me moving in the right direction. This will most likely give me what I need to get SonicWall moving again.

Thanks~~~~