Hello all, first time here and a recent adopter of Avast! Is there no way to manually download the virus database updates separately or am I missing something? Through no fault of my own I live in an area so backward we can’t get broadband so I am stuck on dial-up. We also have multiple computers at home and for security reasons the one I use for Internet access has a different hardware and software configuration than the others and is not networked with them. For me iAVS doesn’t work and it really sucks if I have to download 17 mb of installation files at dial-up speed every time I want to update the virus database. Otherwise I like Avast! but if there really is no way to download the updates manually (why?) I will have to return to AVG. Thanks for any suggestions.
The updates are very small.
The update I just received was 9KB.
Hi…
I’m quite sure this was with avast installed and updates obtained the normal way. The updates here…
http://www.avast.com/eng/update_avast_4_vps.html
is what kreng was referring to.
@kreng: I’m not sure if there is a alternative to iAVS. 
Best Regards…
Maybe it would be nice if kreng would define “how” iAVS doesn’t work…
Hi RejZoR…
Is this what you were wanting to know…
“We also have multiple computers at home and for security reasons the one I use for Internet access has a different hardware and software configuration than the others and is not networked with them. For me iAVS doesn’t work and it really sucks if I have to download 17 mb of installation files at dial-up speed every time I want to update the virus database.”
Best Regards…
Well thats the entire database. Thats how it is. There is no way to bypass this except connecting those PC’s online and use incrimental updating.
the one I use for Internet access
if it has network access then there should be no good reason why iAVS cannot be made to work. There are many avast users on dial up connections and successfully downloading the very small incremental update files.
Hi RejZoR…
Hmmm, that’s what I suspected hence my original message to kreng. Is it possible avast would be willing to provide incremental updates on the web site the same way the are downloaded normally?
Best Regards…
Thats not possible because incrimental updates don’t work in offline mode. It’s just not possible.
Thanks for your responses guys. I appreciate the feedback but I really need a package that will let me manually transfer database updates to off-line computers. I guess I will have to look elsewhere.
You won’t find it any different with other AVs, based on what RejZoR said they don’t know at what state of update the off-line system is to be able to just grab that little bit. Their updates also rely on the computer being updated being connected.
Most don’t cater well for off-line systems other than just download the complete database, in fact many don’t even offer incremental updates for the on-line update. That is one of the things that annoy me about SuperAntiSpyware’s updates being a dial-up user also.
Well, you can try copying this file (see below) from one computer (the one online) to another (offline one), but i doubt it’ll work. This is the virus database file alright, but avast! will have to refresh the data about new signature somehow. Have no clue how. Maybe log off and log on again or system restart. Haven’t tested this. Oh and you’ll have to disable Self-Defense to pull this one off.
C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\400.vps
Ok, i tested exactly what i suggested and it appears it works. I’ve used old installation from May 2008 in virtual machine. Copied 400.vps and clnr0.dll from host system to VM system and avast! showed signature date identical to the one on host system. And that even without system reboot. Now i don’t know if everything works as it suppose to but it seems to be a good start.
Maybe ALWIL guys can tell us what files have to be copied in order to make it work properly for sure.
It’s possible… but I think I’ve read that they won’t go through this way and the only database available to download would be the full one.
Are you sure? Other antivirus has weekly and even monthly incremental databases…
Their input would be nice if this is a workable solution it would be very handy for those on dial-up (me included) if they could do an incremental update with the on-line system and transfer the files to off-line systems.
I’ve got the free version of SAS (no resident protection), so only update that once a week just before doing a scan. What the heck, for a full set of defs each day, it’s gonna be around 2.5 megs anyway, so no point doing it daily if I don’t use it that often.
Yes, even though I have the paid option I tend to update it weekly being a dial-up user. In fact I created a support ticket as SAS support saying that:
- I felt the updates sucked as a dial-up user.
- I said either their update servers are very slow or you are having to download the full database. Which is crazy given the small number of actual new additions.
- I also said I felt I was spoilt by avasts incremental updates.
Their response confirmed we are downloading the whole database, but it was a concious decision to supposedly stop viruses removing their signatures. I didn’t have the heart to mention avasts integrity check after the incremental update to ensure that the downloaded update was correct. Nr did I mention the avast self-defence module.
Actually you don’t need incrimental standalone downloadable updates as long as you have just one computer online. When it updates, copy 400.vps from online computer to those offline. It’s still a 17MB file but you transfer it locally with USB key drive or burning it to CD-RW.
A tricky one. Can you not network the computers and at least temporarily share the dial-up connection until each machine has updated? Major program updates would still be a pain.
Virus databases for all AVs continue to grow. 14/09/2008 manual AVG update is 26MB!
It may be just a 17MB file to you (lucky broadband users), but to a dial-up user with a poor connection it is huge ;D which was the whole reason of this topic by kreng, see quote below.