** INTRODUCING **: pre-release version of next avast update (now 4.8.1263)

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

The new version has now been officially released (as 4.8.1282). Thanks to everyone who helped testing!

Hi *,

here I’m again. The next program update of avast 4.x Home/Pro is approaching, and as usual, it is my pleasure to provide you with a stable (even though pre-release) build for you to test.

How to install it (provided you have a previous version of avast Home/Pro already installed):

  1. NEW! go to avast settings, and on the Troubleshooting page, disable the avast self-defense module (this is NECESSARY for the update to complete successfully)
  2. download and run the following program: URL removed
  3. after it completes, re-enable self-defense module (disabled in step 1.)

That’s about all it takes.

This build contains quite a number of new features, but most of them are actually hidden under the hood (related to the AV engine). One nice new feature is malware URL blocking in the Network Shield provider. That is, we now block access to malware distribution sites before you even have a chance to download the bad stuff. Also, as has already been said, there’s a new option to report false positives (directly from the virus alert dialog) as well as submit statistical info about a malware occurrence. We also fixed the long-standing issue related to actions on infected files with non-Latin character names and many other things that have been reported since the last update.

Any comments on this release are welcome and appreciated!

Thanks
Vlk

2

Great news!

Will try it soon!

Edit: Have just updated the program, all working just fine!

3

Update to Avast 4.8.1256 went smoothly without a problem, not that I expected any :wink:

4

Will we get the ability to turn this off?

5

Well, you can turn off the Network Shield provider, if you need…

6

Well, I’m hoping it won’t have to come to that.

IMO ESET’s implementation of this feature was a major annoyance at best, and I’d hate to see avast! become this way as well. Any chance of maybe a checkbox somewhere to toggle this feature on/off?

7

How this new feature of blocking malware urls works? Its like the link scanner of AVG (that now have a database of the links with malwares, so every site you visit its checked against this database, if matchs, the url is blocked)?

Thanks!

8

What’s wrong? eicar.com is not being detected ???
Neither right clicking the files and scanning with ashQuick.exe ???

9

What? Don’t you have some exclusions set?

10

Well… I see no changes in the Network Shield settings… can the URL blocking be configurated? White and blacklists?

11

No, it can’t; the detected URLs are in the virus database, just like the ordinary detections.

12

I’ve removed the *.txt exclusion.
Neither of the eight variants is detected ???

13

Is there any site to test it? Maybe you can post an edited link :wink:

14

Interesting, really… This is definitely not reproducible here. Doesnt a reboot help?

You can try e.g. www.gooogle.com

Why was it a major annoyance? I.e. what specifically did you dislike about it?

Thanks
Vlk

15

Tested again… they’re not detected… I’ve booted after the installation… I’ll do again…

It was redirected to http://www.google.com.br/ in my case on Firefox 3.0.1.

16

This means it has NOT worked.

Seems like your avast install is somehow seriously broken, not detecting eicars and not blocking the URL above. :-\

17

One day I promise to read the instructions, guess who forgot to disable the self-defence module again ;D

Downloading now, whipping the mice to put more boost into the dial-up connection.

18

I’ve tried it here, with Firefox 3.0.3, Maxthon 2.1.4.443 and IE7, and it work as it should, I got an warning from avast:

“Network Shield: Blocked access to suspect site, www.gooogle.com” (or something like that, I translated the swedish message)

Nice feature, keep up the good work!

The eicar-test work also just fine, avast warned me as it should!

19

Tech are you using OpenDNS as that might redirect misspelt URLs before your browser tries to open them ?

20

Thnx Awil Team :slight_smile:

Network Shield and Eicar test are working fine here :smiley: I Posted this pre-release on Comodo Forums :

http://forums.comodo.com/anti_virusmalware_productsother_security_products/prerelease_version_of_next_avast_update_now_481256-t28529.0.html

Greetz, Red.