It’s been some time since I’ve last logged on but since I still remembered the password I said I might as well write this. I just had the program update to Avast Anti-virus 4.8.1282 (I am quite pleased). For a long time whenever going online (DSL connection via the network card NOT a USB connection) Avast would not scan my network activity, only my web (ie whenever using Firefox … Avast piked that up but there was no scan of the network transfers). That was not a fault on my part at least I hope.
But now, that seems to have gone away. And that for me is cause for celebration. Hopefully the Avast team will keep up the good work and improve further still their products.
Thank you for all your work.
It was working at least it appeared to be active but the network shield did not scan anything. The count was always 0 despite using the internet and everything. Whenever surfing the web shield would show that it’s actually scanning files, usually in the 100’s range but the network shield was always 0
The Network Shield only records detections not last scanned nor Scanned count: the problem arises from the fact that all the Shields use a common layout so they look the same, but it is cosmetic and not functional. The same is true of the sensitivity slider you can set it to High but it has no impact, so there is actually nothing wrong.
The new additional functionality in the network shield, blocking URLs that are malware sites records that information in the Last Attacks screen (see image) but I don’t believe it increases the infected count as technically there was no infection.
The same is true of the sensitivity slider you can set it to High but it has no impact, so there is actually nothing wrong
What do you mean by this? if the sensitivity slider is cosmetic, why put it there to begin with?
Two:
Which version of Avast do you have? the Free home version or the Professional? I have the Home one and I can’t see the same thing as you. I have selected more details but I still don’t get a list of the last 10 attacks.
The version of avast installed makes no difference so your question to David is moot (though he has many times reported using the avast Home version).
In the Network Shield click on Customize and then select the “Last attacks” tab.
The slider is there simply for the same “look and feel” and consistency with the other providers. That’s why it is there - even if it does nothing well not yet anyway.
Hi, as Alan and David already said, network access via TCP does not recognize files, so even though network shield does what it should, the file count remained on 0. Displaying huge numbers of scanned packets does not make much sence. Now, when we added URL checks, we (ab)use this counter to display the count of checked URLs. That does not mean however that Network Shield is not checking for internet worms when you are not browsing (and hence the scanned count does not change).
I confirm Tech’s findings - my count in Network Shield is increasing with every URL scanned.
Could it be that for those folks who had a problem with the Network Shield due to the TCP stack issue that the Network Shield is not performing properly? We would need input from the avast team to confirm or refute.
I believe DavidR was refering to the Network Shield module as it was in the previous version, where URL blocker was not yet implemented. There indeed it only recorded blocked intrusions.
Sure, URLs and their checking is completely different thing in the latest version. Still it does not record scanned packets (for Worms - blaster, CodeRed etc.).
It seems we should ask Confused Computer User who is apparently using build 1290 now to check the Network Shield again after some browsing to see if the count is increasing as in the image posted by Tech.
