I downloaded the trial version last night for the Anti Virus with the full understanding that during the 30 days I could contact support.
In general, I like the program (after using Kaspersky for 5 years) but have run into a problem with the software and, frankly, if I don’t get some answers about it, I won’t end up purchasing the product.
When I try to ‘submit a ticket’, I’m told I don’t have ‘permission’ to do so.
How do I get some answers?
You need to register to submit a ticket.
You can get help anytime here in forums.
I ‘did’ register. It still won’t let me.
Ok. What’s the problem with avast then?
It’s in regards to audio clips I have on the Mediafire server that I use in Ebay auctions.
I’m getting ‘false positives’ from your program, saying the links are ‘malware’ when they clearly are not since I’m the one that uploaded them. On top of that, most of the links don’t get flagged, but two I uploaded last night, do. I have over 3,000 of them on the Mediafire server.
I need these links everyday for my work. I can’t have ‘some’ of them ‘clear’ and others not, since they all need to be tested before I list my auctions. There isn’t a single logical reason why these two particular mp3’s get flagged. (granted, I haven’t tried all 3,000…but I hope I don’t have to).
This is not really something I wish to post in a public forum. Is there and email address I can write to with a more detailed explanation?
I’m still not happy I can’t submit a ticket. If I wasn’t ‘registered’, how would I be able to post in this forum?
when they clearly are not since I'm the one that uploaded themthat does not mean it can not be infected
Upload the file(s) detected to www.virustotal.com and test it with 43 malware scanners
when you have the result, copy the URL in the address bar and post it here
Hi, I believe the registration is separate for submitting a ticket. So you don’t use the one for the forums here.
support(at)avast(dot)com
I think that’s unnecessary, but I’ll do it.
By the way…when I said “I” uploaded them, I should have added: I created the files (mp3’s) as well.
Ok, I’ve just wasted an hour in queue waiting for VirusTotal to scan a file, even though the top page it could take 15 minutes. I can’t spend any more time on this, simply because I know these files are safe.
These are mp3 files that I created from wav files I created from my vinyl. There isn’t a single reason on Earth your software should flag them as malware unless for some odd reason your AV doesn’t like Lou Christie (a great singer, but well past his prime).
Do I have any other options? My ‘work’ is on hold and that’s not good. My only option at this point is to uninstall your software.
I like it, it’s light, doesn’t hog the resources of my system and doesn’t slow down my Internet Explorer which is why I’m bailing from Kaspersky. In defense of them, Kaspersky never once flagged any of my 3,267 mp3 files on Mediafire in 3 years as malware, or anything else.
But if your AV is going to prevent me from doing my work by not allowing to verify my valid links, than I have really have no choice but to look for something else.
And just for the record, I just tried to ‘submit a ticket’ again, and it wouldn’t let me.
It’s now telling me that I have an invalid username and password.
Here is the email you sent me a couple hours ago. Look familiar?
Dear xxx xxxxxx,
You have now successfully registered at our Support Desk. Please refer to the
following details:
Fullname: xxxx xxxxx
Email: xxxxxxxx
Password: xxxxxxx
You can visit the Support Desk at any time by going to https://support.avast.com/
Please do let us know if you have any questions.
Thank You,
AVAST Software a.s.
wow. frustrating, to say the least.
These are mp3 files that I created from wav files I created from my vinyl. There isn't a single reason on Earth your software should flag them as malware unless for some odd reason your AV doesn't like Lou Christie (a great singer, but well past his prime).
Just because you created the mp3 files does not mean the files are still clean. And, there are many reasons why avast could flag them as malware. Among the reasons is that once those files have been uploaded to the internet, they can be easily become infected … even on eBay.
“Every 1.3 seconds a new web page is infected.
Every month almost 2 million web pages across 210,000 websites are infected with Malware. Malware attacks have grown by 600% since 2008.”
Well, for starters, this wasn’t on Ebay. The link ‘to’ the file is placed on Ebay. And I’m sure Ebay has it’s own precautions in place and would flag it right away. I’ve been listing these for 12 years. Why, only 3 hours after installing your software, would there suddenly ‘be’ one?
I sent the file and a long explanation to support.
In Avast’s defense, I was impressed that I got a partial response (“we’ll send it to the lab”) within 3 hours. And got a final response, 5 hours after that. That’s impressive.
But the solution was…Avast ‘updated’ it’s databases so it wouldn’t flag it anymore. Well, that’s nice, but that implicitly means, that the error was on Avast’s end, which I knew all along.
My issue is, still, (and I wrote back to support asking this): why did this happen in the first place? The file was clean, I already knew that, but their database said no. And what are my chances that this will happen on a regular basis?
While searching around for different products yesterday, one particular website, after testing this AV specifically said that ‘false malware alerts’ was one of Avast’s only weaknesses. That concerned be a bit, but I decided to try it anyway.
In short, since this incident happened only 3 hours after installing the ‘trial’ version, I
probably won’t be able to committ to buying the software. If it were to happen again even once a month, it would bring my work to a halt each time, which really isn’t acceptable. And once I’ve paid for it, I’m sure there would be no refund.
A shame really. So far, I think it’s really a great AV.
No antivirus has zero false positives.
And no antivirus has a 100% detection rate.
@ aphampers
When you look at av-comparatives.com tests you will see that it is considered to have a low FP rate and many others have higher FP rates.
I think you have been unlucky in getting one relatively soon in your avast experience - What you have seen however, is that once acknowledged they are fast in resolving it.
I have been using avast for over six and a half years and really can’t recall the last time I had an FP, certainly I doubt they number more than I can count on one hand.
what kind of alert is it? Can you show a screenshot of the alert?
I suspect it could be a network shield alert, as I have seen threads about alerts on mediafire downloads here as well (have also experienced it myself…
I would have loved to have posted a screenshot of it, but it’s gone now that the databases have been updated. It was large, dark red, I do believe and said ‘malware’ on it somewhere.
Since I’m only in my 3rd day of usage, I’m not familiar with their warnings yet.
I appreciate the previous posts regarding the low number of FP’s, and I do admit, if it ‘is’ rare as most of you say, it’s just crazy unfortunate that it happened so early in my trial.
I never ‘did’ get a final reply from support as to ‘why this happened’. If they cleared the entire site of Mediafire (a very reliable well-known file server, who, I’m sure, have their ‘own’ filters in place to keep malware out), then I would be more than confident to purchase this AV, since all of my files are stored there, and I have no intentions of moving them for a long time to come. (as I mentioned, I have over 3,000 mp3’s on Mediafire’s server).
Does anyone from Avast think this is a possibility? Or is clearing a server something you wouldn’t consider doing? (or maybe not even possible. I’m not a newbie, but I have no idea how AV’s really work).
Because, so far, I’m very pleased with this software.
And if I know I’m not going to get that error again very often, I’ll buy it.