To start with my update settings have always been as follows:
Update (Basic)
Automatic - Virus Database
Automatic - Program
Update Connections: My Computer is permanently connected to the internet.
Direct connection, no proxy.
Now to my question.
I just happened to look at the Avast official website and saw that there was a program update from 1282 to 1290, and like I have been doing for some time now is I go to the system tray Avast blue icon, I right click, then go to updating, then program update, then it goes through the motions updating, then I re-boot, and it’s updated the program.
But I am wondering why due to the settings I have why the program didn’t update automatically?
Or is it because I just manually updated before I was selected to be updated as I know if everyone was to be updated at the same time it would cause a jam.
It’s no big deal to be honest, I’m just curious, and anyway everyone of my updates has gone through without a hitch.
Edit
Oh I just reminded myself of the 7 day update cycle, so I would imagine if I hadn’t noticed about the update then 7 days later I would have been prompted to update the program as per my update settings.
Looks mighty feasible to me. Maybe in less than seven days.
I don’t know, I’ve never deliberately timed it, and if I had, it could be irrelevant anyway.
Well they weren’t always like that because the default settings are:
Virus Database - Automatic
Program - Ask
So you must have been doing some tweaking.
Regarding your other question (and your Edit) why it didn’t update automatically, the Seven day cycle helps to balance the server load over what will be a very high bandwidth period of time.
So it is a bit of a lottery if you are at the start or the end of the 7 day cycle before the update would happen and I would assume those with the Pro version would be at the start of any cycle ;D
Can I just ask another question in that I got the usual prompts from Zone Alarm informing me that the program had changed, then I got a prompt about the email scanner and web scanner, but the versions showing in program control in Zone Alarm are Web Scanner version 4,8,1287,0 last modified date 18/11/08 17:36, and email scanner service 4,8,1287,0 last modified date 18/11/08 17:38 and yet the program version I have now is 1290, any reason for this and is this normal.
Avast anti virus update is showing in ZA as 4,8,0,0 last modified date 20/11/08 18:40
I appear to have 2 anti virus updates in Zone Alarm program control, first is avast.setup, 4,8,0,0 last modified date 20/11/08 01:18 and the second is avast4/Setup/setup.ovr 4,8,0,0 last modified date 19/05/08 16:26
Delete the entries for all avast permissions, do a manual update, send a test email, browse, this will force ZA to ask permission again and you would only have one entry for each process.
Done as you said, although I think we have proved that Zone alarm picks what it wants.
After doing as you mentioned here are the entries as they are now in Zone Alarm program control, only 3 this time.
Avast anti virus update 4,8,0,0 last modified date 20/11/08 01:18
Email scanner service: 4,8,1287 last modified date 18/11/08 17:38
avast web scanner: 4,8,1287,0 last modified date 18/11/08 17:36
As you will see the mail scanner and web scanner still show as 1287, however I believe this to be Zone Alarm that is to blame for this perhaps.
That is likely to be correct as not all components will have been updated in the 4.8.1290 update as I believe this didn’t effect the web shield or internet mail, so the underlying version would show the last modification build.
You can check windows explorer and hover the mouse over the files or display the file properties, see images.
