First let me say I did my best to search the forum to see if these issues have been addressed. I have found some old posts about both, but they contained no responses. I hope that maybe someone has found some answers by now.
The most important problem is this: All day today I have been unable to get Avast Remote Assistance to generate an Allow Remote Control code. Once it didn’t work for a friend who I was helping (on a Windows 6 64-bit computer) I tried with my own computer (XP). I then called another friend to try and he had the same result with a Windows 7 32-bit machine. All these computers use the Free Antivirus and are completely up to date (7.0.1466). In each case the the error message says “…a local error has occured: Unable to connect to the remote assistance server.” All of these computers have been able to use Remote Assistance in the past, some as recently as Tuesday 10/2.
I tried to repair Avast on my computer and one of my friends did the same, with no change in the error message. Avast seems to be working well in all other areas and is updating properly.
I have had this issue sporadically in the past, on occasion, but it has never lasted this long (all of Wednesday 10/3). Does anyone know if there is a problem with the Avast remote servers? If so that explains things, but I would have thought there would be a mention here.
The second issue is less important, I suppose, but more common. I would say about 75% of the time I attempt a remote session (I help my friends and relatives maintain their computers) the keyboard doesn’t’ type on the remote machine. If it didn’t work on occasion, I would assume this function was not available on the free version. But since it does, I am wondering if anyone has a cure for this issue, or at least an explanation for the behavior.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give.
As of this morning, Remote Assistance is once again working on my computer. I will check later in the day with my friends.
I am still interested in any explanation, if someone has one, on why this function becomes unusable–and not just on an odd machine for a short period of time.
Also, I am still interested to know if anyone has a keyboard fix, or explanation.
I had the same problem trying to fix an issue for my 80 year old brother who lives 1700 miles away. Plus I have another brother, 75 years old, in the same city who needs my remote assistance from time to time. Both are novice PC users and have to rely on me. But if I can’t connect to their PC when Avast is down, they are down and so am I.
Using Remote Assistance is a bad security option regardless of who you are working with using it. It creates security holes in your system. Now from time to time people feel the need to use it, but my suggestion is to try and avoid it unless as an absolute last resort.
Nesivos, thank you for your reply and concern. Unfortunately remote assistance is sometimes a necessity and is something widely used by support professionals. There really isn’t another way to help someone in another state or country. For clients, and some family, I use Logmein Pro, which I understand has very strong security protection. But for the occasional issue with others, the Avast option is a nice option. Are you suggesting that all remote access is an issue or that Avast’s option is particularly insecure? It would seem the single-use access code provides a level of security. Does the mere existence of remote assistance in the program create a security issue? Because if it does, one would think Avast would be reluctant to include it in their application.
I have spent a bit more time trying to find some answers to the keyboard issue I raised in my initial post. I see it has been an issue for a while and there are several posts (going back quite a while) asking about this issue. From what I can tell nobody has offered any advice or explanation on this issue. Now I understand Avast’s free option doesn’t come with real support and I can’t complain–it is a great product most of the time. But I would think, after repeated posts on the issue, someone from Avast or the community would weigh in on this issue. But it is an issue that seems to be regularly ignored by those who are otherwise eager to help out Avast users. Any idea why?