I have my two machines configured to ask when program updates are available.
Both displayed in red that program updates were available.
Updating from 864 to 889 went perfect on one computer, but on the other, I can’t update and when I try to, I keep getting the message…
“Last encountered error: The system cannot find the file specified”.
Any suggestions? 
Unfortunately I just discovered that I get the same error message when I try to update the virus definitions.
I have the virus definitions configured to auto update, which they did for version 110113-0, but “Last encountered error: The system cannot find the file specified” pops up when I try to manually update the virus defs… just like it pops up for the program update attempt.
See if this helps…
Gopher John is the author of the quote above.
Silk0, good job! That fixed it, man! Thanks for passing that solution along.
I noticed that yesterday, MBAM did an IP block on an avast update server, and even though I was able to go back into MBAM and place that detection in the Ignore folder, I thought that somehow the two things might be connected (MBAM blocking avast update server and avast not updating).
So now I have Proxy Settings configured differently on my two machines… Direct connection on one and Auto detect on the other. I may go back and reset Auto detect to the original Direct connect, just to see if it fails again.
But again, thank you for the perfect solution (and thanks to Gopher John too).
PS- Now that I am properly updated, I just tried setting Proxy Settings back to original Direct connect, and the same old error message pops up when I look for updates. So I’ll leave well-enough alone.
Eh… You’re welcome but all the merit goes to Gopher John. He’s the author of the solution I posted.
Glad to see everything running fine again.
Very gracious of you to say all the merit goes to Gopher John, but give yourself credit too, my man… you passed along the perfect solution and got me back on track. That’s what we’re all about here, I suppose! I appreciate it.
Thanks…
And one last thing: can you put ‘[Resolved]’ on the subject of the topic? Just a question of organization.
You don’t need to answer to my post.
Check out that quote. Jwall figured it out first. I was just following his lead, and since I’m not running for political office, I don’t have to steal credit. ;D
At this point, I would like to acknowledge all the members of the academy, all of my friends, my family, all the folks here on the avast!WEBforum, the waitress who brought me my lunch today, and of course, every person even remotely connected with the solution that made my updates work again. If I’ve left anyone out, I assure you, I wish to thank them too. ;D 8) 
Anybody here on dial up with this problem? I can’t figure out why direct connection or auto-detect would fix the problem.
I thought that setting just had to do with timeout settings and when avast would attempt to check for updates in the first place.
Cable connection here.
Same here.
Cable here too.
Some FYI:
I did a clean install of .889 and this is the first time that direct connection didn’t work.
With versions .677 and .864, both auto and direct worked.
I didn’t do anything in IE with proxies.
DSL (PPPoE) here, and that change in proxy setting solved the problem for me too.
Before we tag this as resolved, we should probably wait and see if it seems to be working for more or less everyone (who’s been posting, anyway). I commented in the other, “Announcing …”, thread that since this seems to be a major change in avast (direct-connection worked fine for umpteen previous versions), the Avast team should call attention to this change.
Well so far, it’s been working pretty well for this problem.
Apparently the OP of this thread (http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=69355.0;topicseen) found the answer here as well.
It’s just odd that it doesn’t update without changing the connection settings.
For the record, I updated without touching a setting other than turning the sounds off. I’m on cable.
The latest update seems to have fixed this.
I tried direct connection and it went through, no error.
Will keep checking on it though.
Yep, we did some change on the server that should solve this issue (i.e. updates should now work again even in the “direct connection” mode).
Thanks
Vlk
Vlk, I can confirm that direct connection mode does work again as Jwall posted. Thank you.
And, thanks to Jwall for finding the workaround in the meanwhile.
Yes, thanks for the prompt fix Vlk, and you’re welcome Gopher John
Working again here, as stated. Thanks for the change.