Helo,
I am testing Avast Anti-Theft v2.0.2589 on 2 phones ( WIFI +3G ) and one tablet ( WIFI only ) with Locate comand running ( transmit location every 1h-15min )
what I found until now:
Good:
work ok.
when I am at home in my WIFI range Avast switch WIFI ON even phones are on 3G, this save my bill costs because I have only 10M of 3G data trafic included on subscription.
Bad:
battery life visible low after installed Anti-Theft ( Avast Antivirus included removed ).
after night when phones ( fully charged ) are switched to Airplane ON, in the morning I found with battery significantly drained.
With location set at 15 min I found today my phone battery at ~18%.
Sugestions:
when phone cant get GPS lock to transmit location or when communication it is OFF ( WIFI & 3G ) to save first locked position posibble on phone and be able to tramsmit later the full log saved ( on WIFI or 3G ).
a function to save GPS location at user interval on phone/SD card but to not transmit this data and user to be able to retrive ( WIFI/3G/USB…) this data later and show on map, for phones/tablets without 3G full time connection subscription.
I made some test with SMS on Vodafone Smart 2 ( Phone had activated Location track at 15’ ) and this is what hapened:
I Sent tests SMS: Siren ON - ok, turned of by PIN ok.
Locate - not possible because phone already have Active Location track - I don’t find this normal, SMS must have high priority in case of emergency and receive requested location at that time even Location is continue.
Call back - ok, phoned was in stand by; phone display can’t be turned ON, and after call closed display light.
Locate Stop - ok
Locate - ok
Now problems start:
Lock - phone displayed lock message and when I try to enter PIN crashed and I had full acces to phone, at this point it is possible to uninstall the program with the sw I already have in phone like Lucky patcher…
I restarted phone ( OFF/ON ) lock was on, I was able to enter PIN even some error message come on but I told to wait and not close the app.
After unlocked, 3G did not worked, was disabled, I try to enable but without success. Phone was unable to connect to Avast server on WIFI or 3G.
( I have to mention here that I have installed DATA ON/OFF from market, if this count… )
At some point after few restarts I succed to reenable 3G from phone menu but Anti-Theft can’t communicate with server…
Locate 15’ - ok, I receive SMS from phone at every 15’, problem location is not updated on Avast server. Phone still can’t communicate with Avast server.
Locate Stop - ok, phone still can’t communicate with Avast server, 3G is on I can browse with Delphin.
regarding battery: if you have continuous location tracking ON of course this will drain your battery. GPS uses up quite lots of power.
regarding crash: can you please reproduce the problem, then go to the feedback screen within Anti-Theft and create a support case and attach the system log to it? In the comment drop a message that they should send the case to Reinhard.
PS: regarding the issue with connecting to web: it seems that something is then wrong on your device, our servers are online round the clock and reachable. Did you enable avast! firewall and block Anti-Theft? or are you using some other tool that blocks the data traffic?
I don’t have installed avast! firewall, I uninstalled avast!! and keep & use only Anti-Theft.
As firewall I use Droidwall but I tested with him disabled/uninstalled and no luck ( it have the same settings it had when Anti-Theft worked before lock ).
Interesting that avast web see my phone online but can’t send commands ( phone no response ) and if I test communication from phone the phone did not get any reply from your web.
I succed to solve but I am not sure if this a “cure”:
After I uninstalled Anti-Theft ( with Luckypatcher ) I tested other similar programs ( …android lost - I really liked the take picture option ) and reinstalled Anti-Theft but with other name and activated Anti-Theft from web not form phone. Now comunication from web it is working.
Questions:
It is possible to activate communication data 3G by SMS commands on a device with Anti-Atheft in stand by ( NOT locked ) ? If answer it is positive how ?
Any chance to implement take picture commands in the future ?
yes you can turn on 3G (on rooted phones) if you set the protection behavior “force data connection” → then you send LOST command to phone and it will turn 3G on
yes it is already implemented but not yet released
sugestion:
At this moment I have installed only Anti-Theft with a changed name ( advanced instalation );
If I look with some sw explorer what files I have in my phone I can see under disguised name of Anti-Theft this:
Package name: com.avast.android.antitheft
Any chance that in the future release this can be changed, so no trace about real program are left for thief ?
thx.
p.s.
thx for previous tip but I have to change to many setting not only Lock phone; only to activate the data connection, maybe in the future you can implement this command only without disabling other Anti-Theft setting:
Deny Program Manager Access: Yes
Lock Phone Settings: Yes
Prevent USB Debugging: Yes
Force Data Connection ON: Yes
Thorough Wipe: No
Lock Phone: Yes
Low Battery Notification: No
Only Allow Friend Commands: No
I have a prototype of package name changing, but I don’t think it will be used in the near future since as it is now, package name changing might break a LOT of things. Those things must be addressed first and I really don’t know when that will be, sorry.
+1 for option to rename package
also a similar app i used a while back on my windows phone was able to take photos (both forward/back facing) and record sound and video, when (if) will avast support this?
