Just Updated from IE6 to IE7 in Windows XP Professional. Avast Edition V4.7 Build Sept 2007 (4.7.1043) Virus Base Nov 7, 2007 file 071107-0 Lic. key expires Aug 1, 2008.
Under IE6 Settings for connecting to Internet were “Always dial my default connection” and in Avast V4.7 update set to: for Virus Database updates…Automatic, and for program Updates set to …Ask.
Everything was working fine and data base was only updated when I was connected to the Internet.
Since updating to IE7 when NOT on the internet some program kept dialling the internet when it was not connected (Dial Up), this was finally traced to Avast Updates, from their logs. Tried changing Avast updates to ASK for both program and Virus Database updates, Avast still kept phoning home, tried changing Avast connection to nothing (unticking all) Avast still was able to dial and phone home.
Finally blocked Avast from accessing the Internet using Zone Alarm and indicating NO each time Avast asked permission to access the Internet, this stopped Avast from successfully phoning home (Especially when I was not there, the Internet connection stayed on) But now the only I can update Avast is Manually when I am on the Internet…Any suggestions and/or solutions?

Set the correct option on the Update (Connections) page of avast! settings. I guess you want to check the option “I only connect to the Internet using a dial-up modem”.

Done that, still phones home!

What do you mean by phones home,

Since updating to IE7 when NOT on the internet some program kept dialling the internet when it was not connected (Dial Up), this was finally traced to Avast Updates, from their logs. Tried changing Avast updates to ASK for both program and Virus Database updates, Avast still kept phoning home, tried changing Avast connection to nothing (unticking all) Avast still was able to dial and phone home.

This doesn’t show avast established the connection just that once a connection is established avast will check for updates, you have to find what is dialling out, it isn’t avast. As you said previously no problem until you installed IE, that wouldn’t change any settings in avast to make it connect as it hasn’t got that functionality.

What you need to do is check your firewall logs to see what is connecting as there would also have been some other activity. What other security applications do you have ?

I have dial-up and avast has no means to establish a connection, it does check to see if you have a connection established and if so will check to see if there are any updates.

Bit of a long shot guess, here, but how often is your email program set to check for mail? (If it’s OE, it shares the same internet properties as IE…changing one could affect the other.)

Thanks for your input, I am researching your suggestions and will advise later.

Thanks for your reply, sometimes the remotest suggestion provides the cure, but not this time.
No changes were made to IE or OE after updating to IE7.
OE shares Internet connection settings with IE.
Checks for new messages every ten minutes, if computer is not connected at that time, “Do not Connect”
IE Connection: Always dial my default connection.

Updating from IE6 to IE7 messes up internet connection settings: applications think there’s no connection when there is, opening one connection dialogue causes another one to appear. Ah, joy.

It just means that avast! is trying to connect to the update server and cannot see that there is a connection in existence already. On my computer, trying to manually update any program would result in an internet connection dialogue even when already connected after the IE6 to IE7 update.

In my case this was using a USB ADSL modem. Users of other connection methods didn’t seem to be affected.

Here’s the thread where this came up before:

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=24673.0

After much research and some luck (some bad some good) I finally found the answer to my problem, If you have a similar problem it may or may not solve it. True much of the fault lies with updating from IE6 to IE7 which dos change many of the settings you may have had under IE6. Here was the answer to my problem and the solution:
Go To Network Connections/Advanced/Dial Up Preferences. On the DIAL UP Preferences Pop Up Box, make sure “Always ask me before autodial” is ticked. Vioala! problem solved.

For more information on Autodial, Go to Windows Help and Support and search for Autodial. Read the articles on Autodial, one in particular reads, “If you are disconnected from a network, Autodial attempts to reconnect whenever you try to access remote information” Interesting!

Thanks to all who offered help and assistance, it was sincerely appreciated and eventually lead to my solution. To All–Thanks.

Thanks for coming back with the resolution to your problem.