I’ve been running my mother’s Windows XP SP3 desktop with free Avast for years with only slight hiccups until this current winter visit, when I noticed that there was a new version of the program available (i.e., 2015.10.0.2208). I have her computer set for automatic engine & definitions updating, but for the program I have it set for manual updating only, since she is restricted to dial-up access, and updating slows down her activities. So I tried to manually update the program. That’s when the trouble started.
It would start to update, report some files as having been downloaded, and then get stuck on a file named ais_core_7e9-7e1.vpx.dld. It would report numerical progress on it for a while (e.g., 56% downloaded), but when I would check on it later, the progress would be less than before (e.g., 17% downloaded). I’d leave it to download via the dial-up connection overnight for three successive nights, one night for 16 hours straight, and yet that file would never be completed. It evidently would just keep downloading the file partway, aborting, and then starting that file all over again, endlessly. When I finally got tired of it and clicked on “OK” or “Cancel”, I’d get a “Host unreachable” message. I couldn’t help wondering, though, if the host was unreachable, why would it show any progress at all?
I went to the Control Panel and uninstalled Avast, then went to www.avast.com, downloaded free Avast, and reinstalled it.
That just made things worse. Now not only can I not get the program to update, but the engine and definitions are also experiencing the same failure behavior: they update only so far, and then get stuck in an endless loop of partially downloading the same file, but never finishing it, always starting the same file over again after reaching around a 40% progress report. When I finally get tired of no progress after hours of this behavior and click on either “OK” or “Cancel”, it reports (taken from my last attempt):
Last encountered error: Host unreachable
Engine and definitions: Already up to date (current version 140514-0)
Total time: 48:19
Download time: 47:54
Downloaded files: 17 (68,726.69 KB)
Server: Download s0783775 AVAST9 Server
http://s0783775.ivps9x.u.avast.com/ivps9x
Since I first drafted this message, I’ve been trying to update the virus definitions again and again on successive nights. I’ve noticed that the behavior stays the same, but the name of the file that the update loops on does change. The first one I made a note of was vps_32-f02.vps.dld. The latest one is vps_32-f3b.vpx.dld. So now I’m wondering if progress is indeed being made, albeit very slowly, and the glitch is rather in the failure of Avast to report the progress accurately.
The program update continues to get stuck in a loop, and it’s reportedly getting stuck on the last file that the definitions update got stuck on (vps_32-f3b.vpx.dld as of this writing). It will get as far as:
Updating …
STEP 2/3
[41%] | Downloading file: vps_32-f3b.vps.dld
Overall progress:
And the status bar will be around 1/3 of the total, maybe a little bit more, and that’s where it will stay for endless hours unless I break the connection, at which point it displays (taken from my last attempt):
Last encountered error: Host unreachable
Program: Already up to date (current version 2014.9.0.2018)
Total time: 17:09
Download time: 16:38
Downloaded files: 14 (5,002.92 KB)
Server: Download p4355119 AVAST9 Server
http://p4355119.iavs9x.u.avast.com/iavs9x
http://p4355119.ivps9x.u.avast.com/ivps9x
I’m sorry if this has been covered before. I searched for a “Host unreachable” topic that fit my situation, but I didn’t find one that also included the endless repetition of the same file being downloaded over and over. Can someone point me to the right topic?