I’m afraid I don’t follow your conclusions, so I don’t see any discrepancies. But yes, I admit I did skip the long posts.
Vlk didn’t say there’s a 2 month spread - he said that by July, it should be finished. The spread might have been a year (don’t ask me about the real value, I don’t know it - even if anything like a real value exists, because as I said, the value may change in time, making the distribution hard to describe), ending in two months from now.
Thanks Igor,
It sounds like these things are definite:
Avast checks for Definition Updates at 4 hour intervals by default
Avast generally releases 2 Definition updates each day
When Program Update Pop-Up Notifications are released, they are spread out over a seven day period from the time of any geological or server release, to prevent server overload.
GUI notifications from Avast appear within 24 hours of a program update release.
Pop up notices occur within 10 days of license key renewal
It sounds like these things are random:
Program update pop-up notices.
How those pop-up notices for program updates are distributed (Through server, country, OS type, previous version of Avast.)
When Program Update notice pop-ups appear.
The time interval when license renewals appear, once under 10 days out.
Can users infer that if Avast is updating the definitions and working properly under normal conditions, that the only time to be concerned would be after a repeated FAILED update notice or threat from Avast?
Therefore, when Program pop-up notifications come out, if they show up without error conditions, this is more important than when they show up? Perhaps we are trying to decipher a random schedule of events, for program pop-up update notifications, and get it to a set schedule, which is not possible, because there is no set time frame?
Jack
Too bad you skipped my long posts, because they actually resumed the real useful info and reports, and discarded the other comments.
I indeed understand what you mean about the 2 months cycle. I just meant that from 2011-MAY-11, when the latest stable released was published in the changelog, and up to 2011-JUL-11, when Vlk says the update cycle should finish, you have 2 months.
Whether this “cycle” means all servers will announce to Avast users that a new stable release is available (to update from the previous latest stable), or this “cycle” means finally updating all servers since last year (when the program update tray notification problems seem to have started), I don’t know.
In any case, if Avast is releasing program updates, the final notifications “can NOT” take, say, a full year. Technically, they “can”, but it is not very logical, speaking about security software.
The inconsistencies are (once again ??? ) that, simultaneously, the MAIN GUI already knows about the update, but:
_ Some users can see both, database and program updates tray notification;
_ Some users have never seen both tray notifications simultaneously;
_ Some users only see the program update tray notifications, until they apply the program update, so only then they can see again the database update tray notifications;
_ Some users never see the PROGRAM update tray notifications, but only the database update tray notifications.
All these are discrepancies (all of them using default settings, “ask”), and other users are also reporting that the automatic program update is not working either.
The last option of the “ask” settings, and the “automatic program update” are affecting users that have no idea at all that there are program updates available.
I hope this post was not “too long to read” ;D. For more details, please take the time to read this very long topic.
Jack, just to be clear, specially with those users NOT reading my long useful posts, I don’t know if those differential times are “definite”. I don’t have any indication of 7 days, 10 days, constant 2 months, 24 hours…
My experience with updates and their tray notifications until last year was more or less acceptable. For the last months (since last year), I have received almost no program update tray notifications, until some days ago, but the behaviour changed, as I already described in my previous reports, before all this nonsense of “long topic”.
The behaviour of both tray notifications is not being consistent between users. Currently, this is the only “definitive fact”, according to the reports; at least the only one that I know of.
No. Those 7 days is exactly the value that can be, and was, changed - currently to those few months.
I’m not sure what the second line should mean (or rather, how it’s different from the first one).
And it’s not that the servers wouldn’t be updated (if that was the case, you couldn’t update even manually) - it’s just the popup or auto-update that’s delayed, randomly through the population.
@Igor, I already answered to Jack about that. I already said that all those times are not really known, and, more importantly, they are not relevant.
So, if you could please relate to what is indeed important, but apparently you simply skipped, your contribution might help. If not, then we keep trashing the topic. I don’t think my last resume was too long to read.
Thanks.
Well, I simply do not get how you can conclude that some users don’t get any program-update notification or their automatic program updates don’t work - if you don’t know the spread, and the spread might have been quite long. So, maybe it just wasn’t “their turn” yet.
That’s the point I was trying to make.
Too bad you keep making your own conclusions, or refusing to accept mine, while you are not reading my previous posts (as you already said).
I am in a problem now. Either I repeat all my previous explanations (once more) with every detail, making this post too long to read too, or I repeat only what I said before: if you need more details, READ the topic, specially my long but USEFUL posts.
Since Igor is one of the senior avast developers, if he doesn’t know or have access to someone that know the avast update cycle then I don’t know who does. So I think his conclusion is likely to be pretty accurate.
Whilst not wishing to put words into his mouth. He is saying that because this update cycle is variable to spread server load there really is no way to tell if someone has missed the update notification or they simply haven’t received it yet; not that they won’t get it at some point in the extended update cycle.
Thanks everyone!
I understand the explanations given to this topic. ;D
Jack
The problem is NOT the knowledge of the cycle.
@Igor, please, please, please understand that the specific cycle has nothing to do with the discrepancies.
AFTER the main GUI already knows about the program update, AND AFTER the user is receiving program update tray notifications, the displayed behaviour is not the same when you compare different users.
This is only one symptom of several months of delayed program update tray notifications. We are not talking about a couple of weeks and not even one month. There are many unacceptable/illogical delays, and after the notification finally shows up, the behaviour is different among different users.
Just now, after the start of this issue, I received the first blue notification advising that there is a program update to DL. Running now version 6.0.1125
Congratulations!
I’m generally very fast on program updating and do not leave a chance to avast to “release” it for me ;D
After months of not receiving any of those “blue” (program update) tray notifications, that happened recently to me too.
But in the past (last year), when the database was also updated, I used to receive both tray notifications simultaneously. Now, even when I double checked that the database is also simultaneously updated, I only receive the program update tray notification, not the database update tray notification.
My settings were and are the same in any of these cases, so I don’t see the reason to these different behaviours.
@Tech, it could be useful if, for the next (alpha/beta/RC/stable)release, you have it set to “ask” and the Status Bar to monitor program updates, and wait for it to show up. A test from a frequent user could be helpful.
We got the notice in the Vista box a week ago, but still well after the update was available through the GUI.
Wow… I just opened the avast! interface for the first time in weeks (months?), and here I see I’m running version 5.1.889, while version 6.0.1125 is available. And it seems an update has been available for … weeks! I guess I’ll just have to remove and reinstall. Nah.
It won’t hurt the installation from scratch.
Sad to know that you haven’t got the update notify… Maybe it happens when you’re not in front of the computer… But it should be repeated afterwards. Indeed something seems fishy with the update notification.
It will hurt… Because I have every nook and cranny of avast! configured including lots of exclusions and whatnot and I really really really HATE reconfiguring everything. I’ve updated and for now I won’t worry about it.
Thank you for reporting.
@Avast Team, this is exactly what I’ve been talking about!!! :
millions of Avast users not opening their GUIs, and not following closely the program releases, which is perfectly understandable and acceptable from the users’ point of view.
Once a user configures Avast to either “automatic program updates” or the default “ask, with Status Bar Monitoring activated”, there is no reason for this case/delay to happen.
I hope the only comment from Vlk about this issue (made in another topic), stating that program update tray notifications will get to all users by 2011JUL11 actually means that this is not going to happen in the future anymore. Since no real clarification was made, I don’t really know.
Whichever the case, the discrepancies AFTER the first program update tray notification shows up are still there and they have NOTHING to do with the distribution cycle.
Tech, I can assure you that the program update tray notification can’t be “not seen”. A user “may” not see it the first time, but it indeed comes up every 4 hours after that first time in such a case.
Moreover, there were more than 1 stable releases after 5.1.889 until 1125. It is very improbable that users won’t see any program update tray notifications for “so many” program updates.
It is more probable that not all Avast Servers activated the program update tray notifications for all users. My guess is that this is not so much related to servers capacity (to answer so many requests for program updates), but it might be more related to make some kind of “stepping” in testing the several “stable” releases and new features.
Even users that configure Avast to update their program automatically are discovering that Avast has NOT been updated for several releases.
Once again, AFTER the first program update tray notification finally shows up, there are still discrepancies reported by users.