By any chance was this morning’s (Tuesday 01-09-2018) virus definitions update super mega ultra HUGE?
Even with my Dial Up Internet, typical definitions’ updates take probably no more than 15 minutes. Then today happened. I am not exaggerating. By HALF a day … instup.exe had still not gone away from the processes in Task Manager in my Windows XP Pro SP3.
I even tried logging off and rebooting my computer to no avail. instup.exe was still at it after that. The weird thing is that the Mem Usage for instup.exe in the Task Manager would start at around 25,000 K and just be constantly going up and up and up gradually.
I checked in the avast settings to see if maybe somehow the PROGRAM setting had been changed to automatic and that avast was now trying to upgrade itself to the latest against my wishes. (I have avast 12.3.2280) But, that was not the case. The setting was still set at Manual. Then again, I don’t know if by now, avast might be trying to force feed / force upgrade my avast regardless of that setting.
Only when I changed the Definitions setting from automatic to manual was I able to make instup.exe disappear from my Task Manager.
So, what’s going on? WAS today’s definitions’ update huge?
I’ve been having this issue since Monday - definition updates seem to take a lot longer than normal, update times have gone from 30s to around 5 mins to complete. It may have been large updates from the start of the new year, but it would be nice for someone at Avast to confirm.
I agree. It would be great if someone from avast would confirm. My Dial Up connection downloads stuff at the rate of right around 20 Meg per hour. So, if by half a day the definitions update was still not done, we’re talking over 100 Meg. That’s not an update. That’s a freakin’ retool / an upgrade. :o
If this charade doesn’t end by Friday, I’ll have to see if I can go download the bulk virus definitions over on my brother’s high speed Internet during the weekend.
MAYBE even try the latest avast version. Not looking forward to that though. From the chatter on the forums all of last year, I just never felt comfortable enough with the stability of avast 17 so as to make the switch. I did try it early on and had problems so I switched back to avast 12.
The significance being you can hook a computer to a mobile phone and use the 4G network to download the update.
That however, could cost if you don’t have a reasonable download data plan, but if you are so far in the sticks as to still be stuck on dial-up the chances of being in an area covered by 4G is limited.
I live in a village and for a long time was dial-up, then limited broadband, then fibre optic cable and an upgrade. So my internet is good but given that mobile reception is poor, thought upstairs in certain rooms I can get a weak 4G signal.
Ahhh, no, I do not have a cellphone. So, that idea is out the window.
My next plan is to sometime this evening, once I’m in TV watching mode, I’ll just turn the virus definitions update setting back to automatic and let’r rip on throughout the night even as I sleep. If by morning instup.exe has the nerve to still be going at it in the Task Manager, I’m going to declare this a lost cause and just wait for a bulk download on Saturday or Sunday at my brother’s place.
POINT BLANK — Is the latest version of avast now somewhat pretty stable? Or is it still more trouble than what it’s worth? I don’t want to have to be performing reinstalls and repairs every week to fix this, that and the other.
FINALLY! The virus definitions update completed. I left the download going as I went to bed. In the morning, my avast virus definitions were finally fully current.
The reason I ask is, when it is set to manual you don’t get the streaming updates either. That could lead to larger download of the VPS taking longer than the cumulative smaller streaming updates.
Also if you leave the VPS updates for a few days, that could result in the whole virus definitions database being downloaded rather than an incremental update.
Yes, I do always have the VPS updates set to automatic. I only temporarily set my VPS updates to manual while I found the cause / solution to the problem. I don’t have the streaming updates enabled though. My logic with the latter is that with my Dial Up Internet, I don’t need streaming updates constantly intruding my browsing and bogging it down.
This setup works fine for me … normally. By and large, the VPS updates are normally not a problem. They’re normally innocuous and decent-sized. Definitely NOT even remotely half an hour … much less HOURS. They’re usually between 5 … 10 … to 15 minutes. So what happened the other day was definitely an aberration.
Given that my current VPS version is 180111-8 … I guess for starters, there was uncharacteristically more updates than usual. Throw in that almost assuredly some were huge and it becomes the perfect storm.
Yes, I think that perfect storm you mention would be exacerbated by being restricted by being trapped on dial-up. Those on broadband, especially those on fast broadband are unlikely to notice it as much.