Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Update Hang and Timeout Problem
There has been quite a lot of complaints about Avira recent updating problem that hangs and counts time elapsed endlessly. Check Avira forums and you will see how many people are complaining over it. Honestly I do not use Avira even though I say that Avira is the best free antivirus because I have commercial license for Kaspersky and Norton. If compared between a paid and a free software, I prefer to use paid because I am eligible for prompt support. So I installed Avira on my test computer and researched for a few days on what’s happening to Avira’s update servers. I wasn ‘ t very sure at first but now I am confident to share with you on my findings and also the temporary fix until Avira fix the problem at their side.
One of the main difference between the personal and premium edition is the premium edition gets to update the latest virus definition using Avira’s Fast Premium update server. This is true because the Avira AntiVir personal edition gets the latest virus definition from personal.avira-updates.com and the premium gets it from premium.avira-updates.com. There are only 4 premium servers and as for the personal update servers, there are 24 of them. I am able to download the virus definition at full speed from any of the 4 premium servers but as for the 24 servers that are used for personal edition, I get timeout most of the time on 20 servers and only 4 ipv6 servers are working.
I get to compile a list of Avira update servers by multi pinging Avira’s personal update server personal.avira-update.com. Do take note that the IP address could change if Avira decides to do that.
Personal
80.190.143.227
80.190.143.228
80.190.143.229
80.190.143.230
80.190.143.231
80.190.143.232
80.190.143.233
80.190.143.234
80.190.143.235
80.190.143.236
80.190.143.237
80.190.143.239
62.146.66.178
62.146.66.179
62.146.66.181
62.146.66.182
62.146.66.183
62.146.66.184
62.146.66.189
62.146.66.190
2a01:138:a001:201::21 (works most of the time)
2a01:138:a001:201::22 (works most of the time)
2a01:138:a001:201::23 (works most of the time)
2a01:138:a001:201::24 (works most of the time)
Premium
62.146.87.171
62.146.87.172
80.190.154.74
80.190.154.73
As you can see from the multi ping test, Avira randomly assigns an update server for you to download the updated definition. From what I’ve noticed, most of the time Avira will try to assign one of the 4 of the ipv6 update servers to personal users. Only sometimes you will directly get the ipv4 update server. I believe the reason they are doing this is because all of the 20 ipv4 servers are overloaded. I’ve used DownTester to try to download a 5MB definition file from all 20 servers with a setting of 50 retries if failed and guess what, NONE of the servers allowed me to successfully complete downloading the 5MB file.
It’s really a bad decision to use the ipv6 servers because by default Windows XP don’t have ipv6 installed and configured. Installing IPv6 in XP is easy but you still won’t be able to connect to the ipv6 servers as it doesn’t work right out of the box. Pardon me, I have no experience with configuring ipv6 nor could I get XP to connect the Avira ipv6 update servers. When Avira on XP tries to connect to the ipv6 servers, it hangs for a very long time until it times out and redirects you to one of the 20 ipv4 servers, and again, those are problematic slow servers. So, basically Avira users on Windows XP is pretty much screwed until Avira gets more servers or fix it. If you are using Windows Vista and 7, you shouldn’t have any problems because the operating system already supports ipv6.
If you are using Windows Vista or Seven and wants to manually select which Avira update server to use, then you can use your Windows HOSTS file to map personal.avira-update.com and personal.avira-update.net to any of the IP address. Unfortunately we CANNOT redirect and use the premium servers because the definition files being used are slightly different. When Avira couldn’t find the files that they are looking for, it will automatically redirect you back to any of the free servers.
Here is how to modify your Windows HOSTS file so that the Avira AntiVir Personal Edition can download the updates from working servers.
1. Simultaneously press Win+R on your keyboard and you should see a Run box.
2. Type this in the box system32driversetc and click OK.
3. Open the hosts file with a text editor such as Notepad.
4. Copy the 2 lines below and paste it to the last line at the hosts file. Save the file.
2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.com
2a01:138:a001:201::21 personal.avira-update.net
It should look like the screenshot below.
One of the user from Avira forum suggested that Windows XP users can add this 2 lines to hosts file. I’ve tested it and ended up waiting for more than 20 minutes to download the updates but still stuck with the message “Files are being downloaded” with no progress at all.
::1 personal.avira-update.com
::1 personal.avira-update.net
5. Save the hosts file either by going to File > Save or just simultaneously press Ctrl+S . Now try to update Avira and it should work now.
Just for your knowledge, the HOSTS file can only map host names to IP addresses. If you haven’t noticed, all four ipv6 address are nearly the same except for the last character which is 21, 22, 23 and 24. You can try any of the four servers by changing the hosts file to find which Avira personal update server works best for you. Remember, the IPv6 servers can only work in Vista and 7. It doesn’t work on XP unless you’ve managed to install and configure IPv6 properly. I wonder if this is one of the Avira’s dirty tactic to make everyone pay and upgrade to Premium edition? They better fix it fast or else many people will start switching to Avast! or Microsoft Security Essentials.
Technorati Tags: avira , update , hang , definition , antivirus
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Remove Fake Antivirus and Fake Antispyware Automatically
Fake or rogue antivirus has been around for a long time and they are still not giving up trying to cheat computer users. Normally this is how you will “suddenly” have a rogue antivirus or antispyware installed without you even knowing it. You visit a website and you get a warning message that is very convincing and looks like its coming from Windows telling you that you have a virus/spyware. You click on a button and it will auto install. Here comes the worst part, it then downloads viruses to your computer and the rogue antivirus will find the virus. If you want to clean the virus using the fake antivirus which you just downloaded, you’ll have to purchase the software license.
This is ridiculous isn’t it? Your computer is actually free from virus but after being tricked into installing a fake antivirus, your computer now has virus and very likely you’ll be purchasing a license for a fake antivirus. Some of the rogue antivirus are very hard to remove or uninstall. Fortunately we can automate the whole uninstallation process with this simple small portable tool called Remove Fake Antivirus .
It is very easy to use Remove Fake Antivirus. All you need to do is run the program and click the Start button. Currently Remove Fake Antivirus v1.32 is able to remove 27 types of fake antivirus and antimalware.
1. Cyber Security
2. Alpha Antivirus
3. Braviax
4. Windows Police Pro
5. Antivirus Pro 2010
6. PC Antispyware 2010
7. FraudTool.MalwareProtector.d
8. Winshield2009.com
9. Green AV
10. Windows Protection Suite
11. Total Security 2009
12. Windows System Suite
13. Antivirus BEST
14. System Security
15. Personal Antivirus
16. System Security 2009
17. Malware Doctor
18. Antivirus System Pro
19. WinPC Defender
20. Anti-Virus-1
21. Spyware Guard 2008
22. System Guard 2009
23. Antivirus 2009
24. Antivirus 2010
25. Antivirus Pro 2009
26. Antivirus 360
27. MS Antispyware 2009
For testing purposes, I’ve installed Antivirus Pro 2010 on my computer. Then it reports that there are 33 useless and unwanted files on my computer. 21 are critical privacy compromising content, 9 contains medium privacy threats and 3 are junk. At first I thought they were real virus but when I randomly uploaded 3 files to VirusTotal to have it scanned with 41 different antivirus, surprisingly no threats were detected! To remove Antivirus Pro 2010, I ran RemoveFakeAntivirus.exe, waited for a few seconds and after a reboot, Antivirus Pro 2010 has been removed.
Although Antivirus Pro 2010 gave fake reports, but I am pretty sure that there are some fake antivirus that will drop in real trojan/virus/worm on your computer. Be sure to scan your computer with a reputable antivirus such as Kaspersky, Norton, Avira or BitDefender after removing the rogue antivirus with Remove Fake Antivirus. I personally believe the list of supported rogue AVs will most likely continue to grow if Olzen manage to get more samples of the fake antiviruses. Olzen, the author of Remove Fake Antivirus is 26 years old and he’s from Malaysia too!
[ Download Remove Fake Antivirus ]Technorati Tags: rogue , fake , antivirus , antispyware , security , removal
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Remove Fake Antivirus and Fake Antispyware Automatically
Honeymoon Until October and Norton Antivirus 2010 Winners
The time that both me and my wife has been waiting for is finally here which is our honeymoon! It has been 3 months since our wedding and we’ve been looking forward to our honeymoon every single day. Well we don’t normally go for holidays, only once a year if we’ve saved up enough. We will be touring Europe by ourselves and we’ll only be back on 11th of October. I actually have written a few articles written in advanced scheduled to post but unfortunately I accidentally deleted the images folder making a lot of screenshots missing. Anyway I will try to post an update when I am abroad. Do join our forums as we also have many interesting discoveries posted there as well.
The 55 lucky winners for Norton Antivirus 2010 license is out. I will be sending an email to the winners shortly and I will only send the product key to you once I’ve receive a reply from you. This is to make sure that you really got the license and not gone to waste in SPAM/JUNK folder.
Please be patient with me if I have not reply your email for days. I will try to get online from the hotel at least once a day to check my emails and the comments on this blog. As for forum, I don’t have much worry about it because we have some really good moderators in there to keep the place clean from spam and trouble makers.
Au Revoir! See you all next month and stay cool!
Technorati Tags: honeymoon , norton , antivirus , results , travel
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FREE 1 Year Dr. Web Antivirus Genuine License Key Worth $30 for EVERYONE
Finally, I am able to use the word EVERYONE in a freebie post because here is a promotion by Dr Web and they are giving out free 1 year antivirus genuine license to each and everyone one of you. Some of the impressive feature found in Dr.Web antivirus is FLY-CODE. This is new feature of Dr.Web 5.0 which is a universal decompression technology that allows detecting viruses disguised by means of packers unknown to Dr.Web. Just like other top antivirus, Dr.Web also has a unique non-signature detection technology called Origins Tracing that has also been brought to a new level in Dr.Web 5.0. It has already proven its efficiency during epidemics that caused data losses to a large number of customers of other vendors. Other than that, it can detect spam-bots, scans virus in email, automatic updating and etc.
Dr.Web Antivirus normally cost 21,84 EURO for 1 user valid for 1 year but it’s free for a limited time. If you wish to get your personalized genuine license for Dr.Web Antivirus v5 valid for one year, just follow the simple instructions below. Best part is this license can also be used on Dr.Web anti-virus for Windows Mobile. Get it FAST before this offer expires!
1. Go to this page http://www.drweb.com.cn/other/frdrweb.aspx
2. Click the button at the bottom to go to the next step.
3. Enter your name, valid email address, age and again click the red color button on the right. It is advisable to use Hotmail or Yahoo because Gmail seems to have problems.
4. You can enter anything in the box that has asterisk and click the button on the right.
5. Check the email that you entered in step 2 and you should get an email from public@drweb.com.cn with the subject containing Chinese characters. Note down the 16 digit product key. If you didn’t get any email, you should check your junk/spam folder.
6. Download the latest version of Dr.Web Antivirus v5 and install.
7. During installation, Dr.Web will ask for license key file. Select “ Receive key file during installation ” and click next.
8. On the registration step 1 window, click “Obtain a license key file”. At step 2, type in the 16 digit OEM serial number and click Next. Step 3 just click Next. Now provide your user information to register yourself as Dr.Web customer and click Next. Finally it will verify your serial number and generate a key file drweb32.key.
Alternatively you can also go to this page http://buy.drweb.com/register/ to generate your Dr.Web key file based on your serial number.
Dr.Web Antivirus v5 for Windows takes up around 46MB of memory during idle when Windows has just been booted up and it increases whenever it is working. If you are using Vista/7, you shouldn’t worry about that because it the OS itself has the ability to clean up memory. A big part of the memory usage is taken by the spidermail module which is used to scan for viruses in emails. You can disable it if you do not use Outlook or any POP3 email clients. Right click on the Dr Web icon at the notification area, SpIDer Mail > Settings. At the Scan tab, uncheck Load at start.
Dr.Web is definitely better than Vexira in terms of virus detection because it detected every virus that I drop in to my test computer. Dr.Web Antivirus runs on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista 32bit only. Thanks to my_immortalize and collapse@ Doctus for “sharing”. I hope this time I “credited” the right person.
Technorati Tags: dr.web , antivirus , security , free , license
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