Avast! Ye Scurvy Dogs

[W3WN]

So... I finally got off my butt yesterday afternoon, and started getting the "new" shack computer ready.

...my workplace replaced all of our Compaq XP machines last February with new Dell Vista machines. The old machines were wiped clean, had the OS reinstalled from the OEM factory CD's, and made available to employees for $50 each. Don't ask, those that didn't sell got donated to two charitable organizations. Anyway, I got 3 -- one for the XYL, one to replace my "working" computer, and one to update the Shack computer, a rebuilt Dell 500 MHz P2 machine. The new machines are all 1.8 MHz and have 512 MB of RAM, so they run much faster than the ones they're replacing...

After some trial & error on the hard drive upgrade (I replaced the 20 GB drive with an 80, the trick was in splitting it into two partitions... Compaq's setup program, on converting from FAT32 to NTFS, automatically took the whole drive. But I finally got it split as desired), I went ahead with the usual updates and installs.

I've taken quite a liking to Avast! Home Edition lately, and let's face it, the price is right. I have it on the XYL's machine at the moment, as well as my daughter's and my laptop.

But when I went to install it on this box... it wouldn't. Error message indicated that it couldn't find the server, and a directory was not found.

Anyone run into this, or anything like it, before?

(I tried from both an installation file I already had, and directly from the download site, thinking maybe something had changed since I'd last downloaded the file)

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.

I'm going to give it another try in the next evening or three, I'm hoping that there was just some minor incompatibility that an update will cure. I was a bit impatient on all the uploads.

If it weren't for the intended use of the machine, I'd probably leave NAV on. But this box is intended to not only be the shack computer (general & contest logging), but also the eventual remote host for my TS-480S for use as a remote base. So if it is going to be on & on-line most of the time... well, why look for trouble?

73

[KJ3N]

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.
While not a direct answer to your problem, I would have installed AVG (http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition) before I'd install that POS from Norton.

[KC2UGV]

I'd hazard the NIC on the PC isn't working.

But, if it is, give AVG a whirl. Again, the price is right (Free), and works well :)

[W3WN]

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.
While not a direct answer to your problem, I would have installed AVG (http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition) before I'd install that POS from Norton.
Thanks, but... No.

I've seen AVG in action. Suffice to say, it's not something I care for.

[W3WN]

I'd hazard the NIC on the PC isn't working.

But, if it is, give AVG a whirl. Again, the price is right (Free), and works well :)

If the NIC wasn't working, the system wouldn't have seen my network, or connected through the gateway out into never never land. Nor would I have been able to download the latest flavor. No, that's not it.

NAV is just a stop gap until I figure out what went wrong with Avast. I'd prefer to get Avast on the machine, as the goal is to make all of the home machines on the same AV package to ease maintenance. To go to AVG, which I don't care for, means updating 6 other machines... and it still doesn't answer the question as to what went wrong.

[W2NAP]

well at least with my linux i dont have to use crap like avg and avast :snicker:

[ad4mg]

So... I finally got off my butt yesterday afternoon, and started getting the "new" shack computer ready.

...my workplace replaced all of our Compaq XP machines last February with new Dell Vista machines. The old machines were wiped clean, had the OS reinstalled from the OEM factory CD's, and made available to employees for $50 each. Don't ask, those that didn't sell got donated to two charitable organizations. Anyway, I got 3 -- one for the XYL, one to replace my "working" computer, and one to update the Shack computer, a rebuilt Dell 500 MHz P2 machine. The new machines are all 1.8 MHz and have 512 MB of RAM, so they run much faster than the ones they're replacing...

After some trial & error on the hard drive upgrade (I replaced the 20 GB drive with an 80, the trick was in splitting it into two partitions... Compaq's setup program, on converting from FAT32 to NTFS, automatically took the whole drive. But I finally got it split as desired), I went ahead with the usual updates and installs.

I've taken quite a liking to Avast! Home Edition lately, and let's face it, the price is right. I have it on the XYL's machine at the moment, as well as my daughter's and my laptop.

But when I went to install it on this box... it wouldn't. Error message indicated that it couldn't find the server, and a directory was not found.

Anyone run into this, or anything like it, before?

(I tried from both an installation file I already had, and directly from the download site, thinking maybe something had changed since I'd last downloaded the file)

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.

I'm going to give it another try in the next evening or three, I'm hoping that there was just some minor incompatibility that an update will cure. I was a bit impatient on all the uploads.

If it weren't for the intended use of the machine, I'd probably leave NAV on. But this box is intended to not only be the shack computer (general & contest logging), but also the eventual remote host for my TS-480S for use as a remote base. So if it is going to be on & on-line most of the time... well, why look for trouble?

73
Avast is excellent anti-virus, and I use it on all my Windows installations.

Try downloading the full setup file, Ron ... 34 MB, no need to let the exe initiate an internet connection:

http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

If that link doesn't work, go to:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

scroll down the page a bit, and download the English version of the full setup file.

Hope that works!

[W3WN]

So... I finally got off my butt yesterday afternoon, and started getting the "new" shack computer ready.

...my workplace replaced all of our Compaq XP machines last February with new Dell Vista machines. The old machines were wiped clean, had the OS reinstalled from the OEM factory CD's, and made available to employees for $50 each. Don't ask, those that didn't sell got donated to two charitable organizations. Anyway, I got 3 -- one for the XYL, one to replace my "working" computer, and one to update the Shack computer, a rebuilt Dell 500 MHz P2 machine. The new machines are all 1.8 MHz and have 512 MB of RAM, so they run much faster than the ones they're replacing...

After some trial & error on the hard drive upgrade (I replaced the 20 GB drive with an 80, the trick was in splitting it into two partitions... Compaq's setup program, on converting from FAT32 to NTFS, automatically took the whole drive. But I finally got it split as desired), I went ahead with the usual updates and installs.

I've taken quite a liking to Avast! Home Edition lately, and let's face it, the price is right. I have it on the XYL's machine at the moment, as well as my daughter's and my laptop.

But when I went to install it on this box... it wouldn't. Error message indicated that it couldn't find the server, and a directory was not found.

Anyone run into this, or anything like it, before?

(I tried from both an installation file I already had, and directly from the download site, thinking maybe something had changed since I'd last downloaded the file)

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.

I'm going to give it another try in the next evening or three, I'm hoping that there was just some minor incompatibility that an update will cure. I was a bit impatient on all the uploads.

If it weren't for the intended use of the machine, I'd probably leave NAV on. But this box is intended to not only be the shack computer (general & contest logging), but also the eventual remote host for my TS-480S for use as a remote base. So if it is going to be on & on-line most of the time... well, why look for trouble?

73
Avast is excellent anti-virus, and I use it on all my Windows installations.

Try downloading the full setup file, Ron ... 34 MB, no need to let the exe initiate an internet connection:

http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

If that link doesn't work, go to:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

scroll down the page a bit, and download the English version of the full setup file.

Hope that works!Thanks Luke, I'll try that link when I get home tonight.

[KJ3N]

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.
While not a direct answer to your problem, I would have installed AVG (http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition) before I'd install that POS from Norton.
Thanks, but... No.

I've seen [strike:15rio71j]AVG[/strike:15rio71j] NAV in action. Suffice to say, it's not something I care for.
Fixed that for you. ;) :rofl:

When she retired from Verizon, I replace NAV on her home machine with AVG. Time from power on to usability went from 20+ minutes to about 5.

YMMV

[W3WN]

well at least with my linux i dont have to use crap like avg and avast :snicker:
Enjoy it while you can.

Sooner or later, the malicious maverick mavens of mischief & malware (and the crooks too) will decide that the various Linux distributions installed have reached critical mass & will be worth their time to try and exploit.

Remember: The first "in the wild" computer virus attaced the Apple -- Apple DOS 3.3 at the time -- in 1981. It was another 5 years or so before that breed of malware spread to the PC ranks. Today there are few Apple/Mac viruses, but if/when the day comes that the Mac again attains critical mass... and sooner or later it will...

[W3WN]

For the time being, I dug up my old NAV Corporate Edition, and that installed just fine. I'd just been hoping to phase NAV out.
While not a direct answer to your problem, I would have installed AVG (http://www.avg.com/us-en/product-avg-anti-virus-free-edition) before I'd install that POS from Norton.
Thanks, but... No.

I've seen [strike:2kpvmsai]AVG[/strike:2kpvmsai] NAV in action. Suffice to say, it's not something I care for.
Fixed that for you. ;) :rofl:

When she retired from Verizon, I replace NAV on her home machine with AVG. Time from power on to usability went from 20+ minutes to about 5.

YMMV
The older flavors of NAV were pretty good. It's only been the last few years, as Symantic has made it more of a 'security' than an 'AV' application, that it's become real bloatware.

What I really miss is the old Cheyenne InocuLAN, later CA InoculateIT. Beat the other commercial packages hands down. Alas, they stopped issuing signature updates for the 4.x flavors years ago. Now they call it 'eTrust Management' (we use it here at work), but when I compare what they want for it (initial purchase & annual license) for home use compared to Avast... to use a cliche, why buy the cow if the milk is free?

[ad4mg]

AVG 8.x is very good anti-virus software as well, but you can't legally use it on more than one computer, according to their agreement. Avast allows you to install on all of your personal machines. Also, AVG 8.x is a little harder on system resources than Avast.

And finally, Yo, Tony! Avast now offers AV for Linux OS's. It's more for just scanning files at this time, but I'd wager they stuck their foot in the door, just in case. Linux is heading for the mainstream, and you can bet they will be the next targets of malicious software. Ubuntu is becoming almost too popular to suit me. I liked it better when it was sort of a secret ... :D

[W2NAP]

AVG 8.x is very good anti-virus software as well, but you can't legally use it on more than one computer, according to their agreement. Avast allows you to install on all of your personal machines. Also, AVG 8.x is a little harder on system resources than Avast.

And finally, Yo, Tony! Avast now offers AV for Linux OS's. It's more for just scanning files at this time, but I'd wager they stuck their foot in the door, just in case. Linux is heading for the mainstream, and you can bet they will be the next targets of malicious software. Ubuntu is becoming almost too popular to suit me. I liked it better when it was sort of a secret ... :D

we use clamAV for the servers.

Ubuntu has pretty much hit mainstream. the advantage linux has over windoze. is linux is build to be secure, windoze is not and will never be

[W3WN]

Avast is excellent anti-virus, and I use it on all my Windows installations.

Try downloading the full setup file, Ron ... 34 MB, no need to let the exe initiate an internet connection:

http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

If that link doesn't work, go to:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

scroll down the page a bit, and download the English version of the full setup file.

Hope that works!Thanks Luke, that worked! :cheers:

I mentioned this to my boss during lunch today, and he mentioned that he'd seen this happen on rare occasions. It has something to do with the working directories and creating the temp directories; for some unknown reason, every now and then, Avast has a hiccup on this. But run the downloaded full setup worked perfectly.

NAV is off the machine, and Avast is doing a file check as I type.

A little bit of luck and some time (I still need to put Office :bbh: and dBase Plus on the box), and I may have it in place tonight. Tomorrow is a touch more likely though.

73

[ad4mg]

Avast is excellent anti-virus, and I use it on all my Windows installations.

Try downloading the full setup file, Ron ... 34 MB, no need to let the exe initiate an internet connection:

http://files.avast.com/iavs4pro/setupeng.exe

If that link doesn't work, go to:

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

scroll down the page a bit, and download the English version of the full setup file.

Hope that works!Thanks Luke, that worked! :cheers:

I mentioned this to my boss during lunch today, and he mentioned that he'd seen this happen on rare occasions. It has something to do with the working directories and creating the temp directories; for some unknown reason, every now and then, Avast has a hiccup on this. But run the downloaded full setup worked perfectly.

NAV is off the machine, and Avast is doing a file check as I type.

A little bit of luck and some time (I still need to put Office :bbh: and dBase Plus on the box), and I may have it in place tonight. Tomorrow is a touch more likely though.

73
Excellent! I earned my keep for the day ... :lol:

[suddenseer]

I have found The Avast works better for me than the 'free' norton's, macafee my isp provides.

Another good freebie for home use: Malwarebytes.