Bad update from Avast! today?

I've just had a call and done some remote support for a friend that has an issue with logging into FaceBook with Firefox, Avast! was giving a warning about "HTML: redirMe-inf [Trj]".

A quick search reveals that she's not the only one with this problem in the last few hours or so; Avast! support site seems to be offline - too many connections.

I got her logged in ok using K-Meleon even though I had to drop the security settings in it. I didn't try IE. My guess is that it's related to the Avast! WebRep add-on but I'm really not sure at this point.

 

I've gotten 3x today a red box from Avast (failure to update). Two of them trying to do a manual update.

Message of one: other HTTP error (403) while trying 208.43.71.1488:80//iavs5x/servers.def (I've got no clue what that means lol) Perhaps it's their servers?

I did a repair in Add/Remove for Avast, rebooted but that didn't help at all. All I saw in Add/Remove there was initially a huge Avast size (197MB) and after doing the repair it was down to 141 MB.

 

From CNET forum.

EDIT: my friend just remoted into my PC, we both have the same Avast! update version yet she logged into her FB acc. here on both FX and IE without any problems, Webshield and Webrep still active - strange!

 

The latest Avast! update has been released (110411-2), I hope that'll fix it for everyone.

 

This was a major problem. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as the McAfee update from last year that pretty much made XP Machines with XP3 unusable until they were patched.

Still, it might be time to look for another AV product. This wasn't the first time this has happened with Avast.

I know companies make mistakes, but really, how can you let something like this slip through the cracks? I understand if it affected a small amount of the user base, but this apparently really hit a lot of people hard, including me.

BTW, I use the paid version of Avast, not the free version. Not good.

 

It happens; better to air your views direct on the Avast! forums, maybe you'll find an explanation there.

To err is human ...

 

Have version 110412-0 here. My avast! user panel shows release date for this version as 4/12/11, 5:58:59 AM. I was just logged onto facebook about 1/2 hour ago. No problems. Perhaps the issue you experienced has already been resolved.

 

I agree with this. Jumping ship with any software of this nature on a snap decision, in my experience, is usually not a wise one, and causes more problems than what you had previously.

I was unaware that Avast was having so many issues. I have this installed on many machines at home and with family and they haven't reported any issues that can be traced back to the product. Besides what we are discussing here, is there some list of things I should be looking for, or really, have subsequent updates eliminated those bugs?

 

I have a feeling that FB had been aware of this and changed something their end around the time of my first post. By the time I'd made the second post, things seemed to have changed:

Make sure you get Avast! updated today, the problem may still occur on other sites, as was being reported yesterday.


Re. the MSE option, 3 times on infected PC's - as recently as about two weeks ago, I've manually found malware before MSE did - by anything up to 40 minutes! Also the updates can be waiting on the MSFT servers for many hours before MSE 'decides' to update, I saw this only 5 days ago - waiting 14 hours and ended up downloading them manually even though Microsoft Update was set fully auto and no failed attempts logged - MSE ver 2/VHP fully patched.

Nothing's perfect - layered protection is the only way to try to stop the bad guys from lapping you in the malware arms race. That or a live CD ...