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ewaynec
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Date Posted:12/13/2012 5:50 PMCopy HTML

  I have some movies I have downloaded and share with a friend (I hope ascap is not watching). I thought it would be a good thing to scan them for viruses before giving them to my friend. I installed Avast for Linux. It says there is a GUI which I could not get to run so I emailed Avast to ask how. He wrote back and said to uninstall the program and not to even try to use it, Avast will discontinue it's Linux version in April of 2013. I wrote back and ask why? He said "It's simply redundant software with no practical usability".
  What I get from that is, viruses will not affect Linux systems, but if I download a movie with a virus, when I pass it on to someone using Windows, will I not pass on the virus?
For the man who thinks he is free, there is no escape. Wayne Collier.
OLDERONE1 Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #1
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/13/2012 9:28 PMCopy HTML

 may be you will have to have an old XP computer to use AVAST and then scan the movies that you have. just an thought that I see to do. Dawson
ewaynec Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #2
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/14/2012 7:36 PMCopy HTML

 I know this is a small thing but, it is adding to my list of things that Linux will not do. That list is getting just about long enough to make me ...
For the man who thinks he is free, there is no escape. Wayne Collier.
LyndaQueen Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #3
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/14/2012 9:57 PMCopy HTML

Avast also messed up my IE  and I have Windows 8 and IE9....   I think it is Avast that is going crazy....  I kicked it out of my computer and started using WSE.....  So far it is working.... 
ewaynec Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #4
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/15/2012 2:27 PMCopy HTML

 Lynda, you are the only person I have heard of with problems with Avast. I have used Avast for 10 years, before I used Linux and on my wife's PC with XP, then Windows 7. We are on the Internet constantly, and I have never had a virus. I have had several blocked by Avast. I have never had a problem caused by Avast.
  For your problems I would suspect IE9, or more likely Windows 8, it is designed for touch screen devices, not desktop devices. You are much better off to go back to Windows 7.
  IMHO, Avast is the best you can buy, and it's free. It doesn't get any better than that.
For the man who thinks he is free, there is no escape. Wayne Collier.
LyndaQueen Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #5
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/15/2012 3:40 PMCopy HTML

I mistakenly said Windows 8..... I have Windows 7....  and IE9.     Avast made my  IE9 freeze up completely with its checker ap....I had to do a systems restore to get it to working again after I got rid of Avast....  I loved Avast and hated to get rid of it but  Avast and IE9 don't get along.... It worked perfectly well with my Chrome Browser....  I am doing ok with WSE..... just don't like it as well....  dang it.
wm4bama Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #6
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:12/15/2012 5:04 PMCopy HTML

I feel more like I do now than I did a while ago...
LyndaQueen Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #7
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:07/26/2013 6:50 PMCopy HTML

After some time,,,, I was able to reinstall Avast on my computer.   They fixed the thing that was wrong with it and now it works fine.....  I hardly ever use that computer but have had no problem since reinstalling it..... about two months ago.
D_Runner Share to: Facebook Twitter MSN linkedin google yahoo #8
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Re:Avast

Date Posted:07/27/2013 2:06 AMCopy HTML

Avast seldom caused problems prior to Win 7 and IE 9, but some of the issues that happen with them can be severe. Even when there are no apparent problems, Avast can get glitched and some parts of it may not work correctly until you reinstall it. This being said, I have installed Avast on several Win 7 and Win 8 systems with no problems. Sometimes those proverbial "complex interactions between software and hardware" that I have talked about before have benign consequences, but other times the sky can fall on you...

Avast for Linux is now officially deprecated since all updates and support stopped in April. I used it fairly often to scan stuff I might send to someone with Win to make sure there was nothing harmful hidden in it, since I know far too many people run Win without security -- I fixed a Windows 8 system a couple of weeks ago that was eaten up with adware, Trojans, hijackers, and rootkits (800+ infections). Avast for Workstation (as the Linux Avast was officially known) worked fine from the command line, but the GUI never would operate the program correctly other than getting updates and setting exclusions. I tinkered with it a long time (chmod, chown, and chroot commands to both the scanner and the GUI) trying to get it to stop returning "File Not Scanned Due to Configuration Details" on every location scanned in GUI mode and finally threw in the towel on it. As well as Avast for Linux worked from the command line, I considered the GUI generally superfluous, but I thought if they were going to port it over that they ought to have made all of it work.

There are other Linux AV programs, like ClamAV, Aegis, and Comodo Antivirus for Linux (CAVL). Your Linux machine is pretty well virus hardened by the design of Linux, but it can still be a virus carrier so far as Windows machines with inadequate security are concerned -- Win viruses contained in files on a Linux system just sit there and can't execute, but if you send them to a "naked" (unsecured) Win system, they will. Remember Typhoid Mary from the history books? She carried a deadly disease but was not affected by it herself. If you run Linux, use no antivirus software, and trade around a lot of files with Win users, you could be an Internet version of Typhoid Mary and not even know it.

DR
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