Antivirus not updating!!!

Hello! I'm back, with another problem on my hands .

OK, so I recently encountered some problems with Avira AntiVir: the VDs just wouldn't update! I had to manually DL the database and install it. But of course, the problem persisted. Afraid of a glitch or something, I uninstalled Antivir and tried Comodo's IS suite.

Same result. The virus database wouldn't update. Every time I tried, I got 'Update failed. Unable to connect to the Internet'.



Today, I DLed and installed PC Tools' Antivirus, but it told me the same damn thing again: 'The virus database could not be downloaded. Please check your internet connection and try again.' This on a 24/7 broadband connection with 2 mb/s speed.

Software Informer was another software that freaked out on me like this. It was more specific, however: 'Error 106. Please check your internet connection and try again'.

Now, I recently did change my DNS server IPs, coz the old IPs were pinging false. However, I specifically reinstalled my entire security apparata afterward to make sure it recognized the new setup. Yet the problem persists. It isn't the firewall; there are no block alerts, no popups asking me to block or allow the AV to download.

Oh, and PS. My specs are on my sig.

Waiting for a solution, guys!

A couple of thoughts I have in mind are:

• Do you have proper user privileges to run the programs? If you aren't on an admin account or do an administrator "Run As" then the programs might not like that.
• You're still infected with something. If you have something lingering that's not letting you run updates to get new definitions then it will likely stop you for every program.

Those are just a couple of un-researched thoughts.

Edited by Eric RBA, 18 August 2009 - 11:50 AM.

A couple of thoughts I have in mind are:

• Do you have proper user privileges to run the programs? If you aren't on an admin account or do an administrator "Run As" then the programs might not like that.
• You're still infected with something. If you have something lingering that's not letting you run updates to get new definitions then it will likely stop you for every program.

Those are just a couple of un-researched thoughts.

I am the administrator on my comp, but the second suggestion is wise. I'll run a virus scan now, thanks.

I have the same problem. I tried using hijackthis by trendmicro, it sees that mcafee still running in service but i have already uninstalled it. Avira is not updating, spybot search & destroy cannot also updated.
I try also installing some anti-spyware but still cannot update thru internet automatically. It can only be updated manually by downloading its definition files.

Have you tried flushing your DNS cache?

If that doesn't help I would look into two things, an infection or a problem with your firewall. What antivirus and what antimalware do you have installed and what comes up when you run a scan with them? Also, what firewall, if any, are you using?

If you're running AntiVir, a third possibility is that you need to properly uninstall it to fix this problem. Use their registry cleanup tool after a normal uninstall. AntiVir has some issues with their updater and a reinstall fixed the problems I was having and is usually what their support personnel will tell you to do if all else fails. Actually they will ask you to do a manual uninstall in safe mode, linking to this knowledge base article:
http://www.avira.com/en/support/kbdetails.php?id=135

I didn't go into safe mode, just did a normal uninstall, ran the registrycleanup from their page and then reinstalled. Safe mode would be something else to try tho if needed.

Edited by Papakid, 21 September 2009 - 07:39 AM.

Likely unrelated to the issue, but Avira has had problem with overloaded servers past day or two, so the updates take very long to come in. Yesterday it tried connecting to several update servers for about 10 minutes. Finally it did, and the updates came just fine.

Yes, probably unrelated since the original post is kind of old. I suppose the servers are crowded now because of Avira's ten year anniversary promotions, but before version nine that was a chronic problem with the free version. They used to have a pinned topic in the forum about it but it's not there anymore. But it's solution is still a good idea--schedule updates when server traffic is low in Germany/Europe. I have mine set for 9 PM Central time (GMT -6), which is about 3 AM in Germany, and have not had a problem with crowded servers.

I didn't have problems with the updater til upgrading to version nine, which seems to have a bug. I didn't find anyone with the exact same problem as me--which was that the updater was telling me I was up to date because there were no updates to be had when it checked, which wasn't true, and the notifier was buggin me to update because the status showed I was behind on updates--but the reinstall fixed it. I just looked around the forum this morning and there apparently is a command line fix for the updater. I won't post it here as it is unclear if it is needed in this case, but one might ask in the AntiVir free forum:
http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=...amp;boardID=135

I also have not run across people who have mentioned problems with updating other programs, which is why I think it is a malware infection or firewall problem. As yet no one has responded to this thread to tell us what has worked and what hasn't.