We're glad to announce a new major version of "avast! Free Antivirus for Mac". The current popularity of Apple products also makes them more interesting for the bad guys so we thought it would be good to prepare for the battle sooner rather than later. The new version has been almost totally reworked compared with our previous solution for the Mac OS.
We're kicking off with three shields and an on-demand scan. The Web Shield together with the Mail Shield will check the vast majority of incoming data from the Internet. avast! Free Antivirus for Mac is also equipped with a File Shield, which scans all programs stored and executed from your hard drive. Everything is packed in a brand new GUI and is now available as a public beta.
Features:
- On-demand scanning: It's possible to scan the whole file system, network volumes or a mounted removable volume. You can also run a custom scan. Scan reports are automatically archived and are accessible from the GUI at anytime.
- On-screen alerts: Alert messages are displayed on-screen whenever a threat is detected.
- File Shield: The File Shield scans the binaries of started applications and all files at the time they are modified.
- Web Shield: The Web Shield monitors and filters all HTTP traffic coming from web sites on the Internet. Connections from your web browser are redirected to the Web Shield module. The Web Shield in turn connects to the requested web server and while downloading the content, it simultaneously scans it for viruses and Trojans. Only clean data is delivered to the browser, all malware is stopped before it gets saved on your Mac.
- Mail Shield: The Mail Shield monitors and filters all POP3 and IMAP traffic coming from mail servers on the internet. It does not prevent saving of infected files (doing so could lead to irreversible data loss), it just detects them. The File Shield prevents any infected attachments from causing harm to your system.
- Automatic updates: The scanning engine is automatically updated with our regular VPS database updates.
Known Issues:
- Sometimes Apple's default icon is shown in the Dock and Finder instead of the avast! icon.
- Some items in the menus and some buttons in the GUI are greyed out / disabled as their functionality is not yet fully implemented.
Installation & Uninstallation:
- To use the Mail Shield, you need to disable encrypted POP3/IMAP connections in your email client's settings so the traffic can be scanned. By default, the Mail Shield encrypts all outgoing traffic itself if the mail server supports it (encrypted connections can be forced for selected mail accounts in the Mail Shield settings).
- Uninstallation must be carried out from the application's menu bar - item "Uninstall avast!"
If you have any comments of feedback, please start a new topic and/or respond to an existing one rather than bloating this particular thread.
Download link: http://public.avast.com/dev/mac-beta1/avast-35889b.dmg
Note for Lion users who have build 29138 or 30664 installed:
There was a bug discovered in the beta build 29138 and 30664. Uninstallation of these particular build can lead to system crash. To uninstall it safely use this tool instead of choosing "Uninstall avast!" in avast! application menu:
http://public.avast.com/dev/mac-beta1/UninstallAvast.app.zip
Note the tool may need to reboot your Mac. So please save all your documents and quit all the other applications.
Many thanks
Vlk
CHANGELOG:
refresh 12/21/2011:
- localisation:
* Fully localisable
* English and Czech languages available at the moment
- changes in Filesystem Shield:
* Customisable path exclusions
* Smaller scan overhead for big files
* Enhanced robustness
- changes in System Preferences plugin:
* Dialog for path exclusions
- changes in GUI:
* Small adjustments in layout and controls
* Efficient scan log compression
* Scan log export to plist format
* Shield panes modified
* Context menu for history tabs
* New "Local Volume" scan type and enhanced scan dialog
* Number of parallel scans limited
* Improved communication between GUI and the scanning core
- changes in GUI helper:
* New layout of pop-up messages
- changes in Mail Shield:
* Fixed bug with connections to non-SSL servers
refresh 11/02/2011:
- changes in GUI:
* Repair/Delete buttons now work on scan report for infected files.
* Added buttons to clear history of shields.
* Added context menu in Scan report page.
* Fixes of assorted bugs.
- changes in MailShield:
* Added IPV6 support.
* Added advanced configuration in System Preferences.
* Fix communication with mail server without SSL support.
* Other minor fixes.
- changes in WebShield:
* Added IPV6 support.
* Fix connection problems with Kindle and ICQ.
* Added advanced configuration in System Preferences.
- changes in FileSHield:
* Few minor bug fixes.
refresh 09/22/2011:
- new daemonisation mechanism and install/uninstall scenario
* all components guarded by the system (keepalive mode)
* no additional delays in system shutdown/reboot process
- fixed kernel panic problems upon network shields uninstall
* problematic cases are detected, auto-reboot offered
- fixed possible GUI-engine communication deadlock
- changes in scan reporting
* new scan report design
- changes in the main window
* new status screen design
* tittle bar with preset/update buttons
- changes in the fileshield
* enhanced robustness
refresh 09/01/2011:
- fixed bug in Filesystem Shield which can under some circumstances
prevent certain operations (e.g. emptying your Trash) in Finder with
a message box some file is in use.
- fixed bug during Uninstall, which can lead to system crash on Lion.
- minor bug fixes and enhancements in GUI.
refresh 08/11/2011:
- added support for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion (webshield & mailshield)
- various minor bug fixes
refresh 07/29/2011:
- fixed startup mechanism
* solved dock icon problems
* window focus
* drag'n'drop on dock
* uninstall/reinstall compatibility
- new system-preferences Avast! pane
* per-shield start/stop configuration
* on-demand scan configuration
* pop-message subsystem configuration
- GUI/scan bugfixes
* shield statistics inconsistencies
* volume scan / full system scan problems
- MacOS X 10.7 Lion workarounds
* webshield and mailshield are disabled for now on 10.7
* we're working on webshield/mailshield workaround for Lion
- prolonged lifetime of this beta (till 10/1/2011)
refresh 06/22/2011:
- explicit VPS update in the application menu
- fixed some issues of GUI with shield history
- scan report history has pop-up menu, allowing to delete scan reports.
- added preference pane in System Preferences
(for now with few options about popups only, more will come later)
- dropped Growl dependency
- fixed various mailshield bugs
* broken IMAP appends
* broken IMAP starttls handling
* broken connections to non SSL capable servers
- tons of other minor updates and fixes.
refresh 05/27/2011:
- fixed corruption of downloads over 4GB, caused by the network shield
refresh 05/25/2011:
- fixed airport connectivity problem, caused by the setup of net shields on MacOS X 10.6.x
- fixed typo in "Start New Scan" page header
Source:http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=78646.0
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