The avast! WHS Edition Update
Avast have updated some of their Anti Virus products to version 5 but not avast! WHS Edition, so what’s happening?
WeGotServed originally posted the answer and on further investigation we found the required info on the avast! Blog.
The three products currently at version 5 are avast 5 Free AV, avast 5 Pro AV, and avast 5 Internet Security. But avast! WHS Edition is currently still at version 4.8, but shortly the v5 clients will be updated to talk to the WHS Edition, whilst the WHS Edition itself is expected to be also ported to the v5 engine eventually, but no firm dates as yet.
Other news – The avast! Professional Family Pack is also going to be discontinued. This pack wasn’t really a product but just a bundle of 10x Professional Edition plus WHS Edition, but even with it being discontinued, you can obviously still build the same functionality with the other products.
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Hi Philip,
As a fan and user of The avast Professional Family Pack
if the renew cost dont stay at the current rate that i was paying, i will undoubtably be looking for a new vender
The 85.00 for 2 years of 1 WHS and all 10 of my client pc being protected was wonderful, but paying for each renewal individually scares me
Recently the avast! Pro Antivirus was updated to version 5.0.462. This updated version is now talking to avast! WHS edition. Updating the client from version 4.x is easy: download and run the new V5 installer! Also if you have a Familiy Pack license it will automatically register.
Unfortunately, building up the same function with individual licenses is a LOT more expensive – maybe 3 or 4Xfor my WHS plus six computers!
And the licenses won’t automatically update on each computer. So now I have to manage each computer seperately. Each time I do a new license it seems to take an hour or two for everything to get straight again between upgrades, certificates, keys, reboots, install problems, etc…. Now I get to do that for each of the computers instead of one button on the WHS console!!!
Bring back Family Pack!!
I ended up going with the free version of Avast! on my family’s PCs and the paid version on the WHS.
In the evaluations I read (like from PC Magazine), the free version of Avast! was actually better at finding viruses than the paid “Pro” version. (Although overall, Avast1 is mid-pack in performance compared to other Antivirus software.)
The good news is that the Free versions of Avast show up in the Avast! panel on the WHS, along with my paid version. So I can still check the antivirus update status of everyone in my house in one place.
So all is fine. I even save money now by only having to buy one version of Avast for the WHS. Avast! screwed themselves out of money by eliminating the Family Pack.
I agree with the posters here.
The functionality to automatically deploy up to 10 pro-licenses for my home network, was the feature that really made me pay for Avast products.
With the family pack discontinued, I am looking at either 6 Pro licenses purchased at the normal rate PLUS the WHS license. Its waaaaaay to expensive for a home solution.
I’ll be replacing my family pack with either the free Avast products, or with Microsoft Security Essentials (also free).
So yes – Avast screwed themselves out of money.
And since I manage both my own home server and 2 more servers (at family), they’ll be screwing themselves out of 3 family packs – converting that into 0 revenue.
Somebody in Avast Management should be fired for making such a stupid move.