For several days now I've been unable to access the virus database updates. The report each time says basically this:

ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 09:43:35 2015
WARNING: DNS Resolver: Can't query current.cvd.clamav.net
WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
Reading CVD header (main.cvd): WARNING: Can't get information about database.clamav.net: No IP address
WARNING: Can't read main.cvd header from database.clamav.net (IP: )
Trying again in 5 secs...
ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 09:44:10 2015
WARNING: DNS Resolver: Can't query current.cvd.clamav.net
WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
Reading CVD header (main.cvd): WARNING: Can't get information about database.clamav.net: No IP address
WARNING: Can't read main.cvd header from database.clamav.net (IP: )
Trying again in 5 secs...
ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 09:44:45 2015
WARNING: DNS Resolver: Can't query current.cvd.clamav.net
WARNING: Invalid DNS reply. Falling back to HTTP mode.
Reading CVD header (main.cvd): ERROR: Can't get information about database.clamav.net: No IP address
WARNING: Can't read main.cvd header from database.clamav.net (IP: )
Giving up on database.clamav.net...
Update failed. Your network may be down or none of the mirrors listed in c:\docume~1\peter\locals~1\temp\tmp1c86r6 is working. Check http://www.clamav.net/doc/mirrors-faq.html for possible reasons.

I tried pinging current.cvd.clamav.net and DNS claims there is no entry for the site. I tried GRC's ID Serve and it says the same thing:

Initiating server query ...
Looking up IP address for domain: current.cvd.clamav.net
The IP address for the specified host could not be found. Please check the spelling and format of the URL above.

Other sites are accessible (e.g. cvd.clamav.net).

I've tried to find ways to report the issue (tweeted, tried commenting on the blog) and this forum seems to be the only avenue for presenting the information and asking if anyone's got any feedback. I haven't found any information online that suggests the site in question is down.

I began with the upgrade from 0.98.5-0.98.6 and that's when I first saw the failure to update. Then I replaced the upgrade with an outright 0.98.6 install and still had the same problem. I'm running XPXP3 on an elderly Acer box, all patches applied (or at least the ones that MS saw fit to release).

Has current.cvd.clamav.net been knocked off the 'Net by bad actors? If it was down due to hardware failure I'd expect it or a replacement to be up by now (I'm assuming that's a reasonable expectation).

Other apps seem to update OK so I don't think it's a network issue.

Grateful for any thoughts,

Ancient B

I suggest that you just configure ClamWin for automatic hourly updates and monitor that for a day or so. If they come off okay, don't worry about it. I sometimes am unable to do a manual update when I want, but I am able to later. If the automatic updates don't work, reinstall ClamWin as an administrator by right clicking on the install file. If that doesn't work, reinstall the previous version of ClamWin and get back to us here so we can tell the developers. I assume that you have not installed any software programs recently that might interfere with ClamWin updates.

Thanks for using ClamWin!

Regards,

Hi GuitarBob

I've tried automatic and manual updates and both fail with the same errors. There is no admin account (XP never offered one on installation years ago; there's only one account otherwise and it's admin-equivalent). The key thing IMHO is the current.cvd.clamav.net site - it has no IP address and that seems to be the trigger for subsequent errors. It could be something as simple as a missing digit or letter in the URL.

I'll do as you suggest and try going back to the prior version (I have a 98.5-setup-nodb file), test again, and report results. There have been no installs since moving to 98.6 (only updates to other databases).

Many thanks,

Ancient

OKay. Make sure you have database.clamav.net set as the download site in the Internet Updates tab under Preferences. It's working fine for me on Win 8.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

GuitarBob:

I checked Preferences and database.clamav.net is set as the download site.

As part of the installation process for 0.98.5 ClamWin (full install) the app attempted to populate database(s) and there was some initial hiccup but it did eventually complete using another IP address (a mirror I assume). Subsequent reports are:

--------------------------------------
ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 14:41:18 2015
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.98.5 Recommended version: 0.98.6
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq
nonblock_connect: giving up due to excessive bogus loops
Can't connect to port 80 of host database.clamav.net (IP: 128.199.133.36)
Trying host database.clamav.net (69.163.100.14)...
Downloading main.cvd [100%]
main.cvd updated (version: 55, sigs: 2424225, f-level: 60, builder: neo)
Downloading daily.cvd [100%]
daily.cvd updated (version: 20181, sigs: 1345679, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
Downloading bytecode.cvd [100%]
bytecode.cvd updated (version: 247, sigs: 41, f-level: 63, builder: dgoddard)
Database updated (3769945 signatures) from database.clamav.net (IP: 69.163.100.14)
--------------------------------------
ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 15:00:22 2015
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.98.5 Recommended version: 0.98.6
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq
main.cvd is up to date (version: 55, sigs: 2424225, f-level: 60, builder: neo)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 20181, sigs: 1345679, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
bytecode.cvd is up to date (version: 247, sigs: 41, f-level: 63, builder: dgoddard)
--------------------------------------
ClamAV update process started at Wed Mar 11 15:02:04 2015
WARNING: Your ClamAV installation is OUTDATED!
WARNING: Local version: 0.98.5 Recommended version: 0.98.6
DON'T PANIC! Read http://www.clamav.net/support/faq
main.cvd is up to date (version: 55, sigs: 2424225, f-level: 60, builder: neo)
daily.cvd is up to date (version: 20181, sigs: 1345679, f-level: 63, builder: neo)
bytecode.cvd is up to date (version: 247, sigs: 41, f-level: 63, builder: dgoddard)

I didn't get the error about not being able to find current.cvd.clamav.net and falling back to HTTP mode (but then 0.98.5 might not try to access that site - I don't know).

So on the face of it there's some kind of problem with 0.98.6, both as an upgrade from 0.98.5 and as a full install, and current.cvd.clamav.net seems to be the first point of failure.

If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Ancient

Do you use another AV/firewall along side ClamWin? Did you try a complete uninstall/reinstall of ClamWin? Are you using a proxy/VPN at all and did you set up the proxy settings in ClamWin, if you are using one?

RRK: according to the Ancient One, there has been no change in his setup since installing V .98.6, and it appears that .98.5 worked okay according to him. We need to know what version his Windows OS is. If it is XP/32, then I don't know if we did any beta testing on that. Alch said he tested okay on XP/64. We didn't really test much because it was a bug fix on Linux mostly. It appears that ClamWin is not using all that Clam AV capability in its port. Maybe something got in there that shouldn't.

Ancient One: let us know your Windows version.

Regards,

Wait, I remember a user on the forums here sometime ago was having this issue. Please read the ClamAV FAQ section here: http://www.clamav.net/doc/mirrors-faq.html It mentions your issue about invalid DNS reply. If that doesn't help, you could try deleting the old database files located at C:/Users/username/AppData/Roaming/.clamwin/db and see if it will work then.

@Guitarbob: I don't think a Windows version is the issue. My Windows 7 is working OK and your Windows 8 is working fine, according to the beta test results.

I thought that maybe the Clam AV code didn't consider Win XP/32 or an older OS. Of course, maybe the Tuesday Windows patches are the culprit--if ClamWin V .98.6 was installed since then. Seems like there has been a problem recently because of patches, but I think that was on enterprise machines mostly.

Just grasping at straws, I guess. Depending upon what he says, the developers probably need to know about it.

Regards,

GuitarBob:

My XP is 32bit.

0.98.5 seems to be able to access database updates OK manually, but has time-out issues when automated.

It's possible that the DNS I am forced to use (outside my control to substitute another DNS - I'm at the mercy of Innflux) may not have an entry for current.cvd.clamav.net. Innflux tech support are not too swift but I may call them to see if they can fix any omission.

If 0.98.5 doesn't attempt to access current.cvd.clamav.net then that may explain why 0.98.6 falls over for me. However, I saw that historically others have reported the same issue: that current.cvd.clamav.net does not appear to have an IP address assigned.

So I did an online WHOIS check and obtained one IP address for current.cvd.clamav.net (23.23.109.126), which would seem to be being hosted on an Amazon server - Amazon Cloud Services maybe?

Anyway, I'm going to add a record to my hosts file (23.23.109.126 current.cvd.clamav.net) and then re-install 0.98.6 and see if it still falls over. I'll let you know.

0.98.6 still fell over. I've gone back to 0.98.5. Unless anyone has a better IP address for current.cvd.clamav.net?

Actually Bob, ClamAV doesn't have proper coding for XP 64-bit. Alch must have made support for it, in the past. If you go on ClamAV download page and click on Win64, you will see what I mean.

@AncientBrit: How long did you leave the updater run? ClamAV automatically shuffles between servers until it finds one that works on your system. ClamAV has dozens of servers, so it may take a little bit to find the right one. My advice would be to try and leave the updater run and if it fails, try again following the same procedure. This work on my dad's system, so maybe it will work on yours. If that doesn't work, roll back to .98.5 and I will submit a report to Alch about this.

Yeah - Clam AV really doesn't care about Windows. They've turned a port over to Immunet, and any needed Windows support for ClamWin has to come from the ClamWin developers since there's no affiliation at all with either Immunet or Clam AV. We are actually on our own! We should act accordingly!

Regards,

RocknRollKid:

I omitted to make a safe copy of the 0.98.6 installation so when I reverted to 0.98.5 I lost all the log files, but as memory serves I left the 0.98.6 updater running for three days before I tried a manual update and then spotted the reported failure to connect to current.cvd.clamav.net (which is still not accessible - no IP address; other clamav servers are fine).

I've installed 0.98.6 three times, once as an upgrade from 0.98.5, twice as full installs. The effect (unable to update) seems reproducible.

I've gone back to 0.98.5 and although it seems to have trouble finding a server to update definitions when in auto mode, if I do it manually it completes in seconds - not sure why (I just did that exact thing - ClamWin had been trying to auto-update for around 14 hours so I tried a manual update and it completed within a couple of minutes). I have ClamWin configured to look for updates once every 24 hours.

I'm happy to help in any way I can. If things suddenly resolve or if I spot any cause on my end I'll post here.

I have submitted a report to Alch. Alternatively, you might also want to submit a report to ClamAV support here: http://www.clamav.net/contact.html It could be an issue with the updater, as well.