Avast Antivirus downloading data from net even when told not to update

This is a strange problem that I have never seen before. I have two machines, both running Win 7 and running the latest version of Avast, both seem to be downloading large amounts of data. I noticed it when we were using more data for our monthly limit then normal, 2gb+ in a couple of days when really only browsing.

I installed NetLimiter and let it run for couple of hours and this is the result for the avast! Service (c:\program files\alwil software\avast5\avastsvc.exe ).

The other computer downloaded twice as much data in the same amount of time.

Both installs of avast have their automatic updates (turned off at 4:00pm), for both program and definitions.

Does anyone know what might be going on here.

Solution 1:

I'm pretty sure the traffic is not being caused by updates. It happening because avastsvc acts as a kind of proxy in order to block harmful web content - so most normal traffic will be shown under Avast instead. See very similar question here, answered by Avast technical staff: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=56474.0

You could try temporarily disabling Avast in order to check this and make it easier to track the true culprit.

Perhaps your increased bandwidth is due to Windows Update or something? It might also be worth running a MalwareBytes scan or something to be extra sure you don't have a virus.