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Topic: AVG update message? |
Ken Williams
From:
Arkansas
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Posted 10 Apr 2009 9:16 am |
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Each day I log on to the computer I get a option to install AVG 8.5. It say's that the 7.5 updates will no longer be available after April 12 deadline. Is this legit?
Thanks,
Ken |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Gary Lee Gimble
From:
Fredericksburg, VA.
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Posted 10 Apr 2009 10:30 am
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| Quote: |
| I'm hoping it will go away after April12... |
And so will your free virus definition updates? I've updated XP and Vistouplah, no issues.... |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 10 Apr 2009 10:36 am
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| Gary Lee Gimble wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I'm hoping it will go away after April12... |
And so will your free virus definition updates? I've updated XP and Vistouplah, no issues.... |
Yes, I'm gonna need a Plan B. Got any recommendations to replace AVG?
_________________
www.JimCohen.com
www.RonstadtRevue.com
www.BeatsWalkin.com |
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Gary Lee Gimble
From:
Fredericksburg, VA.
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Posted 10 Apr 2009 10:43 am
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| Jim, there is so much free stuff out there...If AVG has been doing you a job, then stick with her and update to 8.5. My computers at the day gig all have Free AVG 8.5 and we're on line 24/7/365. As of today, knock on wood, no problems. The only problems I've had is with Quickbooks and Vista and those outsourced idiots that only want a commitment for a service maintenance plan. I screamed, they backed down.... |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 10 Apr 2009 1:39 pm
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Listen up y'all!
AVG 7.x is bleedin' demised, finito, bereft of life it has shuffled off this mortal coil, it is no more, it is an ex-parrot! AVG 8.5 is available for free, although it has become bloatware and suffers from occasional false positives. Its nag screen is small and is attached to the bottom of the program interface. You only see the nag when you open the interface to scan or change you options.
If you are unhappy with AVG Free 8.5 you can get a very decent free anti-virus and anti-spyware program from Avira. It is called AntiVir and is available here for free.
| Quote: |
AntiVir Basic protection
Protects your computer against dangerous viruses, worms, Trojans and costly dialers. New: Basic Anti-Spyware. |
I use it on one of my Pcs and have few false positives (not zero, but less than AVG) and has no noticable drag on my resources (I have 2 Gig PC3200 RAM clocking at 200 Mhz and a 2200 Mhz AMD CPU), running on XP Pro. It is automatically updated daily (once every 24 hours). It does pop-up a huge nag screen every now and then, to try to sell the paid version (sigh). They have to pay their employees so this is the price for free protection.
If you are running XP Pro, or Vista Business or Ultimate or W7, I have a Group Policy tweak that negates the Avira nag screen. Email or PM me for the details.
Note, that neither AVG nor Avira free editions are updated more than once every 24 hours, nor are they known as top notch hunter-killers of bots, Trojans and spyware. For these threats you should have spyware or "malware" protection. Names like MalwareBytes AntiMalware (MBAM), Trend Micro PC-cillin and SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot Search & Destroy come to the forefront in this field. MalWareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot S&D play nice with other free security programs, like Avira and AVG. However, PC-cillin does not like other security programs that include realtime modules, as they cause conflicts over who monitors files in use and locks them. It will uninstall them when you install it. If you must continue using them allow the uninstalls to happen, then reinstall them after installing PC-cillin (same deal with Norton).
Note, if you use Spybot S&D I advise you to disable, or not enable the TeaTimer realtime monitoring module. It is plagued with false positives. See my recent blog articles about Spybot updates for details about the F/Ps. I publish weekly updates about Spybot definitions, developments and false positives.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2009 1:13 pm
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What about AVG paid version 8.5? That's what I have currently. I did my best to navigate their website and get only Anti-Virus, not the full Security suite, as I also have SpySweeper paid and ZoneAlarm free firewall. "Info" I encountered in various places seemed to call all these good examples of their respective types--at the time, anyway.
But the AVG has a whole collection of functions, so I suppose it is probably "bloatware"! (It says "Anti-Virus" in a logo font at the top of the User Interface, but it lists the following "components": Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Rootkit, E-Mail Scanner, License, LinkScanner, Web Shield, Resident Shield, Update Manager) I tossed Norton in favor of AVG because everybody seemed to badmouth Norton, and now you say Norton is a good one!!
I quit using Spybot a while back on "advice", I forget from where, that it had become useless and conflicted with other security programs. Wrong?
I've accepted as a general principle for some time, because I heard/read it all over, that a "Security Suite" from one provider was NOT the way to go, that nobody had good programs of all types, but one should diligently select the best applications for each category (anti-virus, spyware, firewall). Wrong?
It may sound as though I blindly follow anything anyone says, but it ain't so--I try, within my limited ability due to limited knowledge, to evaluate the likely reliability of input from wherever, and go with things that seem to have multiple endorsements from different sources.
Meanwhile it takes my computer almost ten minutes to be ready to use from a cold start, no doubt because all these programs are fighting with each other.
AAARRRGGH! |
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John Cipriano
From:
San Francisco
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Posted 14 Apr 2009 1:57 pm
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Brint: the particulars aren't important, everyone has their preferences for software. Just make sure you have anti-virus and at least the built-in firewall, scan for malware every so often, and stay on top of security patches. I like AVG and I don't find it to be bloated, I have the paid version deployed in the office on machines that have as low as 256MB of memory. The link scanner does degrade browser performance, but it can be disabled without affecting the antivirus.
The main beef that I have with Norton is that the firewall doesn't play nice with Windows. Very often people will ask me why they can't share a printer or a folder, and the answer is that while the built-in Windows knows when you want to open a port for sharing, Norton doesn't. Security is one thing, having a crippled computer is another. I find McAfee to be a resource hog, as well as the previous version of Norton. I don't know about the current one.
I like Spybot but don't turn on immunization if you are running AVG8 since the immunization does what its name implies: it installs fake versions of the malware so that you don't contract the real stuff. AVG will mark this stuff as bad and quarantine it. But Spybot is still good. I use Spybot, MBAM & Ad-Aware when I scan a machine for malware. There are other good ones too.
All that being said, I do not consider anything over five minutes for a cold boot to be normal, even for Vista. The main ways to decrease boot time are: [1] make sure your computer is free of viruses/malware [2] reduce your startup programs to the minimum necessary (you can do this from within spybot's tools section) [3] defrag (usually only slight gains here) [4] upgrade the hardware -- specifically you will want a faster hard drive and/or more RAM. |
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