Boycott AVG 8?

[jtickner1]

Well, a few minutes ago when I decided to check up on Whirlpool I was greeted with this big orange banner up the top of the screen.

I figured it was talking about the infamous AVG 8 Link Scanner so I clicked on the Whirlpool discussion and it took me to this massive thread.

After reading through many of the pages and being a long time AVG user I've decided to swap to another AV. I was under the impression that AVG LS was only applicable with Internet Explorer but according to that discussion it is in effect with any browser you are using. So right now I'm trying Comodo AV as I've been using Comodo Firewall Pro for a long time now and it's been great.

So basically, should AVG users move on to another AV? Discuss..

 

[vnf4ultra]

Just disable the AVG plugin in firefox...that's what I did. Not that I really care how much bandwidth I'm "wasting" of other sites, but it decreases my google search page load time with it turned off. IMO, any site that thinks AVG is "malicious software" is probably not worth visiting.

 

[raybay]

AVG 8.0 is sure a turkey, after the great stuff we have found in AVG 7.5 and Antispyware.

 

[jtickner1]

Just disable the AVG plugin in firefox...that's what I did. Not that I really care how much bandwidth I'm "wasting" of other sites, but it decreases my google search page load time with it turned off.

Well in Australia we don't really have the ability to 'throw' our bandwith around as much as some other countries. I have 6Gb between 12pm and 12am (on-peak) and 48Gb between 12am and 12pm. Not really that much on-peak every month when there are lots of people using it.

 

[vnf4ultra]

The alternatives to AVG, avira and avast, both are worse programs overall IMO. Avira truely is adware, as it is always popping up ads trying to get you to update to the paid edtion. Although with AVG8 it does nag to upgrade at times if you open the main program window, but it's much less intrusive than avira. Avast in my experience seems so slow and clunky, and the interface is illogical (ridiculous media player wannabe). Eh, maybe all free antivirus progams just suck...

P.S. boycotting a free product is more likely to result in AVG saying, "screw you, free version discontinued" than them saying, "sorry, we'll fix it."

 

[jtickner1]

Avast in my experience seems so slow and clunky, and the interface is illogical (ridiculous media player wannabe). Eh, maybe all free antivirus progams just suck... "

I will have to agree with you on that 100% I just installed it. It was terrible. I haven't tried Avira but having trouble with Comodo and Avast! makes me want to turn around and run straight back to AVG..

P.S. boycotting a free product is more likely to result in AVG saying, "screw you, free version discontinued" than them saying, "sorry, we'll fix it."

I just read a post in the Whirlpool thread from someone who says he works with AVG Australia/New Zealand saying that AVG are aware of peoples opinions on the LS. I'll find it and post it here.

 

[DelJo63]

I disabled the Link Scanner and Resident Shield from day-1 and I manually scan
when I choose.

The AV portion is just fine and does a great job.

Just because a product HAS a feature doesn't obligate you to use it if it can be disabled

 

[Bobbye]

Just passing on the Firefox v3 is doing some kind of link scanning. I've been using FF for over three years and since v3, I now "frequently" get either "Firefox has prevented a redirct" or "Firefox doesn't think the page should load". I know what a redirect is- this is happening when I want to pull up the description of something on the same site.

These are the same sites, the same functions I've been using for years and I know they're clean and malware free. If anyone knows how to turn this feature off, I'm listening. I have to go up and grant permission before I get the page.

Understand that these are clean, acceptable sites I'm talking about. So folks, don't blame it all on AVG!

 

[Blind Dragon]

I recommend Avira despite the ad when you update definitions. The detection rates on the latest threats are better than Avast and AVG. Also I have tested the real time protection and it is equal to that of paid programs. In the test it was picking up the malicious files in Firefox cache. The last thing I will say about Avira is that it doesn't use as much resources as the other 2, not that this matters to everyone.

2nd choice - Avast - great program, similar to Avira, but lacks definitions on newest threats

AVG 8 is bloated compared to 7.5, they added some features noted above that I am not fond of - and also the "security bar" better known as a yahoo toolbar included by default in the install unless you inform the user to opt out. The other problem I don't see noted is that it flags, and wants to quarantine some of my other free security. I use Spybot for the immunize feature and the hosts file but don't scan with it - it got flagged. I use Spyware blaster to manage bad sites, restricted zone, ect - it also got flagged for quarantine.

 

[tipstir]

AVG 8 worst! Avira I can't recommend (used it in the past) I did check on and found that the ads, and nags too much. Frankly out all the free ones PC Tools Anti-Virus free updates and they can be schedule to update and scan the system in full at any time or by date. When it finds a threat/infections it moves it to the quarantine area, so you can decide if you want to keep it or remove. You can set up the software to remove them auto. It tells what type of pest it is. Also their is a web interface for telling you what it has found today can be shown as option.

For more serious threats then the free PC Tools ThreatFire is recommend. I just tested one of those all-in-one installer.exe. ThreatFire pop up and told me what type of high threat it was and what it could do, plus it can block and remove such a threat.

Out of the free anti-spyware again Spyware Blaster + Spyware Terminator both free is better than anything else.

 

[jtickner1]

AVG 8 is bloated compared to 7.5

That was also another reason that I thought about changing. I much prefer AVG 7.5. So you recomend Avira, I'm using Comodo as of now and I can't say I'm all that impressed with it.

 

[Bobbye]

I still have the AVG paid on my two systems. It has a bit of time left yet and I haven't gotten notice of v8 yet. I have not heard one good thing about the v8! Why do these companies take a good thing and run it to ground! I has eTrust from Computer Associates for years. Then when resub. time came, they charged me for the suite which I didn't have or want. The reply to my email asking why this was done said "Everyone want the suites"!

Wasn't for me though so I went to AVG v7.5 paid which had done very well. I won't be going to v8 though.

 

[kimtiu]

I believe I got it wrong at AVG8. Not it was corrupted, and unsure how to remove it, I am considering a reinstall of my XP now it was proven that AVG version 8 screwed big time.

I think I'll follow Julio's advice. Avira may work better.

 

[tipstir]

AVG 8 can be removed, then run a registry cleaner to completely remote the reg keys it leaves behind. Not clean and tidy uninstall though.

Free stuff that works..

PC Tools:

Anti-virus (free) ondemand scanner, email scanner pop3/smtp works on server
Firewall Plus (free) works on server also
ThreatFire (free) set it to 3 (testing it so far it found stuff and block stuff)

Spyware Doctor not free but I had to install in again just to see how Spyware Terminiator was doing. Sure enough Spyware Terminator didn't catch some high risk cookies and nasty adware was high. Now this is really strange you would thing that ThreatFire would catch stuff like this. I just changed the setting from 1 to 3. I'll see how that goes. For the registry protection their is a small gem called

RegistryProt
Registry protection

It's free can be found on this site: http://www.diamondcs.com.au/freeutilities/regprot.php