AVG? (antivirus software)

cdonovan · November 28, 2006

Anyone use the free web based virus protection???

Friends of mind love it...i am not so sure!!!

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

What do you think of it?

DoctorIt · November 28, 2006

It was recommended to me by one of our College of Engineering computer support guys... the same day he cleaned up my system from a hack. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me. Seems its been working quite well for the past few weeks now. Much smaller footprint than McAfee or Norton, much less intrusive, but still has caught a few bugs.

I give it a

, and a

when you take into account it's FREEware!

why are you "not so sure"? do you have a reason?

dancorder · November 28, 2006

cdonovan wrote:

Anyone use the free web based virus protection???

Friends of mind love it...i am not so sure!!!

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

What do you think of it?

I've used it at home for ages. It seems to work. Not sure what else to say

Oh yes, I don't know what you mean by 'web based' it's a normal app that you download and install. It can automatically download updates over the internet, but all anti virus programs need to do that to stay effective.

Richard · November 28, 2006

cdonovan wrote:

Anyone use the free web based virus protection???

Friends of mind love it...i am not so sure!!!

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

What do you think of it?

I have been using it for several years. Seems to work well enough. It updates itself automatically (if you want it to, and you should).

On the down side, I have to say that the free version was not all that easy to configure for the combination of gmail and Thunderbird. I'm a techie, so it wasn't a problem for me, but others need to be very careful about following the instructions exactly. I just recently upgraded to the latest version and the upgrade process blew away some of the configuration data, which I thought was bad style. OTOH, it is free, so maybe you just have to put up with some irritations once a year. I still recommend it to people.

Regards,

Zanotti · November 28, 2006

I : Have it, Use it, Like it!

gus · November 28, 2006

My favorite is prevx1. Nothing gets in the door ..ever.

ian408 · November 28, 2006

cdonovan wrote:

Anyone use the free web based virus protection???

Friends of mind love it...i am not so sure!!!

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1

What do you think of it?

Two thumbs up (I use it)!

moose135 · November 29, 2006

Add me to the list...I've used it for several years on an old laptop, and when I got a new one this summer, the first thing I did was download the latest version of AVG. Never had a problem with it.

SpeshulEd · November 30, 2006

I'm a fan of Kaspersky antivirus...its ranked #1 by a ton of different reviewers.
http://www.kaspersky.com/awards?ipcountry=US

It can be found on the net for as low as $20 and is well worth it.

ivar · November 30, 2006

SpeshulEd wrote:

I'm a fan of Kaspersky antivirus...its ranked #1 by a ton of different reviewers.
http://www.kaspersky.com/awards?ipcountry=US

It can be found on the net for as low as $20 and is well worth it.

kaspersky is good.

I also like the free avast, also very good: http://www.avast.com/

claudermilk · November 30, 2006

I used AVG for a while & it's great. I switched to Avast as it's a little easier to set up & has more options. Either one is worlds better than Norton.

cdonovan · December 3, 2006

DoctorIt wrote:

It was recommended to me by one of our College of Engineering computer support guys... the same day he cleaned up my system from a hack. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me. Seems its been working quite well for the past few weeks now. Much smaller footprint than McAfee or Norton, much less intrusive, but still has caught a few bugs.

I give it a , and a when you take into account it's FREEware!

why are you "not so sure"? do you have a reason?

Good to hear this feedback...guess i have always associated free with crap

I couldn't believe that something we normally have to pay through the teeth for is free contect on the net...so I was skeptical

By web based, I meant that you upload if from the internet, no cash transaction, just load and go

I appreciate all the feedback...I think i'll go back and check it out again!:D

Phyxius · December 5, 2006

Okay, so really stupid question...
I'm getting a new laptop shipped to me in the next couple days. It comes with 2 months of Norton. Do I uninstall that BEFORE downloading AVG or AFTER I install AVG?

Thanks

TristanP · December 5, 2006

Phyxius wrote:

Okay, so really stupid question...
I'm getting a new laptop shipped to me in the next couple days. It comes with 2 months of Norton. Do I uninstall that BEFORE downloading AVG or AFTER I install AVG?

Thanks

Download AVG, disconnect from the Internet, uninstall Norton, install AVG, reconnect to the Internet, update AVG.

Phyxius · December 5, 2006

TristanP wrote:

Download AVG, disconnect from the Internet, uninstall Norton, install AVG, reconnect to the Internet, update AVG.

Brilliant! Thanks!

cdonovan · December 5, 2006

Here's another stupid question

Can i run both AVG and Norton at the same time???

I dunno i guess i am a little paranoid

SpeshulEd · December 6, 2006

I'm pretty sure both programs update their anti virus definitions at about the same time with the same frequency. I'm pretty sure running both would be overkill.

A better option would be to run an anti virus program along with a software firewall. Windows offers its own firewall, but there are other "better" ones that can be found on the net.

DoctorIt · December 6, 2006

SpeshulEd wrote:

I'm pretty sure both programs update their anti virus definitions at about the same time with the same frequency. I'm pretty sure running both would be overkill.

running two av programs at the same time is a sure fire way to bog down your processor.

A better option would be to run an anti virus program along with a software firewall. Windows offers its own firewall, but there are other "better" ones that can be found on the net.

Recommended by our Engineering College Computer services (nerds I trust, have come through many times in the past for me):

1. AVG (free)
2. Spybot (free)
3. Windows XP Firewall (built-in)

*Most of the other firewall programs are only better if you really know what you are doing when it comes to internet protocol and can configure them correctly. If you are a normal user and not a network wizard, the windows one will work better and use less resources. It is configurable, just takes a second to go look and figure it out. By default it is fairly open, but its easy enough to uncheck a few options and close it down more.

Also, very very important - make sure your Windows XP Administrator account has a password! I'm not talking about your own user account w/administrator privileges, WinXP Pro has a default account named Administrator that may not always be visible. Right click on my computer and go to "manage" - this brings up your Computer Management dialog. Drop down the local users and groups folder and go to users. You'll see users you may never know existed (all win default, remote managment user, admin, etc). Give it a password - otherwise, anything else you do is useless, the door for hackers is wide open. DAMHIK!

ivar · December 6, 2006

DoctorIt wrote:

Also, very very important - make sure your Windows XP Administrator account has a password! I'm not talking about your own user account w/administrator privileges, WinXP Pro has a default account named Administrator that may not always be visible. Right click on my computer and go to "manage" - this brings up your Computer Management dialog. Drop down the local users and groups folder and go to users. You'll see users you may never know existed (all win default, remote managment user, admin, etc). Give it a password - otherwise, anything else you do is useless, the door for hackers is wide open. DAMHIK!

I didn't even know it was possible to not have a password on the admin account.

If you need to log in with it, but you don't see it, hold crtl+alt and hit del twice on the login screen

DoctorIt · December 6, 2006

ivar wrote:

I didn't even know it was possible to not have a password on the admin account.

If you need to log in with it, but you don't see it, hold crtl+alt and hit del twice on the login screen

Yup. 3 out of 5 computers in the lab as of 2 weeks ago didn't have one. A result of one person, me, setting them up all at once, very quickly... next, next, yes, next, finish, whew!

ivar · December 6, 2006

DoctorIt wrote:

Yup. 3 out of 5 computers in the lab as of 2 weeks ago didn't have one. A result of one person, me, setting them up all at once, very quickly... next, next, yes, next, finish, whew!

You're spending about 150 years of your life at school/studying, but you need to have the computers set up in 2 minutes?

DoctorIt · December 6, 2006

ivar wrote:

You're spending about 150 years of your life at school/studying, but you need to have the computers set up in 2 minutes?

I'm studying fluid mechanics not system administration. So yes, I'd rather be doing something else than setting up computers in our office for student use. Lab computers for data aq, machine control are easy - no network.

claudermilk · December 6, 2006

cdonovan wrote:

Here's another stupid question

Can i run both AVG and Norton at the same time???

I dunno i guess i am a little paranoid

Nope. Norton is very possessive of the machine it's on. I've had issues with both AVG and Avast conflicting with Norton (or rather, vice versa). So go in the order Tristan mentioned & you should be fine. Norton is almost as bad as a virus when you want to get rid of it.

ivar · December 6, 2006

claudermilk wrote:

Nope. Norton is very possessive of the machine it's on.

http://tech.cybernetnews.com/2006/09/18/finding-software-that-slows-down-your-computer/

claudermilk · December 6, 2006

I KNEW there was a reason I wanted to avoid loading most of those on the new system. Norton is definitely a case of the cure being almost worse than the disease.

Art Scott · December 6, 2006

I find that a combination of both AVG and Avast running together is fantastic both free.
They update themselves automatically....However if you leave your computer constantly connect to the internet then the AVAST update could actually startle you in the middle of the night, as a voice tells that the update was completed...loudly

GraphyFotoz · December 10, 2006

I've used AVG's for about 5yrs now and it works GREAT for me!

PRICE IS RIGHT!

Phyxius · December 10, 2006

I haven't had a chance to get my laptop online yet, but I just downloaded AVG, uninstalled Norton, and installed AVG. (And turned on XP's firewall)

Much faster internet now too! Yay!

Thanks everyone!

---DoctorIt, is this the spybot you mentioned?

DoctorIt · December 11, 2006

Phyxius wrote:

I haven't had a chance to get my laptop online yet, but I just downloaded AVG, uninstalled Norton, and installed AVG. (And turned on XP's firewall)

Much faster internet now too! Yay!

Thanks everyone!

---DoctorIt, is this the spybot you mentioned?

Nope, it's this one: Spybot - Search and Destroy

Scott_Quier · December 12, 2006

I've used and like Avast! - mostly because it's the only free one that, at the time, ran on 64-bit windows (most there AV programs see the 64-bit OS and think you're running a server). It has actually caught some problems before they became problems. FWIW - I can recommend it.

WinXP firewall - well now, that's another story. A firewall should be able to trap not just the inbound garbage, but should alert you to all out-bound traffic as well. It's just nice to know/prevent a program from "phoning home" during the install. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one that does this, Zone Alarm. Not hard to configure, not hard to maintain, includes AV, updates itself on a regular basis, schedules and runs the weekly AV check and has a much smaller footprint than Norton or McAfee. Another great advantage of ZA is that it will watch for things that want to alter OS configuration parameters - you can download and have installed for you all kinds of junk when you surf the net. ZA will trap these attempts and ask permission before allowing the changes to take place.

Disclaimer - I have no financial interest in either Avast! or Zone Alarm. I'm just one more happy customer of both.

DoctorIt · December 12, 2006

Scott_Quier wrote:

I've used and like Avast! - mostly because it's the only free one that, at the time, ran on 64-bit windows (most there AV programs see the 64-bit OS and think you're running a server). It has actually caught some problems before they became problems. FWIW - I can recommend it.

WinXP firewall - well now, that's another story. A firewall should be able to trap not just the inbound garbage, but should alert you to all out-bound traffic as well. It's just nice to know/prevent a program from "phoning home" during the install. To the best of my knowledge, there is only one that does this, Zone Alarm. Not hard to configure, not hard to maintain, includes AV, updates itself on a regular basis, schedules and runs the weekly AV check and has a much smaller footprint than Norton or McAfee. Another great advantage of ZA is that it will watch for things that want to alter OS configuration parameters - you can download and have installed for you all kinds of junk when you surf the net. ZA will trap these attempts and ask permission before allowing the changes to take place.

Disclaimer - I have no financial interest in either Avast! or Zone Alarm. I'm just one more happy customer of both.

I don't know what your background is, but 2 of our computer services guys both do not like ZA. Apparently, it is no more powerful than WinXP, it learns too much and is much too susceptible to people clicking "allow" for everything. WindowsFirewall doesn't give you as much "deciding power", which I think for the common user is a good thing - unless you just make a clear habit of denying all.

Just my .002, or at least a warning to educate yourself before using ZA.

AVG? (antivirus software)

Comments