AVG 8 Free Launches

Is there any consensus on the new AVG's detection, false positive, and removal rates?

I've never been a fan of AVG in the past. I found that, although it was recommended by everyone, it seemed to be one of the worst in actually detecting and removing viruses in real life experiences. I'd always get computers sent to me with AVG installed that were infected to hell and back. The viruses it did detect, it couldn't remove.

Hopefully, this one improves on these.

 

Keep in mind there are many paid for big famous named products that have failed detection or even In removal.That said We should see a difference here being AV/spyware/adware added together.

 

AntiVir's WebGuard may be different, but I've had good experiences with Avast, NOD32 and now even AVG in their Web Guard (HTTP scanner) modules. On the other hand, BitDefender and F-Secure did disappoint me somewhat (the former a lot more so than the latter). In any case it is a useful feature to have sometimes.

 

Hi Firecat,

I haven't been infected before without a web shield, so I don't really see the usefulness of it, or maybe my risk level dictates that I don't need one. So anyway, the lack of a web shield in the free version doesn't bother me at all.

Avast and Nod32's webshields have their own problems. I know that Avast can only intercept web traffic on port 80, and viruses that enter the computer using any port other than 80 will go unnoticed by its webshield (maybe that's why they have so many guards, to fix this shortcoming, if their webshield was smart enough to recognize HTTP traffic across all ports then perhaps they wouldn't need an im shield, p2p shield, etc). Also, I was reading the Nod32 forum earlier, and people have complained that its webshield acts as a local proxy! Meaning your firewall won't be able to monitor outbound connections if you use the webshield! What a dirty trick by Eset to force people to use their suite instead of the standalone AV...

Anyway, I'm perfectly happy that AVG free doesn't have a webshield. If it does get included later, then great, but if not, I'm not bothered either.

 

How Link Scanner works
The Web Shield is a different thing. The paid version has both features, the free version only has Link Scanner.

 

Does AVG 8 have the ability to schedule multiple update jobs? For example, with AntiVir there is one default update job that updates a maximum of once per day, but you can create multiple jobs in order to update more often (since the definition files are updated 5-6 times per day). Does AVG have something like this?

 

It looks like the free version is limited to updating once a day via automatic update. Of course you can manually update any time.

 

How is it in terms of system slowdown etc? Is browsing slowed, does the system hang when scanning compressed files?

 

I did a full scan of C: this morning. One nice feature is a slider where you can change the thread priority during the scan. You can raise it to speed up the scan, or reduce it so you can keep using other applications. At the "automatic" setting (in the middle) I was able to keep using my email app without difficulty. I notice that the "Scan Critical System Areas" (or words to that effect) in 7.5 is missing in 8.0. It was helpful to have this one button Quick Scan option.

 

Hm I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. I hope they fixed the uninstall error from the beta. It really messed up my internet on Vista :/

 

AVG was painfully mediocre back in the version 6.0 era, and before - those were the days when avast! truly whooped its behind fair and square. It used to be the model example of you getting what you pay for. That began changing with version 7, and some time after the acquisition of Ewido AVG's detection rates increased tremendously.

I've been using the paid-for AVG 8.0 package since the beginning of this month, and personally I think its detection rates now fall squarely among the top-tier category. There are some other niggles, however, that need working on, though...

 

Here is something they may interest folks using AVG 8 free.I was browsing tonight and found a link with the redX that showed malicous content.for test purpose I clicked the link to open and it was blocked saying shield guard has block this website.So basically it acted like a webguard.there was No display of page other then a blocked message.Edit To add Image please note there was more to the message but removed due to link to choose ignore and continue to this site.

 

seems like they dont really want you to get the free version as they make every effort to steer you to the security suite instead....i wonder if they plan
to discontinue it...


if anyone is interested in that AVG internet security suite product, if you do the TrialPay option, then do the VistaPrint offer, it should only cost you about$7-$8, as i did that offer a few weeks ago...lets you get the AVG product for free after that...

kaspersky AV offers the trialpay option also...


...

 

Not sure why you'd get that idea.

1. They just launched the new version, a significant upgrade over the previous free version.

2. Free.avg.com gives equal space to the free and commercial version right on the first page.

Granted, they don't let you read many lines without telling you about how amazingly much better their paid version is, but still it's not like they're making it difficult to follow the download links for the free version.

I still think I'll stick with Avast free, but it's good to see AVG is stepping up and making their free version an actual alternative as opposed to previously when they were not even in contention.

 

hmm nice urban myths You create, IM etc shields detect directly the applications and monitor ALL it does (not just the traffic but file and memory operations)

and about webshield , You can define the ports not just 80 ...
so You got complete control over your own proxies or forwarded ports etc.

recognize http traffic that would mean complete packet analysis on everything ... insane idea ...
can You imagine these complains about performance hit?

this maybe become possible later with Avast5 and it's SPI firewall module ...

 

They're not myths, they're simple observations that anyone with enough time and inclination can verify for themselves. Monitoring traffic, and file and memory operations, should be tasks that are handled by the file and web scanner, but Avast needs extra modules to take care of that because of flaws in the web shield. I wouldn't be surprised if the file scanner had flaws too, so that Avast needs so many shields to compensate.

Aha! Maybe you can, but do you know every port that each of your programs use?

A program can access the internet using a non-standard port such as, say, 38756. In fact, many IM programs and download managers/p2p software do this. So if you don't know, then you can't tell the webshield to scan that port number, can you? Why do you think Avast is the only program that needs specially dedicated im/p2p shields? Because the default shields that are supposed to do this, can't do their jobs properly!

Other antiviruses do this easily without generating "unimaginable" performance hits.

 

well i just followed the search engine link -probably to the main site....

i got to this page: http://www.grisoft.com/ww.home-and-office-security

and there was no mention of it....


i see though, the search engine link that i should have hit on was:

"free.grisoft.com" -



also, notice that they have discontinued the free AVG AntiSpyware and AVG Anti-Rootkit....
just getting the feeling here that freeware is not a part of their future

 

AVG free has added the AS-module and LinkScanner to their freebie. The only thing missing is the firewall and RK-detector. Looks like a good product to entice trialling the Pro-version to me...

 

Heh, all I can say is that none of the statements in this paragraph is true.

1. since when do P2P/IM apps communicate via HTTP protocol?

2. avast WebShield only protect browser traffic, that's it. I.e. traffic coming from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and the like.

3. What "dirty trick by Eset" are you talking about? The local proxy concept is the absotutely cleanest way to implement web filtering on the Windows platform. And the only firewall that cannot really handle is the ancient Sygate free.

BTW the avast WebShield also works as a local proxy. It has always had.


Cheers
Vlk

 

Interesting find. This would be a nice add on for the avg 8 free
Anyone else to confirm this?

 

macstorm it is the avg fee I am using.my wording should have been search shield blocked as you can see by the Image blocked.I do hope some others can test a link such as I did to confirm the Same.

 

Ok Djohn, i meant anyone else who caught malware while surfing the web normally with avg8 free.

 

Hello VLK! I also see nothing dirty about It. A free version does not force anyone to use a suite If they did It would not be free In the first place.cheers

 

thanks it was to confirm that folks know this worked for me with the free and eagerly waiting for others to confirm as well.regards Dave

 

Well. AVG Anti-Spyware has no longer a value since the technology of
AVG AntiVirus and AVG Anti-Sypware was merged.

It is true that there's no more a AVG Anti-Rootkit as a free version yes. But the product has not been discontinued. (There was only an AVG Anti-Rootkit free before (afaik))

AVG Anti-Spyware as a single product has just become obsolete due its scanning technology has been integrated into the new AVG Scan engine which is much better and even offered for free with AVG 8 free.

BR
Vinzenz