AVG 8 with Linkscanner messes up website logs

Just read these links and this seems to be a real worry if you are trying to monitor visitors to your website
http://osblues.com/2008/06/03/avg-destroys-web-analytics/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/avg_scanner_skews_web_traffic_numbers/

 

As you can read here too: http://osblues.com/2008/06/14/contact-from-avg/

We're aware of it, and we are really concerned about this issue. We'll work hard on it to solve this problem.

Regards,
Vinzenz

 

In that case, perhaps Mr. Thompson should reflect a bit more on his initial statement in The Register article:

To be perfectly candid. it reads as though Mr. Thompson, and by extension his employer, could care less. He may not have wanted to sound flip, but that is one of the flippest responses I have ever observed given the circumstances.

Regards,

Blue

 

I agree, Mr. Thompson didn't show any concern for others that use the internet. It didn't help with my opinion of AVG and their practices. I am sure that if another companies product was disrupting their web site they would have a completely different response to the problem.

 

Sounds like he was caught on the spot without good information on what the problem actually was though. Was he taken out of context?

In either case, it seems reasonable that Roger is places higher priority on AVG user's security. That is job/was his business.

Yes of course that is a great solution. Now malware writers can also identify requests from Linkscanner and can serve up sanitized pages

 

Here's a crazy idea... how about scanning only pages you visit; afterall, thats the primary threat to the user... Search results on searchengines which users have not clicked can not infect the user... can they?

 

Hmm well linkscanner has to scan it first right? Will users complain about the slow down?

 

other AVs manage it sucessfully

 

Hahah I think Avira does http scanning fine, but someone always manages to get pissed off abt http scanning.

 

from https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213533

How much bandwidth can link scanner really be sucking up? It's websurfing, I don't understand how it could make that much of a difference.

 

Simple. Every time I search something using a search engine, LinkScanner "prefetches" all those results for me. My housemates and me had one hell of a time figuring out who was responsible for emptying our monthly bandwidth quota in just two weeks.

 

That is my whole point. So when you do a google search, it scans 10 extra pages. How many google searches do you do? And what is your bandwitdth limit?

 

I don't keep count, obviously. Suffice to say that it was big enough of a problem for me.

 

I'm asking for numbers because it just seems so incredible to me that in an age of streaming media that websurfing style traffic could kill your bandwidth.

 

Yes, it can. Surprising, isn't it?

 

Oh yea!

 

This was posted by a concerned AVG v8 user on their forums:
http://freeforum.avg.com/read.php?14,132399

So no problem if you have no bandwidth restrictions - but if you have a monthly cap of 5, 10 or even 30 Gig a month this is a big problem.

 

Why on earth would you have 100 searches on a page? By his count, if he had set it at 10 per page, he would have burned up 90 megs per day. That still seems a fair bit though. Maybe some of the AVG guys can tell us what is actually pulled off the website and can they reduce the bandwidth strain.

 

Obviously the issue of how LinkScanner impacts on web analytics clearly raises some concerns not anticipated, and AVG has acknowledged this and is looking into the issue.

The primary purpose with LinkScanner is to protect users against web-based threats that they cannot see. These threats are also usually invisible to web site operators, who presumably also don't wish to be unwittingly passing infections on to their visitors. Such web exploits are a problem that can and does affect all types of web sites, big or small, and is extremely transient - which is why LinkScanner doesn't use the static database approach cited by some as a viable alternative.

AVG is exploring ways in which it can continue to deliver informed protection as unobtrusively as possible without adversely impacting site analytics. Any webmaster reading this post who is interested in working with AVG constructively to reach this goal is welcome to contact Pat Bitton - pat.bitton(at)avg.com.

 

did they fix compatibility issue with avg8 and active X yet?

 

Fixed in the current paid for version 8.0.131
Still waiting for AVG Free release - should be very soon.

 

I take it not alot are using link scanner/webshield safe search? Whats the suite like now?..id really like to just intall it and not untick things because they dont work i liked AVG ? is the firewall good stable

 

Hello maddawgz,
AVG 8.0 SP1 works fantastically
i didnt install the firewall but im sure it works fine.
i had all but the firewall installed.
linkscanner is very fast now.

 

Thanks Iodore cheers oh did u do the toolbar? i can never get the webshield driver to work in vista 32 ultimate with the suite..tried fresh install etc, then it tells me during install i have another av on the computer but i dont frustrating

 

For webmasters who are still watching this thread:

How to beat AVG's fake traffic spew

And a .htaccess file to redirect Linkscanner requests:

http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/web/avg_linkscanner.html (thank you pixelbeat_)