AVG LinkScanner 2011 free standalone is in the cloud.

In my personal testing, all there was to block was blocked. Obviously, I'm talking about exploits.

If you'd be interested, I can PM you links to URLs containing exploits. Whether they're still active by now, is another matter.

There's no better way to test things, than do it for yourself, uh?

 

Nice, it is indeed working. I've actually never been a fan of AVG but I may just have to keep this for awhile. As long as it behaves & doesn't hog resources, why not?

 

By the way, perhaps the reason why Safe-Search does not appear in COMODO Dragon is that this one may be based on an older Chromium version, unlike Chrome? A Chromium older version may not have the requisites for LinkScanner Safe-Search component to work.

 

Chrome was at version 8 until literally hours ago, Dragon was also at version 8 & still is as I type this. I don't know what it could be that makes it not work at this point but as you said before, the blocking function is really the important function.

 

After quite sometime, I decided to reinstall LinkScanner in my own system.

I'm wondering what firewall rules you folks created for it? I've created rules for processes avglscanx.exe (User Interface Quick Scan), avgnsx.exe (AVG Online Shield Service) and avgmfapx.exe (AVG Installer Application).

The first and third processes allow the user to scan an URL in LinkScanner UI and to update, respectively.

Not sure about the second one; perhaps related to LinkScanner 2011 cloud service?

I've allowed communications only to port 80.

I ran the test to see if the exploit would be blocked, and it's working. I'm wondering if something else may be needed, though.

What rules have you got? I'm wondering the created inbound rules are totally needed, except for the installer rules, which are not needed, at all.

Unfortunately, AVG information on this is very scarce, and I can't install LinkScanner in a virtual machine along side Outpost/other firewall to create automatic rules and exclude what wouldn't be needed, at all.

 

I actually haven't manually created any rules.

 

COMODO allows to create automatic rules, if the vendor is in the trusted vendors list. I'm personally using Windows 7 Firewall with Advanced Security. I don't know why, but I can't make the ratings appear in IE for Google and Bing.

I'm not sure if I need to allow for something else, but I'm not seeing what it could be.

I think I'll to have register in AVG Free forums and ask them to provide information regarding what rules I need to create to have LinkScanner working fine.

The Surf-Shield does work, though.

I wonder if anyone is seeing this same behavior in Windows 7 Ultimate x86 with IE8?

 

-edit-

It seems that results do not appear with IE InPrivate mode. They do appear in Windows Vista, though.

 

Installed here and everything is smooth.And doesn't work on Chrome 9 last stable version too.

 

I'll report the issue I'm experiencing to AVG and see what they say.

It also seems that LinkScanner, stand-alone version, at the image of what happens with AVG AV Free edition, only checks for updates once a day automatically. Otherwise, one needs to manually perform updates. Last time I manually checked was at 4 P.M (my time zone) and now 11 P.M it still hadn't checked for updates.

I need to find a workaround.

 

I actually got an alert from Linkscanner the other day, I must say I'm kind of impressed with it so far. The update system could be better though if it only looks for updates once a day.

 

I don't know of you're aware by now, but whenever you want, you can see the history of blocked URLs in AVG LinkScanner, by going to Historic/History (Not sure about the right word in English.). For nostalgic reasons.

 

I want to try it again.It was not playing nice with MSE last time i tried.Does it have any known issues with MSE now?

 

The newest version does not force the user to uninstall MSE. In fact, it doesn't even alert the user to any existing conflicts. I guess AVG considers the past conflicts no longer exist.

 

Last time I checked my e-mail, last week , no reply. Not even a "thank you, but we couldn't spot anything.". lol

I did find more similar URLs, which LinkScanner refuses to scan due to server attacks.

What concerns me, is that, AVG LinkScanner (offline version) scans URLs directly. And, what if it's something to worry about? After all, why does LinkScanner refuse to scan it, in order to safeguard their own servers? Who knows.

I have no way to test whether or not something bad would come out of it, because I can't play with virtual environments in the meantime.

I just might try their free forum avenue, and see what they say. Public exposure always makes security vendors want to say something... I think.

Besides that, it does make a great exploit protection. In my personal testing, what was there to spot, it spotted.

 

Well after test driving Linscanner for awhile I've decided to keep it. It seems to be a worthwhile application & I'm glad AVG offers it as a standalone app. This makes the first AVG product I've used in years but I'm impressed.

 

I was also gonna give Linkscanner a spin on my old desktop but it won't install due to Avast being on the machine. What's the deal with that?

 

I thought that issue would be solved by now. I was told by AVG that they were going to allow the user to proceed with installation in systems where avast! and Microsoft Security Essentials are installed.

I asked about the conflicts, because what they mentioned on their FAQ I could not reproduce. Their Q&A's team retested them, and I was told a new installer would come out allowing to proceed with installation of LinkScanner.

It seems to be the case with Microsoft Security Essentials. I wonder why not with avast!? I was told by AVG their Q&A's team could no longer find any conflicts, unlike MSE. But, LinkScanner installs fine in a system already running Microsoft Security Essentials.

In any case, in a system with both avast! and LinkScanner you may experiencing avast!'s Network Shield blocking LinkScanner, if LinkScanner happens to scan an URL in avast!'s database of known malicious domains. Nothing to worry, though.

 

There is definitely an issue still there. AVG tells me to uninstall Avast & it won't let me go any further. I've tried AVG free on the desktop but it only has 512MB of RAM & AVG slows the system to a crawl. I can't find another quality AV that will run as light as Avast on that PC so I guess Linkscanner won't be a part of the security there.

 

You could give MSE a try, instead. MSE and LinkScanner run great together. I've installed both to a few relatives, and they got no complaints regarding performance. MSE also is a great antimalware application. If you add LinkScanner, it covers one more infection vector. Give it a try and see what comes out of it.

 

Well my copy of XP on that machine was put on by the guy who built it & lets just say it's not "genuine" so MSE won't work. AVG really needs to fix this, to have a product that won't work with an app as popular as Avast is not a good idea.

 

You could try their free forum. If more users complain about it. I just find it odd that they said (more than 2 months ago) a new installer was going to be provided allowing LinkScanner to be installed.

It seems that more and more security vendors seem to decided to go that path: Imaginary conflicts.

-edit-

Why don't you install CIS there? Resources issue?

 

I did have a bit of an issue with CIS on the desktop during updates but that was on V4 so it may be cleared up now. Also, my little sister uses that PC & although CIS has gotten much better as far as usability goes there is still the odd popup that she doesn't understand. As far as resources go, CIS runs lighter on my laptop than Linkscanner.

EDIT: Okay, CIS isn't quite as light as Linkscanner but it's pretty close.

 

According to microsoft mvp...

"Tip: In Vista, you're running either IE7 or IE8. IE7 includes its own Phishing Filter and IE8 includes a newer one (i.e., SmartScreen filtering). So not only do you NOT need AVG Linkscanner but IMHO it's incompatible with (conflicts with) both IE versions' built-in anti-phishing filtering"
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...t/thread/6772c9a7-060d-4b8e-87f8-d8aee8ae92d5
so i decided to use just MSE,sandboxie,IE9 and EMET.I am happy too many programs= too much headache

 

Well, I'd have to say that MVP guy has no idea what he's talking about. LinkScanner does provide anti-phishing protection, but it's a passive protection, offered by Search-Shield. (Passive as in it will only provide the ratings.) There's no way such feature would conflict with IE's SmartScreen; rather add an additional rating/protection.

Then, we have Surf-Shield which protects against exploits, javascript obfuscation, etc. This is the component that scans URLs for exploits, in real-time...

In no way would SmartScreen and LinkScanner collide.

I see you mention EMET, but I won't be commenting on it, since it's not included in Windows and not everyone is benefiting from it. Most likely, a very large % of people is familiar with AVG, and therefore with LinkScanner. Unlike EMET.

I actually have relatives with IE8 SmartScreen, EMET and LinkScanner.