TSGL: AVG Free AV vs. Avast AV ???
H Davis
hdavis1 at gmail.com
Sun Nov 11 10:07:51 EST 2007
Lee,
Please post AVG's response if and when you get it.
H Davis
Lee Bunyard wrote:
> Thanks, H Davis. I saw some news on this problem a couple of days ago.
> I've decided for the time being that I'm going to run Avast Free AV with
> the Web Shield module activated and accept the slower browser speeds
> that result. Especially since my daughter has temporarily moved back
> home while she's finishing Grad School and she is very active on a
> number of websites that I consider high risk anyway (MySpace, Facebook,
> eHarmony, etc.). I've also sent an email to the Tech Support staff at
> AVG Free AV asking whether their product scans http traffic as it
> downloads such as Avast does (I don't think that AVG does). Thanks for
> the info and comments.
> Lee in the Mountains of Northern California
>
> H Davis wrote:
>
>> Lee,
>>
>> I just saw this news item today. Not encouraging.
>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20071110/tc_pcworld/139506
>>
>> H Davis
>>
>> Lee Bunyard wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Yeah, I would definitely like to know more about the risk of loading
>>> webpages without scanning the pages with an AV product. The Avast AV
>>> website indicates there is considerable risk so I turned back on the Web
>>> Shield scanning module of the Avast Free AV product I downloaded, but it
>>> sure does slow down the loading of webpages quite a bit. It scans each
>>> and every graphic module that each website page is coded for. I hope
>>> somebody can clarify this for us. I'd also like to know if the AVG Free
>>> product also scans webpages as they load--there are no settings for AVG
>>> which indicate this, the Grisoft.Com website doesn't mention scanning of
>>> webpages--I don't think that it does because the AVG Free AV product
>>> does not slow down the loading of webpages at all. Frankly, if I could
>>> get the AVG Free AV product to scan the Thunderbird email on my new
>>> desktop that's running the Vista OS, I'd stay with AVG. If AVG Free AV
>>> product does NOT scan websites as they load, then I would have to say
>>> that the risk of downloading a virus or some other malware thru
>>> downloading of webpages must be VERY tiny, because I've used AVG Free on
>>> my desktops and laptop for the past 6-7 years, as have my son and
>>> daughter on their desktops, and none of us have ever had any kind of
>>> virus or trojan infestation. And my son and daughter go out to lotsa
>>> websites, like Facebook, MySpace, etc., which are always mentioned as
>>> being high risk for infections.
>>>
>>> Anyway, I hope someone can shed more light on this subject.
>>> Lee in the Mountains of Northern California
>>>
>>> H Davis wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Lee Bunyard wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> <snip>
>>>>> How important is it to have an AV product
>>>>> running that scans incoming webpages as they load in your browser??
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> This area is murky to me too. There are malicious web sites out there.
>>>> There are even cases of popular, legitimate web sites (Facebook and even
>>>> Google, I think) being compromised for a while. These will download
>>>> malicious software onto your computer by exploiting an unpatched
>>>> deficiency in Windows. Usually you don't have to take any action other
>>>> than to display the malicious page on your screen. The infection is
>>>> completely undetectable to you if your anti-whatever program doesn't
>>>> catch it.
>>>>
>>>> It's not clear to me if AV programs detect this type of infection or if
>>>> Anti-Malware software does it. (Or maybe nothing detects it.)
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone else illuminate this area better?
>>>>
>>>> H Davis
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>
>>>>> Computerfee wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi there Lee,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> can't help you with the plug-in for AVG but here are just some thoughts
>>>>>> about not needing e-mail virus scans at all - maybe this article is
>>>>>> interesting for you as well -
>>>>>> http://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/answers/2007/no-email-scan-with-av.htm
>>>>>> I don't rely much on the thundercloud answers, but think some of their
>>>>>> articles are quite interesting as they show a different point of view and
>>>>>> obviously they are objective as they don't want to sell anything but give
>>>>>> away their stationery for free (they also have a really informative article
>>>>>> about IncrediMail by the way which I am passing around quite often when
>>>>>> people start strange problems with their computers -
>>>>>> http://thundercloud.net/infoave/answers/incredimail.htm)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> have a nice day
>>>>>> Heidi from Berlin, Germany
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>>> From: "Lee Bunyard" <leebunyard at comcast.net>
>>>>>> To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
>>>>>> Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 12:06 AM
>>>>>> Subject: TSGL: AVG Free AV vs. Avast AV ???
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I've been using the AVG Free anti-virus program for a number of years
>>>>>>> now on a number of different pc's and have been very happy with it.
>>>>>>> Have never had a virus infection on any of the pc's. Lately I've been
>>>>>>> running the AVG Free AV product on a desktop and laptop. I use the
>>>>>>> Mozilla Thunderbird email client and on both my desktop and laptop, the
>>>>>>> AVG 7.5 Free program provides a "Personal Email Scanner" module that
>>>>>>> scans the incoming and outgoing Thunderbird email. It also scans email
>>>>>>> for the IncrediMail email client which my wife uses. When scanning, AVP
>>>>>>> pops up a little box pops indicating that it is scanning email. My
>>>>>>> desktop went south several weeks ago and I purchased a new HP desktop
>>>>>>> that runs Vista Premium Home edition OS. Once I managed to get rid of
>>>>>>> the annoying Norton AV product popups that the new MS computers come
>>>>>>> preloaded with, I decided to download and use AVG Free AV on the new
>>>>>>> desktop. After going thru the frustration of trying to find the free
>>>>>>> version of AVG on the www.grisoft.com website (they do everything they
>>>>>>> can to direct you into one of their paid products), I finally found the
>>>>>>> download site for the AVG Free version and downloaded the v7.5 product.
>>>>>>> It installed OK and works fine EXCEPT that, while the email scanner
>>>>>>> shows that it is functioning, it is definitely NOT scanning the
>>>>>>> Thunderbird email. When I check the AVG settings and properties for the
>>>>>>> email scanner, it shows that the plugin it is using is for MS Outlook
>>>>>>> Extension. In other words, there is no plugin showing for Personal
>>>>>>> Email Scanner, which apparently is needed to scan email other than MS
>>>>>>> Outlook. The HELP files for AVG indicate that I need to checkmark the
>>>>>>> Personal Email Scanner in order to scan email other than Outlook but
>>>>>>> there is no Personal Email Scanner there. I've downloaded and installed
>>>>>>> the AVG Free v7.5 product three times now trying to figure out what's
>>>>>>> wrong but I get the same thing each time. I just went and checked the
>>>>>>> AVG Free product on my laptop and it is running the same v7.5 of AVG and
>>>>>>> it does show that the Personal Email Scanner is in place and working.
>>>>>>> The laptop is running XP Home OS.
>>>>>>> Anyone running AVG Free experience anything similar to this problem, or
>>>>>>> have any thoughts on why I can't get the Personal Email Scanner plugin
>>>>>>> to setup during installation???
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Second issue. Last nite, in frustration with the AVG Free installation,
>>>>>>> I went out and downloaded the Avast Free AV product. It setup and
>>>>>>> installed OK and is running and apparently working OK, including
>>>>>>> scanning incoming and outgoing Thunderbird email but it appears to have
>>>>>>> DRAMATICALLY slowed down my new desktop pc. Particularly on bringing up
>>>>>>> graphics in webpages using the Firefox browser (my preferred browser).
>>>>>>> Is this slowdown normal when running the Avast AV product?? If so, I
>>>>>>> probably won't continue to use it. There are 7 scanning modules with
>>>>>>> Avast AV--Internet Mail, Network Shield, P2P Shield, Standard Shield,
>>>>>>> Web Shield, Instant Messaging and Outlook/Exchange. I turned off the
>>>>>>> modules for Instant Messaging and Outlook/Exchange since we don't need
>>>>>>> those functions but the pc performance with Avast is still much slower
>>>>>>> than I ever experienced with AVG Free. I'm not sure whether I can
>>>>>>> safely turn off any of the other modules since I'm not really sure what
>>>>>>> their function is. Any thoughts from anyone who is using the Avast Free
>>>>>>> AV product??
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks for any thoughts on these problems.
>>>>>>> Lee in the Mountains of Northern California
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>>>>>>> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>>>>>> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>>>>> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>>> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> http://www.tsgserver.com/list/
>
>
--
H Davis hdavis1 at gmail.com
More information about the List
mailing list