AVG Anti-Virus - is it good?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dugie
  • Start date Start date
D

Dugie

Hi,

Please don't flame me. :-)

A computer shop tech just told me that AVG is no good, because it's free.
I don't believe him, but I want to reassure a friend.

What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than McAfee or Norton AV?

Thanks,
- Dugie
 
Dugie said:
What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than McAfee or Norton AV?
Click to expand...

Loads of people use it and are happy with it; if it were not on a par
with the competition we would all know about it.
Anything, of course, is better than No*ton.
 
I have been using AVG for about a year now after getting rather annoyed with
Norton taking up lots of my machine resources/memory and inevitably crashing
the machine (and, it took ages to load). I was a little suspicious at the
start about trying software of this type when it was free and wondered how
good it was too.

I have to say that since switching from Norton to AVG, I have noticed a
considerable performance difference with my machine. It loads very fast on
start-up.

I don't know much about all the guts of anti-virus software but I've had no
problems with it either and therefore I have to say it is VERY good. It
picks up all viruses (as far as I know) and it very easy to use with VERY
regular updates which I find is very important.

I have to say, it's probably the best piece of free software I have
installed on my machine along with Sygate Personal Firewall, Spywareguard
and Spywareblaster blaster.

Incidentally, I am not connected in any way to the organisations which
develop these items of software but I do think they are very good and best
of all they are FREE.

Regards,

DT.
 
Trying out PickItUpandShakeIt II ©, the ultimate Etch-A-Sketch killer app,
Dugie screendumped :
Hi,

Please don't flame me. :-)

A computer shop tech just told me that AVG is no good, because it's free.
I don't believe him, but I want to reassure a friend.

What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than McAfee or Norton AV?

Thanks,
- Dugie
Click to expand...

AVG 6 is free, but a payware version(lots more functions) exists. Both are
basically the same therefore according to your computer shop tech's logic,
the same product is good and no good. AVG is a good av tool,as is
F-prot(dos - free). Both score highly on a regular basis, but at the moment
NOD32(not free) seems best.

GRC NGs (www.grc.com) are an excellent source for info on this. In fact, a
post I posted there was quoted here a while ago, so I reckon they're top
notch,righton,accurate etc etc. (Like fame, but not so much)

McAfrighteningly pants
 
docfl said:
Hi
Have installed it on my computers for the last 2 years. No viruses so far.
docfl
Click to expand...

Impossible to say how well it works if you've had no viruses so far,
though.
 
Mark Warner said:
What was he suggesting you buy from him that was better? :O)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the opinions! AVG and some other freeware AVs look good.

The tech wasn't suggesting an alternative.

- Dugie
 
Ionizer said:
Impossible to say how well it works if you've had no viruses so
far, though.
Click to expand...

Seconded.

- What if you had no virus indeed for this 2 years ?
- What if you had some virus and AVG didn't detect them ?
 
Hi,

Please don't flame me. :-)

A computer shop tech just told me that AVG is no good, because it's free.
I don't believe him, but I want to reassure a friend.

What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than McAfee or Norton AV?
Click to expand...

Does it pick this up?

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

This test file has been provided to for distribution as the " Standard Anti-Virus Test File", and it satisfies all the criteria listed above. It is safe to pass around, because it is not a virus, and does not include any fragments of viral code. Most products react to it as if it were a virus (though they typically report it with an obvious name, such as "EICAR-AV-Test").

The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when
run (it prints the message "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!").
 
AVG is fine, it does the job. For most people, just combine it with a
decent
firewall, say Sygate (free) and AdAware (free) and you'll have a pretty
clean
system.
 
Trying out PickItUpandShakeIt II ©, the ultimate Etch-A-Sketch killer app,
Antoine screendumped :
Seconded.

- What if you had no virus indeed for this 2 years ?
- What if you had some virus and AVG didn't detect them ?
Click to expand...

Firstly, go get yourself
Spybot 1.3
AdAware 6
AVG6 free
F-prot for DOS
RegSeeker
TweakNow
EasiCleaner

Next, get a throwaway a/c like yahoo.

Post the eMail addy in headers and article body in lots of NGs
(warez,crackz groups are apparently quite good).

When the shit hits, open all attachments (I'd recommend using IE/OE to be
sure)oh,and a little unprotected surfing among the less reputable pRon
sites helps

Run AVG.

Consider yourself de-sceptified.

Run F-prot for reassurance.

Run all the others listed above(andposs. spywareblaster & mrublaster(or
whatever they call it)

Cross your fingers and hope no-one's given you a particularly nasty
cmos/bios frag

TOP POST THIS> backup your entire system first

This way, you should have sufficient empirical data rather than relying on
'hearsay'.

OR you could head across to grc.security.software (and a few more GRC NGs)
and read the posts.

Also would it help if I said it detected viruses on a couple of machines I
was asked to look at recently? And that running 4 other virus checkers
afterwards didn't find any more?

OR you could google groups search.

OR you could work out whose recommendations to trust by reading a few
hundred posts.

HTH
 
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are posing a
serious question, and not just trolling ....

Your friend is all wet. AVG is a seriously professional
company that makes serious money in the protection game
for businesses. The friendliness of this company to make
available a freeware version is laudable.

Virus protection clients can indeed be better or worse than
the next one, depending upon many factors .. mainly that of
finding out about the latest virii and including it in updated
files. Many viruses begin in Europe, and are therefore
liable to be 'caught' by European sources sooner and
registered earlier than American based companies. The
reverse might be said for American-originated viruses for
Europeans.

I have found for myself that AVG is very nearly as good as
most of the big-ticket names, such as Nortons or McAfee or
Kapersky or Panda. Note, however, that even these offer
a freeware version which depends upon the same data bases.
The commercial sales have a lot more automatic scheduling
and other types of 'clean-up' processes not necessarily
related to viruses... which jacks up the price.

I like AVG a lot, and it has saved my bacon more than once.
 
Hi,

Please don't flame me. :-)

A computer shop tech just told me that AVG is no good, because it's
free. I don't believe him, but I want to reassure a friend.

What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than
McAfee or Norton AV?
Click to expand...

It's adequate against in the wild worms and viruses and should suffice if
you are careful. Though paid scanners generally have better detection
rates against zoo (less commonly seen) viruses and trojans.
Thanks,
- Dugie
Click to expand...



Aaron (my email is not munged!)
 
Praetorian said:
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are posing a
serious question, and not just trolling ....

Your friend is all wet. AVG is a seriously professional
Click to expand...

I like AVG a lot, and it has saved my bacon more than once.
Click to expand...
<snip>

To reassure you, I'm not trolling (I'm unsure exactly what "trolling" means; I think this means several things, one
of which may be to stir up debate).
It was a computer retailer's comment, not a friend's. His comment degrading AVG startled, puzzled, and annoyed me.
So I posted here, and received excellent replies.

- Dugie
 
It's adequate against in the wild worms and viruses and should suffice if
you are careful. Though paid scanners generally have better detection
rates against zoo (less commonly seen) viruses and trojans.
Click to expand...

No antivirus is perfect - for every case where people say AVG missed
something, there'll be others where it found something that others
missed. Most do ok against the current "wild list", though if you
indulge in unsafe practices, you should "sheep dip" all incomings with
as many AV's as possible, preferably holding them unrtil the next
update.

AVG6 Free is a feature clipped ()but not detection clipped) version of
AVG6 - and is superceded by AVG 7, though AVG6 is still updated - if
updates for AVG6 cease, it will rapidly become useless - though that
is true of all AVs - the question is how long we have, and what
happens next... will they release a free V7, will they offer a
discount upgrade [OT].

Avast and Antivir PE seem to be the other main free contenders, with
F-Prot DOS useful as a check.

AntiVir PE generally seems to rate stronger on non-viral malware,
which many AVs don't seem to give enough attention to.
 
Hi,

Please don't flame me. :-)

A computer shop tech just told me that AVG is no good, because it's
free. I don't believe him, but I want to reassure a friend.

What is the consensus: is AVG a good program, equal or better than
McAfee or Norton AV?
Click to expand...

I use AVG. I have used Corporate Norton. I would sooner push pins in my
eyes than let any McAfee stuff loose on my computer.


AVG is good. It works. AVG combined with Pegasus is a pain; it finds
viruses but won't find them when scanning and won't let you delete the
infected email. Getting past that is a kludge.

As with all AV you need to keep it updated and not be stupid.

You'll want a good spyware tool too.
 
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