Dumping AVG - kaspersky best bet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Si
  • Start date Start date
S

Si

As per the subject really.

AVG7 is getting on my nerves, seems to want to keep connecting to
193.36.79.xx every so often.

Started today....

Si.
 
As per the subject really.

AVG7 is getting on my nerves, seems to want to keep connecting to
193.36.79.xx every so often.

Started today....

Si.
Click to expand...

There is more to it than this. How many of you read the EULA in it's
entirety? I hope you did not sign up with your main email address....I did
not after reading the EULA. I really expected Grisoft to be a more
"straight up" operation.

The main symptom i noticed and got me on a bit of a "quest" was a flurry of
returned emails with blank FROMs and to domains like "phreaker.net".

I turned off my email scanner component this morning. Whether that solves
the problem, only time will tell. I could have had a McNasty riding the
incoming lines that took advantage of a security hole.

FACE
 
FACE said:
There is more to it than this. How many of you read the EULA in it's
entirety? I hope you did not sign up with your main email address....I
did
not after reading the EULA. I really expected Grisoft to be a more
"straight up" operation.

The main symptom i noticed and got me on a bit of a "quest" was a flurry
of
returned emails with blank FROMs and to domains like "phreaker.net".

I turned off my email scanner component this morning. Whether that solves
the problem, only time will tell. I could have had a McNasty riding the
incoming lines that took advantage of a security hole.

FACE
Click to expand...

I've re-installed it 'without' the email scanner. I'll manually scan the
incoming items myself....

Kaspersky slowed my machine down terribly at boot stage. Perhaps

Avast gave me some very odd results with it's quickscanner - right click
scanning a single file it would often tell me that it had scanned 3
files....uninstalling and re-installing and that 3 became 6!

I've even thought (oh no - oh yes) of trying McAfee. But I'll stay well away
from Norton.

Si.

Si.
 
FACE said:
There is more to it than this. How many of you read the EULA in it's
entirety? I hope you did not sign up with your main email address....I
did
not after reading the EULA. I really expected Grisoft to be a more
"straight up" operation.
Click to expand...

I admit that I didn't and rarely do - I obviously should do more often.

Which statement(s) gave you concern?

Si.
 
I've re-installed it 'without' the email scanner. I'll manually scan the
incoming items myself....

Kaspersky slowed my machine down terribly at boot stage. Perhaps

Avast gave me some very odd results with it's quickscanner - right click
scanning a single file it would often tell me that it had scanned 3
files....uninstalling and re-installing and that 3 became 6!

I've even thought (oh no - oh yes) of trying McAfee. But I'll stay well away
from Norton.

Si.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for doing some testing for me. :-)

So you are going again. Good. The email scanner can be turned off by going
to the AVG Control Center, clicking on the email scanner banner and then
clicking on "disable plugin".

I haven't heard much good about Norton AV. No doubt some people would swear
by it.

FACE
 
I admit that I didn't and rarely do - I obviously should do more often.

Which statement(s) gave you concern?

Si.
Click to expand...
There is a good bit in there about collecting personal information. One fo
the major things that stands out to me was that by using the software you
gave them permission to collect data on you AND TO share it with others for
up to ten years whether you were still using it or not. In other words,
your personal information is shared forever since once it is shared with
"others" they have no restriction on re-sharing it with even more people and
nothing about 10 years applies anymore anyway.

Now, since it checks for updates daily it has to check your machine for your
latest update.
What else is it checking on, gathering and possibly sending?

Beware of things that phone home. :-)

(But also we must be aware that many things fit this category.)

If you check into the directory trees of AVG you will find that it has an
email queue, an inbox and an outbox, as well as an apparent assembly area
(called 10110 on my box which is the port number it uses) as well as a log
that is much less than obvious. Though that log can be screen displayed if
you get down far enough into AVG. I used another file manager to search it.

Grisoft may be totally innocent. Their email client may have simply been
hijacked by some scumware using our email addresses for some nefarious
works. (I think you can imagine a "worst case" scenario)


FACE
 
Mike NG said:
Isn't 193.*.*.* reserved / internal ?
Click to expand...

No, it looks like the mobile phone people. Here's a whois snippet:

inetnum: 193.36.78.0 - 193.36.83.255
netname: Orange-PCS-2
descr: Orange PCS PLC
country: GB
admin-c: ORA1-RIPE
tech-c: ORA1-RIPE
mnt-by: AS12576-MNT
 
No, it looks like the mobile phone people. Here's a whois snippet:

inetnum: 193.36.78.0 - 193.36.83.255
netname: Orange-PCS-2
descr: Orange PCS PLC
country: GB
admin-c: ORA1-RIPE
tech-c: ORA1-RIPE
mnt-by: AS12576-MNT
Click to expand...
I tried that, but the site I went to couldn't do a lookup
 
FACE said:
FACE said:
There is a good bit in there about collecting personal information. One fo
the major things that stands out to me was that by using the software you
gave them permission to collect data on you AND TO share it with others for
up to ten years whether you were still using it or not. In other words,
your personal information is shared forever since once it is shared with
"others" they have no restriction on re-sharing it with even more people and
nothing about 10 years applies anymore anyway.
Click to expand...

Yikes. I guess the free version isn't exactly free. :-\
Now, since it checks for updates daily it has to check your machine for your
latest update.
What else is it checking on, gathering and possibly sending?
Click to expand...

Well, if they go beyond what they say they will collect, that's spyware no
matter how you look at it. But, there's no reason to believe they will cross
that line. I've always thought of Grisoft as being a pretty trustworthy
company and I'm suspicious of everyone.
Beware of things that phone home. :-)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that ET guy really had me thinkin'. ;-)
(But also we must be aware that many things fit this category.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, many spywa... er, I mean, software. :-P
If you check into the directory trees of AVG you will find that it has an
email queue, an inbox and an outbox, as well as an apparent assembly area
(called 10110 on my box which is the port number it uses) as well as a log
that is much less than obvious. Though that log can be screen displayed if
you get down far enough into AVG. I used another file manager to search
Click to expand...
it.

Now, here's why I'm jumpin' in here. I don't seem to have those directories
or files. I can go to C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG7 but there are no
directories beyond that. I am using the 30 trial of AVG7 Pro (don't know
why, I won't be able to buy it anyway). Also, I didn't see any of that in
the license agreement. Is it possible that all this is just punishment for
all us freeloaders? :-D
Grisoft may be totally innocent. Their email client may have simply been
hijacked by some scumware using our email addresses for some nefarious
works. (I think you can imagine a "worst case" scenario)
Click to expand...

I was thinking that too. I wonder if I should go ahead and slap together a
win98 machine to experiment with this. Are you using ver.7 free?
FACE
Click to expand...

-Dr.X
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
FACE said:
Yikes. I guess the free version isn't exactly free. :-\
Click to expand...

Possibly it is. Read on.
Well, if they go beyond what they say they will collect, that's spyware no
matter how you look at it. But, there's no reason to believe they will cross
that line. I've always thought of Grisoft as being a pretty trustworthy
company and I'm suspicious of everyone.
Click to expand...

Hey, we are members of the same club. :-)
Yeah, that ET guy really had me thinkin'. ;-)


Yeah, many spywa... er, I mean, software. :-P
Click to expand...

And there is the kernel of the whole thing. The more automated we get, such
as this not having to check for updates -- AVG does it for you (9 every
morning here) -- the more we lose control over our own computing process. I
am not saying that is a good or bad thing, i am saying that it is. When we
lose control over our computing process we are one step closer to losing
control over what is on or not on our machine and also lose control of what
is sent out.
it.

Now, here's why I'm jumpin' in here. I don't seem to have those directories
or files. I can go to C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG7 but there are no
directories beyond that. I am using the 30 trial of AVG7 Pro (don't know
why, I won't be able to buy it anyway). Also, I didn't see any of that in
the license agreement. Is it possible that all this is just punishment for
all us freeloaders? :-D
Click to expand...
I was not clear enough as to where the directories were quite frankly
because i did not think anyone really cared, or if they did they would find
it. It is not under Program Files. (Besides, I did not call them "folders"
:-)) but like most large add-on system-type software, part of it is under
Program files and part of it is under Windows:

+--windows
+¦ +--All Users
+¦ +--aod
¦ +--Application Data
+¦ ¦ +--Adobe
¦ ¦ +--AVG7
¦ ¦ ¦ +--Log
¦ ¦ ¦ +--QUEUE
¦ ¦ ¦ +--ACTIVE
¦ ¦ ¦ +--IN
+¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +--10110
+¦ ¦ ¦ +--OUT
+¦ ¦ ¦ +--TEMP


Now if usenet does not mung that up that is a copy from the top of the
windows tree. (Thanks to Ztree)

On the EULA: On the disk, from AVG CC, I did not see those specifics
either. SO I question two things: 1. Did i mix the AVG EULA up with the
EULA for radio netscape? -- I downloaded and installed both within 24 hours
of each other. 2. Is it possible that for AVG the installation EULA and
the Disk EULA do not match?(doubtful).

I do know that i read the entire installation EULA and it left a very bad
taste in my mouth. ...As did the radio netscape one. But I apologize if I
mixed the two.

I was thinking that too. I wonder if I should go ahead and slap together a
win98 machine to experiment with this. Are you using ver.7 free?
Click to expand...

I am running Win98 SE, no doubt under XP or other, the directory structure
may be (will be) different.

I am running AVG 7.0 FREE.


FACE
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
And there is the kernel of the whole thing. The more automated we
get, such as this not having to check for updates -- AVG does it for
you (9 every morning here) -- the more we lose control over our own
Click to expand...

You don't lose control over your computer. You can just disable automatic
update.
computing process. I am not saying that is a good or bad thing, i am
saying that it is. When we lose control over our computing process we
are one step closer to losing control over what is on or not on our
machine and also lose control of what is sent out.

I was not clear enough as to where the directories were quite frankly
because i did not think anyone really cared, or if they did they would
find it. It is not under Program Files. (Besides, I did not call them
"folders"
:-)) but like most large add-on system-type software, part of it is
:under
Program files and part of it is under Windows:

+--windows
+¦ +--All Users
+¦ +--aod
¦ +--Application Data
+¦ ¦ +--Adobe
¦ ¦ +--AVG7
¦ ¦ ¦ +--Log
¦ ¦ ¦ +--QUEUE
¦ ¦ ¦ +--ACTIVE
¦ ¦ ¦ +--IN
+¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ +--10110
+¦ ¦ ¦ +--OUT
+¦ ¦ ¦ +--TEMP
Click to expand...

The folder is in user specific data folder. It can be in different places,
depends on version of Windows. From what I understand, those folders are
used to store update information and as temporary space to process your
email. On my computer, WinXP Pro, I have the update information on
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Grisoft, and for
processing email on C:\Documents and Settings\Logon Name\Application
Data\AVG7.
 
FACE said:
....

I am running Win98 SE, no doubt under XP or other, the directory structure
may be (will be) different.

I am running AVG 7.0 FREE.


FACE
Click to expand...

Ok, it's different in Win2k. It's all located in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\

Now, if Usenet does not mung it, here is the tree. (Thanks to good ol' DOS
style Tree)

????AVG7
????Grisoft
????Avg7Data
????avg7upd
? ????$history
? ????backup
? ????install
? ????install.1
????upd7bin

That's it aside from the usual in the Grisoft directory in \program files\.


I had a nightmare last night about all the people I told to get AVG (been
tellin' them for years). They all got hammered by spammers when they updated
to AVG7. They all died from infections and rose from the dead to take
revenge on me. :-|

I'll never sleep again (or I'll stop recommending AVG).

I found my old win98se cd. Gonna blow the dust off of it and install it when
I get time tmrw and get avg7free. I need to know (or I'll loose a lot of
sleep).

-Dr.X
 
I had a nightmare last night about all the people I told to get AVG (been
tellin' them for years). They all got hammered by spammers when they updated
to AVG7. They all died from infections and rose from the dead to take
revenge on me. :-|
Click to expand...


Egods! Dawn of the Spammed. :-)

FACE
 
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