FREE AVG V8 SOFTWARE

[Tederator]

Guys,
I note with interest the mention of turning off firewall to use the internet. This defeats the purpose!

I never turn off my firewall at any time and all my AV programs are kept right up to date. We had an experience once where on a Sunday evening we had a visit from police officers enquiring about some expensive laptops that had been purchased, and they had traced it to my wife's computer, they even showed us a photo of a person picking up the laptops, these people had used my wife's computer to purchase these things, the police inspected my wife's computer and found nothing untoward then left, we heard nothing more after that. Later I did a check on the wife's computer and found that the firewall had not been configured correctly, I very quickly fixed that. It shows that there are people out there looking for loopholes in people's computers. The moral to this story is don't turn your firewall off while you are on the net.

Cheers

Ted.

[MarkJ]

A good warning for us all Ted. Hopefully other members will take notice and ensure their firewall is working correctly.

Mark

[BeeE586]

If for no other reason I will always be grateful to GenesReunited for finding me the son of a cousin three times removed who is a computer mechanic and lives just four miles away. He has installed AVG anti virus, Zone Alarm and Spybot on my machine and they all run beautifully. (Touch wood). I update every evening on AVG, run a full check every Sunday afternoon and Spybot once a month to remove any nasties lurking in the background and I am AOL. Previously I was paying AOL for Norton so I was pleased. He did also install a Firewall from somewhere but I have forgotten where.

I think the operative phrase is "He has installed" - speaking for myself, I wouldn't know where to start, but so far everything works.

Eileen

[anndot]

i wouldnt use the free AVG V8 soft ware, had it installed for 4 months and ended up with 106 viruses on my computer it wasnt up dateing every day.
had to pay £45.00 for some one to come and sort my computer out and install a paying soft ware.
but each to his/her own
anndot

[Jack Richards]

Well "andot" you do surprise me. I have been using the Grisoft AVG software for several years now and have never had a problem. I have set my AVG to update every day at a certain time (around 8 a.m. from memory) and it has never failed to do so, at least as far as I know.

As an extra precaution and on a regular basis, (every couple of days) I do a manual check for updates and almost without exception, my updates are up to date.

Furthermore, also I do have my AVG software do me a full scan every few days, even though it is "continually scanning" (my words).

Admittedly, my AVG Free software, does not "catch" all the spyware, but another piece of software, obliges with that matter.

I'm sure our reliable MARK may wish to comment, because his contributions on such matters are always more than welcome.

Regards Jack

[busyglen]

Eileen, I also have just had my PC updated with AVG, Zone Alarm etc. today by my pc technician, as my Norton was about to expire. He suggested AVG about 6 months ago, and I trust his recommendations as he has never let me down yet. I always go to the experts for advice, and so far my `man' has been as good as his word. (He's my `local' MarkJ, and I am pleased to say that they seem to concur on most things)

Glenys

[gibo]

Guys,
interesting how you claim 104 viruses - after avg installed.
I would say that the system may not have been "clean" before the software was put onto the machine (important) OR not updated correctly. If you use out of date software you might as well not have it installed at all! If you suspect you already have a virus you need to have that removed first. Some boot sector viruses sit in the very first start up file and are not visible i.e. not easily found and deleted. In other words your boot sector must be clean to ensure you are working with virus free pc. Some web sites have online scanners that might assist in this case e.g.

home.mcafee.com/Downloads/FreeScan.aspx Good luck!

[mfwebb]

I have used AVG Free for 4 or 5 years without any problems whatsoever. I am currently on Version 8. I also use Sygate Personal Firewall which was free when I got it but has since been taken over by Norton and is no longer available.

I set AVG to auto update daily (at about 8.20 a.m.) and I manually scan when I finish and tell it to close down the computer when it's finished.

I manually check for spyware periodically using either Spybot or Adaware (or both sometimes).

Just a note about Norton Antivirus -- I have had problems with it on every computer I have used from it being slow to not allowing me to send e-mails. I now routinely delete or uninstall Norton from every new computer I have purchased in the last few years. It seems to be one of those annoying programmes which comes "free" with new computers that you can try for 6 months then have to pay for.

[rayknight]

To be honest I've never been a fan of AVG. I've found it's become a bit too bloated, heading in the direction of Norton and McAfee. I'm more a fan of Avast, Anti-Vir and Clamwin
As for firewall, behind a router and Windows Firewall do me alright really.

[Geoffers]

Welcome to the B-G forums and thanks for the suggestions

I've found it's become a bit too bloated, heading in the direction of Norton and McAfee. I'm more a fan of Avast, Anti-Vir and Clamwin.

Direct links to commercial companies are not allowed on the forums, so I have removed the links. If anyone is interested, the programme sites can be found using a search engine.