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Thread: AVG no longer our friend?

  1. #1
    Diamond Member tec0's Avatar
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    AVG no longer our friend?

    Yes AVG free Edition was always considered our friend, you can get it for free and mostly the updates weren’t that big. But all of that is gone now. When I upgraded to AVG 2011 it took in total about 300MB from my 3G’s 1 GB cap and then it continued with 33.8Mb updates along with a few others.

    Now as we all know our internet service providers are greedy selfish maggots that feed on the poor South African by forcing them to pay R300 more or less for 1GB of data. In that regard the old AVG was golden it didn’t eat as much.

    But all of that is gone now... the New AVG is hungry and its updates just made it unusable to the general public. I say this because the 33mb update fails halfway and then it restarts and it fails and it restarts eating away at your cap. In one night I have used 600MB on AVG? That is just messed up!!!!

    So are there any recommendations on other free antivirus software or is disconnecting from the net and using VR computers our only option?

    peace is a state of mind
    Disclaimer: everything written by me can be considered as fictional.

  2. #2
    Email problem KimH's Avatar
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    I would highly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials - free to download and free updates for home users.

    Here's the link - http://microsoft-security-essentials.en.softonic.com/
    for downloads and you can read user reviews as well.

    File size12.5MB

  3. #3
    Gold Member Mark Atkinson's Avatar
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    I use Avast! anti-virus (free edition) and have had absolutely no issues. The file size is around 45mb. Updates are small, quick and efficient.

    I'm really happy with it and changed from AVG to Avast! because I found AVG was slowing down my system tremendously and not even picking up everything.

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    Gold Member garthu's Avatar
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    With Mark on this as well. Changed from AVG to avast, still use avast on wifes machine.Would go so far as to recommend it!
    Garth

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    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    The free AVG 2011 has been revamped from the ground up. There's 2 ways to install, online installation and offline installation. If you install online you first download the bootstrap application which then oversees the rest of the online installation. Note if you just have one pc the the online installation would be more bandwidth economical.

    Off line installation is by a standalone application which is 135mb. It seems to come compiled with all the language options, virus signatures and runtime libraries contained within. This makes it a little larger than the online install which obviously selects appropriately and doesn't download anything unnecessary. The offline installer can be used on multiple pc's in which case it would be a big bandwidth saver.

    The first update after I installed it was fairly small at 12mb and just contained very recent virus definitions.

    The first scan took quite a while, nearly 20 mins was 'optimizing' and the remaining 40 mins was scanning. The pc I tested it on is my backup server which is fairly hefty with several terabytes of mixed date across 8 drives so I was expecting to be in for the long haul when it came to scan time.

    It found several false positives which I was expecting and excepted from further scans. I planted a couple of examples of suspicious files and the second scan in all fairness took around half the time and it found them all.

    It doesn't seem particularly resource heavy in real time use or during scheduled scans but it did clash with my spybotSD teatimer which I've had to disable for now. I submitted a bug report and they replied that it's a known issue which is being addressed.

    I'm happy to run it for a few weeks and if no problems become evident I'll probably install it across the board.
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    Diamond Member tec0's Avatar
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    But you didn’t download any updates for it did you?

    These updates are very useful because it allows you to reinstall updates in “offline” mode and when you update it doesn’t eat as much. But after all this was done there was a 33.5Mb update that stopped at 22Mb and then the server pinged out. Try it for yourself...
    peace is a state of mind
    Disclaimer: everything written by me can be considered as fictional.

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    Gold Member irneb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KimH View Post
    I would highly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials - free to download and free updates for home users.

    Here's the link - http://microsoft-security-essentials.en.softonic.com/
    for downloads and you can read user reviews as well.

    File size12.5MB
    Better!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Atkinson View Post
    I use Avast! anti-virus (free edition) and have had absolutely no issues. The file size is around 45mb. Updates are small, quick and efficient.

    I'm really happy with it and changed from AVG to Avast! because I found AVG was slowing down my system tremendously and not even picking up everything.
    Best!!!!!

    I've moved away from AVG myself, but for different reasons. See this thread: http://www.theforumsa.co.za/forums/s...ead.php?t=7675

    At present I'm using Avast! It's small, updates are miniscule and non-invasive, works like a dream, doesn't kill your PC's performance (like AVG did for me), and most wonderfully it PICKED UP stuff none of the others I've tried did (AVG, MS Sec Ess, ClamWin, Comodo AV).

    As a side note, MS-SE is also quite small (about 10MB for installer download - don't know how much it used thereafter). But I've since un-installed it - it's doing the same thing as AVG did on my Laptop & work PC (i.e. using up +30% of CPU while any program launches) ... and yes I've set it to exclude the most common progs from its real-time scan ... has no effect whatsoever. I think that exclusion page is a placebo!

    AVG always used 50% of the dual core CPU during program load-up and using inordinate amounts of RAM, causing some programs to start in minutes rather than seconds. Even though I've excluded them in AVG's real-time scan as well. With Avast! I've never seen task-manager show Avast! using more than 5% during any program's load-up (usually hovers around 1 to 2%), and I haven't excluded anything in its settings at all!

    Can't remember exactly, but my AVG tended to use in the order of 100MB for its background process. Clamwin (which I'd not advise as an AV really) used extremely little, but did little as well (not worth the effort) - IMO they can drop that particular Open Source AV, unless they want to turn it into something more than just a file checker. MS-SE was using about 50MB of RAM, but I'd also not advise it as the only thing you've got. It doesn't catch everything at all, it's more like a stop-gap solution to make Windowze less security lacking.

    Avast!'s using a whopping 25MB at this very moment. I've just started my PC and after logging into the domain, I had Thunderbird (145MB), Firefox (152MB) & AutoCAD (325MB) running and responsive within 1 minute. And its updates are rarely more than 500kb per day. The original download was 52MB.

    If you're really security conscious, then I'd advise something like Comodo Firewall as well. But be warned that uses the same type of RAM & CPU as AVG, but blows anything wanting to connect to the internet (including itself, windows, any AV, or whatever) unless you allow it.
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    Diamond Member wynn's Avatar
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    I found the 'free AVG' was slowing my internet connection down as it filtered everything all the time, I thought by buying the real version it would help but it didn't.
    I have been using 'Avast free' for the last year and find it much better.
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    Email problem solweb's Avatar
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    Avast

    I moved to Avast a while ago and have no problems, in fact Avast Free has picked up problems that other (Paid) Antit Virus have overlooked.

    A good place to get information is http://www.techsupportalert.com/
    Michael Vella
    Web Presence Solutions - www.solutionsweb.co.za

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    Diamond Member tec0's Avatar
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    Well AVG 2011 is running at the moment but I am not happy with the big updates. So I will stick to my guns AVG WAS good until it started to cost me more then what it is worth.

    Spending half a GB on updates alone is madness. It is a shame because I liked AVG a lot, it used to be small the updates used to be small but now it is just another 1 ton application slowing down my internet and feeding on my bandwidth.

    Avast is about the get another customer.
    peace is a state of mind
    Disclaimer: everything written by me can be considered as fictional.

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