So long AVG Free

[DarrellS]

Well, I finally got tired of being hijacked by my antivirus program so after 3 years, I ditched it for Avast.

I didn't mind when they put the ads on the program screen since it is a free program and they need to try and encourage people to buy the pro version but when a security program starts doing the things that got you to install them in the first place (adware, spyware, malware, SPAM, browser hijacking) then it's time to dump them and find something better. I thought I had a backdoor trojan that AVG wasn't catching but it was taking me to their website every time.

So long AVG Free. It was a nice ride while it lasted.

[gadgetguy]

I've been having a problem on one of my computers that has AVG free. It takes so long to scan the email being downloaded by Outlook Express, that OE times out and registers an error. When I get time, it will get converted to Avast.

[MJA]

I used to recommend AVG to my friends years ago,but not any more .The issue with AVG is it doesn't remove viruses it just keep giving warnings .using NOD32 solved the whole thing.every time some one get struck with a virus I just give them or send them a link for the free NOD32 30 day trial

[piano632]

I use Avira. I don't know how good it is 'cause it's a rarity that I ever get a virus.

http://www.free-av.com/

[redwudz]

I dropped AVG because of the many false positives. Quite a few were on freshly downloaded softwares that I knew were clean. I like Avast better now. But I also have a software firewall, a hardware router and run SpyBot and SpyWare Blaster.

[Soopafresh]

Me too! It deleted some batch files which I compiled to EXEs.

[Chris K]

but when a security program starts doing the things that got you to install them in the first place (adware, spyware, malware, SPAM, browser hijacking) then it's time to dump them and find something better. I thought I had a backdoor trojan that AVG wasn't catching but it was taking me to their website every time.

I just today downloaded the recommended AVG free application update and later found a promotion window for version 8 behind my browser window. Sofar this was once only. Did you get more pop-ups afterwards?

[budz]

Hmmmm.....I haven't had any problems with any of my computers using the free AVG but I also have installed the free AVAST.

[redwudz]

I just today downloaded the recommended AVG free application update and later found a promotion window for version 8 behind my browser window. Sofar this was once only. Did you get more pop-ups afterwards?

I think you are correct with that. I do run AVG on one computer and have seen that ad. I use a remote control program with that computer and Avast claims it is malware and I've found no way to get it to ignore it. It's not malware in any form. But apparently the remote control application, because it can control the computer, is identified as malware. AVG ignores it. Good or bad, AVG works for that application. Maybe not the best solution, but it works.

The computer has other anti-malware programs, so the protection is still there. But for the other computers, Avast seems a better choice.

[TBoneit]

I actually like the AVG8 Internet Security Paid so what can I say.

I haven't seen the AVG free do what the OP says excluding pushing version 8 when I bring it up onscreen. I've got the Paid on two computers since it added firewall etc. A simple rule in OE6 to put the e-mail it flags as [SPAM] puts them in a spam folder. Makes my life easier when all the spam goes into one place so I can check it just in case. I like the way it rates pages in Google for safety. That should be the Search Shield feature.

I'm getting ready to Sub the 30 day trial on another computer once the 30 day trial runs out. Gives 13 months on a 1 year sub that way.

To each his/her own. Which is why there is no best anything.

[DarrellS]

Sofar this was once only. Did you get more pop-ups afterwards?

Since I upgraded from avg75free_441a944 to avg75free_516a1225 around the first of the year, I've been bombarded with the popup window both on this PC and the one in the other room. My brothers' PC has the same symptoms. You should start getting them at least once a week.

It may have something to do with having a router but I've run a router for 2 1/2 years without any problems until I upgraded.

[budz]

I've never gotten any popup ads from the free AVG. Although I also have Spybot Search, Spyware Blaster and Ad-Aware 2007 but don't know if that would matter.

[guns1inger]

Never seen a popup from AVG Free. I suspect the source will be something else. A good anti-spyware program should find what it is.

[DarrellS]

These links are from the first page of a Google query...

http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/read.php?8,118688,118721

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6132_102-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=272074&messageID=2631309

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19438708-AVG-Free-Now-with-nagware

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic137455.html

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=3305347&sid=75c4c54285740f0192f16605f5e03450

and from Steve Gibson's Security Newsgroup...

http://12078.net/grcnews/article.php?id=121744&group=grc.security.software#121744

If you haven't updated AVG in the last 6 months then you might not have a problem. The problem for me is a security company stooping to these levels in the first place and then not having an option to turn the nagware off.

[guns1inger]

I am running 7.5.524, and it updates itself every day. I am not saying it hasn't happened, just that I have never seen it ro experienced it on any of the machines I have running AVG.

BTW, the Gibson links go nowhere.

[budz]

I am running 7.5.524, and it updates itself every day. I am not saying it hasn't happened, just that I have never seen it ro experienced it on any of the machines I have running AVG.

I and I'm running the same version as well. :wink:

[Bjs]

Same version here as guns1inger, and no issues at all

Of all the systems I have installed avgfree onto, not one has developed this problem.

Well have to wait and see if this is part of the marketing strategy avg wants to employ in the near future for avgfree, a bugme notice, but then there are other methods one could use to help people make the decision of upgrading or to go else where, which isn't much fun either.

The dreaded "timed" download tickets, as used by some services.

[Chris K]

I updated program parts yesterday and the version now reads 7.5.524.
After that had the first pop-up I mentioned earlier.
I also have Spybot installed but this is configured to notify me but did never on AVG.
I also have a router, a extra firewall (PC-Cillin 2002) and use the Proxomitron pop-up blocker
wich I have set to a high level. http://www.proxomitron.info/files/index.html
This catches most of the pop-ups so possibly it's tried earlier by AVG outside my sight.

[guns1inger]

I also have

Spybot S&D 1.5.2 (I don't bother with Tea Timer, I just run a weekly scan)
Spyware Blaster 4.0
Comodo Firewall Pro 3.0.22.x
Peer Guardian 2
Firefox 2.0.0.14

[Robert Simandl]

In Vista, I was actually getting a message in my taskbar, that there was a window incompatible with Aero. So I clicked "view window" to find an AVG popup telling me about v8. I closed the window and got the same taskbar message and popup AGAIN less than 20 minutes later.

To get rid of it, uninstall AVG, then install the newest free version from scratch. This solution came from AVG's support forums.

[bevills1]

About 2 to 3 years ago I switched from free AVG to Avast because Avast found 4 malwares AVG had missed when I tried out Avast, and I've had no problems at all using Avast. I've seen zero popups in 4 or 5 years since I began using Mozilla, and Firefox should be as effective since it's simply Mozilla without email.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I use Avast free as well and have had no malware since installing it.
I set it to auto update in silent mode and I set the sensitivity to high,it takes a little longer to load a webpage but it's worth it.
Avast scans files very fast and you can customize it to scan certain files automatically or you can right-click to scan manually.

[pepegot1]

I used Avast and it selected "smack.exe" as malware. This is used by Radvideo and is not malware. Better to select as malware, when it is not malware, then to not select something that is malware. False alarm is better than false security.

[Seeker47]

I dropped AVG because of the many false positives. Quite a few were on freshly downloaded softwares that I knew were clean. I like Avast better now. But I also have a software firewall, a hardware router and run SpyBot and SpyWare Blaster.

I can't recall if I've seen separate popups, but no doubt that they are pushing the paid 8.0 very hard to free 7.5 users. I've also been seeing some very dubious false positives: several smaller HTML documents flagged as containing generic Trojan downloaders or possible masked rootkits. Sounds pretty unlikely -- I mean, can you even conceal such things inside HTML ? (These would have been informational pages I saved -- as in "Save Page As" -- from known and trusted sites, like this one.) This may all be telling me it is time to move on to another AV program.

Incidentally, in regard to anti-Spyware (always a separate program, for me), the consensus found in my research indicates that Ad Aware and Spybot have not been very effective for quite some time. The landscape keeps changing, becoming more challenging, and it seems they did not keep up. So there may no longer be anything in that category that is both effective and free.

[Faustus]

Wait... when did they put in Ads? I used Free up until about 9 months ago when I dropped coin on the full version. It didn't have ads at that time.


e: okay yeah I see looking at those links they've gotten a bit more aggressive. I don't blame 'em they wanna make money and they do really have a great product. Its why I went paid a while back.

People seem to feel that Grisoft owes them something when they've never paid the company a cent.

[TBoneit]

Faustus, Did you go AV only or the Internet Security? Either way if you haven't upgraded as I understand it their is a free upgrade to version 8. I had to get the AVG8 IS key as it is different from the older AVG7.5 IS key.

I also have computers that are not really used much on the internet that run 7.5 kept up to date and I've never seen pop-up or pop-unders from AVG. I have seen a advert from them contained in the different modules when I bring them up on screen. Maybe others are confusing that with oop-Ups?

[usually_quiet]

I did see one pop-up weeks ago, but not since. I almost forgot that it had happened.

I have been happily using AVG 7.5 free for some time, but I am worried about AVG not being good enough now . (I also use COMODO Pro, and Spybot S&D) I had terrible problems today that could be related to my security software.

I installed DSL service on Friday evening, to replace dialup, and had great difficulty getting my new ISP's installation software past AVG and COMODO. I couldn't keep all COMODO's processes from running no matter what I did, and had to manually kill AVG's. I ended up un-installing them. I spent an extended period online without any security programs running, to get DSL installed. After that, I re-installed my security programs, downloaded the updates and scanned my system using all of them. Only one piece of malware turned up, and I deleted it. I thought everything was fine.

Yesterday, I turned on my PC and surfed and set-up happily all day, but today, I couldn't get Windows XP to load all the way, and it keeps rebooting. Safe Mode didn't work. It could be bad luck that a file suddenly became corrupted, or it could be a trojan.

I ended up pulling out both HDD's and installing an old 20 GB HDD I had in a closet, and spent most of the day getting Windows XP installed and updated, plus web browsers and email going.

I have been looking for another anti-virus program to scan the HDD's I pulled. Avast migh be OK, but are there any other good ones?

[budz]

to: usually_ quiet
using only one spyware program isn't enough. i use spyware blaster, spybot search and ad-aware 2007 even though i hate it's interface.

[Midzuki]

Currently I am using BitDefender. AVG was giving me annoying false positives ,
and NOD32 was fooled by a rootkit.

[TBoneit]

In addition to what Budz mentioned I also use
AVG Antispyware
Super Antispyware
HiJack This (Dangerous if you don't know what you are doing)
An oldie called Kazaa Begone
An older Pest Patrol
An older version of Spysweeper 4.5 that will clean unlike the newer version
Windoiws Defender
Others as needed. But usually 12 + programs on computers I'm cleaning.

They all find things that the others missed.

On my own here at Home right now, Only AVG 8 Internet Security and in the near future Spysweeper. These are the only active protection programs.
And at work AVG8 IS and Spysweeper 5 and 10 or 11 others as needed.

I may be in the minority but I don't mind installing XP again if needed. I burn whatever I want to keep to DVDs.