Opinion about Grisoft's AVG free edition Antivirus

[Juan I. Cahis]

Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

Questions like "What is the best antivirus software?" tend to generate a lot
of "chatter" in these newsgroups, and you will get plenty of replies, I'm
sure.

For myself, I've been quite happy with the free edition of AVG for several
years. The resource load on my own computer seems very low, and I haven't
caught any viruses at all. Then again, I am exceptionally cautious as a
computer user, and I also have other non-locally installed virus scanning
(such as for my e-mail, file server).

There are other (free) antivirus options available, and I think some people
prefer them to AVG - but much depends on your own computing habits, really.
And, you do tend to get what you pay for - don't expect much in the way of
tech support with anything 'free'. Note also that you can't legally run AVG
free edition on a 'business' computer.

Oh, and your English is just fine.... mejor que mi español

 

[badgolferman]

Juan I. Cahis, 9/19/2006, 11:54:05 AM,

Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

As far as free AV goes there are several choices for you but AVG would
be among the worst ones in detection rates. The best in my opinion are
in this order:

AOL AVS
Avira Antivir
AVAST
Grisoft AVG

AOL AVS is based upon Kaspersky engine which is widely considerd among
the best there is. Antivir has excellent detection rates but includes
a nag screen which can be disabled with a little work. Avast and AVG
considtently bring up the rear in detection rates.

Check out this site for independent test results.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

You may also consider going to alt.comp.anti-virus for much more
discussion threads on this topic.

 

[DatabaseBen]

yes,
i sympathsize with you and agree that there is better out there...
thank goodness for the open market....

Over the course of "many" years I have tried most of them and
not without cost to my system and pocket book.

Recently, I have been successful with spywareterminator and its clam
antivirus plugin and having in addition,
ms defender and setting the regular windows firewall to no exceptions.



Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

 

[Factor 13]

:
Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

[ ============================================ ]

Congratulations on your good English!

I have used AVG anti-virus successfully for years. Like all anti-virus
programs, free and paid for, it cannot detect and remove EVERY known virus.
In my experience, the ones that AVG can't manage don't seem to do any damage
anyway. From time to time I do a free online virus scan with the following
program (Bit Defender) to deal with any viruses that get past AVG. AVG is
not heavy on resources, and doesn't seem to cause conflicts with other
programs. I would be very wary of reviews of anti-virus software because
they may not be independent.

http://www.bitdefender.com/html/free_tools.php

 

[Jim]

Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

Thanks
Juan I. Cahis
Santiago de Chile (South America)
Note: Please forgive me for my bad English, I am trying to improve it!

Almost anything would be preferable to Norton or McAfee. AVG does not load
the system as heavily as either of them, and it has a better detection rate.

Thus, I think that AVG would be an improvement.

I use NOD32 which isn't free.

I also use ZoneAlarm as my firewall because I want a firewall which blocks
outgoing messages. Windows firewall does not do that.

Your English is quite good. I would never have known that you are posting
from Chile had you not said so.

Regards

Jim

 

[Ron Martell]

AOL AVS is based upon Kaspersky engine which is widely considerd among
the best there is.

AVG is also based on Kaspersky.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In Jim <[email protected]> typed:

Your English is quite good. I would never have known that you are
posting from Chile had you not said so.

If I go on vacation to Chile and post from there, will it have any bearing
on my own English? ;-)

 

[badgolferman]

Ron Martell, 9/19/2006, 1:45:54 PM,

AVG is also based on Kaspersky.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada

I have never seen this anywhere. Do you have some documentation (link)
to support this claim?

 

[Paul Johnson]

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition?

It rocks.

Is it reliable and a good Antivirus?

Easily the best around.

Does it loads your machine very hard?
Nope.

I have a Thinkpad X-41 TabletPC with 1.5 GB memory, 1.6 GHz, with
WinXP SP2 with the standard Windows Firewall (I don't think that
anything more is necessary).

You'll do fine.

 

[Paul Johnson]

As far as free AV goes there are several choices for you but AVG would
be among the worst ones in detection rates.

AOL AVS
Avira Antivir
AVAST
Grisoft AVG

AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

 

[Paul Johnson]

And, you do tend to get what you pay for - don't expect much in
the way of tech support with anything 'free'.

The inverse of what that usually implies is true in the software world: You
get crap when you pay for it. Case in point, my Debian machine has been
running without any reinstall necessary, even when moving to new hardware
or upgrading the OS, since 1996. Debian's support site
(http://lists.debian.org/) provides world-class, free support.

My WinXP laptop... well, let's just say I keep a Ghost image handy for that
box, and WinXP and Ghost cost a *hell* of a lot more than Debian did.

You can get worse software, but you just pay more.

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

The inverse of what that usually implies is true in the software world: You
get crap when you pay for it. Case in point, my Debian machine has been
running without any reinstall necessary, even when moving to new hardware
or upgrading the OS, since 1996. Debian's support site
(http://lists.debian.org/) provides world-class, free support.

My WinXP laptop... well, let's just say I keep a Ghost image handy for that
box, and WinXP and Ghost cost a *hell* of a lot more than Debian did.

You can get worse software, but you just pay more.

I agree. For years I was a dedicated Norton Utilities user, plus
their Anti-virus. When I first started using XP I had no end of
problems, all traced back to Norton. I started using AVG Free Edition
after I uninstalled Norton Anti-virus and my problems ended, plus, I
haven't had a single virus since. (I also use Ad-Aware & Spybot, both
free.)

 

[Alias~-]

AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

That hasn't been my experience with Avast and I've used it for years.
Can you prove your assertion?

Alias

 

[Rock]

AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

I haven't had any false positives with either Avast or AVG. Haven't run the
other ones.

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

When testing "Avira AntiVir", "AVAST!" and "Grisoft AVG" for a long
time, only "AntiVir" was reporting false positives.

 

[Leythos]

Dear friends:

After trying Norton's and McAfee's Antivirus, and being tired for
their problems and the way that they make my computer to run slow, I
want to try Grisoft's free AVG Antivirus.

I think that simpler is better. Also I have Spy Sweeper installed, and
I am very happy of it.

Do you have any opinion of AVG Free Edition? Is it reliable and a good
Antivirus? Does it loads your machine very hard?

I have more than 40 residents of a Sorority that have used AVG Free
edition since version 6 was released, they upgraded to 7 and are set to
fetch updates every day.

There are another 20 computers running other vendors products in the
same group.

The only compromised computer, due to virus/trojan/worm activity we have
to deal with are the AVG protected ones. In three years, this has always
been the case.

We clean all machines, using multiple AV protects and our own manual
methods and then give the computers to the residents for use. If they
have expired AV software we ask them if they want AVG or if they want to
purchase other - or install the school provided AV solution. Most pick
AVG.

I have stopped installing and recommending AVG to friends and clients,
as the experience with it in the Wild, and I consider the sorority users
to be in the wild, has provided enough experience (as well as hundreds
of friends using it) to see that it's worthless when it comes to
protecting you from NEW threats.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

I run Avast on three machines here, and have installed it on several other
as well. There have *no* false positives on any of these.

 

[Phisherman]

It doesn't cost anything to try it. After I dumped Norton I installed
AVG. It runs faster, updates automatically and quickly, relatively
small program, no nagware after 12 months, and it's free. Remove your
existing antivirus before you install AVG. BTW, your English is a
lot better than most native-speaking English people. Sometimes I have
a difficult time with it, after 50 years!

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

badgolferman wrote:
AOL, Avira, and AVAST all lead the way in false positives: In
other words, they trigger on stuff where there is no virus present.

[/QUOTE]

I run Avast on three machines here, and have installed it on several other
as well. There have *no* false positives on any of these.

I see a lot of false positives with AntiVir 6 (an older version than
the current Avira) but I don't mind - because its detection rate is
very, very good, even though AntiVir 6 no longer gets updates!

These are genuine detects, too - mainly those nameless 1-generation
trojans that av vendors simply can't keep up with.

I use AVG 7 as resident scanner (don't install the email component if
on dial-up and you auto-disconnect after sending mail) and AntiVir 6
(among others) as on-demand clean-up scanner.

Avast hasn't really shone for me; when using it after other scanners,
it's yet to detect anything others have missed.

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