AVG 7 update sizes

[Colin J Denman]

Waiting for a reliable AVG 7 (judging by comments here), I wonder if those
with a satisfactory installation notice any improvement in the size of
updates -- it always seemed a bit of a pig that AVG 6 would offer up
several MB of updates.

 

[Mark Warner]

Waiting for a reliable AVG 7 (judging by comments here), I wonder if
those with a satisfactory installation notice any improvement in the
size of updates -- it always seemed a bit of a pig that AVG 6 would
offer up several MB of updates.

That hadn't been the case with AVG6 for quite some time, and doesn't
seem to be with AVG7 either. Most of the updates are less than 200kb.

 

[Andy]

several MB of updates.
That hadn't been the case with AVG6 for quite some time,
and doesn't seem to be with AVG7 either. Most of the
updates are less than 200kb.

That's pretty good compared to the updates for Fprot for DOS
which runs about 2 megs. ( which doesn't include their macro
updates)

But their scanner is considerably smaller.

 

[Jim Daniel]

Waiting for a reliable AVG 7 (judging by comments here), I wonder if those
with a satisfactory installation notice any improvement in the size of
updates -- it always seemed a bit of a pig that AVG 6 would offer up
several MB of updates.

--
Colin J Denman
N 51º 54' 38" W 00º 29' 45" Elev: 125m
email: mailto:[email protected] -- use my first name
home: http://www.cjdenman.freeserve.co.uk

First one I did over the weekend was less than 300k.
Jim Daniel

 

[Mark Smith]

That hadn't been the case with AVG6 for quite some time, and doesn't
seem to be with AVG7 either. Most of the updates are less than 200kb.

After about a week and several updates of AVG7, I haven't seen one yet
that ran more than 50K. That's one reason I switched back from
AntiVir with its nearly daily updates in the 2MB range.

 

[Mark Warner]

First one I did over the weekend was less than 300k.

I suspect the OP is referring to AVG6's behavior from *quite* some time
ago. I recall that at one time, the updates *were* large. Then there was
a major program update, and the mechanism was changed to a cumulative
one, so that previous updates weren't re-downloaded every time.

After that, and as it appears to be with AVG7, the only things
downloaded are those updates new since the previous update download. If
you update daily, the individual updates should be quite small.

 

[Matt]

I suspect the OP is referring to AVG6's behavior from *quite* some time
ago. I recall that at one time, the updates *were* large. Then there was
a major program update, and the mechanism was changed to a cumulative
one, so that previous updates weren't re-downloaded every time.

Yes, old behaviour was a database update (replaced the ENTIRE DB every
time), plus some even larger updates where other files were included.

Clearly unworkable where the increasing rapidity of virus spread made
daily updates the norm.

After that, and as it appears to be with AVG7, the only things
downloaded are those updates new since the previous update download. If
you update daily, the individual updates should be quite small.

True cumulatives would mean many multi-step updates...

The current method they use for 7 and the late versions of V6 (and
with the termination of V6 updates at the end of the year, V6 is
effectively dead)

A 3 stage rollup...
1. MicroAVI - carries stage 1 updates until too big

2. Roll updates into MiniAVI, restart MicroAVI
At this point there are 2 possible updates...
Mini+Micro (from an early version)
Micro only (if the Mini is up to date)

3. Additional level 2 rollups, until finally it rolls into the main
databse and the cycle resets - this is a big update.

The method avoids the version hell of true differential updates - as
although each update COULD still be smaller, there are not an insane
amount of updates, nor doe ach days updates need to be recovered
individually when doing a catchup.


PS. If you don't like to auto update (at install time plus any
multiple of two hours) then just stab the update button when it's
convenient, and it will select the minimum update required.