[JA] Re: Subject: Free AVG 8 ...was Re: Free Antiviral News
- From: "thepccat@xxxxxxxx" <thepccat@xxxxxxxx>
- To: juno_accmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:56:26 GMT
I think this sort of thing is endemic, at least with the free AVs I have=
tried. =
The thing which got me aggravated about Avast! was its habit of somehow =
pawing through "My Documents" folder every time I come to startup screen=
, and finding various false positives I had not even opened in folders I=
had not looked at. Then I would have to test these [with virustotal or =
similar] and if they are really false positive put them in password prot=
ected archives [so they would not be flagged again by Avast!]. I could s=
top this behavior by turning off realtime antiviral, but then you have n=
o protection and the XP "Windows Security Alert" icon gets red and nasty=
;).
So I go to Avira Antivir Personal, and find it has a similar behavior, e=
xcept with ten times more false positives! To update my prior, it is not=
correct you cannot shut off program updates: the notify me first settin=
g wants to send you an email from inside your computer, so you have to e=
nter all that SMTP stuff I forget: why it could not just popup and say "=
hey, we have a program update you might want" like most other softwares?=
The latest stopper is now Avira has not been able to connect to its ser=
ver for three days [despite repeated automatic and manual efforts] and "=
Windows Security Alert" is admonishing me again, not to mention no signa=
ture updates. =
Now, different people tout different AVs for different reasons, some tec=
hnical or trivial. Figuring out which meets YOUR needs [as a unique huma=
n user who is seldom attacked by malware] can be difficult. =
So it seems each of the three freebies are less than ideal. There are th=
ose like NOD32 which have a reputation of being light and effective. =
I think one of the big "problems" here is antimalware software now seeks=
to protect one from all sorts of thing besides simply opening malware: =
web pages, "bad" web sites [these sites may not be bad later and others =
may be "bad" but not listed, and "bad" sites may not affect properly pat=
ched systems, or not, etc.], rootkits, phishing pages, etc. We generally=
buy into this, wanting "to be protected" [and not seeing much of this "=
protection" is less than 100% effective, and you just need one malware t=
o ruin your day...]. You can either shut off all this and still have it =
[sort of] running [as George and anecdotal information suggests], or lea=
ve it on and load down your computer till you think you are running Nort=
on/Symantec LOL.
I really think one great "solution" to all this would be Linux. No need =
for all these software protectors as almost all of these threats simply =
don't run in Linux. Of course you need to keep up your O/S and apps upda=
ted in Linux as elsewhere. Imagine if your computer used virtual RAM muc=
h less than it does now [so ran much faster with its 500 MB or more of R=
AM]] and did not need to run antiviral, antispam, parental protection, w=
eb site parsing, good/bad site signature, antitrojan, antirootkit, phish=
ing site signature, etc. software before it could find or access a file =
or webpage. Imagine this system did not even really need a software fire=
wall, though you could certainly add a hardware router without slowing t=
hings down. What would you have then? Linux, or Mac. Of course, there ar=
e a very few things Linux or Mac does not do naively which Windows does.=
Now we all have our reasons for doing what we do, and being "technically=
correct" is probably much less important than inertia and getting the f=
amiliar job done in the familiar manner with the least amount of perceiv=
ed time and effort--including research and learning.
This my 2=A2 + the "no inflation" our gov reassures us we are having :>]=
thepccat
-- "George Lunt" <glunt@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...] =
I upgraded early, unfortunately. AVG=3D
8 is a super resource hog. They added a spyware program and you can't "=
=3D
not install" it or even shut it off. If the Anti-virus part is running, =
=3D
the spyware part is too. Talk about ramming something down your throat.
[...]
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