After 5 years and millions of downloads of the free AVG, Grisoft have decided to update the Free Version of their software so that it can continue to offer the advanced protection against the latest nasties. The new version is version 7.

On the 31st of December, support for the old version (Version 6) will be discontinued. This means you will no longer receive updated virus definitions and virus scan engines. See this page for more information.

Get the latest version of AVG from here.

Thanks Owen

You an AVG User Bear?

I will be when my Panda Platinum subscription runs out. 7/25/05 I got the free 1 year trial they were offering a while back.

Wise choice. Wondered what was going on then with the date, bit slow tonight. American date . 25/07/05 to us

I have a problem (probably of my own making) with the 7.0 version, which I downloaded a couple days ago.

During the installation process, at one point, they ask you if you want to avail yourself of their new e-mail scanning feature. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I clicked YES (not realising at the time that my Norton 2004 Antivirus software did the same). After completing installation, restarting computer and opening up Outlook Express, my problem appeared immediately. At the lower right hand corner showed up a window with the following messages: AutoPOP3 Client connected to and AutoPOP3 connected to (followed by what were the two addresses attributed to me by my ISP for access to the Internet [my bad for the wrong terminology: I am NOT tech savvy, as you can see), basically shutting me off from getting ANY new e-mails. The AVG logo on my toolbar was flashing continuously, and the e-mail scanning function was switching between addresses throughout

I uninstalled the 7.0 version, which took care of the problem, but left me without any AVG protection. I decided to reinstall 7.0 the following day and to click NO when they asked me again if I wanted to avail myself of that new feature. But, this time, I was never presented with that option, as if my computer remembered my initial downloading and concluded that I DID want the e-mail scanning option. As a result, once the re-installation process completed, I found myself stuck with the same problem and had to uninstall the software a second time...

Questions:

When I re-installed 7.0, my computer noted that the address (i.e. C:\Program Files....AVG7.0) was present [which surprised me given that I thought I had uninstalled the software earlier] and asked if I wanted to replace it, to which I answered YES, instead of modifying the address. Could that account for the fact that I wasn't asked later on if I wanted to have AVG's e-mail scanning device installed?

I have Norton 2004 Antivirus, Zone Alarm, Spybot, Ad-Aware, Spyware Blaster and Spyware Doctor. Is it possible that there could be a conflict in there somewhere with AVG's new device?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated because I have always considered AVG as a very useful addition and would like to continue to benefit from the protection it provides.

Thank you.

Just to basically say, you only need one antivirus program, two are not needed. You can probably see why, because there often conflicts if you have two antivirus programs. Stick with Norton and you'll be fine.

Hmmm...

Speaking of which, I've just read a less than glowing article on Norton, which I have reproduced below. Any comments genuinely appreciated.

Munir Kotadia, ZDNet Australia
November 15, 2004
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/securit...9166688,00.htm

commentary Has anybody had a good experience with Symantec’s Norton Antivirus?

Whenever I have written about Symantec’s flagship consumer antivirus application, the response from readers is always the same. Hordes of Symantec's customers write in complaining that Norton AntiVirus (NAV) sucks up their system resources, doesn't clean their computer thoroughly and when they finally decide to ditch the program altogether, they first need to download a special un-installation tool from Symantec's Web site.

Readers have also said that Live Update is difficult to configure when not in administrator mode, which is rather ironic because when the user is logged in as an administrator the application's script blocker is vulnerable to attack.

The least Symantec’s customers should expect is real protection. Unfortunately, even that very basic requirement seems beyond the company’s development teams -- and so the spin doctors and marketers are brought in to try and soften the blow.

In October, when a researcher discovered a security vulnerability in NAV, Symantec initially denied the problem existed, then admitted that there was a problem but played down its severity. Finally the company admitted that NAV was vulnerable to attack and retracted its earlier statements -- which the company admitted were factually incorrect.

So the situation right now is that Norton AntiVirus 2005 – which costs more than AU$90 from Symantec’s Web site and is labelled "The world's most trusted antivirus solution" -- can be fooled by a simple script into turning off its auto-protect functionality and leaving the computer at a malicious user's mercy.

Last week, high-level executives from Symantec’s US headquarters said that the company was working on strengthening the product's internal defence mechanisms to make it more resilient to such attacks.

However, these improvements are unlikely to be seen until the next version, which will be Norton AntiVirus 2006 and released in six months time.

Meanwhile, Symantec is hoping that a script kiddie will not find the exploit codes -- which have already started circulating around the Web -- and use them to launch an attack.

Mark Kennedy, architect, product delivery and response, said last week that if a virus writer was to use the exploit code and create a worm, the company would have a signature written to protect customers "within hours".

"Anybody that had not been hit by it and had updated their signatures before the worm infected their machine would be fully protected from it," said Kennedy.

What Kennedy failed to point out is that worms can travel around the world in minutes, which doesn’t leave much time for Symantec to create the signature or NAV customers to download and install the update.

Vincent Weafer, the senior director of Symantec’s Security Response team, said the reason why so many people complain about its product is that the company has such a large user base.

"We are on far more machines than most other people so you are going to get a lot of feedback," said Weafer.

Unless Symantec brings its NAV product up to date, Weafer is unlikely to be able to make the same claim two years from now. There are already a number of antivirus applications on the market, such as Grisoft’s AVG, that are free to use and far less demanding of a computer’s resources.

If Symantec really wants to reduce the number of people complaining about Norton AntiVirus, it should be improving the product rather than hiring spin doctors to try and cover up its flaws.



Copyright © 2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
ZDNET is a registered service mark of CNET Networks, Inc. ZDNET Logo is a service mark of CNET NETWORKS, Inc.

As an addendum:

A friend of mind told me yesterday that Norton had missed a couple viruses when she scanned her system, whereas AVG spotted them right off the bat. Makes one wonder.