AVG Free edition not updating lately

AZBrandon · Post by **AZBrandon** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 11:05 am

Has anyone else seen a dramatic increase in the number of errors with AVG Free edition doing its updates? It seems like it's getting more and more frequent that I see the red exclamation mark in my taskbar showing that AVG can't update its database because their update servers are down or too busy.

Blue_Sky · Post by **Blue_Sky** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 12:43 pm

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but I stopped using AVG Free a year ago because it went from occasionally freezing my system to commonly freezing my computer. I've been using Avast ever since, and haven't had any problems yet.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 2:15 pm

Yes, I've noticed this as well. I've uninstalled AVG and will probably go back to using Avast.

Great Gig · Post by **Great Gig** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 3:17 pm

I stopped using AVG when the moved over to v8.0. Not impressed at how it works and it's resource hungry. I now use the free edition of Avast, simplicity itself and it updates seamlessly on average twice a day. It's very low on resources and when you just select the Standard Shield and Web Shield protection, you don't know it's there. Excellent product.

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:19 pm

Only since AVG Version 8......... Not that that is a compliment, I still use it though, and recommend it because I trust its abilities, and ignore its weakness (the title is a clue).

I must get around to re-evaluating all of the FREE AV programs out there, I hated some, many sucked sphincter, and the rest did not work so I settled on AVG. I have said this for years about AV software, "you pick the best of the bad bunch", none of them rule supreme, every one has problems, some severe some not, and some are Norton/McAfee (another world of shitness).

Basically untill I get around to finding the time to re-test various peices of AV software I will still recommend AVG 8 Free Edition, just ignore its update issue.

Contrary to all of the above (although it is about 18 months since I last re-tested AV software), I found that Avast found very few viruses, scanned even slower than AVG (7.5 ATT) and found no viruses in my own testing of opening a folder full of viruses - basically it did not work.

One of the best features of AVG is that you can shut it up, disable the autoscan feature etc etc, disable the annoying messages about it not being 100% and then scan your whole computer for viruses, or just a folder like I did, this is why on my test rig at work I use AVG (everything turned off except the auto update) and NOD32. Works like a charm, no problems no interferance, and occasionally it finds something than NOD32 missed (rare as rocking horse shit), but during my testing made everything else (including the paid for versions of Norton and McAfee) look poor.

My singular penny as a full time computer engineer............... If enough of you whinge I will try Avast again much sooner (a week or so).

Andy

Great Gig · Post by **Great Gig** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 4:30 pm

AndyB, I'm not meaning to be critical, but to recommend something shouldn't you know the capabilities of other comparable products? I recently tried the lot, after becoming dissatisfied with AVG, which up until 8.0 was fine. I settled on Avast as I found it the least intrusive and used the least resources. I tried all the free AV and also Kaspersky and NOD32, both very good but not free and if I was going to buy one, it would be NOD32.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 5:57 pm

AndyB, I'm not meaning to be critical, but to recommend something shouldn't you know the capabilities of other comparable products? I recently tried the lot, after becoming dissatisfied with AVG, which up until 8.0 was fine. I settled on Avast as I found it the least intrusive and used the least resources.

Yes that may be true as of now (I did try everything - 18 months ago), but AVG even for its slowness was rewarded for its actions in battle by doing its job.......... Unlike most of the others (including avast) it actually caught bad stuff.

Not slowing the PC down is one thing, but stopping your PC from being raped by a gang of prisoners that have just broken out of prison and have not seen and pussy in years is another thing. If you used Avast (18 months ago) you would have been seeing a psyciatrist on a weekly basis, eating so much curry that you can even show yourself what your arse is for, and be a hardcore drug adict an an alcoholic just to keep you from remembering anything.

AVG as I said before "is the best of the bad bunch" of freebies (NOD32 is highly recommended, but needs tweaking), but as mentioned, I will get around to a re-trial.

Andy

theycallmebruce · Post by **theycallmebruce** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 6:21 pm

I never updated to 8.0, just stuck with 7.5. Despite warning me for about three months that I would no longer get updates unless I upgraded to 8.0, I still get definition updates for 7.5. I'll stick with it for a while yet.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:06 am

I updated to 8.0 when it came, but instantly went back to 7.5 when I noticed how much 8.0 sucked. I use 7.5 free edition stripped down so that the only process running is the avgamsvr.exe service. I update manually every now and then and it works fine for now.

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:55 am

andyb wrote: Basically untill I get around to finding the time to re-test various peices of AV software I will still recommend AVG 8 Free Edition, just ignore its update issue.

Contrary to all of the above (although it is about 18 months since I last re-tested AV software), I found that Avast found very few viruses, scanned even slower than AVG (7.5 ATT) and found no viruses in my own testing of opening a folder full of viruses - basically it did not work.

I had the exact opposite findings, in that Avast was better at finding viruses as compared to AVG.

Also, if AVG is not updating virus definitions, then it seems a bit pointless to use it.

You can also disable unwanted features in Avast, as well as configure it to be "silent" during updates, etc.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:35 am

andyb wrote:Not slowing the PC down is one thing, but stopping your PC from being raped by a gang of prisoners that have just broken out of prison and have not seen and pussy in years is another thing. If you used Avast (18 months ago) you would have been seeing a psyciatrist on a weekly basis, eating so much curry that you can even show yourself what your arse is for, and be a hardcore drug adict an an alcoholic just to keep you from remembering anything.

Andy

Look out!!! Andy's on another one of his trademarked, colorful rampages!!!

zoatebix · Post by **zoatebix** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:40 am

Out of curiosity, any love for Avira out there?

I've used Avira, Avast, and AVG in the past, and I currently have AVG on the computers that aren't protected with NOD32, but it may be time to re-evaluate things.

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 7:40 am

I use Avast too after getting rid of AVG
Works nice.

Looking forward to the review !!!

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:32 am

I used AVG for years, but when Version 8 came, it gave a lot of trouble, freezing windows very often, updates which failed, a tremendous slowdown of my entire pc.
When I switched to Avast, everything worked perfectly again, it updates, it doesn't slowdown my pc that much etc. So I am using Avast for now

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:37 am

Look out!!! Andy's on another one of his trademarked, colorful rampages!!!

Good to know that I am recognized for something

Hopefully work will be quiet enough in a week or so to re-test AV software, the consensus seems to be on Avast, and I am not one to stick with one company because I always have, merit given where merit is due.

Andy

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:58 am

I have just found the time to download and install Avast, first pitfall - its not "FREE".

Its nearly free, but you have to give them an e-mail address for them to spam.

http://www.avast.com/eng/home-registration.php

I have just used Mailinator, lets see how things go from here.

Andy

Greg F. · Post by **Greg F.** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:19 am

AVG stopped updating for me so I installed Avira and it found a few things that had been there. I had one of those false positive advertising things that AVG and Avira couldn't locate on my hard drives, but Malwarebytes found it for me.