Avast free

Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700, Drew wrote:

On 3/30/2014 4:37 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:20:33 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:52:59 -0700, Drew wrote:

Maybe the word "constant" was used wrongly.. What I meant was after I
chose not to update the program anymore I was badgered repeatedly to do
so (as in every time I brought it out of sleep mode) I have taken the
advice of others to make some changes to the settings but was still
wondering about other antivirus program advice.
Why not just allow it to update?
IMO,that would be sensible, but Drew doesn't seem to agree.

How about.... Because in the past many programs have taught me that
newer is not always better. With Avast I have found that they seem to be
dumbing down the program and adding some really useless "tools"?
Unfortunately because of time constraints lately I have not looked into
turning some of this stuff off. Many have pointed out my stupidity and I
appreciate the help in curing the problem. I would still like to know
what others are running and what there opinions are though.

OK, that makes sense to me, although I still respectfully disagree. To
be a bit more fair, I'll tell you my thinking.

My thinking is specific to antimalware. Malware keeps changing, since
there are a lot of people out there having fun at your expense and mine.

So antimalware programs need to keep changing as well. In particular, as
the approaches taken by the malware programmers change, some new
exploits can't be handled by simply changing the malware definitions,
and require new algorithms in the code to cover the new behavior.

So updating antimalware programs is very prudent, in my book.


In particular, heuristic detection.

Half of AV work, is signature based (and then all we need is fresh
definition files, not new code).

But the other half, is behavioral (heuristic), watching software
attempting to access things it should not be accessing. Like making
changes to the system random number generator, which is used for cryptography.
Kaspersky used to check for that, and the warning dialog boxes all the
time, drove me nuts. It's the reason I didn't renew the subscription.

Paul

On 3/31/2014 9:23 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:12:21 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700, Drew wrote:

On 3/30/2014 4:37 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:20:33 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:52:59 -0700, Drew wrote:


OK, that makes sense to me, although I still respectfully disagree. To
be a bit more fair, I'll tell you my thinking.

My thinking is specific to antimalware. Malware keeps changing, since
there are a lot of people out there having fun at your expense and mine.

So antimalware programs need to keep changing as well. In particular, as
the approaches taken by the malware programmers change, some new
exploits can't be handled by simply changing the malware definitions,
and require new algorithms in the code to cover the new behavior.

So updating antimalware programs is very prudent, in my book.

+1 to all of that. Well said, Gene.

I guess part of it was frustration from at one time allowing Avast to
install (extra's?) to its program and was constantly being bombarded
with "Update this" and "clean up this" and so I probably overreacted due
to serious time constraints lately. I normally would keep any anti virus
and anti malware programs (not just definitions) updated at all times
but as I said. Now that I have received some wise advice I have taken it
and done something about it. My sincere Thanks to all respondants.
Malwarebytes as well as Avast are fully updated and all is back to
normal. Hardware firewall as well as software firewall doing what they
are supposed to as well. Once again "Thank you!!!"

"Drew" wrote in message ...

On 3/31/2014 9:23 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:12:21 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"

wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700, Drew wrote:

On 3/30/2014 4:37 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:20:33 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:52:59 -0700, Drew
wrote:


OK, that makes sense to me, although I still respectfully disagree. To
be a bit more fair, I'll tell you my thinking.

My thinking is specific to antimalware. Malware keeps changing, since
there are a lot of people out there having fun at your expense and mine.

So antimalware programs need to keep changing as well. In particular, as
the approaches taken by the malware programmers change, some new
exploits can't be handled by simply changing the malware definitions,
and require new algorithms in the code to cover the new behavior.

So updating antimalware programs is very prudent, in my book.

+1 to all of that. Well said, Gene.

I guess part of it was frustration from at one time allowing Avast to
install (extra's?) to its program and was constantly being bombarded with
"Update this" and "clean up this" and so I probably overreacted due to
serious time constraints lately. I normally would keep any anti virus and
anti malware programs (not just definitions) updated at all times but as I
said. Now that I have received some wise advice I have taken it and done
something about it. My sincere Thanks to all respondants. Malwarebytes as
well as Avast are fully updated and all is back to normal. Hardware
firewall as well as software firewall doing what they are supposed to as
well. Once again "Thank you!!!"

Glad to hear it.

--
Buffalo

On Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:45:39 -0700, Drew wrote:

On 3/31/2014 9:23 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:12:21 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:54:52 -0700, Drew wrote:

On 3/30/2014 4:37 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 17:20:33 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:52:59 -0700, Drew wrote:


OK, that makes sense to me, although I still respectfully disagree. To
be a bit more fair, I'll tell you my thinking.

My thinking is specific to antimalware. Malware keeps changing, since
there are a lot of people out there having fun at your expense and mine.

So antimalware programs need to keep changing as well. In particular, as
the approaches taken by the malware programmers change, some new
exploits can't be handled by simply changing the malware definitions,
and require new algorithms in the code to cover the new behavior.

So updating antimalware programs is very prudent, in my book.

+1 to all of that. Well said, Gene.

I guess part of it was frustration from at one time allowing Avast to
install (extra's?) to its program and was constantly being bombarded
with "Update this" and "clean up this" and so I probably overreacted due
to serious time constraints lately. I normally would keep any anti virus
and anti malware programs (not just definitions) updated at all times
but as I said. Now that I have received some wise advice I have taken it
and done something about it. My sincere Thanks to all respondants.
Malwarebytes as well as Avast are fully updated and all is back to
normal. Hardware firewall as well as software firewall doing what they
are supposed to as well. Once again "Thank you!!!"

I installed Avast six weeks or so ago, and I got tired of its endless
nagging, so I went back to MSE (which is probably a bad idea). So I can
sympathize. Although maybe I mean AVG - I tried and got rid of both, so
my memories are a bit tangled now.

And I'm glad that you were receptive to people's suggestions. It shows
that you're not closed minded :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 4/2/2014 2:48 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:

I installed Avast six weeks or so ago, and I got tired of its endless
nagging, so I went back to MSE (which is probably a bad idea)

I'll say. If you want a good antivirus that won't bug you Panda Cloud is
a good choice.

On 02/04/2014 21:17, Ron wrote:
On 4/2/2014 2:48 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:

I installed Avast six weeks or so ago, and I got tired of its endless
nagging, so I went back to MSE (which is probably a bad idea)

I'll say. If you want a good antivirus that won't bug you Panda Cloud is
a good choice.


Or even this one for cut down price:

http://db3.stb.s-msn.com/i/3E/555ACF321538B9A59196D6428116_h498_w598_m2.jpg



--
Al Sparber - PVII
http://www.projectseven.com
The Finest Dreamweaver Menus | Galleries | Widgets
Since 1998

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:45:39 -0700, Drew wrote:


I installed Avast six weeks or so ago, and I got tired of its endless
nagging, so I went back to MSE (which is probably a bad idea). So I can
sympathize. Although maybe I mean AVG - I tried and got rid of both, so
my memories are a bit tangled now.

And I'm glad that you were receptive to people's suggestions. It shows
that you're not closed minded :-)

Stunbling Bloch, just a rt click on the Avast icon in the taskbar and
selecting (Silent Gaming Mode) and no more pop-ups until the computer is
rebooted. Small price to pay for the quality of the free Avast AV, IMO.

--
Buffalo

On Wed, 2 Apr 2014 14:42:17 -0600, Buffalo wrote:

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 01 Apr 2014 17:45:39 -0700, Drew wrote:


I installed Avast six weeks or so ago, and I got tired of its endless
nagging, so I went back to MSE (which is probably a bad idea). So I can
sympathize. Although maybe I mean AVG - I tried and got rid of both, so
my memories are a bit tangled now.

And I'm glad that you were receptive to people's suggestions. It shows
that you're not closed minded :-)

Stunbling Bloch, just a rt click on the Avast icon in the taskbar and
selecting (Silent Gaming Mode) and no more pop-ups until the computer is
rebooted. Small price to pay for the quality of the free Avast AV, IMO.

Except I really have come to think it was AVG :-)

But either way, I'm not planning to go back there at the moment.

Anyway, the message that I hated most was the one that pops up *at boot
time* telling me every single time what I already knew about protections
I didn't enable and so forth. They included some things that I had no
reason to want, IMO.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 02 Apr 2014, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

Except I really have come to think it was AVG :-)

But either way, I'm not planning to go back there at the moment.

Anyway, the message that I hated most was the one that pops up *at
boot time* telling me every single time what I already knew about
protections I didn't enable and so forth. They included some
things that I had no reason to want, IMO.

Maybe it was Avira Antivirus. I used that one for some years, but they
kept ramping up the advertising until I just couldn't take it any more.
Avast manages to keep it under my pain threshold.

I used AVG for a while, too. It caused me problems, but I don't
remember what they were.

On Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:56:16 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 02 Apr 2014, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

Except I really have come to think it was AVG :-)

But either way, I'm not planning to go back there at the moment.

Anyway, the message that I hated most was the one that pops up *at
boot time* telling me every single time what I already knew about
protections I didn't enable and so forth. They included some
things that I had no reason to want, IMO.

Maybe it was Avira Antivirus. I used that one for some years, but they
kept ramping up the advertising until I just couldn't take it any more.
Avast manages to keep it under my pain threshold.

I've been using Avira on multiple computers for quite a few years now and
haven't found the advertising to be painful at all. Every 4-6 months a small
rectangular ad appears in the lower right corner of the desktop. I click
'Delete all' and it's gone for another 4-6 months. That's pretty painless.

I used AVG for a while, too. It caused me problems, but I don't
remember what they were.

I used AVG way back in the day but more and more I was seeing sources that I
respected saying how bad it was, so I switched to Avira. I never had any
trouble with it, though.

--

Char Jackson

On Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:56:16 -0400, Nil wrote:

On 02 Apr 2014, "Gene E. Bloch" wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

Except I really have come to think it was AVG :-)

But either way, I'm not planning to go back there at the moment.

Anyway, the message that I hated most was the one that pops up *at
boot time* telling me every single time what I already knew about
protections I didn't enable and so forth. They included some
things that I had no reason to want, IMO.

Maybe it was Avira Antivirus. I used that one for some years, but they
kept ramping up the advertising until I just couldn't take it any more.
Avast manages to keep it under my pain threshold.

I used AVG for a while, too. It caused me problems, but I don't
remember what they were.

Yeah, I got pretty tangled in remembering which problems went with which
AV program, plus there was doubtlessly a liberal dose of PEBCAK
sprinkled in :-)

I recalled later yesterday that one of them dinged me with a false
positive, which I didn't like, for some reason.

PCWorld, I think it was, or else PC Magazine, really likes Kaspersky,
and IIRC, they have a 30-day free trial...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 03 Apr 2014, Char Jackson wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I've been using Avira on multiple computers for quite a few years
now and haven't found the advertising to be painful at all. Every
4-6 months a small rectangular ad appears in the lower right
corner of the desktop. I click 'Delete all' and it's gone for
another 4-6 months. That's pretty painless.

I just checked my notes to remind me. Avira Free was OK for a long
time, but a year or two ago they started throwing up a big obnoxious ad
every time the virus definitions were updated, which was several times
a day sometimes. For a while, there were a couple of workarounds to
mitigate that, but then they stopped working. That's when I moved to
Avast.

On 4/3/2014 5:47 PM, Nil wrote:
On 03 Apr 2014, Char Jackson wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I've been using Avira on multiple computers for quite a few years
now and haven't found the advertising to be painful at all. Every
4-6 months a small rectangular ad appears in the lower right
corner of the desktop. I click 'Delete all' and it's gone for
another 4-6 months. That's pretty painless.

I just checked my notes to remind me. Avira Free was OK for a long
time, but a year or two ago they started throwing up a big obnoxious ad
every time the virus definitions were updated, which was several times
a day sometimes. For a while, there were a couple of workarounds to
mitigate that, but then they stopped working. That's when I moved to
Avast.


It was more than 2 years ago and I believe that Avira has now removed
the nag screen.

On 4/3/2014 6:42 PM, Ron wrote:
On 4/3/2014 5:47 PM, Nil wrote:
On 03 Apr 2014, Char Jackson wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I've been using Avira on multiple computers for quite a few years
now and haven't found the advertising to be painful at all. Every
4-6 months a small rectangular ad appears in the lower right
corner of the desktop. I click 'Delete all' and it's gone for
another 4-6 months. That's pretty painless.

I just checked my notes to remind me. Avira Free was OK for a long
time, but a year or two ago they started throwing up a big obnoxious ad
every time the virus definitions were updated, which was several times
a day sometimes. For a while, there were a couple of workarounds to
mitigate that, but then they stopped working. That's when I moved to
Avast.


It was more than 2 years ago and I believe that Avira has now removed
the nag screen.

http://techblog.avira.com/2013/09/27...tifier-ads/en/

On Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:47:54 -0400, Nil
wrote:

On 03 Apr 2014, Char Jackson wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

I've been using Avira on multiple computers for quite a few years
now and haven't found the advertising to be painful at all. Every
4-6 months a small rectangular ad appears in the lower right
corner of the desktop. I click 'Delete all' and it's gone for
another 4-6 months. That's pretty painless.

I just checked my notes to remind me. Avira Free was OK for a long
time, but a year or two ago they started throwing up a big obnoxious ad
every time the virus definitions were updated, which was several times
a day sometimes. For a while, there were a couple of workarounds to
mitigate that, but then they stopped working. That's when I moved to
Avast.

I think I remember what you're talking about, an ad that nearly filled the
screen? I applied one of the 'fixes' to disable those several years ago so I
forgot about them. What I see now is a small rectangle, about an inch high
and 1.5 inches wide, just above the clock in the lower right corner of the
screen, and it only comes up every 4-6 months or so. I dismiss it by
clicking on the almost-hidden Delete All message and don't see it again for
months.

Bottom line: those fixes still work. ;-)

--

Char Jackson