Never Use Avast Free Addition !!

never had a problem here.

had avast free for years no probs

no problems here ....

I was even unable to remove it. I tried it by using Add/Remove option in control panel but didn't work. So I had my system in safe mode and removed it eventually.

Never had a problem ,would be reluctant to use anything else.

never had a problem here either, always used either avast or avg free versions.

got AVG free version now, working great

Love Avast No Probs

Avast is the best free virus software out there.
It found all sorts of crap that AVG hadn't picked up.

Avast is the Bees Knees

I used Avast, for several years, having previously paid
for new versions of Norton, that became an increasing
drain on performance.

Then I got a virus that was so invasive that my PC expert
had to wipe it as he new immediately that he couldn't deal with it.

He installed AVG, on his own initiative, and I have stayed with it
ever since (probably about two years).

I think they are both good (as free systems) even though Avast let something through.

My question is "why are these free systems offered and what do
the providers get out of it"?
Are they simply hoping that some may upgrade to a pay product?

No AV software can be 100% safe. If a new virus is out before AV software know about it then AV software can not prevent it.

There are other ways to limit your exposure to viruses.

1. Make sure all your software is fully patched. Some viruses target things such as Adobe Reader. If the software is not upto date then you are at risk. Other risky apps include Java (this is not really needed now, it should be uninstalled), and then there are things like media players.

Install Secunia PSI. This will scan all your apps and tell you which is out of date, what the vulnerability is, and how you can update the software.

Secunia PSI
http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

For performance reasons I would not run this at boot / in the background. Just run it once a week or month.

2. Use apps which are less likely to be targetted. This would mean NOT using Microsoft products. Rather than IE use Firefox or Opera, rather than Windows use Linux. Of course this may not be possible for most users.

3. Protect your browsing with Firefox add-ons such as Flashblock and definite Noscript. Noscript is 100 essential for not only browsing sites you have not visited before, but for trusted sites such as news sites.

Many exploits now are targetted in Ads. Bad guys know that only the really dumb users are clikcing on random emails, or downloading .exe files so in order to trap the masses they are injected javascript exploits in Adverts.

This means that when you visit popular sites you may download malware without even knowing about it. Noscript will block this.

It is also worth blocking adds totally. Two ways to do this: Install Adblock add on for firefox. Install a hosts file which blocks the IPs of known advertisers and scam sites.

NoScript
http://noscript.net/

Or just search for it in Firefox, Tools, Add-ons

Hosts File Ads Block
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Cheers P.Phil.

As usual, very clear & precise info.

Many thanks.

thanks phil

I recently got a program called 'TVU player'  which is letting me stream all the australian football league games every week... seems too good to be true.  It says it works as a 'p2p streaming program'

do you know if this is safe or is it insane to be watching stuff on this while using betfair?

Thanks Phil. As LD said, concise and informative.

Just to let you know, last night I was infected by a virus that installed a fake 'virus removal tool', called MS Virus Removal Tool, which then told me I was infected by 30 virus's and kindly offered to remove them on payment of a fee. I have Avast installed, but this must have got through before they had a chance to update their database.

Having read up on it via a google search this morning (on a different PC) I was all set to manually remove the offending files and registry entries. I turned on the PC, immediately opened Task Manager to look for the virus file, and before I did anything Avast warned me that it had found and blocked the file. So, they must have found out about it overnight, and updated their database of known threats. Avast then prompted me to run a virus check from boot-up, i.e. before Windows loads up. This found the file, and gave me the choice to delete it, which I obviously did.

Never used TVU player but from what I gather it is similar to P2P sites but for live streams, rather than downloads. The legal implications are the same: if you participate then you run the risk of copyright infringement.

It's probably safe but I would think it would be putting more resources on your PC / internet connection such that you may not be able to place bets exactly when you want to, e.g. goal scored, you lay, too late. Same goes for the time lag I guess.