AVG Free 8.0

[Bullgrit]

I took my laptop in for repair -- wasn't connecting to the Internet. The tech fixed it, and when I went to pick it up, he told me what was wrong. He also told me he installed new security software "for me." AVG Free 8.0. (There was no charge for the install.)

Unfortunately, when I was picking the computer up, I was distracted and in a hurry, so what he said didn't really register with me at the time. The laptop is my wife's computer, so I rarely work with it. I just today, about a week after picking it up from the shop, fiddled around with it. I found the shortcut on the desktop and remembered what the tech told me about him installing it.

Now I'm mad. I'm mad at him for installing new software on my computer without my prior permission -- it was totally unnecessary for the repair he did -- and I'm mad at myself for letting it slide at the time I picked it up.

When he said, "I installed this software for you," I should have immediately said, "Um, no."

I'm looking into this software (AVG Free 8.0) to see what it is, and I'll decide whether to uninstall and remove it. If you have experience with it, please let me know something about it.

But I'm still steaming about the situation. You don't install new software on someone's computer without their permission. That's like someone bringing in their care for a tune up and you change their locks. Even if it's free and good, you just don't do it without their permission.

I haven't taken a computer in for any kind of repair in several years. Is this a standard practice among computer techs? I'm moderately pissed, but I don't know who I'm more mad at: the tech for installing it, or me for not paying attention and saying something at the time.

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[ssampier]

AVG is a decent antivirus. Of course installing may help if viruses were the reason you weren't able to connect. I imagine he removed the paid antivirus on it? If so, that's a pretty big deal. He should have asked permission.

If there wasn't an antivirus on it, I don't know what to tell you. If you took your car in for service and the oil looked awful and not changed in awhile, hopefully the technician would change it.

 

[Zil]

I wouldn't be too concerned about AVG Free. I have it installed on a number of my computers. It's a pretty good anti-virus program and hasn't caused me any problems in the 3+ years I've been using it.

Although it is strange that the tech installed an anti0virus computer without talking to you first, he did tell you when you picked it up. I'm sure that if you had complained at that point, he'd have removed it for you.

 

[DethStruck]

AVG was okay... I think that the new version 8.0 is much slower and intrusive. But that is just my professional opinion...

But yes... viruses could have been the cause of your problems so it wasn't a "bad" idea for him to do that and he did mention it.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Used to use AVG was using 7.x or thereabout and it seemed okay. I've switched to ClamWin now and it seems to be a better Anti-Virus picks up thing AVG missed.

Far as him installing it, if your problem was virus related and the old Anti-Vir was out of date and no longer supported it might not have been so "bad" a thing. Installing up-to-date Freeware may have been the only way to take care of the issue in the long term.

 

[FormerlyDickensC]

yea dude, relax. If you didn't have any anti virus protection going then he definitely did you a favor. And no its not like changing the locks, since you still have the same access as before.

As to whether AVG 8 is the best choice for you, well u can def do worse. Besides its free. If you dont like it, uninstall it. But if you have no other AV protection, then be sure you replace it with something. Typically multiple AV suites can't run or even be installed at the same time, so its likely you don't have another one present (nor did you before).

But, either way, there is no reason to freak over this.

 

[azhrei_fje]

I'd like to know what virus he had that prevented him from connecting to the Internet! Most of them turn your machine into a 'net zombie so it can be controlled from elsewhere.

Like most of the students in my networking classes, many people just don't understand how networking works and why it's important for any operating system to receive regular security updates. You can't imagine the number of times sheeple are shocked to learn that loading a page from a web site they visit all the time can infect their machine -- and a firewall can't protect them. In many cases, the AV software can't either. So it all comes down to being aware of what's go on. And many folks just don't pay attention...

 

[Aus_Snow]

I still do some tech support, in the community, and for friends and family - for barter or nada, mind you. I would make a similar decision, and have done so, quite a few times.

However, I always ask first. That would be the only difference, but then again, given how little some people know about operating systems, applications, networking and so on, I may as well have been offering them a cool refreshing drink they'd never heard of.

Generally, it's a free antivirus, sometimes a free firewall, and usually a free anti-spyware app or suite. Very occasionally something else to supplement all that. I can't really fault someone putting a harmless free antivirus on a machine that (presumably) had none to begin with.

But anyway, yeah, I would always ask. Perhaps they should've too.

 

[ssampier]

I'd like to know what virus he had that prevented him from connecting to the Internet! Most of them turn your machine into a 'net zombie so it can be controlled from elsewhere.

...

Personal experience here. I have seen viruses, trojans, and spyware do all sorts of weird things on consumer computers.

In any many cases malware corrupt many system files, so yes a virus can cause the Internet not to connect. Of course, AVG won't fix already corrupted files, but it will help those viruses from coming back.

You wouldn't believe how many times I had to run a Winsock fix in my time fixing consumers PCs.

 

[fba827]

I'd like to know what virus he had that prevented him from connecting to the Internet! Most of them turn your machine into a 'net zombie so it can be controlled from elsewhere.

Virus/trojans/etc can do many weird things on computers. But there is a good possibility that it was pumping out so much information that it was saturating his net connection and thereby making it unusable (meaning any website/etc he tried to connect to would always result in epic fail). Or it otherwise some how modified/effected the tcp/ip stack (or otherwise just eating up processor power if he wasn't able to do anything beyond processor non-intensive computer operations). I'm not saying that is what it was, but that is always a possibility.


I used to be in charge of a medium-sized ISP and when I would get the weekly reports from customer service heads, when it comes to connectivity issues, the number 2 cause of problems was some how related to viruses issues. (the first being settings, like someone changed a setting or was trying to connect a new computer, etc).


As far as AVG -- I have used AVG 7.X on many computers and have used it for many years. I've never found it to be overly intrusive or troublesome (in fact, considerably less so than several big names that you would have to pay for). I don't have any experience with AVG 8.X.

Bottom line: Presuming 8.x is similar to 7.x, it can't hurt. If you do plan on putting on other anti-virus stuff on that computer then you should uninstall AVG (having more than one anti-virus thing is not recommended by software manufacturers). Having said all that, yes, the man should have asked first.

But, in the grand scheme of things, you're fine. And uninstall it if you feel it


Note: If you do keep it on, AVG (at least in 7) had two daily scheduled activities -- the daily update and the daily computer scan. You may want to adjust the timing of those things that they don't happen during your personal 'peek' usage time. The update causes a momentary popup to inform you that it is updating (that lasts for 30 seconds or until you click okay) so that may distract the user if they're busy. And the daily scan does use resources (it's scanning all your files after all) and it could take a while depending on the number of files you have so it could slow down other things you may be trying to do if they are intensive applications.