Alternative to AVG

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I’ve tried, I really have! But AVG8 is driving me mad. Its repeated false positives with AutoIt have made life difficult, it takes an age to open folders, because it seems to (re)scan every item in the folder, and now I find I have to switch it off before distilling PageMaker files, or else it takes for ever.

I’m looking for an alternative. We are a small poor non-profit that must consider every penny. But this means we don’t meet the conditions for free use of Avast. The only reasonable alternative I’ve found so far is Avira AntiVir, but I haven’t been able to find much in the way of up-to-date reviews of this. Does anyone have any experience? Or any ideas for other options?

I’d be grateful for any ideas….

Chris

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Which version of AVG 8 are you using? Our charity has AVG 8 Network Edition on two servers, one a terminal server, and over 20 domain PCs, without any problems except the occasional PC update hiccup. For charities/non-profits they charge 50% of the standard price, which is a significant concession…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Thanks for the idea , BATcher. Unfortunately I suspect that non-profits in the developing world run on much tighter budgets than in your part of the world (assuming you are from the ‘first world’). If needs must, I might consider that, but I’ve lost all faith in AVG, and would probably be looking at trying to find another alternative that offered such concessions.

Chris

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Since AVG Free is only licensed for single computer use for home and non commercial use, you would therefore have to look for an antivirus which allows free use by non-profit organisations or charities. Please post if you find such, because I’m sure it would be of interest!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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John, wouldn’t “non-commercial” be applicable to a not-for-profit? In the US I think it would be.

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AVG just means non-commercial use at home. From AVG Free – License Agreements:

License Agreements
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only. The use of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition within any organization or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition absolutely not for use with any type of OEM bundling with SW, HW component or any service. Please read the detailed license agreements below.

AVG Free – License Agreement on Use of an AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8 (full license agreement).

Joe

--Joe

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Well, that stinks. No wonder I switched to Avast. (Scurrying off to check the Alwil EULA.)

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Please post what your discerning eyes reveal, John, ’cause I too think it sucks that a non-profit can’t be treated like a home user! I AM A HOME USER and I have “separately ‘licensed’ copies” of Avast running on three computers and don’t feel the least bit nervous about that. Me or my son are not a commercial enterprise and I’m convinced, the “legal language” notwithstanding, that this is what most “vendors” would envision to be the case. I think if I were in a non-profit, in Jakarta, I’d be downloading and installing Avast!

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BigAl

I think Joe found rather better links than I did!

If you look up Spybot S&D’s terms and conditions, you will see that they do not allow their product on non-home machines, whereas Ad-Aware does (did?). I had to ask Belarc Advisor for a special licence to use BA on work PCs – they just did some minor website checking to determine that we were a charity.

It is really up to each AV firm to define the terms on which their product can be used, or not, on charity/non-profit computers., After all, they’re the ones who pay for their staff, and we can’t really complain…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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The Avast wording that I found (I didn’t do a complete nook-&-cranny search) was not quite a strong as AVG, but is still pretty clear about being intended for home use[/u].

(I won’t comment about the likelihood of either AVG or Alwil pursuing a Jakartan user. I also wasn’t aware until I followed Joe’s post link that Grisoft is now named AVG.)

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BigAl,

Not so long ago I asked Avast specifically if their free version could be used by a non profit organisation. Their answer was negative, since in their opinion the AvastPro version was already cheap enough.

Regards, Teunis

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Ouch, that hurts! Well, we can’t argue with that, can we? I guess Chris’ non-profit is going to have to come up with something on the order of about $30 bucks per machine (USD) or take a whack at the other alternative with the somewhat older review that says it’s the “best” (whatever that means).

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>But AVG8 is driving me mad.
I dutifully installed the free version 8 a week ago and promptly discovered that Thunderbird wasn’t able to issue emails. Oh sure, the Thunderbird popup message “mail sent successfully” appeared, but nothing went out.

I removed AVG and re-installed version 7(FREE).
I note this morning that Updates proceeded normally, so I’m wondering about Grisoft’s latest ‘scare” campaign.

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Chris,

Have a look at AVG 7.5 Free – Support ends 31/08/2008 – I suspect you may be plum out of luck soon. Of course they may delay….

Chris

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>I suspect you may be plum out of luck soon. Of course they may delay….
Thanks, Chris.
The “original” final date was July25th, i think.
I wondered whether the date was shifted because of discovered bugs in V8.

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Try reading this: Antivirus Software Review: Free Antivirus Software

It was pointed out recently in this thread: post 714,937.

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Thanks Big Al, Yes I did see that, but unfortunately (as far as I can see) the article is undated, and appears to refer to older editions. But I was also hoping for experience from the Lounge folks, which I frequently find more useful than the more ‘formal’ stuff – although I suppose I ought to be more concerned with the evidence base, rather than the anecdotes?

Chris

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