AVG FREE... Needing technical advice.

[Ronin]

Ok thanks. Do I need it? What exactly is it for?

I have yet to have someone complain that it has gone missing lol.

[Tink]

I once put it in terms the customer could understand.

"What you have effectively done is catch the clap, gone to the doctor and got cured. Then gone back to the same shag without a condom."

He laughed.

Then I charged him again.

Man if a IT guy/gal had told me that I would have laughed too!!

[Ronin]

Man if a IT guy/gal had told me that I would have laughed too!!

The secret to being an effective IT person is knowing how to communicate complicated IT knowledge to people without A: Confusing them or B: sounding condescending.

[steve_t]

The secret to being an effective IT person is knowing how to communicate complicated IT knowledge to people without A: Confusing them or B: sounding condescending.

Impossible!!

[jonbuoy]

Got a nasty one a couple of weeks ago that got through everything. It was a java app that pretended to be a jpg in a web page. I didn't realize anything wierd was happening until the java start up thingy popped up and disappeared. Next thing I know there's this "helpful" antivirus scanner I've never seen before busily running a scan on my entire system. Needless to say I killed it as fast as I could, but it had protected itself so a reboot to safe mode was in order. I got rid of what I could find then rebooted back to normal. Except a couple of days later I find my machine has been attempting to download the internet so a much more thorough hunt and destroy mission was in order. Looks like that did the trick as there aren't anymore anomalous processes or net connections etc and it doesn't seem to have damaged anything cos the machines been running for a week without problems.

So even the professionals get caught once in a while

Btw, I would've just booted to safe mode and uninstalled. Much easier.

Out of curiosity MT - what protection programme/s were you running?

[Mental Trousers]

Out of curiosity MT - what protection programme/s were you running?

That machine was running Avira and Privoxy with the browser (Chrome) using the Adblock+ extension, pop-up blocking etc. Can't remember if there was anything else as well but that lot does the job even though it's nothing fantastic. You'd be surprised at how little protection you actually need IF the machine is configured correctly and the user has a bit of a clue.

[Gremlin]

I've run without anti-virus for months, no issues, Windows machine... its just knowing what you shouldn't be clicking on...

[Tink]

That machine was running Avira and Privoxy with the browser (Chrome) using the Adblock+ extension, pop-up blocking etc. Can't remember if there was anything else as well but that lot does the job even though it's nothing fantastic. You'd be surprised at how little protection you actually need IF the machine is configured correctly and the user has a bit of a clue.

I use chrome, and love it.... AVG is ok until you want to delete it... now back to not sounding condescending ... sometimes its impossible not to... so many of us out there are pretty stupid when it comes to the deep side of computers... hell I know what some things are, but give me techno lingo and I am lost.

[Ronin]

I use chrome, and love it.... AVG is ok until you want to delete it... now back to not sounding condescending ... sometimes its impossible not to... so many of us out there are pretty stupid when it comes to the deep side of computers... hell I know what some things are, but give me techno lingo and I am lost.

Excuse me while I get on my high horse for a moment.

I have lost count of the amount of customers (mainly women) who's opening line to me is "I'm soooo stupid but". Now, I drive a car (sometimes) but I couldn't tell you ho a differential works. I know it does but as far as I'm concerned there is a magic axle fairy in there that sorts the shit out. Just because you don't know the inner workings of a computer or your eyes glass over at the mention of TCP/IP does not make you stupid. Any IT worker who thinks it does needs to be made to give birth, make a real cheese sauce and look after 3 kids... all at the same time. Then see who is the stupid one.

If you can do what you need to on your computer then you do just fine.

[Ronin]

I've run without anti-virus for months, no issues, Windows machine... its just knowing what you shouldn't be clicking on...

Customer to me: How do I not get any virus's at all
Me: Don't connect it to the net

Different customer: Why did our machine get infected
Me: You have males in your house right?

[steve_t]

Diffs are a pretty fricken cool things!!

[sugilite:Me]

That machine was running Avira and Privoxy with the browser (Chrome) using the Adblock+ extension, pop-up blocking etc. Can't remember if there was anything else as well but that lot does the job even though it's nothing fantastic. You'd be surprised at how little protection you actually need IF the machine is configured correctly and the user has a bit of a clue.

Funny, I was called to fix a laptop with a very similer setup, avira etc, with same sounding virus...up popped java icon etc..., it appeared to have disabled avira as it came in. Suprisingly it let me roll it back to a restore point a few days prior and it's not been back yet....

[Mental Trousers]

I know it did things like disable the debug console, took over proxy ports so you couldn't get to antivirus sites, MS etc and a bunch of other things to protect itself. I vaguely remember seeing something to do with a bunch of different antiviruses too so it probably disabled quite a few some how.

[awayatc]

No Anti-virus is like having unprotected sex.

interesting way to use a computer............

[jonbuoy]

I use chrome, and love it.... AVG is ok until you want to delete it... now back to not sounding condescending ... sometimes its impossible not to... so many of us out there are pretty stupid when it comes to the deep side of computers... hell I know what some things are, but give me techno lingo and I am lost.

IMHO Thats the reason Macs are so popular, if you have no real interest in tweaking and just want something that works out of the box Mac´s are the way to go. Its quite hard to break one. I´m not a MAC fanboy by any means and I wouldn´t personally use one but I see why they have gotten so popular.