Joyce wrote:
>The probable reason AVG 8 has "waned in popularity" is a
>little glitch in downloading updates>>


Not only that. It is quite heavy on memory usage.

And it seems (I haven't used it) that its pre-checking of all links on web 
pages was one of those ideas that's great in theory, but a bit of a 
disaster in practice. While you're looking at a web page, it is 
pre-scanning all links on that page, whether you intend to look at them or 
not.  The theory is that this should speed up your browsing in an ideal 
world, but in practice it apparently has the opposite effect.

On a slow connection, or on a site with a slow or busy server, this could 
slow your browsing down something horrible.

I think you can turn this function off, though it's probably enabled by 
default.

I don't think AVG is "bad" and if you're happy with it, stick with it by 
all means. It served me well for many years. It's just that Avira is faster 
and leaner, and seems more comprehensive in that it detects trojans as well 
as viruses (the distinction is blurred anyway)----despite its nagscreen 
which tells you how much better the paid version is.

<< I might give
Avira  a try.  Will it work with my SpyBot S & D, and Spyware Blaster?
Or should I go with the Superantispyware and take the other two out? >>

I wouldn't expect any problems. I haven't seen any reports of it 
conflicting with anything. I don't use Spyware Blaster,
but I have Superantispyware, Malwarebytes, A2, Spybot, and Adaware.

I wouldn't use more than one of those in their active form (ie the paid 
versions running actively in the background). That's neither necessary nor 
desirable---you mightn't have much computing power left for anything else, 
and would definitely notice a slowdown as each one competes for processing 
time as they all scan every file you open.

I only run Superantispyware and Avira and the XP firewall  actively (ie set 
to run permanently at startup). The others are simply for very occasional 
system scans---but they hardly ever find anything now.

I find Avira very unintrusive, and very easy to setup and control. When I'm 
not browsing or emailing, I usually disable it (enable/disable is a very 
simple one click on its tray icons, which makes this obvious at all times 
by showing an open or closed umbrella---real neat).

Don Penlington

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