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smartdollars The Computer Savvy Weblog


AVG Internet Security 2012 (2012.0.1834) – Full Review

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 09:15 PM PDT

The Rating Scale Breakdown:

  • 0  – 0.5 – Abysmal
  • 1 – 1.5 – Terrible
  • 2 – 2.5 – Poor
  • 3 – 3.5 – Average
  • 4 – 4.5 – Great
  • 5.0 – Excellent
  • Undetermined – Too soon to tell or lacking evidence to provide a solid answer
  • Not Tested - Has yet to be requested or there is some limitations to prevent accurate test results

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Price: $54.99 USD

A. Installation AVG4.0 "Great" – Slower then AVG claims.

B. Un-installing AVG3.5 "Average" – A little faster then AVG 2011

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C. Stability Of Program 5.0 "Excellent" – We have received absolutely no e-mails about the lack of stability.

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D. Has AVG Free Been Compromised By Hackers Or Virus5.0 "Excellent" – AVG Internet Security 2012 has not been compromised or disabled.

E. Speed of Scan5.0 "Excellent" – Very quick on most computers. Also now you can decide how much memory you want to take up during each system scan.

F. Does AVG Free Do Automatic Updates By Itself Without Issue5.0 "Excellent" – Yes, and this time around there seems to be no stalling and or hanging. When we manually update AVG. As we have seen in older versions of AVG.

G. Internet Browser Cookie Detection Rate And Removal Test2.5 "Poor" - Getting better. But you are way better off with SUPERAntiSpyware or CCleaner to remove your Internet cookies.

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1. Anti-Virus Detection Rate Test -

1A. Windows XP - 4.0 "Great"

1B. Windows Vista4.0 "Great"

1C. Windows 74.0 "Great"

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2. Anti-Spyware2.0 "Poor" – AVG still seems to miss very common and not so common spyware/adware. You are much better off with SUPERAntiSpyware or Spybot as your adware, spyware, malware protection.

3. One Click Fix4.5 "Great" – I really like this idea. But I am not a fan of the idea that if I wanted to de-activated a service. Such as the Link Scanner that AVG should still show my PC as not being fully protected.

4. Anti-Spam - 3.0 "Average" - Tough to setup and GMail has better spam mail protection. 

5. FireWall - 3.5 " Average" — Not the best Firewall I've tested. But it does do what it is suppose to most of the time.

6. Link Scanner - 4.5 "Great" - Can be very very useful to some.

7. AVG Security ToolBar3.5 "Average" - Not a big fan of any toolbars. But at least this time around it seems to not crash my browser.

8. AVG SideBar Gadget3.5 "Average" – Less functional then most other sidebar gadgets and or widgets. But it can be very useful for quick AVG interactions.

9. Residential Shield Test3.5 "Average" – I find that AVIRA and or AVAST still seems to grab the virus way before AVG does.

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10. Family Safety - 4.5 "Great" - Cost $19.99 CAD per year for 3 PC's to activate this just newly added option. But it covers unlimited profiles. So you can have just one or two kids or 11 kids and your good. Provided it is only used up to 3 PC's.

11. LiveKive - Not TestedThis option has just been added to AVG Dashboard. But it cost money to activate. -See below for cost to activate said option-

*Cost $49.99 CAD for 25 GB of storage per year.

*Cost $79.99 CAD for Unlimited  storage per year.

*** DISCLAIMER: Both 10 & 11 are not included in overall score. As they are not included and cost extra.

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12. E-Mail Scanner - 3.5 "Average" - It's ok, But I find it is way more difficult to set-up then it needs to be.

13. Update Manager5.0 "Excellent" – No issues here at all. And it even updates faster then past AVG versions.

14. Online Shield - 4.0 "Great" – Still not really sure how really effective this option is.

15. Anti-Root Kit4.5 "Great" – Very hit and miss. But can be very useful if there is a reason to believe you may have a deep rooted virus. Never hurts to run this every few weeks just to be on the safe side. And AVG has it as a completely separate dedicated scan option as well (Which makes it way quicker to run and it uses much less system resources.)

16. System Tools3.5 "Average" – Great idea but very poorly done. Now the information is there but it is very very hard to decipher even for the more Computer Savvy of us.

17. Identity Protection4.5 "Great" - A very useful feature that lets you know when you maybe at risk for identity theft and or other important information maybe at risk. Such as with Peer 2 Peer file sharing programs, certain add-ons and some toolbars.

18. PC Analyzer0.5 "Abysmal" – If you don't mind that you only can fix your errors for free once then great. But if you are like me and you probably feel this options is both somewhat misleading and out right bait to buy this extremely expensive add-on. Then you are probably with me on my conclusion.

** On a side note I fully expected with the paid version of AVG Internet Security 2011. That the PC Analyzer would be an included as a usable option.

19. AVG Support - 1.0 "Terrible" – Even with e-mail support and phone support. AVG remains as one of the worst main stream software companies for help with their paid versions of their software. And yet again this is very disappointing and sad thing to report as AVG is in the top 3 Anti-Virus solutions out there.

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My Final Verdict Part 1: The main difference in AVG Internet Security 2012. Is the minimalist less detailed UI (User Interface). For most users this won't be an issue. But I find it very frustrating as it seems that AVG decided to move all the technical information. Such as the version codes over to the AVG HELP section.

My Final Verdict Part 2: I'm not really sure why AVG feels the need to hide the vast majority of its good features. Instead of having it all visible and active via the main user interface. Now I understand certain features by default should be non-active. But why so many important features need to be activated by hand. Seems some what bewildering to me. When the bulk of the features are so important and often are the main reasons you spent nearly $50 dollars in the first place.

**As per the norm it is highly recommend that you upgrade to the new AVG Internet Security 2012. As soon as possible if you are still using one of AVG older versions. So you can insure you have the best protection AVG has to offer.

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My Overall Score: 96.5/130

74.2% = B -

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Here are 2 links to download the 30 day trailware version of AVG Internet Security 2012:

1. http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-internet-security (AVG Main Site)

2. Not Available At The Time Of This Review (Via download.com/Cnet)

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Return To The Main Reviews Page

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Till The Next Review,

Remy "Se7en"



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New Spybot – Search & Destroy Definition Update Available (2011-11-02)

Posted: 02 Nov 2011 12:14 PM PDT

Dear Readers,

Hello and welcome to my post that will be continuing to following all of the Spybot – Search & Destroy weekly definition updates.

Here is the full list of updates:

2011-11-02

Malware

- ClaroMultimedia

- Win32.FraudLoad.edt

- Win32.WwVii2

Trojans

- Bancos.Santander

- Fraud.FF.rtk

- Fraud.SystemRestore

- Win32.Bifrost

- Win32.Buzus.ixvg

- Win32.HKFP.xam

- Win32.Muollo

- Win32.ZBot

Total: 2475412 fingerprints in 777573 rules for 6363 products.

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To see the full list in it's original glory. Please use the following link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html

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If you would like to download Spybot – Search & Destroy please use the following link: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html

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Till The Next Spybot Update,

Kirbe



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