Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

So, here I go… attacking another well-known player in the Antivirus market, and this time it’s a favorite among IT golden-boys everywhere.

Today, I’m going to talk about AVG Free.

AVG is one of those companies you just love to like.

First of all, they offer a decent free product.

Second, they are one of the “underdogs” of the antivirus market (not Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro).

Third, they aren’t Symantec, which immediately gives them a couple of points in my book… I mean, who else but Symantec can make a program so messy that they had to create an uninstaller to aid in the removal of their own product [ aka Norton Removal Tool ]???  I won’t even get into the mess that SEP (Symantic Endpoint Protection) creates, even after you have removed it!

Despite the reasons to like AVG Free, I have a number of complaints with it.  Unfortunately, they are major gripes.

The cons of AVG Free:

• AVG Free isn’t that great at detection and removal
• AVG Free, since it carries the name “Antivirus” gives you a false sense of security
• AVG Free doesn’t update automatically
• AVG Free slows down your system… I’m talking about the new version 8.0 and above

The trouble is… I really want to like AVG Free… I really do!

Many of my own home systems had AVG Free installed until very recently.  Of course, I have other forms of protection in place too, that most people do not have – such as a hardware firewall, OpenDNS Filtering, and a few others… but that’s another story for another time.

The fact is, surfing the web these days is dangerous… not just for your computer, but also for your privacy and possibly your very identity.

Web sites have viruses.

Let me repeat that… WEB SITES HAVE VIRUSES.

ANY web site can harbor a virus… not just pornographic web sites.  Not just the sites you go to get cheat codes, game cracks, key generators, and cutesy little widgets to put on your myspace profile.

Viruses can be hiding in banner ads, or infect a website unbeknown to the web site owner.

A story I tell my clients sometimes is the how thousands of innocent web site visitors were affected by a virus that infected many very high profile web sites, such as the Kelly Blue Book web site.  You can read more about that here, at the Washington Post online:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6746-2004Jun25.html

AVG Free is just NOT good enough for today’s Internet threats.  Period.

In addition to not giving you adequate protection, many users don’t know enough about antivirus and antispyware programs to make well-informed decisions on the matter.  They just see the word antivirus, and they think, “Oh yeah, that’s what I need.”  They download it, install it, and then think they are safe from all harm.

If they think they can save some money and get the same protection, but for FREE… what do you think they are going to do?  Of course… they are going to download the free product.

Before you make the decision on whether or not to go with a FREE product to protect your computer, or a $50 or so per year product, consider your choice wisely.  It helps to look at this another way…

If you HAD to go into a dangerous foreign country, who would you choose to be your body guard?

Would you want the paunchy, out of shape, middle-aged guy, who used to work mall security and has a license to carry a concealed weapon?  He’s a friend of a friend, and he’ll work for free.

Or, would you want the six foot two, ex-navy-seal-turned-mercenary who is an expert in hand to hand combat?

In case you are still deciding, you want the second guy.

Trust me.

You want the guy who’s not going to be playing around.  He’s not going to be your buddy or send you flowers.  He’s going to keep his eyes pealed, his ears to the ground, and his knife sharp.  He will to keep you safe… but, he’s NOT going to do it for free.  It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears  and time to acquire and hone these specialized and valuable skills and he expects to be compensated accordingly.

The same can be said for antivirus applications.

Are you really going to get the top-notch product for free?  Not even close.

No… for free, you are going to get the mall cop, and he won’t be armed with anything but pepper spray and a whistle.

Let’s switch gears here, and talk about performance…

When it comes to your computer’s speed, why sacrifice it when you don’t have to?

AVG Free (and even it’s paid version) will slow down a computer a bit.  There are website that talk about how to disable certain web/surf filters in AVG in order to reclaim some of their computing power… but, why would you want to put yourself at even MORE risk by turning off these filters?

So, please, please, please stay away from AVG Free.

The AVG Professional Version may slow down your computer, but at least you get some great protection!

There are a lot of products out there that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.  If you spread the cost out over the course of a year, you are talking about $0.07 to $0.10 per day.

Kaspersky Antivirus, for example costs $59 for a year, but if you purchase two years in advance, the price drops to $36 per year.  Although I think that Kaspersky Internet Security is a bit bloated and expensive, the Antivirus product is sleek, fast, and is very affordable (it’s what I use on the computer I’m on right now).

Same thing goes with Avast Professional Edition.  Avast charges $57 for a two year license.  That is an investment of less than $29 per year.  Very nice, considering how highly rated this product is.  Not only does it blow the doors off of anything by AVG Free, but it’s cheap too!  Quality protection for about $0.07 per day.