May 25, 2005

Hi, All!
This Week: AVG Free

On May 19 I received an update to my "AVG Free" (Anti Virus Group) email anti virus scanner. Suddenly, the email scanner portion of the program stopped working. I got a message that indicated AVG could not connect to my ISP, Tiger Mountain. After working with it a bit, I just let it sit to see what would happen. After Outlook tried to connect to TMT several times, my PC locked up and required a power-off. I then disabled the email portion of AVG. As I was working on my problem, a client on whose machine I had installed AVG sent me an email saying that she had the same issue, but her ISP was CenturyTel.
Now I knew the problem was not an ISP issue. So here we have a dilemma; much like that of last week's column in that hardware and software that had worked well together for months are updated to the point that they no longer function together--sort of a "Peter Principal" in the PC world.
Other than just keeping the email scanner disabled, what can we do? Not much. The problem with free versions is that they do not have any tech support. Some companies will let free version users send emails in to alert them of problems, but Grisoft, the maker of AVG, has only a web site to download the free version and look at some FAQ's. It does not have any other support.
We could buy the full version that includes tech support, or just wait a day or two to see if the company discovers that they have a bug.
Like all things that are free, there is a price to pay. What you can do depends on how you feel or how much you can afford. There is a benefit to free software, both from the company's as well as from the consumer's perspective. However, some of us do have to purchase the product to keep the free version available. So if you can afford the $40 - $50, it may be the inevitable time to upgrade and let the company know there is a problem.

'Til next week,
Robert
(ComputerFAQ#242)


Robert

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