Problems Downloading AVG Updates?

from the May 2005 Newsletter

AVG from Grisoft is probably the most popular free anti-virus program. Over the years many have switched it from their paid-for anti-virus program with good results. However, lately the Actrix Help Desk has reported that quite a few customers have noticed a problem with downloading the weekly virus definition updates.

The problem would appear to be something to do with the capacity of the servers AVG has devoted to updates for their Free Edition software. Hopefully they will get the problem fixed sometime soon, but at the moment we aren't sure whether they are looking into it. Some of the more cynical have suggested that it might be a deliberate attempt to force users to change to a paid version of the software. Some customers have said that downloading the latest version of the AVG program has fixed the problem for them. If you would like to try this the latest version is available from: http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php.

Alternately you can download the AVG updates manually from: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/Updates/lng/us/tpl/tpl01.

To do this just go to the above address and download the update files listed to a folder on your computer such as the desktop. Once the downloads have completed you will need to follow these steps to install the update(s):

  1. Open the AVG Control Centre, (double click on the AVG icon by the clock on the bottom right of your screen).
  2. Click on Update Manager.
  3. Click the Update button.
  4. Click the Folder button.
  5. Browse to the folder you saved the files to, single left-click to select it and then click 'Ok'.
  6. Click 'Yes' to install the update(s) and then 'Ok' when the process is complete.

Unfortunately if AVG does not fix the automatic update service you will want to do this at least once a week to ensure AVG is kept up to date.

Otherwise there are other free anti-virus programs available such as:

- Avast, from: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html. This one seems to be a good alternative to AVG but we are still testing Avast to determine how good the free edition is.

- Antivir, from: http://www.free-av.com/. Antivir does not provide as comprehensive protection as AVG and is not as user-friendly, but it is certainly better than having no virus protection at all.

-ClamWin, from http://www.clamwin.net/. ClamWin is used by a few Actrix staff who report that it seems to do a great job. It is very unobtrusive (you don't know it's there) and downloads updates automatically by default.

Feel free to experiment with these programs If you install one and don't like it, they are usually easy to remove (Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs).