Thread: AVG Internet Security

With technology moving at a fast pace, security has become a major issue and with the increase of broadband users, browsing the internet without the right security suite installed is a high risk. Not only are you sending an open invitation to hackers but your person at' details are also at a risk of getting stolen. While most of us swear by the free version of AVG, the paid versions offer. greater protection as well as support. It has been a while since the launch of the all new AVG v8 and we must say that the user interface has gone through a major overhaul. No more switching between the basic and advanced interface since all protection as well as update tools are neatly placed on the main:window itself.

Installation was pretty quick with the choice of either selecting a manual or an express setup. After installation, the program does a thorough scan of the applications installed on the machine. Here you can either choose to scan for applications or do a thorough scan of the selected drives. This is essential, as this is where the firewall defines the protocol that an application should follow.

As mentioned before, the interface is downright simple with the scanner and update placed towards the left plane of the main window while the status overview of the security components occupies the better half of the window. Any kind of error within the components is denoted by either an exclamation mark or a cross sign highlighted in red. Other than that, you will also find a status message towards the top panel of the window that displays a list of components disabled or stopped. The settings can also be modified by merely clicking on the respective component, but the change is just minor. To make a more thorough change you will need to access the program's advanced setting. Other than the Anti-Virus and Firewall there is also the Anti-Rootkit component, which scans for more malicious programs that conceal themselves by working at the lowest system level. In other words, they are virtually undetectable by the AntiVirus. Do keep in mind that the Rootkit scan is not a part of the scheduled and regular scans. Nevertheless, this scan can be included in any of the on-demand scans by tagging 'Scan for Rootkits' in the 'Scan settings' menu. To give the user a full all-round protection, AVG comes integrated with a link scanner that is aimed to protect the user from malicious scripts and phishing websites when browsing.

Performance:

Even though the product has a flawless and a very unassuming interface, it takes a beating when you look at the memory usage. A whopping 140 MB of memory is consumed during a system scan and 70 MB when idle. CPU usage when running a scan is high at approximately 60 percent. The scanner is not designed to lower CPU resources when other tasks are being carried out, so you will notice a certain amount of system slowdown when running a scan. The slowdown is also noticeable in the overall boot time. AVG can boast about the scanning speed. It took about 20 minutes to scan a 10 GB drive at default settings. Virus detection rates are also at par with other scanners in the market but with more false positives. The firewall is also good and automatically adds applications to its list but is not superior when compared to other Security Suites.

If you are not too keen on purchasing the product, you have the option of downloading the free version of AVG that includes just the basic necessities such as the Anti-Virus, Spyware and LinkScanner.