SOFTWARE: AVG and ZoneAlarm Mutating

I have long been a proponent of both AVG for Anti-virus protection and ZoneAlarm for firewalls for most unsophisticated users. Both have the charm of being free, while both hope you will want more than their free service and will upgrade. I use AVG myself. The free version.

Somehow, lately, there have been attempts to hoodwink some of you. And the result for me is TWO different crashed computers that I think were trashed by updating these two programs.

Let's start with AVG, which has released a new 8.0 version, available right now in a 'free' 30-day trial version. Apparently, there WILL be a release of AVG 8.0 Free sometime in the next three months.

AVG Free 8.0 FAQ

So, you should be able to live with the 7.5 that you have been using. An update to the program core of that release came out as recently as March 11th. You SHOULD be able to use it and get the daily updates as you always have--until it's time to upgrade to 8.0. I know Patrick has found that his 7.5 install is NOT updating anymore. So he's TRYING out 8.0. Most of you SHOULD not be faced with this upgrade or else scenario. 'Cept some are upgrading already. And that's troubling.

First, the trial is actually the full AVG security suite. I actually prefer to use dedicated tools for each of the usual tasks, virus protection, firewall, spam-blocking and spyware scanning. I actually use different products for all four tasks. I do NOT want a suite, thank you very much. And I hope you won't be tricked into getting this one. And it's not because I don't trust the quality of AVG. I have no idea whether v8 is any good. Too early to tell.

But, one of the sure recipes to disaster is to have two programs trying to protect you from the same threat at the same time. Bodyguards don't always place nice in these circumstances. It can lead to disaster.

I am, in fact, now wondering if AVG is tangling with AdAware AdWatch in stopped Casey's computer from running at all. It would answer a lot. This computer has cost me lots of sleep over the last two days.

It's not the only one. My Dad's computer decided to create a brand-new account for him on the weekend. It accepted his old name and password on booting, but he was no longer operating on the account set up for his name. Not even on the one that is his name plus 16 digits of random characters that suddenly got created last December. Now, it's his account, plus the 16 digits, PLUS '.000.'

And I have no better idea why it happened on the weekend then I did when responding to the first instance three months ago. Strike that, I think ZoneAlarm is somewhere near the responsible party.

Dad's browser suddenly developed an extra toolbar devoted to the ZoneAlarm SpyBlocker utility. Dad doesn't need it. He runs Firefox and has the NoScript add-in turned on. He has to actively ALLOW scripts to run. He also runs Adblock and StopAutoplay. In other words, NOTHING this update to ZoneAlarm could help. Co-incidentally, it updated and he lost his account. I truly wonder if an earlier update was the culprit back in December.

Users have long been aware that ZoneAlarm has some nasty habits when updating the program core. If you have manual updating turned on, each upgrade turns it back off. But now there's another negative option that you have to pay attention to. During that install, look for the spyware blocker toolbar and UNCHECK it.

The result of NOT doing so, COULD be a huge hit on my time.

By the way, I have made some modifications to my recommended list for living on the internet. Of course, you should be using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. You simply cannot make the latter secure. Pick an email program OTHER than Outlook. I use both Eudora AND Thunderbird. With Add-Ins, Thunderbird can do a LOT of what Outlook touts as its advantage. AVG remains the suggested Anti-virus program, but the past few days has me wondering if a switch to AVAST! might not be ahead. Comodo Firewall Pro (free, despite the name) is looming as ZoneAlarm's replacement. It's not as easy to use, but I'm feeling awfully leery about ZoneAlarm anymore. Get rid of AdAware. No longer recommended. Pair Spybot Search and Destroy with Spyware Blaster.

I cannot tell you for certain that AVG or ZoneAlarm bear ANY responsibility for my lost weekend. But I will tell you two things. It won't take but one more puzzling situation for me to stop using these products. And I'm going to be doing a thorough back up of ALL my computers this week.