AVG 8 Once More - Turn Off Link Scanner
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Some users are reporting that their browser locks when they try to access any website, after installing AVG 8 free edition. One of the suggestions in the AVG forums was to turn off the Link Scanner feature built into AVG 8.
What is Link Scanner? Basically it scans websites in an attempt to discover rogue web sites. This feature is handy, but if you are experiencing problems with Link Scanner, you can turn this feature off. Here’s how:
1. Open AVG 8 Anti-Virus Free edition.
2. Look at the top menu and click on TOOLS. A drop down menu appears.
3. Click on Advanced Settings. Take a look at the list to your left hand side.
4. Look on the list for - LinkScanner.
5. Click on LinkScanner and take a look to the right hand side. You will see two boxes that are checked. Uncheck the boxes.
If your browser now works properly, than LinkScanner was the problem.
If you would like to have a link scanner on your system, do a Google for either McAfee Site Advisor or WOT. Both do a fairly good job alerting you the user to rogue sites.
Comments welcome.
PS Some have commented that AVG will not function with Windows versions prior to W2K. Unfortunately this is correct.
9 Comments
Claus Valca
June 3rd, 2008
at 6:57am
Ron,
Thanks for the kind words regarding my posts about AVG Free v8 and offering links to your readers to them.
I posted another one on Sunday you might be interested in.
More Perspectives and Tips on AVG Free version 8 - http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-perspectives-and-tips-on-avg-free.html
Anyway regarding alternative link scanners.
I found a number of helpful links on this subject you might want to look over and consider adding in to this post:
Pre-Scanning of URL Links for Safe Web Surfing - http://grandstreamdreams.blogspot.com/2008/03/pre-scanning-of-url-links-for-safe-web.html
Love your blog. I’ve added it to my daily RSS feed list.
–Cheers.
Claus V.
Ryan
June 3rd, 2008
at 7:24am
I’ll just chime in on this matter, that Avira Antivir Personal is pretty much the best free antivirus you’re going to get, on my Windows boxen I turned off Windows Defender in the dozen or so ways it tries to load itself and installed Spybot S&D (turn on Teatimer) and Avira Antivir, and have never once had a problem with a virus or spyware getting in and setting up shop.
Hint: When using Spybot, make sure you update with “Check for beta detection rules”, then immediately IMMUNIZE Internet Explorer and Firefox against all of the stuff it can immunize them for.
Hint 2: Internet advertisements loading on otherwise good sites, like Yahoo, have been trojaning in stuff like the Zlob worm, so Adblock Plus with Firefox or IE7Pro will provide some protection from this route of infection, if you’re real paranoid, NoScript add on for Firefox lets you opt-in to active content on a site by site basis, easily.
Ron Schenone
June 3rd, 2008
at 7:36am
Hello Claus V.,
Thanks for the additional links and also for the compliments. I’ll be doing another piece on AVG and will include your links and comments as well.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the comments. I use AdBlock Plus & NoScript so I must be one of the paranoid ones!
I’ve got AntiVir on my list to try.
Regards, Ron
Denny
June 4th, 2008
at 10:21am
_ _ NOT–ME–RON
I Like Living on the . EDGE . Thats Why I Still Use . IE-7
__
Ron Schenone
June 4th, 2008
at 12:36pm
Than you should try IE 8 Beta 2. This is life in the fast lane.
DougCuk
June 14th, 2008
at 3:26am
I really want to like AVG v8 but ………….
OK so we know that the new Linkscanner in AVG v8 slows browser response times due to all the extra checks it runs on every link displayed. It does this by pre-loading pages in the background and checking for suspicious code. But did you consider how this is impacting on bandwidth - both your own and websites?
This was posted by a concerned AVG v8 user on their forums:
http://freeforum.avg.com/read.php?14,132399
I had Linkscanner turned on and have Google set to display 100 hits per page. In the process of scanning links, Linkscanner downloaded over 900 MegaBytes of data in one day! Use this feature with care if you have a download quota on your internet account!
I did some checking and it seems webmasters have been complaining about how link-scanners in general and AVG V8 in particular are impacting both their bandwidth and skewing important visitor statistics
Posted on The Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/13/avg_scanner_skews_web_traffic_numbers/
One webmaster is quoted as saying “traffic has spiked as much as 80 per cent on some sites. And this is more than just an inconvenience. After all, sites live and die by their traffic numbers. And net resources aren’t free.”
Every new feature comes at a price!
Ron Schenone
June 14th, 2008
at 6:06am
Hi DougCuk,
Once again, thanks for the information.
Chip
June 16th, 2008
at 12:27am
But…when you disable AVG’s LinkScanner, the AVG icon in the systems tray changes from its normal 4-color patch to a red exclamation point which is supposed to indicate a problem with the way AVG is working on your system. So..if the exclamation point is always showing, you are not able to determine whether other features of AVG are not working.
Rowno
May 2nd, 2009
at 5:05am
When you first install AVG, you have the option to not install certain components by unticking them. That’s what I did with the Linkscanner.
Also, in the Advanced Settings there’s an option to ignore the status of different components. If you installed the Linkscanner and disabled it, you can set AVG to ignore it so that it doesn’t display the exclamation mark there.