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AVG (Grisoft) antivirus and company description

AVG version 8 new features
AVG version 8 antivirus pricelist (prices, current version)
AVG version 7.5 pricelist (discontinued, old version)
How to install AVG 8.0 over AVG 7.x or AVG Free edition

MATRIX UAB as Gold Level AVG reseller, presents information on AVG antivirus products

AVG Technologies (formerly named Grisoft) is a privately-held Czech company formed in 1991 by Jan Gritzbach and Tomas Hofer that specializes in security software, with corporate offices in Europe and the United States. On September 7, 2005, a large stake in the company was bought by Intel, which invested $16 million. AVG Technologies acquired Ewido Networks in April 2006 and upgraded their main product of AVG Anti-Virus from version 7.1 to 7.5. On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced that AVG Security products would be available directly from the Windows Security Center in Windows Vista. Since June 7, 2006, the AVG software has also been used as an optional component of GFI MailSecurity, produced by GFI Software. On December 5, 2007, AVG Technologies announced the acquisition of Exploit Prevention Labs, developer of the LinkScanner safe surfing technology. In February 2008, Grisoft was officially renamed as AVG Technologies. In January 2009, AVG announced their plans to acquire Sana Security are finalized. Plans to integrate Sana's technologies in their free consumer product, AVG Anti-Virus, is still under consideration, according to JR Smith, AVG's chief executive. Sana Security's developed technologies are currently licensed to Symantec.

Home security AVG antivirus product group
* AVG Anti-Virus 8.0
* AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall 8.0
* AVG Internet Security 8.0 (AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall and Anti-Spam)
* AVG Internet Security 3-Pack Edition 8.0
* AVG Anti-Virus 7.5 for Linux/FreeBSD

Business security AVG antivirus product group
* AVG Anti-Virus Network Edition 8.0 (Networkable AVG Anti-Virus and Firewall with AVGADMIN)
* AVG Anti-Virus SBS Edition 8.0
* AVG Internet Security Network Edition 8.0 (Networkable AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall and Anti-Spam with AVGADMIN)
* AVG Internet Security SBS Edition 8.0
* AVG File Server Edition 8.0
* AVG File Server Edition 7.5 for Linux/FreeBSD
* AVG E-mail Server Edition 8.0
* AVG E-mail Server Edition 7.5 for Linux/FreeBSD
* AVG Rescue CD 7.5 (Toolset for rescue & repair of infected machines.)

Free edition AVG antivirus product group
* AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 (Free anti-virus software with fewer features than the paid version)

AVG awards
* ICSA Labs Anti-Virus certification
* VB 100% award
* Checkmark Level 1, Level 2 and Trojan certifications
* TÜV Monitored Virus Protection
* Red Herring 100 Europe award
* Internet Commerce Excellence 2005
* Gold Award - Web-User, the UK's biggest selling Internet magazine awarded AVG Anti-Virus in October 2006 antivirus group
* Recommended award - AVG Free for Linux achieves "Recommended" award February 2006
* Best antivirus program - PCW Awards for Excellence 2005
* Best antivirus program - SC Magazine Best of 2005
* Best Security Software 2007- Techworld Awards

AVG Anti-Virus & Internet Security Protection

AVG History
The brand name for AVG Technologies' Security Software is AVG, which comes from their first product, Anti-Virus Guard.[1] AVG Technologies is a privately held Czech company formed in 1991 by Jan Gritzbach and Tomas Hofer. In early September 2005, a large stake in the company was bought by Intel Corporation. On April 19, 2006, ewido Networks became a part of the AVG Technologies group.
On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced that AVG Security products would be available directly from the Windows Security Center in Windows Vista. Since June 7, 2006, the AVG software has also been used as an optional component of GFI Mail Security, produced by GFI Software. On December 5, 2007, AVG Technologies announced the acquisition of Exploit Prevention Labs, developer of the LinkScanner safe surfing technology. On February 8, 2008, Grisoft announced that they would change the company name from Grisoft to AVG Technologies. This change was made to increase the effectiveness of their marketing activities

Versions for Windows clients
AVG Technologies provides a number of products from the AVG range, suitable for Windows 2000 onwards. In addition to this, AVG Technologies also provides Linux and FreeBSD versions of the software. AVG Anti-Virus is available in both a free and commercial editions. As of AVG 8.0, the commercial edition AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 product includes the AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, LinkScanner, Anti-Rootkit, Web Shield and Security Toolbar protection technologies. AVG Anti-Virus plus Firewall 8.0 adds integrated firewall protection.
* AVG Internet Security 8.0 is a full suite solution which brings together the AVG Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, LinkScanner, Anti-Rootkit, Web Shield, Security Toolbar, Firewall, Anti-Spam and System Tools protection technologies.
* AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 includes the AVG Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware protection, plus the AVG Search-Shield component of the patent pending LinkScanner technology but lacks anti-rootkit.
All versions of the AVG products, excluding Anti-Rootkit (Discontinued), are compatible with the 64-bit edition of Windows.

Versions for servers
AVG Technologies also sells AVG antivirus and Internet security solutions for web/file servers or email servers running either Linux, FreeBSD or Windows.
* AVG Internet Security Network Edition 8.0 provides centrally controlled comprehensive protection for workstations and file servers. AVG Internet Security SBS Edition 8.0 adds e-mail server and Microsoft SharePoint server protection.
* AVG Anti-Virus Network Edition 8.0 provides centrally controlled anti-virus and anti-spyware protection for workstations and file servers. AVG Anti-Virus SBS Edition 8.0 adds e-mail server and Microsoft SharePoint server protection.
* AVG File Server Edition 8.0 provides anti-virus and anti-spyware protection for file servers.
* AVG E-mail Server Edition provides anti-Virus and anti-spyware protection for most popular e-mail servers.

AVG for Linux/FreeBSD
With Version 7.5, AVG Technologies is providing a solution for FreeBSD for the first time. AVG Technologies has incorporated spam detection in addition to virus detection for Linux/FreeBSD software.

AVG Features

AVG features most of the common functions available in modern antivirus and Internet security programs, including periodic scans, scans of sent and received emails (including adding footers to the emails indicating this), the ability to "repair" some virus-infected files, and a "virus vault" in which infected files are held (A quarantine area; also known as a "virus chest").

LinkScanner
The patent pending LinkScanner technology acquired from Exploit Prevention Labs and built into all AVG 8.0 products provides real-time protection against exploits and drive-by downloads. LinkScanner includes: Search-Shield – a safe search component that places safety ratings next to each link in Google, Yahoo! and MSN search results; plus Active Surf-Shield – a safe surf component that scans the contents of a web site in real-time to ensure it's safe being opened. A faulty upgrade in 8.0.233 causing users to lose internet access, as well as concerns regarding web analytics have made LinkScanner a controversial component (see "LinkScanner Concerns").

LinkScanner concerns
AVG Anti-Virus upgrades for version 8.0.233 contain a malfunction in the AVGNSX.exe process, blocking network activity and internet access, causing many other problems. The AVGNSX.exe process is part of the LinkScanner utility. Users can resolve the issue by removing LinkScanner. AVG 8.0.234 has been quietly released, though the update has not yet been made priority to fix the software for the large percentage of AVG's 80 million users.

When AVG 8.0 was first released, its LinkScanner feature was shown to cause an increase in traffic on web sites that appear high in search engine results pages. Since LinkScanner disguises the scans as coming from an Internet Explorer 6 browser when it prescans each site listed in the results, web site usage logs showed incorrect and overinflated site visitor statistics. The prescanning of every link also caused web sites to transfer more data than usual, resulting in higher bandwidth usage for web site operators and slow performance for users. AVG initially said site administrators would be able to filter the LinkScanner traffic out of their site statistics, leaving the problem of excess bandwidth usage still to be solved. Pay-per-click advertising was not affected by the increase in traffic.
In response to complaints, AVG announced that as of July 9, 2008 "Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that webmasters addressed with us", releasing a new build on that date that applies a local blacklist, then prefetches and scans only those links clicked on by the user.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

According to AVG Technologies, over 80 million users have AVG Anti-Virus protection, including users of the Free Edition. On April 24, 2008, AVG released AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0. Along with a more colorful interface, the new program added some new features – a combined Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware protection engine, LinkScanner Search-Shield safe search protection, plus the AVG Security Toolbar – which were previously only available in AVG commercial versions.
There are some limitations with AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 compared to the commercial versions of AVG products. These limitations include:
* Less protection – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 provides the same anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning engine as the commercial product; however, it lacks anti-rootkit. The older 7.5 Free Edition is perfectly capable of finding and disabling rootkits based on signature, but cannot scan for rootkit-like activity. Also, it does not provide safe surfing (drive-by download) protection. While there is no official protection for files from messaging sources, the Resident Shield component automatically scans files before they are opened or copied.
* Infrequent updates – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 receives updates via a lower priority service. Priority updating via high-speed servers is only available for the commercial versions of AVG products.
* No telephone or e-mail technical support – There is no telephone or e-mail technical support provided by AVG for users of AVG Free Edition products anywhere in the world. AVG Free Edition users have access to support via the self-help AVG Free Forum.
* Less customization – Scheduling options in AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 are very limited (only one scheduled update per day, one scheduled scan per day etc.). However, the AVG Resident Shield configuration allows exclusions. The on-demand/scheduled scanner allows advanced testing options such as heuristics and reporting of password-protected archives reporting. Process priority for on-demand/scheduled scans can be dynamically adjusted over three different configurations.
* No server support – AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 cannot be installed on server operating systems (such as Windows Server 2003), nor can it be used for the scanning of network drives.
* AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 is only licensed for home and non-commercial use on a single computer.

AVG Free Edition was once responsible for popup ads advertising the non-free versions of AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 and AVG Internet Security 8.0, which claim to provide more comprehensive levels of protection. Current free versions display only in-program banner ads for the full edition; not popups.

Resource requirements
One feature of AVG is its conservative resource requirements.[citation needed] The AVG Anti-Virus Professional Edition requires 16 MB of RAM and 20 MB of space on the hard drive. AVG Internet Security, however, requires 256 MB of RAM. The comparatively high use of paged physical RAM has led to crashes with some software, such as the Half Life 2 series.

AVG Anti-Spyware
On April 19, 2006, it was announced[18] that AVG Technologies had acquired the German Anti-Malware company ewido Networks. ewido Anti-Spyware was later renamed to AVG Anti-Spyware Professional Edition. A freeware version, AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition, was available for private non-commercial use only and with lower speed updates. As of AVG 8.0, AVG Anti-Spyware is integrated into AVG Anti-Virus and is no longer available as a standalone product.

AVG Anti-Rootkit
AVG also had a free anti-rootkit application, AVG Anti-Rootkit 7.5, but it was stopped as of late 2006. Updates are now no longer available. In the new AVG 8.0, anti-rootkit scanning is built into AVG Anti-Virus and is no longer available as a standalone program.

AVGADMIN
AVGADMIN is a remote administration tool, which allows the software to be managed centrally on networks.[citation needed]

Reception
* AVG Anti-Virus was certified by ICSA Labs.
* It has been tested 43 times, from February 1998 through April 2008, by Virus Bulletin and has failed 22 times and passed 21 times. During the period from June 2003 to April 2008, it was tested 23 times; passing 20 times and failing 3 times.
* At CNET.com AVG 8.0 received a review of 7.0/10 from CNET editors, and a review of 2.5/10 from consumers.
* AVG won a Highly Commended award from Australian PC Authority magazine 2007 Reliability and Service Awards Best Software category (over 14,000 survey respondents) with an 89% satisfaction rating. It was beaten only by Firefox in satisfaction (93%).
* At PCWorld.com AVG 7.5 received a 77/100. It did a "fine job" in disinfection tests, but ranked last of the ten products tested in proactive protection using one-month-old signature files.

April 19, 2006 07:01 AM Eastern Time
Antivirus Specialist GRISOFT Acquires Anti-malware Expert Ewido Networks

AVG - Grisoft company Creates Comprehensive Anti-malware Portfolio to Protect Users Against Constantly Growing Types of Malicious Threats
BRNO, Czech Republic & MILLBURN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2006--GRISOFT, the maker of award-winning AVG Anti-Virus, today announced the acquisition of Ewido Networks, a leading provider of innovative anti-malware solutions. This acquisition expands GRISOFT's AVG antivirus and firewall offerings to include comprehensive malware protection, and provide its customers with the highest level of security against growing types of malicious software spreading across the Internet.

Consumers and businesses are now facing a wider variety of threats on the Internet that are going beyond viruses, worms and trojans. This purchase puts GRISOFT in a strong competitive position to address and protect against future Internet threats, while better servicing its already substantial customer base of over 30 million users.

In just two years, Ewido Networks developed award-winning anti-malware technologies that share the same user-friendly approach found in GRISOFT's AVG antivirus and firewall products. The software's pro-active approach to fighting malware, based on advanced detection methods, will be a significant component of the next generation scanning engine for AVG security products. "The entire team at Ewido is looking forward to sharing their experiences and strong know-how in the field of malware protection with GRISOFT," said Andreas Rudyk, co-founder and managing director at Ewido Networks.

"The acquisition of Ewido Networks is the first step in fulfilling our vision of easy to use comprehensive protection against all kinds of cyber threats," said Karel Obluk, CTO of GRISOFT. "In order to provide even broader protection to our customers in the shortest possible time frame, GRISOFT will continue to develop and offer the best security technologies available, as well as work with strategic partners."

GRISOFT's primary focus is to deliver the most comprehensive software solutions that provide proactive protection from computer viruses. Distributed globally through resellers and the Internet, the AVG Anti-Virus product line supports all major operating systems and platforms. In the next quarter, GRISOFT will be releasing new versions of the AVG and Ewido products.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's venture investment fund, and Enterprise Investors (EI), the largest private equity firm in Central and Eastern Europe, recently made a $52 million investment in the company. "With the acquisition of Ewido, GRISOFT is emerging as one of the leading providers of comprehensive malware protection for consumers and small businesses," said Ashish Patel, Managing Director, Intel Capital EMEA. "GRISOFT software combined with the latest Intel hardware antivirus features such as Intel XD Bit technology offers consumers and businesses very solid protection against increasing security threats," he added.

About GRISOFT http://www.grisoft.com

GRISOFT is a leading provider of antivirus, firewall protection and security solutions for consumers and SMEs. It is one of the fastest growing companies in the industry with more than 30 million users around the world that rely on GRISOFT AVG products to protect their computers and networks.
Established in 1991, GRISOFT employs some of the world's leading experts in antivirus software, specifically in the areas of virus analysis and detection, software development, and antivirus support. GRISOFT award-winning products are distributed globally through resellers and the Internet as well as via AVG Anti-Virus Software Developer's Kit (SDK) to interested partners.