Exposure of new pc to internet in order to download AVG

Jolanta_Nowak

Chicken and egg/Catch 22 situation here. Can anybody advise whether its ok to connect a new, unprotected pc to the internet for the relatively short period which is necessary to download the latest AVG version (and other programmes like ad-aware)?

I've had different answers on this from people at my workplace and now I'm looking for a word from the wise!

isofa

Yes, as long as you have a firewall running and don't go to any odd sites, or download anything other than AVG!

isofa

PS If you are really bothered about having it connected, AVG is on a lot of cover discs, or providing it won't break any rules, download it at work, pop it on a USB key or CD and then install it at home.

Direct link for AVG free: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/downloads-products/us/frt/0?prd=aff

robt_2

Of course it is, unless you are using an old operating system such as XP without any service packs.

robt_2

And to add to that, although I don't advise it, you could go months or even years without antivirus if you are careful - I have not had one since before 2000.

albertross_2

The software firewall or router is the thing that protects you from catching anything initially, provided you don't go to any dodgy sites. You also need some resident antispyware software as well as av

Millionaire

robt wrote: »

And to add to that, although I don't advise it, you could go months or even years without antivirus if you are careful - I have not had one since before 2000.

How do you know your computer is not infected?

To the OP just make sure the first thing you do is go to the AVG site and download and install AVG. should be no problem.

robt_2

Millionaire wrote: »

How do you know your computer is not infected?

To the OP just make sure the first thing you do is go to the AVG site and download and install AVG. should be no problem.

I didn't say I didn't use one, however I'm a very experienced computer (and Internet) user who is careful what I download etc.

Edit: Sorry, my post wasn't very clear. I meant I haven't had a virus since before 2000, not that I haven't used antivirus.

caz182

I recently did this on my laptop and it was fine. It doesn't take that long to download and set up so I'm sure you should be fine. They've got a free spyware download on their website too.

fwor

There's plenty of good advice above but, to a certain extent, this thread perpetuates the myth that you are only at risk from visiting "dodgy" websites.

In reality, major threats like MPack and it's more recent derivatives have infected thousands of ordinary-looking, otherwise innocent websites. The effect is that they exploit PCs which are running unpatched copies of Windows and IE. Antivirus programs typically can't detect these sorts of exploit because of the way in which MS built IE into Windows.

IMHO, the highest priority is first to get all the OS patches up to date, and then to go and get AVG and a decent firewall.

robt_2

fwor wrote: »

There's plenty of good advice above but, to a certain extent, this thread perpetuates the myth that you are only at risk from visiting "dodgy" websites.

In reality, major threats like MPack and it's more recent derivatives have infected thousands of ordinary-looking, otherwise innocent websites. The effect is that they exploit PCs which are running unpatched copies of Windows and IE. Antivirus programs typically can't detect these sorts of exploit because of the way in which MS built IE into Windows.

IMHO, the highest priority is first to get all the OS patches up to date, and then to go and get AVG and a decent firewall.

I was generalising in my post, and yes, of course, keeping all your software upto date is extremely important too