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AVG Fakes User Agent, Floods the Internet
Slimy anti-virus provider AVG is spamming the internet with deceptive traffic pretending to be Internet Explorer. Essentially, users of the software automatically pre-crawl search results, which is bad, but they do so with an intentionally generic user agent. This is flooding websites with meaningless traffic (on Slashdot, we're seeing them as like 6% of our page traffic now). Best of all, they change their UA to avoid being filtered by websites who are seeing massive increases in bandwidth from worthless robots.
Hooray look at all the hits I'm getting.
I bet AVG would score higher on ACID than IE...
Ok. It's run by Jews in a secret conspiracy to take over the World using sharks with frickin' lasers and gorgeous fembots with a penchant for evil.
> on Slashdot, we're seeing them as like 6% of our page traffic now
Come on Taco... proper English (or at least something seemingly like it) isn't that hard... is 6% exactly, around 6% or really just 'like 6%'
I honestly like, do not recall like the last time I like, saw someone use 'like' in that long standing improper way in like text, it's always like, been for me, like only something a person like, verbalizes.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
....used to fake user agents all the time. As a man I thought I was always properly connecting to her internet portal. guess not.
Another suggestion I read somewhere else is to redirect all traffic to the AVG website. That will teach them!
and none of them were downloading the CSS or image files that they should have been.
So they don't load anything that could possibly install a virus on your computer when doing these checks?
Sounds to me like this is a bit of really useless functionality that will just eat up your bandwidth.
Thanks AVG. You've just confirmed to me that all antivirus software is pants.
Shouldn't it be avg_free_stfu_xxxx.exe ??
Gimme a break.
I download movies for free.
I download music for free.
I download porn for free.
I download operating systems for free.
I download software for free.
Why shouldn't I expect antivirus software to be free as well?
At a Command Prompt window, type /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch
c:\downloads\avg_free_stf_xxxxxxxxxx.exe
where c:\downloads\avg_free_stf_xxxxxxxxxx.exe is the full path of your AVG 8 installer.
At least it is intuitive....
-Em
RelevantElephants: A Somatic WebComic...
In this day and age it's sad to see that anti-sharkitism is still alive and well.
AVG = Alotta VaGina?
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
so we don't know what readers are actually interested in
Porn. Anime. Sometimes computers.
Hope that alleviates your concerns.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Personally, I wish they'd write a secure user. Then AV wouldn't be necessary.
Probably smaller than the portion which is Firefox in disguise. :)
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
You've got an actual Ass Hat? Where'd you get it? I could order a couple hundred because a lot of people deserve them.
In fact, let's spam the White House and Congress with a million Ass Hats. I'm sure some enterprising person could design a hat that resembles the south end of a north-bound mule.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Whatever man, you haven't lived till you've used used a flamethrower to burn a bee's nest, a firehose to put out a candle, or a .50 cal to get rid your "rodent" problem.
# But don't forget to identify user_agent first :-)
header ('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header ('Location: '."http://www.grisoft.com/");
...or a .50 cal to get rid your "rodent" problem.
Pansy. I use a mortar. It works especially well on burrowing rodents.
Actually I think on access scanning is a great way to cripple performance : )
it's the only way to be sure
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No, its the equivalent of taking a flamethrower to all your neighbor's houses because you think there might be a wasp flying around.
Oh, come on! Who hasn't done that?
I like my beverages with warning labels!
How about Googling for AVG, clicking the first result ("AVG Free") and clicking the "Get It Now" button under "Free Basic Protection"?
WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1