PCGuard slows down google maps

[andy44]

I've recently had very slow (sometimes many minutes) response time from google maps and after a bit of investigation found that the problem disappears when I disable PCGuard's identity theft protection. Does anyone have the same problem? I've reported to VM but no interest shown yet.

[chickendippers]

Dump PCGuard, there are plenty of better (and free) virus scanners that will not slow down your computer.

My personal fave is Avira AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com/).

[Axegrinder]

PCguard = Rubbish

Indentity theft protection does slow the net down so i'd keep it off if i were you. There are better free AV's such as AVG or Avast.

HTH


EDIT: Beaten by chickendippers :p:

[whydoIneedatech]

I've recently had very slow (sometimes many minutes) response time from google maps and after a bit of investigation found that the problem disappears when I disable PCGuard's identity theft protection. Does anyone have the same problem? I've reported to VM but no interest shown yet.

PC Guard is a product used by many other companies under different guises and can throw hissy fits and slow you down significantly.

I use AVG and Comodo on my XP machine and Avira and Comodo on my daughters Vista laptop, all products work fine and both machines have a quick start up time.

[Joxer]

You could always ditch windows and not need the antivirus.....

[Hugh]

You could always ditch windows and not need the antivirus.....
Because there are not, and will never be, any virii written for Linux or OSX.......;)

[Raistlin]

You could always ditch windows and not need the antivirus.....

Sorry, appreciate that this is going slightly off-topic, but that's an important point that I feel really needs responding to.

Only completely irresponsible Linux/Mac users don't have AV software installed and running.

a) There will be malicious files floating around the web for non-Windows platforms, and even if there aren't.....

b) You will be sharing files with Windows users, you have just as much responsibility as they do to ensure that files you are passing around via the various mechanisms available to you are clean and free from viral payloads.


In response to the OP's question, I've always found Avast to be a perfectly acceptable AV program. I seem to recall that ClamAV has had some reasonable reviews, and it's also available for other operating systems ;)

[andy44]

Thanks for all the well-intended advice but I was ready hoping to establish whether my specific problem was unique or not and, if not, encourage some discussion. Does the problem only occur with certain PC configurations? Why have VM or RadialPoint (their supplier) not shown any interest? Is there any way to get their interest?

I'm personally not at the point of giving up on VM or PCguard. PCguard is bundled in with my broadband package of choice and, apart from this little niggle, it serves me well. I can live without ITP for a while and I'm not yet giving up hope of a fix to PCguard. I'm not about to take risks with a free alternative. Better a devil you know ... and I'm certainly not contemplation a switch to linux

By the way, the ITP induced show-down is not just with google maps but that's where it's most obvious and where it hurts me most.

[alt3rn1ty]

Personally I have to agree with suggestions so far, check the following thread for similar.....
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/38/33631538-pc-guard.html
I regard PCGuard on a similar footing with Norton (although I understand Norton have been listening to the thousands of complaints and are cleaning up their act), ie its bloatware, system/resource hog that seemingly doesnt do any better a job than free virus protection.

I use clamav with linux

For the family xp desktop Avast, occasional sweep with Spybot (although Windows Defender is supposed to be getting better now for spyware, it was previously Webroot Spysweeper I think, Microsoft snaffled it up and initially made a mess of it), and no firewall (sitting behing two nat routers both with hardware firewalls, so not necessary). Yep I know inbound traffic isnt the only problem so if you dont have 100% confidence in your setup/habits Zone alarm is your friend, whatever firewall you have for outbound traffic though requires a fair bit of study and setting up, even the big name bloatwares dont do everything for you in that respect.
The only other protection I use is an up to date hosts file from mvps.org, which these days is a snap to update using HostsXpert (scroll down the following page to find it)
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
Stops your machine being linked to bad sites in the first place, full stop.
Also spywareblaster from javacool software is good as an extra preventative measure for both firefox and IE (but make sure you get the right one, there are miss-spelt imitators which are nasty)....
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

I dont believe there will ever be one piece of software that will ably and un-obtrusively (ie quickly/seemlessly/silently) protect a windows machine, its a constantly and fast evolving landscape which can take over your life just upkeeping it. Virus and spyware and the hybrid combinations which help install each other .... and as for rootkits I dont think anything is capable of protecting from those yet (do some searching and you will find its practically rocket science, I have seen quantum physics theories used in the same paragraphs explaining the workings of some aspects of rootkits), true or not you decide but the claims of bloatware companies are always just to sell the product.

So anyway, just some extra options (when you get totally cheesed off with the bloatware and recurring suggestions to ditch it) which (IMHO) at this time are very good. :)

Edit: LOL and, forgot to mention the ultimate protection, when it all goes pete tong, the best prevention is format your hard drive and do a clean re-install of everything (trick is staying offline before you are totally setup with protection, and not accepting all the default links and bloatware your machine supplier gave you). But of course, to succesfully do that you need OS installation disks, and a lot of experience with your machine and its driver setup. Good luck ;)