LinkScanner safe surfing technology is developed by Exploit Prevention Labs and has been bought over by AVG Technologies. The patent pending LinkScanner technology is a new security component included in the AVG 8.0 Free Edition, which provides the Search-Shield functionality. Its purpose is to scan all results of the supported Internet search engines (Yahoo!, Google, MSN), and provides you with an evaluation of a safety level of each found website. At the same time, the LinkScanner also checks all Internet addresses typed into the address bar of your browser, or linked on other websites. There are four different levels of information you can get for each website, from Safe to Dangerous, allowing you to completely avoid dangerous or malicious websites.
It looks useful in guarding you against bad websites but it can be really annoying. For example, there’s a warez forum that I am trying to access and I know for sure that the website is safe. When I enter the URL in the browser, I get a warning page that says “Danger: AVG Search-Shield has detected active threats on this page and has blocked access for your protection. The page you are trying to access has been indeitified as a known exploit, phishing, or social engineering web site and therefore has been blocked for your safety. Without protection, such as that in the AVG security toolbar and AVG, your computer is at risk of being compromised, corrupted or having your identity stolen. Please follow one of the suggestioons below to continue.”
I continue to the page by ignoring the notice and was able to get to the login page. When I entered my username, password and hit the Login button, the annoying AVG Search Shield notice appears again. It goes in constant looping and I can never get to login to the forum! Here is how to disable AVG FREE LinkScanner Search-Shield from blocking the sites that you want to access.
If you have installed AVG Toolbar, you can control this component directly from your Internet browser using the button Search-Shield. Disabling this button will stop scanning of the search results in Google, MSN and Yahoo!, and also the scanning of Internet addresses (URL’s) you enter into the web browser (either manually, or by clicking on a link on any website, in an e-mail, etc.).
If you do not have AVG Toolbar installer, here are a couple of ways you can turn off AVG LinkScanner Search Shield.
Solution 1: Click Components from the menu bar and select LinkScanner. Uncheck Enable AVG Search-Shield (need web browser restart)
Solution 2: Double click LinkScanner at Overview tab. Uncheck Enable AVG Search-Shield (need web browser restart)
Solution 3: Click Tools from the menu bar and select Advanced settings… Select LinkScanner and Uncheck Enable AVG Search-Shield (need web browser restart)
You will notice that the AVG system tray icon will have a small red colored exclamation mark. You do not need to be afraid because it is to notify you that LinkScanner has been disabled.
If in future you want to install AVG FREE 8 without LinkScanner, you can run the setup with the following command line arguments. The only thing you need to change in the command line is the AVG executable (.exe) filename.
C:\avg_free_stf_all_8_101a1327.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch
The AVG LinkScanner Search-Shield configuration is limited with no exclusion setting. Other than AVG LinkScanner Search-Shield annoying the hell out of you when visiting a potentially dangerous website, some people also reported that search results are much slower than usual. That is because it scans all search results and provides you with an evaluation of a safety level of each found website. If you have limited bandwidth, I advice you to disable AVG Search Shield.
Hola Raymond, me gusto el tema search-shield. en estos días me aparecieron esto asi como esta aqui, y recibi mail de lectores de Marandú Digital en brasil que se quejaron por que no podian abrirlo. Buscaba respuesta, ya que no tengo experiencia tecnica. Ahora voy a intentarlo, para que no acurra más esto. Espero que funcione, pero en la respusta rapida y concreta que tiene tu servicio, creo que puede funcionar. Saludos cordiales
i ahve basic AVG but the surf-shield is off, and how do i turn it back on
Bonjour, j\’ai un petit souçi avec mon AVG 8, mon bouclier Web est actif et lorsque que je fait des recherche sur google avg ne se met pas en route pour me dire si les sites sont OK et quand je lance une analyse, une erreure surgit avgwdsvc = erreur.
Pourriez-vous me dire comment régler le problème sachant qu\’à cause de ça je ne pas désinstaller Avg.
Merci d\’avance
Update to previous post:
I re-installed same new version from the GUI, no command line switches, and just selected the customized install and unchecked Link Scanner.
All seems to be working well :)
This is strange, and also, there was no option for the AVG toolbar and it was not installed.
Hmm, something strange happened to me today.
I downloaded the latest AVG free file avg_free_stf_en_8_138a1332.exe, installed it on Vista with the command line switches, and during the installation went with the customized setting and uncheck Link Scanner (before I did not see this option in the install because the command line removed it). Also, the Link Scanner in no longer in the Advanced Options.
The big problem: every time I start Internet Explorer 7 AVG disable the resident shield ????
I now uninstalled it and will install older version file avg_free_stf_en_8_101a1327.exe that did not cause this problem before. I hope it\’s bad build or I am doing something wrong, and not a bad update.
Following is AVG’s official response to LinkScanner concerns:
We’d like to thank our web community for bringing these challenges to our attention, as building community trust and protecting all of our users is critical to us. We have modified the Search-Shield component of LinkScanner to only notify users of malicious sites; this modified version will be rolled out on July 9th 2008. As of this date. Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that webmasters addressed with us. However, it is important to note that AVG still offers full protection against potential exploits through the Active Surf-Shield component of our product, which checks every page for malicious content as it is visited but before it is opened.
Thanks for the tips. Raymond. I actually can’t get AVG to install on my WINXPSP3. My Kaspersky has expired. Any solutions?
same thing with nod32 what do to?
For a blog that vehemently discourages illegal activities, it is rather ironical that the screen grab depicts a warez site, hehe.
I add to the command line /NOAVGTOOLBAR
I do not like many toolbars and use only Google toolbar.
Also after installing AVG 8 I go to the advance options and uncheck the notifications, the LinkScanner (even if already removed), and the Email certification.
ihh a warez forum thats an annoying problem!
btw, nasty commandline:) where did u catch that?
and how is avg8 compared to avg 7.5? is it really bloatware and slowing the computer down or is it safe to upgrade ?
Instead of running the command, you can actually select Custom Installation and uncheck Search-Shield from the list.
@vvvlad: If you uninstall AVG and then reinstall without Search-Shield, you won’t get the error icon on your traybar.
Hi,
Great tip!
Just to make sure, if I uninstall the AVG and then install it again with this key:
C:\avg_free_stf_all_8_101a1327.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch
Will I get the error icon in my task bar? or is it just does exactly what “disable” does?
The early bird catches the worm… This problem is experienced by one of my customer. I tested this feature on my test system and thought I should record down this fix.
Thx for the tip :) I usually hang around your website at this time for the day’s post. I always wanna be one of the first to comment.. :)
By the way Raymond, I thought u used Kaspersky :) how come you’re using AVG Free Edition :)