AVG LinkScanner for Mac User Manual
Document revision 90.5 (17.6.2010) C opyright AVG Technologies C Z, s.r.o. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This product uses RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm, C opyright (C ) 1991-2, RSA Data Security, Inc. C reated 1991. This product uses compression library zlib, C opyright (c) 1995-2005 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler. This product uses compression library libbzip2, C opyright (c) 1996-2010 Julian R. Seward. This product uses OpenSSL, C opyright (c) 1999-2009 The OpenSSL Project. This product uses C rypto++ Library, C opyright (c) 1995-2009 by Wei Dai. This product uses cURL, C opyright (c) 1996 - 2010, Daniel Stenberg. This product uses Assistant-Kit, C opyright (c) 2003 Stephane Sudre. This product uses bsdiff, C opyright (c) 2003-2005 C olin Percival. This product uses deflate64, C opyright (c) 1990-2007 Info-ZIP. This product uses expat, C opyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 Thai Open Source Software C enter Ltd and C lark C ooper C opyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Expat maintainers. A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
1
Contents ............................................................ 4 1. Introduction ..................................................... 4 1.1 What is the AVG LinkScanner®? ............................................................ 5 2. Installation Requirements 5 2.1 Operation..................................................... Systems Supported ..................................................... 5 2.2 Web Browsers Supported ............................................................ 6 3. Installation Process ..................................................... 6 3.1 Introduction 7 3.2 Important..................................................... Information ..................................................... 8 3.3 License Agreement ..................................................... 9 3.4 Installation Type ..................................................... 10 3.5 Installing AVG LinkScanner® ..................................................... 10 3.6 Installation Summary ..................................................... 11 3.7 After Installation ............................................................ 12 4. Finding your way around the AVG LinkScanner® ..................................................... 12 4.1 Main User Interface 13 4.2 Icon in ..................................................... the Menu Bar 14 4.3 Menu in..................................................... the Menu Bar ..................................................... 14 4.4 AVG Protection Status ............................................................ 16 5. AVG LinkScanner® in your web browser ..................................................... 16 5.1 Search-Shield ..................................................... 17 5.2 Surf-Shield ............................................................ 19 6. AVG LinkScanner® Settings 20 6.1 General ..................................................... tab ..................................................... 22 6.2 Search-Shield tab ..................................................... 23 6.3 Surf-Shield tab 24 6.4 Update ..................................................... tab ............................................................ 26 7. Updates 26 7.1 Update ..................................................... Types ..................................................... 26 7.2 Update Process ............................................................ 28 8. Uninstallation of AVG LinkScanner® ..................................................... 28 8.1 Automatic uninstallation A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
2
28 8.2 Manual ..................................................... uninstallation ............................................................ 31 9. Contact & Support
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
3
1. Introduction This user manual offers a general overview of the tasks and detection technologies provided by AVG LinkScanner®. We will briefly talk about the program installation, initial startup, configuration and use. AVG LinkScanner® is provided free-of-charge. It is up and running immediately from the moment of installation. All basic settings have been pre-set by the manufacturer, so most of the time you will not have to worry about anything – just let AVG LinkScanner® work in the background and protect you without any effort on your part. However, there might be situations where you need to adjust the program settings, or decide what to do with a virus infected file; this manual is here to provide detailed information and assist you with any task.
1.1. What is the AVG LinkScanner®? In the last couple of years the number of malicious programs has increased dramatically. New dangerous applications are being created every day. The majority of today's viruses, that is spreading via Internet, is designed for financial/commercial gain. Moreover, there are far more threats out there than plain viruses. You have probably come across the term spyware as well, however, authors of malicious codes and dangerous websites are very innovative, and new kinds of threats emerge quite often. Here are some of the most common: · Exploit is a malicious code that takes advantage of a flaw or vulnerability in an operating system, Internet browser, or other essential program. · Social engineering is a common term for various techniques used to trick people into giving away their personal information (passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers etc.). A typical example of social engineering is phishing an attempt to acquire sensitive personal data by shamming a trustworthy and well-known organization. Usually, the potential victims are contacted by a bulk e-mail asking them to e.g. update their bank account details. In order to do that, they are invited to follow the link provided which then leads to a fake website of the bank. · Scam can be also considered a kind of social engineering; it includes false job offers, or ones that will abuse the workers for illegal activities, summons to withdraw a large sum of money, fraudulent lotteries and the like. · Hoax is a bulk e-mail containing dangerous, alarming or just bothering and useless information. Many of the above threats use hoax e-mail messages to spread. · Malicious websites are ones that deliberately install malicious software on your computer, and hacked sites do just the same, only these are legitimate websites that have been compromised into infecting visitors. The AVG LinkScanner® is here to protect you from all these online threats.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
4
2. Installation Requirements
2.1. Operation Systems Supported The AVG LinkScanner® will only run on computer with Mac OS X 10.5.6 or higher. Please note that only the Intel platform is supported!
2.2. Web Browsers Supported AVG LinkScanner® is fully compatible with the following Internet browsers: · Apple Safari 3.2.x - 5.0.x, · Mozilla Firefox 3.0.0 - 3.6.x
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
5
3. Installation Process To download the installation file of AVG LinkScanner® visit the AVG Free website at http://free.avg.com/ and follow the AVG LinkScanner® download link. Once you have downloaded and saved the installation file on your hard drive, you can launch the installation process. Double-click your installation package (the avg90LSM-???.dmg file) to open the following dialog:
In this dialog, double-click the Install icon to launch the installation process. This process is a sequence of dialog windows with a brief description of what do at each step. In the following, we offer an explanation for each dialog window.
3.1. Introduction
The installation process starts with the Welcome to the AVG LinkScanner® Installer
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
6
window. Click the Continue button to go on with the installation process.
3.2. Important Information The next dialog provides some basic information on usage of AVG LinkScanner®. You can print the whole text by clicking the Print.. button or save it to your hard drive by clicking the Save.. button and selecting the resulting PDF file's name and its location. Please keep in mind that information provided by this dialog is really brief and if you want to learn more about the AVG LinkScanner®, you should always consult this User manual or application-based help. After you are finished reading this text, click the Continue button to trigger the next dialog of the installation process.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
7
3.3. License Agreement The next dialog provides information on AVG LinkScanner® terms of use. Please read it carefully. Right now, this license agreement is only available in English language.
Once you have finished reading, click the Continue button to trigger a little pop-up dialog:
In this dialog confirm that you have read, understood and accept the agreement by pressing the Agree button. If you do not agree with the terms of use stated, press the Disagree button, and the installation process will be terminated immediately.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
8
3.4. Installation Type
This dialog informs you that your AVG LinkScanner® will be installed on your local hard drive. After clicking the Install button, this dialog
appears to inform you about the necessity of your computer restart in order to successfully finish the installation. This allows you to save all your current work and quit all running applications. Click the Continue Installation button to start the installation itself.
Right after that you will be prompted to type an administrator's name and password (otherwise the Installer won't be allowed to make changes and the installation process won't be able to continue). If you do not know the login name and password, you will
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
9
need to contact the person who administers your computer.
3.5. Installing AVG LinkScanner®
This dialog shows the progress of the installation process, and does not require any intervention. All you have to do is to sit and wait until the installation is complete (it doesn't take long).
3.6. Installation Summary This dialog is the last step of the AVG LinkScanner® installation process. AVG LinkScanner® is now installed on your computer. However, in order for the application to be fully functional, it requires restart (as you were warned previously). Make sure all your current work is saved and closed, then click the Restart button.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
10
3.7. After Installation The first thing you should see after your Mac OS reboots is this dialog:
It serves to inform you about a special AVG feature called Automatic reporting of threats that you encounter while surfing the web. Details about the detected threat are sent automatically to AVG Technologies CZ, which happens without any inconvenience or need of any action on your part, and of course without any reference to you or your personal data. The received data is then thoroughly analysed by our malware specialists, which enables us to continuously improve the AVG protection for all its users. For this reason, we kindly ask you to keep this feature activated. However, if you don't want to enable the reporting, you can do it immediately. Clicking the Open Preferences button takes you directly to your AVG LinkScanner® settings (more precisely the General Settings section of the General tab). All you have to do here is to unmark the Reporting threats to AVG checkbox. Otherwise click the OK button to finally finish the installation process.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
11
4. Finding your way around the AVG LinkScanner® In the AVG LinkScanner® you can choose between three ways of accessing various settings, overviews, and functions: · click the AVG LinkScanner® icon in the Dock to open the Main User Interface, where you can view current AVG protection status and access setting options for individual components. Click to learn more about the AVG LinkScanner® Main User Interface. · click the AVG icon that is (optionally) displayed in the right part of the menu bar. Upon clicking the icon, you get a context menu resuming neatly relevant options of the application menus. Apart from quick access to frequently used items, the icon also indicates AVG protection status. Click to learn more about the AVG LinkScanner® icon in the Menu Bar. · if the User Interface is active, clicking the AVG LinkScanner® menu allows you to access some basic options. Click to learn more about the AVG LinkScanner® menu in the Menu Bar.
4.1. Main User Interface To access the Main User Interface, simply click the docked AVG icon.
Thereafter that the Main User Interface appears:
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
12
The left part of the main window displays AVG protection status. The right part displays the components of your AVG protection and whether they are active or not. Clicking a component opens its setting options: · Search-Shield - when searching the web with component on, all search results returned from the most popular search engines are evaluated for dangerous or suspicious links. By checking these links and marking the bad links, this component warns you before you click on dangerous or suspicious links, so you can ensure you only go to safe websites. · Surf-Shield - this component will block malicious content of any webpage you try to open, and prevent it from being downloaded to your computer. With this feature enabled, clicking a link or typing in a URL to a dangerous site will automatically block you from opening the web page thus protecting you from inadvertently being infected. · Update Manager - this component helps you to control regular updating. Within this component you can schedule automatic downloads of update files either from the Internet, or the local network. Learn more about updates and why they are so important.
4.2. Icon in the Menu Bar The AVG icon can be optionally displayed in the right part of the menu bar. If it is not visible, you can display it by turning on the Show AVG icon in the menu bar option in General tab of AVG LinkScanner® Settings. Upon clicking the icon, you get a context menu resuming neatly relevant options of the application menus:
· Stop/Start LinkScanner - pauses/resumes the AVG LinkScanner® protection. · Open LinkScanner Settings.. - displays the General tab of setting options dialog. · About LinkScanner Agent - shows the version of LinkScanner Agent.
Apart from quick access to frequently used items, the icon also indicates AVG protection status (correct / warning or error).
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
13
4.3. Menu in the Menu Bar Whenever the Main User Interface is opened, the AVG LinkScanner® menu appears in the right part of the menu bar:
This menu provides you access to a few basic options: · About AVG LinkScanner® - displays a small dialog with copyright and version number information. · Preferences.. - displays the General tab of setting options dialog. · Hide AVG LinkScanner® - minimizes the Main User Interface (without turning the AVG protection off). · Quit AVG LinkScanner® - turns AVG protection off.
4.4. AVG Protection Status The protection status is intended to show you, whether you are fully protected or not. When your AVG LinkScanner® is up-to-date and working, the protection status is correct. However, when a non-critical part of the AVG protection is switched off or inactive, you are immediately warned about the warning protection status. Finally, when a component is switched off, or your protection is outdated, the error status appears. The warning status may also mean that error status of some component is being intentionally ignored. You can set this in the Ignore faulty states section in General settings. AVG LinkScanner® uses several graphical indicators allowing you to view the protection status of this application. The following screenshots show the docked AVG icon displayed either normally (indicating correct or warning status), or with an orange exclamation mark (error status):
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
14
You can also recognize the status by looking at the icon in the menu bar, when means correct or warning status and means error. If the AVG icon in the menu bar is not visible, you can display it by turning on the Show AVG icon in the menu bar option in General settings. Finally, you can see your protection status in the left part of Main User Interface. The screenshot on the left shows the Main User Interface in correct status, the one on the right illustrates a warning status (in this case, the Search-Shield component is disabled) and the one below shows the warning status with the Search-Shield component inactive. Note that your Main User Interface always gives you details about the error, even suggesting how to fix it.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
15
5. AVG LinkScanner® in your web browser Your AVG LinkScanner® functions within your web browser without affecting its performance. It uses a set of informative icons to either show you the threat level of every search result in most commonly used web search engines (the Search-Shield component), or to warn you in case a webpage you try to access appears to suspicious (the Surf-Shield component). The set of icons (identical for both components) is listed in the table below:
The page has been successfully scanned and is safe. Please note that this icon is not displayed on the Yahoo! server! The page does not contain threats but is somewhat suspicious (questionable in origin or motive, therefore not recommended for e-shopping etc.). The page can be either safe itself, but containing further links to positively dangerous pages; or it can be suspicious in code, though not directly employing any threats at the moment. The linked page contains active threats. We do not recommend visiting this page, or forwarding the URL via e-mail! The page can not be scanned (which can mean that is doesn't exist anymore, or it is temporarily unavailable.
5.1. Search-Shield When searching Internet with the AVG Search-Shield on, all search results returned from the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing - former MSN) are evaluated for dangerous or suspicious links. By checking these links and marking the bad links, the AVG LinkScanner® warns you before you click on dangerous or suspicious links, so you can ensure you only go to safe websites. While a link is being evaluated on the search results page, you will see a graphic sign next to the link informing that the link verification is in progress. When the evaluation is complete, the respective informative icon will be displayed. Hovering over an individual icon will display brief pop-up dialog describing the particular link in question. Please note that the search results are generated based on a blacklist (database of known malicious websites) and the evaluation itself cannot be configured! Various pop-up dialogs are listed below:
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
16
There are a few settings for this component that you can adjust. The easiest way to access the Search-Shield settings dialog is by clicking the component's name in Main User Interface.
5.2. Surf-Shield Present-day internet is quite a dangerous place to surf - exploited web pages might infect your computer simply by visiting the affected site. The Surf-Shield aims to prevent that. This powerful feature provides you a real-time protection from the most serious online threats: malicious, exploitive, and phishing websites. If enabled, it automatically scans the source code of any website you try to access (either by clicking a link or typing in a URL) and verifies the webpage origin. If it discovers anything suspicious, it will interrupt loading the website, and display a notification with more details.
The notification dialogs (listed above) use the same set of informative icons as the Search-Shield and are informative only. They serve just to notify you that the threat has been found and blocked, so the loading of the page has been interrupted. Access to a potentially dangerous website itself is not blocked; the decision whether to visit the page is completely up to you. However, the page shown in the browser after closing the notification dialog will be just a fragment of the original one - it will be displayed only from the start to the point where the threat was discovered and blocked. There is no simple way to access the original infected page. However, if you have any reason to visit the untouched original page (possibly containing an infection), you can disable the Surf-Shield component in the Surf-Shield tab of AVG LinkScanner® Settings (which requires administrator password since it disables the protection of the
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
17
machine) and then reload the page (a cache cleaning might be needed depending on application requesting the page because of application internal caching).
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
18
6. AVG LinkScanner® Settings This dialog allows you to modify all adjustable settings of your AVG LinkScanner®. It is divided into several tabs - the General tab contains some universal settings, while Search-Shield, Surf-Shield and Update tabs offer settings for respective components. The dialog is accessible in three ways: · click the docked AVG icon to open the Main User Interface, then click any component's name. Note that the AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog will then be opened on the tab related to the chosen component. · click the AVG icon in the menu bar and select Open LinkScanner Settings.. The AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog will be opened on the General tab. · when the Main User Interface is active, open the AVG LinkScanner® menu in the menu bar and select Preferences. The AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog will be opened on the General tab. Setting options of major importance are protected by authentication, and are by default locked (grayed out and inactive). To modify the settings you have to be click the padlock icon in the lower right corner of every dialog:
Immediately a new dialog appears, in which you are prompted to enter administrator login name and password. If you don't know the name/password, you will have to ask the person who administers your computer:
If have entered login name and password correctly, you will be able to modify all setting options. The padlock icon is now unlocked and looks like this:
If you wish to prevent further settings modifications, simply click the icon and enter administrator login name and password once again.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
19
6.1. General tab This dialog allows you to configure basic AVG LinkScanner® settings. There are four sections sections in this dialog with specific adjustable items in them: GENERAL SETTINGS:
· Start AVG LinkScanner® upon login - if the box is checked, the AVG LinkScanner® will launch automatically after computer startup, when a user logs in, or whenever the application quits (e.g. if another application forces AVG LinkScanner® shutdown, it will be re-launched immediately). · Show AVG icon in the menu bar - if the box is checked, the AVG icon is displayed in the right end of the menu bar. Click here to learn more about the menu bar icon. · Reporting threats to AVG - if the box is checked, details about detected threats will be automatically sent to AVG Technologies CZ, where they will be analysed by our malware specialists. This enables continual improvement of AVG protection for all its users. Click here to learn more about this feature. ALERTS:
There is a little arrow next to the Surf-Shield alerts item. Click it to expand/collapse
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
20
options enabling you to choose AVG alerts that you wish to be displayed. The alerts are always displayed in the middle of your screen, on a top of all other open windows, and require your response. · Show all alerts - if the box is checked, a dialog will be displayed whenever the Surf-Shield component detects a threat on a page you are trying to access, no matter how severe the threat is. This option is recommended and therefore checked by default. · Show only alerts of the highest severity - if the box is checked, a dialog will only be displayed when AVG LinkScanner® detects a threat of high severity. Click here to learn more about severity levels in AVG LinkScanner®. NOTIFICATIONS:
Notifications are little pop-up windows that appear for a few seconds only, and inform you of less important events than alerts. Check the box at the respective notification option you want to activate: · Show error status notifications - if the box is checked, a notification window will appear whenever a component changes its status from correct to warning/error. Please note that if you choose to ignore a component's status, the change status notifications for that component will not be displayed. To learn more about AVG protection statuses click here. Ignoring error statuses is described in the end of this chapter. · Notify me upon scheduled update start - if the box is checked, a notification window will be displayed at each scheduled AVG LinkScanner® update, informing you of the update progress. Click here to learn more about updates and their types.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
21
IGNORE ERROR STATUSES:
If a component shows error or warning status, and you decide to deliberately ignore it, you can check the respective component here. This means that the AVG LinkScanner® will no longer report the error/warning status of the component, and won't display notifications about the component status change.
No matter which section you're in, you can always change Position of LinkScanner notifications. The white rectangle represents your screen. The tiny orange triangle shows where the notifications appear right now (which is by default in the upper right corner). To change this simply move the mouse cursor to any other corner and click. You will immediately see that the tiny orange triangle has moved to selected corner and from now on, the notifications are going to pop up here.
6.2. Search-Shield tab This dialog allows you to configure some Search-Shield component related settings.
· Enable Search-Shield - if the box is checked, AVG Search-Shield is active and evaluating safety of the results of the most popular online search engines. Uncheck the box to switch the function off. · Supported plugins - if this box is checked, the search results will be evaluated in
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
22
all supported web browsers (i. e. Safari and Mozilla Firefox). By clicking the little arrow next to this item, you can expand/collapse further options enabling you to specify which browsers should utilize the Search-Shield function: o Activate Safari plugin - if this box is checked, the search results will be evaluated in the Safari web browser. o Activate Firefox plugin - if this box is checked, the search results will be evaluated in the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
Creation date of DB files states last successful update of the database of malicious sites.
6.3. Surf-Shield tab This dialog allows you to configure some Surf-Shield component related settings.
· Enable Surf-Shield - if the box is checked, AVG Surf-Shield is active and, whenever surfing the web, protecting you real-time from the most serious online threats: malicious, exploitive, and phishing websites. Uncheck the box to switch the function off. · Interrupt connections from [selected] severity level - whenever the Surf-Shield detects a threat on a webpage you are trying to access, it will interrupt downloading the webpage contents so that the harmful code does not get into your computer at all. You can specify the lowest level of threat severity to trigger the interruption: o Low will interrupt the connection upon detection of any threat. This option is recommended and set by default. o Medium will interrupt the connection upon detection of a threat of medium to high severity. o High will interrupt the connection only upon detection of a high severity threat
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
23
. · Local Port - the port on which the proxy is running. The communication over this port of your computer is protected by Surf-Shield. · Connection Request Timeout - allows you to set the maximum time for attempting to establish communication with a server. If the time is up, and connection is not successfully established, the request is cancelled. Web browser should display a notification then. · Inactivity Timeout - allows you to set the maximum time for duration of inactive connection. If no activity is detected during the time in the previously established connection, the connection is cancelled. Both Timeout options are primarily intended for advanced users who want to fully control the way how connections to web servers are handled. · Additional Redirect Ports - any ports entered in this field will be redirected to the Local Port above. By default, the port 80 is always included, too (not editable).
Finally, there are three button in the bottom part of this dialog. Clicking the Defaults button sets all options in the dialog to the manufacturer pre-set and recommended values. Clicking the Revert button sets all options in the dialog to the last user-saved values. Use the Apply button to save all current changes to the settings.
6.4. Update tab This dialog allows you to configure some Update related settings (managed by the Update Manager component).
Click the Update Now button if you wish to update your AVG LinkScanner® immediately. This also called the manual update. The AVG LinkScanner® will then search online for new update files, and if available, download these and automatically update itself. Under this button you can see the time of Last Successful Update. If the database
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
24
had not been updated lately, you will be informed by the AVG LinkScanner® displaying error status. Next, there is a checkbox called Run Daily Updates at. This box should remain checked to ensure that AVG LinkScanner® updates itself automatically at regular intervals, without your intervention. By default, the AVG LinkScanner® updates itself automatically at noon. If you prefer a different hour, type it in the time box, or use the little up and down arrows to set the hour. If you (for any reason) have switched off automatic updates (by unchecking this box). do not forget to update manually at reasonable intervals to stay protected. Click here to learn more about updates and their importance. Finally, you may use the Advanced button to access and edit existing web proxy server settings (if you want to define a new web proxy, you will have to do so via System Preferences). Upon clicking the Advanced button, the following dialog appears:
You can see the proxy server address and number of communication port (default is 3128) in the top part of the dialog. The server may also require authentication. In this case you will need to fill in the login details, too. These cannot be filled in for you, because each user account on the computer might have different login details. Please mark the checkbox Proxy server requires authentication, and type your proxy server username and password in the respective fields.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
25
7. Updates AVG LinkScanner® contains a number of definition files with information on dangerous or suspicious websites, and uses combined techniques to generate the final result (i.e. whether an URL is dangerous or safe). AVG developers work hard to keep all these files and mechanisms up-to-date, and any new definitions and improvements of these are delivered to you from AVG Technologies servers via online update. Regular updating of your AVG LinkScanner® is therefore essential. All update related settings can be adjusted in the Update tab of AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog.
7.1. Update Types Basically, there are two types of update in the AVG LinkScanner®: · Manual update is an immediate AVG LinkScanner® update that can be performed any time the need arises. All you have to do is to open the Update tab of AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog and click the Update Now button. · Scheduled update - within AVG LinkScanner® it is also possible to pre-set an update. The planned daily update is then performed periodically according to the setup configuration. Whenever new update files are present on the specified location, they are downloaded either directly from the Internet. When no newer updates are available, nothing happens. The exact time of this automatic update can be set via the time box in the Update tab of AVG LinkScanner® Settings dialog. You can also use the checkbox to turn the scheduled update off/on. Please note that if the computer is turned off at the time of scheduled update, the update will be missed without compensation. For this reason, we recommend setting up the daily update time to an hour when your computer is most likely running.
7.2. Update Process Whenever an update starts (no matter if it's manual or scheduled), AVG LinkScanner® will first verify whether there are new update files available. If so, AVG LinkScanner® starts their downloading and launches the update process itself. During the update process you will get redirected to the Update interface where you can view the process progressing in its graphical representation as well as its final result:
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
26
The first screenshot shows the situation when the process was successfully finished and your AVG LinkScanner® was updated. The second one illustrates another outcome - when there are no new update files available. Finally, the third one shows update failure. There might be a few reasons for this, with limited or unavailable Internet connection being the most common.
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
27
8. Uninstallation of AVG LinkScanner® There are two ways to remove the AVG LinkScanner® from your computer. You can either choose the automatic uninstallation, or the manual uninstallation.
8.1. Automatic uninstallation To trigger automatic uninstallation, please click the Uninstall icon located in the installation package (the avg90LSM-???.dmg file):
The Uninstaller will appear and guide you conveniently through the uninstallation process. At the end of uninstallation process, you will be asked to reboot your computer. The uninstallation (as well as the installation) requires an administrator's name and password (otherwise the Uninstaller won't be allowed to make changes and the uninstallation process won't be able to continue). If you do not know the login name and password, you will need to contact the person who administers your computer. Please note that applications Firefox, Safari and System Preferences will be closed if running.
8.2. Manual uninstallation In most cases, you will not need to perform manual uninstallation. However, should the need arise, you can remove all files related to the AVG product as follows: 1. Open AVG LinkScanner® Settings and in General tab (General Settings section) uncheck the Start AVG LinkScanner® upon login item. 2. Quit the Firefox, Safari and System Preferences applications, if running. 3. Prevent 'launchd' daemon from automatically invoking the main AVG LinkScanner® services by executing the following commands in a terminal window: /bin/launchctl remove com.avg.LinkScannerAgent /bin/launchctl remove com.avg.LoaderAgent A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
28
sudo sudo sudo sudo
/bin/launchctl /bin/launchctl /bin/launchctl /bin/launchctl
remove remove remove remove
com.avg.apiServices com.avg.avgconfigd com.avg.avgnotifyd com.avg.avgprivd
4. Unload the network kernel extension by executing the following commands as a root in a terminal window: /sbin/SystemStarter stop 'AVG Netshield support' If an error occurs, it means that the kernel extension is currently busy and can't be unloaded. You can still proceed to the next step. 5. Execute the following commands as a root in a terminal window: rm -rf Applications/AVG LinkScanner.app rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/LinkScannerSettings.prefPane rm -rf /opt/avg/avg9 rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avg.apiServices.plist rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avg.configurationTool.plist rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avg.notificationTool.plist rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avg.privilegedTool.plist rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/com.avg.LoaderAgent.plist rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/com.avg.LinkScannerAgent.plist rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.avg.LinkScannerSettings.plist rm -f /Users/Shared/AVG/com.avg.LinkScannerSettings.plist rm -f /usr/sbin/avgctl rm -f /usr/sbin/avgcfgctl rm -f /usr/sbin/avgupdate rm -f /usr/sbin/avgurlscan rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgctl.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgcfgctl.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgd.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgdump.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avglnsd.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgnsd.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgsched.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgupd.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgupdate.1.gz rm -f /usr/share/man/man1/avgurlscan.1.gz rm -rf /Library/ScriptingAdditions/AVGScriptingAdditions.osax rm -rf /Library/Application Support/AVG/Plugins/AVGSafariPlugin.bundle rm -rf /Library/Application Support/Mozilla/Extensions/{ec8030f7-c20a-464f9b0e-13a3a9e97384}/[email protected] rm -rf /Library/PrivateFrameworks/AVGLnscServices.framewrok rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/AVGNetShieldLoader 6. To unregister all packages related to the installation (i.e. to remove all related receipts), do the following as a root in a terminal window: To find out what packages have been registered, please execute:
A V G L inkSc anner © 2 0 1 0 C opyright A V G T ec hnologies C Z, s .r.o. A ll rights res erved.
29
pkgutil --pkgs=.*LinkScanner.* For each package in the list, please execute: pkgutil --forget=