Travis Kensil - Church I.T.

A good friend and mentor of mine has a blog out there now…

He works in public school I.T. but is also very involved in his local church tech/I.T. stuff….check it out!

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/dlhousem

Just got done installing the new version of AVG 8.0 and it rocks! We’ve been using AVG for close to a year now since I got tired of ridiculous pricing from Symantec/Norton. We use the network edition in 7.5 and I was worried we wouldn’t be eligible for free updates to 8.0; went to AVG’s website and it claimed we were so I downloaded and installed!

They completely reworked the interface and made it much easier to use! The 7.5 version GUI required a lot of scrolling and multiple menus just to access certain features. The newest version also has some really neat additions such as Rootkit scanning and a very increased presence in the web browser; with a very big focus on web/link security. Apparently with the optional IE toolbar addin it can scan links/search results before you click and notify you of potential issues in the site. I did notice it adds a 1-2 sec. delay in IE7s load time but it could be worth it considering all the positive things it offers to the normal web user.

The Remote Admin. utility has also matured since 7.5. Installation was quick and a host of new wizards makes setup a snap; don’t forget the convenient network install options! Looks like AVG changed the port numbers from 4156 to 4158  as default although you can change that in setup.

Overall this new and improved AVG is quite good; I really like the rootkit and deeper layers of scanning/detection that this new version offers….really looks like AVG is responding to the mass of new threats out there. The web and toolbar integration does seem a little young and hopefully will improve with age. I am very happy with it so far; and the crazy thing is the low amount of system resources it uses even with all/most modules installed! If your using Symantec or someone else you might really want to give AVG a look; they offer VERY good nonprofit discounts. I’ll post more as I begin to roll this out to the actual users/desktops…looks exciting so far!

Thought my VSS issues were gone; no such luck. After some more testing it appears to be something in MozyPro causing VSS failures. At first I thought the issue was solved but it is back, on a different server. I am now narrowing on MOzy because I have another server not running Mozy and have had no issues. The common variable always seems to be once MOzy gets installed things start going badly. Our EMS box was running for 6 months, virtualized of course, without Mozy and no issues; I installed Mozy 3 weeks ago, after week 2 logs show the VSS service randomly quit working, failed backups with it. My next step is to collect additional data and begin working with Mozy to see if this is a bug on their end. From the comments/emails it appears I am not the only one with this issue; if you are having the issue please email me so I can let Mozy know this is not an isolated incident. Thanks!