AVG Monitors Torrenting Habits to Advise Heavy Downloaders

[Ernesto]

In recent years anti-piracy vendors have shown a keen interest in file-sharing and online piracy issues.

Symantec, for example, has developed a technology that allows it to spot fake torrents and malware before they’re downloaded.

On the other hand, rival McAfee have taken an anti-piracy approach by inventing a system that can detect and block pirated material from any website and present users with authorized and legal alternatives instead.

This week we learned that AVG, another major player in the anti-virus business, is keeping an eye on BitTorrent traffic as well. Not to detect intruders or stop piracy, but to give users some friendly advice.

BitTorrent traffic can chew up a lot of bandwidth and cripple one’s local network, especially with badly configured clients. This can slow down web browsing to a crawl, something AVG is alerting its users to.

The following alert pops up for some BitTorrent users. In this case related to traffic generated by uTorrent, but it may appear for other clients as well.

Hey torrenter…

While not everyone may like the fact that their anti-virus software has begun commenting on their torrenting habits, the advice may be useful to some. As far as we know AVG is not looking at what people download, just the network load generated by the application.

Those who want to get rid of the notifications can tick the ‘AVG Advisor Notification’ box in the software settings.

Originally Published: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 08:29:14 +0000
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[RobertX]

I haven't gone back to AVG for over 10 years and now, I'm glad I haven't.

[Kingfish]

Wait, if we pause a torrent we get more bandwidth available? who knew, what the fuck would we do without these geniuses.

[NokTham]

Wait, if we pause a torrent we get more bandwidth available? who knew, what the fuck would we do without these geniuses.

Not everyone knows about the technical details of bandwidth, if you already knew this, then this message wasn't meant to you lol.

I get lots of people complaining about lag in multiplayer games, most of them don't even know that leaving the bittorrent client open (seeding) can affect online gamming.

Regarding what AVG is doing, as long as it is just used as an advice, and not to "see", then I'm all for it. It's useful information for the mortal.

[Kingfish]

Not everyone knows about the technical details of bandwidth, if you already knew this, then this message wasn't meant to you lol.

I get lots of people complaining about lag in multiplayer games, most of them don't even know that leaving the bittorrent client open (seeding) can affect online gamming.

Regarding what AVG is doing, as long as it is just used as an advice, and not to "see", then I'm all for it. It's useful information for the mortal.

Well those folks are genuinely stupid as its painfully obvious what a torrent client does given they readily show statistics but anyway I would expect that AVG are logging what your up to and reporting back.

[NIK]

I agree that many people are technologically illiterate.

But having a product that is installed to protect you from viruses reporting on aspects of system performance COMPLETELY UNRELATED to viruses, won't reduce confusion, it will increase it. People get alarmed by popups from their AV.

So...my antivirus said I shouldn't use uTorrent...what should I use?

It would be like your supermarket cashier telling you to be sure your tires are inflated to the correct pressure. You would be like: What? You mean they're not? And, hang on, how do you know? And, what makes you an expert? And, with all due respect, wtf does it have to do with you anyway?

It's a stupid and harmful move by an irresponsible company trying to bolster a dud product.

[Picklock]

you know guys...
it's easier (no tech savvy on IT or computer programming and coding is required) to use another Anti Virus software that DO more reliable than AVG rather than installed it and got some stupid notes every time I want to check new porn clips that uploaded on TPB...