I’ve recently come across two separate cases of AVG causing browsers to fail. The internet connection is still active and other internet traffic is able to pass, but any browser fails to work even if you download a new one and install it. In both cases, it appears that AVG was the culprit.
The solution seems to be simply uninstalling AVG, restarting, and reinstalling AVG. This may not be simple as AVG can be very difficult to uninstall if some of its files have become corrupted, or worse, hijacked. If things are acting up in such a way, try booting into safe mode instead.
In the first case I encountered, it seems that the update manager had become corrupt. Presumably, AVG was in the process of updating when the computer was shutdown, which caused the update manager to become corupt, or at least stuck in limbo. For some reason, this was preventing an internet connection in the browsers. The second case was not as obvious, but when AVG was hanging when trying to shut it down or uninstall it, it seemed a likely candidate for problems. Sure enough, uninstalling and reinstalling fixed the problem.
Theory:
My theory is that this doesn’t have so much to do with the core program of AVG so much as the internet components of AVG such as Linnkscanner and AVG toolbar. Perhaps it is just a bug in the 9.x versions of AVG (as both these cases were using), but it’s hard to tell until Grisoft releases a new stable version.
I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on this, especially if you have experienced something similar.
