I recently installed AVG 8 onto 2 PCs on behalf of a customer.

This was the paid-for version… not the free one.

After it was fully installed, I couldn’t see the other networked PC, and I couldn’t print over the network. From either PC.

From experience, I know this is a firewall issue. I spend 5 minutes trying to figure out the AVG firewall, but It’s just too complicated.

So I decide to just disable it from the AVG control panel… but I still can’t see the remote PC.

Ok, I’ll restart both PCs, but still not go… Hold on: are my eyes playing tricks on me ? ! The AVG firewall switched itself on again!

I try a few different options, but the firewall disables the windows firewall and enables itself.

Even uninstalling and re-installing AVG doesn’t fix the problem!

Ok time to get heavy-handed: I go to control panel -> Administrative Tools -> services

I find the entry for AVG firewall, double click, change the startup option to “disabled”, hit OK, restart, and luckily, AVG doesn’t try to restart the service.

Just re-enable the windows firewall, and everything works great!

Posted by Computer Help in Technical