I am using the free version of AVG and the latest definitions update without internet problems.

It may be that AVG and ZoneAlarm are currently incompatible with each other but fine individually. (*1)

If you have multiple software firewalls enabled, although it's not a total no-no like 2 resident anti-virus together, it may lead to internet access issues if one of the firewalls is not learning which programs to enable for internet connectivity.

For example a problem with an earlier version of Norton firewall was that it would not automatically update its outgoing rules when Firefox updated; one would have to re-add it as an "allowed program" or "program exceptions"

This problem does not seem to affect the Windows firewall even for versions of Windows with outgoing rules.

Edits:

1. via The Register:
   

   In reference to forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/03/22/bitdefender_dodgy_update/:

   A recent AVG 9.0 update didn't brick systems, but it's still incapable of working nicely with Zone Alarm and caused browsing problems for a lot of people.
   
   The only way I found to get it working properly was to re-install it but remove the Link Scanner.

   
   
   I don't bother with the link scanner because Firefox already checks against a list of malicious sites
   (see Tools > Options > Security)
   
   Historically link scanner had a problem where the method it used to check links on Google Search results caused massive traffic spikes on the listed sites but I think that was fixed too.
   

Edited by prlzx (Tue 23-Mar-10 01:10:58)

Zone alarm and AVG have worked as programs side by side fine for year. this new AVG update means alot of AVG/ZA users could not doing anything apart from look at google results. no fix that i have heard yet. some say enabling link scanner in AVG means everything will work again, but, reason i disabled that in the 1st place is it slowed down browsing for me.

anyhow, my nets perfect since i got rid of AVG. once they fix it, who ever fixes it, i will probably install AVG again....

I used to use both the free avg & ZA together. this stopped being a working combination late 2009 for me. I bit the bullet and paid for ZA full an all workng again.....

At the time the problem hit us, I had one PC configured with Avast! rather than AVGfree (both with ZA free) - this continued to work normally.
Now they all have Avast! rather than AVG.

I was with talktalk and getting the same crappy slow speeds like 512kbs or around that 24/7, when I called Talktalk support I was on there for nearly a hour while they were giving me pointless things to try so when I said I was going to cancel my broadband with them she stupidly said why would you want to do that, all the other ISPs will be the same. Anyway couple of days later the slow speed was fixed by leaving talktalk and joining another ISP, in my case Xilo which are 100,000, 000 times better then them and my speeds never drop below 3.5mb, upload of 0.6mbs and ping of around 15. So happy I left the joke that was Talktalk

Matt