>>>>>>>>>>Maybe I'm a bit slow on this but are AVG now bullying us into buying, rather than FREE. Lately all my updates have failed, I go to their site, there's no free edition offered, a link for free users' updates that goes round in a loop, etc. Any recommendations?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Here is a link in Australia that appears to have that which you seek.
>>>>>>>>>http://www.avg.com.au/index.cfm?section=avg&action=avg_anti_virus_free_edition
>>>>>>>>>Scroll down a bit to find the download.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Thanks Grady. It's very similar to the AVG site proper, and an attempt to download free 8 resulted in the same "cannot find ... " message as I get when the daily update starts - that's my point.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I went to http://www.avg.com/download-trial and found the free version on that page. I downloaded it without a problem. If I download it again, I might be able to email it to you or we could do a file transfer in messenger.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Thanks Grady. I've downloaded it. But I'm still getting the "CANNOT ACCESS THE SERVER" message.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>And now I'm getting a failure to update Windows Defender.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I checked through my ZoneAlarm firewall last night and made sure all these sites were allowed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I don't know. It's as if my puter's suddenly become obstinate and is refusing to change. I'm fearful of web access now cos all my protection is out of date.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Any ideas anyone?
>>>>>
>>>>>Sounds to me like your machine is infected with something. Some of these spyware/mailware apps put things in your HOSTS file to keep you from downloading the more popular anti-virus softwares....so I would take a look at your HOSTS file and make sure nothing is in it...
>>>>
>>>>Where would I find this HOSTS file, btw?
>>>
>>>C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc
>>>the file doesn't have an extension, but you can edit it with any text editor....
>>
>>Nah, I've searched the whole disk, inc C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc and it doesn't seem to be there - hidden files too.
>
>Interesting. Well I'm on XP and that's where I've found the file on all the XP machines I've messed with. Do you see ANY files in that folder?

Just ismhosts.sam, from 2003 - to do with tcp/ip.