LinkScanner - what is it?

The LinkScanner component provides protection against websites, that are designed to install malware into your computer via the web browser or its plugins. The LinkScanner technology supports MS Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, and consists of two features, AVG Search-Shield and AVG Active Surf-Shield.

AVG Search-Shield contains list of websites (URL addresses) which are known to be dangerous. When searching Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, Bing or Baidu, all results of the search are checked according to this list and a verdict icon is shown (for Yahoo! search results only "exploited website" verdict icons are shown). Also if you type some address directly into your browser, click a link on any website or e.g. in your e-mail, it is checked automatically and blocked if necessary.

AVG Active Surf-Shield scans the contents of the websites you are visiting, regardless of the websites address. Even if some website is not detected by Search-Shield (e.g. when a new malicious website is created, or when a previously clean website now contains some malware), it will be detected and blocked by AVG Active Surf-Shield once you try to visit it. As the AVG Active Surf-Shield scans the HTTP traffic it works regardless of the browser used.

The LinkScanner component can be connected with the AVG Security Toolbar, which is part of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Internet browsers. You can read more about AVG Security Toolbar in FAQ 1188.