Avast forum: Deceptive ad on Avast download page

And what was the link on that page you were duped into clicking on?

Kees

and not the Download.com option to download Avast Free version.

Advertising is done through Google Syndication advertising and CNET has no control over that. However I have alerted the Forum Manager to your post above so he can forward this on to the correct people.

May I offer a suggestion to help you avoid these traps in the future. If you use Internet Explorer change it to Firefox for which you can install the AdBlockPlus add-on. It removes all advertising from web sites.

In the Download.com link you gave above I don't see those adverts because of ABP. I have learned the hard way never to trust web site advertising.

I hope that helps.

Mark

You can have as many browser types as you like installed on your computer and they won't interfere with each other. I even have Firefox and Chrome open right now, and they work individually of each toher.

If you are interested in trying it, get it from here; http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/ and note it is the green button, "Firefox free download".

You may then also want to consider some of the other security add-ons available, and a recent discussion in the link below highlights some of those.

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6142_102-559486/plug-ins/?tag=contentBody;threadListing

Good luck.

Mark

The screen shot of the Cnet Avast download page does not match what I get. I see additional characters after .html. I think you may have been redirected to a bogus site. I suspect some malware BHO could be the underlying cause. You might download some of the often recommended fixes such as malwarebytes, etc. I'd do this from another computer, however. Put the file on a flash drive and install it on your PC that way.

I see what you mean on your screenprints.

I don't see any ad when I look at the page myself. I'm a regular visitor here, as you can imagine, so I invested some time in blocking scripts and ads on CNET pages to get pages showing faster. That seems to work quite effectively.
Also, but that's a little bit off-topic, I prefer to download from the makers own site (or sourceforge) if possible. That's always one of top hits in a google search for DOWNLOAD XXXX (with xxx the program name). For Avast it's http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download and the top link indeed. This, by the way, is more or less a necessity, as that ad blocking I mentioned blocks dw.com.com (where those downloads are coming from) also.

I fully agree that it's misleading. If you know it, it's rather clear that that two download buttons at the top and at the right are for ARO 2012 and Regclean Pro, not for Avast. But I can imagine you don't notice it if you don't know it.
Let me stress that ALL mods and most regular visitors here would tell you to stay away from both products. We don't believe in system optimizers and registry cleaners and we advice to NOT use them, and we really strongly advice to never pay for such products. Just read the reviews for ARO 2012 in http://download.cnet.com/ARO-2012/3640-2086_4-10183947-1.html and you'll understand.
But, alas, our sales department only smells the money.

I'll alert your post to our forum manager. He might be able to convince the sales people that ads (for any software, not only these scams) with green 'download now' buttons simply shouldn't be allowed on our download pages with our own green 'download now' button for the software our members search for.

Kees