Author: drale

Did you get this on your fresh install of PHP5 on Windows?

Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access /php/php-cgi.exe/index.php on this server.

You might encounter this with a default installation of Apache 2.2 (I used the exe installer) and a manual install of PHP5 as cgi on Windows. I placed this in my httpd.conf and followed other steps according to the PHP5 on Apache 2.2 instructions by using in httpd.conf:

#load php5 as cgi
ScriptAlias /php/ “c:/php/”
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Action application/x-httpd-php “/php/php-cgi.exe”

In order to fix the forbidden error I had to change this line:

<Directory “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/cgi-bin/”>
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

to this:

<Directory “c:/php”>
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

EDIT: Looking back now, I see this solution at the bottom of the comments from 2006 on the Apache instructions. I probably didn’t find it because this error wasn’t mentioned. I had a feeling that replacing the line probably wasn’t a good thing and that you should add it additionally. That’s what the comment says so I also suggest that approach.

The installation wizard of AVG has been updated and you no longer need to run fancy command lines to install without Link Scanner or remove it.

1. Download the newest build of AVG from free.grisoft.com
2. Run the installation.
3. Choose ‘Custom installation’. If you already have AVG installed, it will ask what setup type you want to perform… Choose “Add or remove components.”
4. Hit Next twice.
5. Uncheck AVG Search-Shield.
6. Finish the installation Wizard by clicking Next until Finish.

source: avg faq

If you like to install your programs in command line:
c:\avg_free_stf_*.exe /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSurf /REMOVE_FEATURE fea_AVG_SafeSearch

Besides how one may feel about the programs performance on their computer, webmasters have also been experiencing issues. What I didn’t think about was all the times AVG is checking every website in search results and generating a lot of hits to web servers.

AVG has made an official response:

As of this date, Search-Shield will no longer scan each search result online for new exploits, which was causing the spikes that web masters addressed with us.

[…] AVG still offers full protection against potential exploits through the LinkScanner Active Surf-Shield [….], which checks every page for malicious content as it is visited but before it is opened.

We’d like to thank the web community for bringing these challenges to our attention, as building community trust and protecting all of our users is critical to us.

UPDATE: The following post is outdated and the best solution can be found in my new post about AVG

AVG8 is has a really nice, new, and organized interface. The control panel and virus scanning are all under the same screen, except for virus vault and history log which are popups.

AVG8 has a new feature called LinkScanner which puts green checkmark stars next to your search results on sites like Google. This is to verify that a link is safe. You can also report links. However, I think it is rather annoying and intrusive. You can disable LinkScanner in AVG but it will constantly warn you that you may not be protected.