Surf Safely with Avast WebRep

For many home users, free anti-virus offers all of the protection they want or need. One thing traditionally not provided with free versions is a web or site advisor. Anyone who's every used McAfee is familiar with SiteAdvisor, which let's you see ratings on search results before you click. You quickly know whether a site is considered safe, questionable or unsafe. While the ratings are not always 100%, it is a good way to stay a bit safer while online.

Free doesn't mean you have to go without. Avast now offers their own version called WebRep. It isn't quite as advanced as McAfee, but uses ratings from users to not only determine a site's safety, but relevancy. WebRep is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. It works as a plug-in to provide ratings beside every search result, no matter what search engine you use.

WebRep allows you to vote on any site yourself. When you want to vote on a site, locate the WebRep icon at the top of your browser window. It will not be located on the web page itself. The icon looks like a cell phone signal indicator, with three bars. The bars are whatever color the site is currently rated. Click the icon and cast your vote based upon 5 different colors. Colors go from dark red to bright green, left to right. The left side of the spectrum means the site is unsafe, while the right side means the site is safe. Additionally, choose what content the site typically has. This lets other users know what to expect.

Until WebRep is more widely used, many sites are likely to have no rating (indicated with gray bars) or a rating based upon a small number of votes. For instance, Associated Content currently has a yellow rating, which ranks the site as average (not safe or unsafe). However, this rating is based upon a limited number of votes. For the time being, WebRep should be used as a guideline more than an absolute. Sites with a red rating, which is the worst possible, should probably be avoided. Those with yellow, light green or green are likely safe.

You can see a site's rating before you ever visit. Simply hover your mouse over the three bars located to the right side of individual search results to see the WebRep summary. Alternately, when you visit a website, locate the bars at the top of your browser window to view the summary.

Should you decide you no longer want to use WebRep, you can uninstall the plug-in from one or all browsers you use. The most common reason for uninstalling WebRep is due to browsers crashing. This problem has been solved, though some users still report issues occasionally.

In order to uninstall, open your Avast management window. Select Additional Protection from the left side of the window. Choose WebRep . Press Uninstall beside each browser you wish to uninstall WebRep from. Alternately, if you just installed a new browser, press Install to install the plug-in to your browser. The process takes less than a minute either way and can easily be reversed depending upon your needs.