Avast or AntiVir or AVG or ... ???

[Guest]

[Toggie]

More interesting questions are when was the last time your [anyone reading this] AV detected a true virus and what sites/downloads caused those viruses to infect your pc?

 

Not for a very long time, certainly years.

That full PDF from google I posted earlier, places the malware into three categories:

Trojans
Adware
Obfuscated (unknown)

Although 'traditional' viruses are mentioned, they were not much in evidence. Typically, of course, the classic AV packages are not geared specifically to detecting these kinds of problems, hence the reason we have to have Anti virus, Anti spyware and Anti Trojan applications.

I had all these and more, then one day I realised that 60Mb plus of memory and who knows how much CPU time, were dedicated to these applications alone!

As for a security suite, by their very nature, they cannot be best of breed, so it becomes a compromise.

Regarding CFP3 and Hips, there has been much speculation and discussion over the last few weeks. Perhaps on Monday we'll know. Until then...

Toggie

[Eric Cryptid]

I used to use AVG for awhile and then went to Avast and then on to Antivir.

Currently Antivir is in the top 3 of antivirus detection rates. I ended up buying the premium addition as it only cost me £11. It's really quite good and throws up an alert even if you try and download a virus! Current stats on av-comparatives.org show it detects 98.3% which is third. The top two were multi engine antivirus products. It's recently updated and included rootkit and hidden program detection.

** Do remember to go to the configuration and to the general tab and select EXTENDED THREAT CATEGORIES and make sure all of those items are checked. They now include:

Adware/Spyware
Application (APPL)
Backdoor-Client
Dialer
Double extension files
Games
Jokes
Phishing
Security Privacy Risk (SPR)
Unusual Runtime Compresson Tools

This is all even in the free version!

It's protected me well though the spyware detection is still improving. I think there's some way to go on that score so you still need to run an anti-spy application.

Eric

[Soyabeaner]

Hi Eric.  Since you used the 3 most popular free AV's, which do you consider the best for pc performance (boot/shutdown times, during active pc use, etc.) and are the differences between paid and free worthwhile?  Avast has the least gap difference between their paid and free versions: http://www.avast.com/eng/av4_version_comp.html

[Eric Cryptid]

AVG - I've only used the free version but that's the fastest. Detection rate for Pro version on av-comparatives = 96.37% and on virus.gr the Anti-Malware version = 92.4%. Not sure how it compares to the paid for avg. Updates - Small frequent ones - You need to turn off the notification on WIndows security center as AVG's update priority is slow.

Avast - I've only used the free version but it's the slowest on my XP Modern laptop . Detection rate for pro version on av-comp = 93.86% and on virus.gr = 92.82. Paid version does include some cool extra features. Updates - Regular normal ones

Antivir - I've used both. It's speed is about the same as AVG. Detection Rate on AV-Comparatives = 98.85% on Virus.gr not yet published. The only difference with the paid version is that it includes email protection. Updates - these updates are larger than the other two and take a little longer to download. The updates on the free version are once a day the paid version allows once every 5 hours.

The only products that are better than Antivir on AV-Comparatives.org are: GData Anti-virus Kit and TrustPort AV. It's even beaten Kaspersky on this round of tests.

There are a lot of different ones out there... Have a look at www.av-comparatives.org for PAID programs and www.virus.gr for both free and paid versions.

Comodo AVS (Free) is still showing up on virus.gr with a low detection rate but it is planning to add Comodo BOClean's signatures to the list which should significantly improve it's detection rate. It is a good solid product and includes HIPS. There used to be conflicts between Avast and Comodo Firewall but that's been fixed.

It can be a difficult search for a proper AV... I was originally looking at ESET NOD32 which has a detection rate of 96.71 on av-comp. It is apparently really good at catching spyware as well. I did try it out and it seemed quite low on system resources.

P.S. Comodo Firewall Pro (Also Free) will have HIPS included in it. The beta is due for release on Monday.

I hope all of that helped!

[Rednose]

Thank you EricEgan

The problem I have with AntiVir is that the free version has no email protection. Otherwise it would be my 1st choice of freeware AV

Greetz, Red.

[grampa]

Hey Red,
just one little question for knowledge sake:
As most (don't know what you're using) webmail providers have an inbuilt email-scanner (I've read somewhere that e.g. gmail uses AVAST! ), is email protection really such an important feature in an AV?

Btw, I uninstalled AntiVir and am currently trying out AVAST!. So far I cannot complain (like I couldn't with AntiVir).
However, I haven't yet managed to figure out how email protection works Do you need to run a prog like Outlook or thunderbird to protect your mail? I have an account with merseymail and gmail, sent emails from one to the other and AVAST! didn't do anything (though I ticked "write info in clean mail).
Beasts me!
Cheers,
grampa.

[Soyabeaner]

is email protection really such an important feature in an AV?

Depends.  Like you noticed, a lot email companies are using virus checkers already.  I receive zero spam/suspicious email for almost the last year, so that wouldn't even be a concerning factor for me if I was looking for an AV.  (And that's without any security app like anti-spam).

[Rednose]

Hi grampa

Email protection works with an email program like Outlook or Thunderbird, not with webmail. My internet provider offers both, and they are both protected. But I don't like to use webmail, and I don't want to rely only on the security an internet provider offers. That's why I use Avast If I would use only webmail, I would choose for AntiVir

Greetz, Red.

[gordon]

More interesting questions are when was the last time your [anyone reading this] AV detected a true virus and what sites/downloads caused those viruses to infect your pc?  The last time AVG did for me was so many years ago, which was one reason why I didn't need it anymore.  Aside from that, it isn't a bad product.  Although many reports on the web state its detection rate isn't as high as the other (free) AV's like Avast or Antivir for a long time.  Just depends exactly what factors one prioritizes.

I received one of them net-bank scam emails with an attached .exe a couple of weeks ago .
That's the first real "virus" I've received in 7 years and I don't need any AV to tell me not to open it !
Maybe Avast has a high detection-rate but it has it at the cost of MANY false positives.
Real-time AV is a waste of resources for private users if you know what you are doing IMO.
The worst are the ones that use "heuristics" (aka "guessing") they will flag files just for
being compiled with some tool that they cant handle. false positives spread unnecessary anxiety
but I guess they are good for business ..   
I have ClamAV to scan downloaded files, before that I had AVG free edition.
it was OK but never found anything so it had to go.
By using reasonably secure browser-settings (FireFox and no-script,maybe the phising-site alerter), common sense when downloading and a good firewall like comodo most people should be plenty safe . Many of your applications will also run smoother if the AV isn't checking everything they do .
Only people who like to visit and install obscure software from unknown web-sources really need
realtime AV-protection . For the rest of us it's enough just to scan files when they are downloaded.
(ALLWAYS scan email attachments from untrusted senders or better : just delete them on sight)
IF you find anything or don't completely trust the source then double-check with
www.virustotal.com or  http://virusscan.jotti.org/
That helps eliminate false positives and maybe catch new viruses ..
Notice how smooth your game is running now ?

[Rednose]

Avast Many false positives I had only 3 in more than 2 years I use Avast now. And they solved it within 48 hours after I reported them. I don't see this as a typical problem of Avast

Greetz, Red.

[Toggie]

In my country, we don't have ISPs as such, so I have several email accounts, (hotmail, gmail, yahoo, and local providers) all web based. I use thunderbird to collect my mail from all accounts. (can't remember the last time I actually logged on to the web interface of any of these accounts)  I generally use one or two, for registering on forums (published anywhere) and such, and others for private mail (never published).

I've never used email scanning in an AV. To me it's a complete waste of time and resources. All one needs is common sense.

Also, don't use HTML mail. Sure it looks pretty, but do you REALLY need it?

Toggie

[grampa]

Hey Toggie,
(sorry, this is totally off-topic)
I'm a little worried to see you "sigh" 
What happened to your avatar? I think I saw another (new) forum member use it !?
Is that why you sigh? 
If it is, we can always talk about it while having a nice  .
Cheer up,
grampa

[Toggie]

LOL grampa

Someone else is/was using the same avatar, so I decided on a change. Charlie sums it up

I'll probably change it again soon, perhaps after a few 

[grampa]

Have a few more 
and then try this (see attachment).
It has the same sinister touch to it as your old avatar 
Cheers,
grampa.

[Soyabeaner]

grampa, if someone ever tried to use that as an avatar , (s)he'll be closer to an invitation of banning than (s)he could ever imagine.

Ok, let's try to get back on topic here .

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