Virus Chaser prices reduced

[Firecat]

Hello everyone :)

Virus Chaser China Limited seems to have reduced the price of Virus Chaser to be more competitive with Dr.Web.

Currently, Virus Chaser now costs HKD 290 (about 37 US Dollars) for 1 year license, and HKD 410 (about 52 US Dollars) for a two year license. You can also buy other products, such as Virus Chaser for USB, or Virus Chaser for web from their web site.

The home page is http://www.viruschaser.com.hk/eng/

The purchase page is here:
http://www.viruschaser.com.hk/eng/epaylink/product_list.asp

With these new offers, Virus Chaser is now within the same price range as Dr.Web (save 3-4 dollars), and you get a more "modern" GUI as compared to Dr.Web.

Detection rates are the same as Dr.Web because Virus Chaser uses the Dr.Web engine. However, there is no "smart scan" function in the real time monitor.

My personal experience with support has been very good, they reply to most emails and have a high level of english. :)

So if you want Dr.Web with a more modern GUI that looks better than Dr.Web, then you should buy Virus Chaser. Updates are also very rapid and the program displays update info in a detailed manner.

Do let me know what you think :)

[Blackcat]

-{ Quote: " With these new offers, Virus Chaser is now within the same price range as Dr.Web" }-
But not if you can take advantage of the Migration License for Dr Web.

I would still go for the original rather than a clone, particularly as DW's support has improved dramatically of late. BUT keep us posted if you decide to select this one, FC ;)

In particular, if you have any screenshots of the latest version.

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "But not if you can take advantage of the Migration License for Dr Web.

I would still go for the original rather than a clone, particularly as DW's support has improved dramatically of late. BUT keep us posted if you decide to select this one, FC ;)

In particular, if you have any screenshots of the latest version." }-
The latest version is still version 5.0a, which you have tried and tested, Blackcat. :)

As for me, I won't buy Virus Chaser now because I've already made my choice. :)

[Blackcat]

-{ Quote: " As for me, I won't buy Virus Chaser now because I've already made my choice. :)" }-
And your choice was ? :D

Does it begin with an N?

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "And your choice was ? :D

Does it begin with an N?" }-
I'm PMing you about it, so keep your PM box ready. :)

[Sputnik]

I hope Firecat choose for (the origional) Dr. Web ;D

[Chubb]

-{ Quote: "Hello everyone :)

Virus Chaser China Limited seems to have reduced the price of Virus Chaser to be more competitive with Dr.Web.

Currently, Virus Chaser now costs HKD 290 (about 37 US Dollars) for 1 year license, and HKD 410 (about 52 US Dollars) for a two year license. You can also buy other products, such as Virus Chaser for USB, or Virus Chaser for web from their web site.

" }-

But NOD32 in Hong Kong is even more cheaper.

NOD32 Boxed versions:

Education licence (1 year) HK$168 (about USD21.5)
Home user license (3-year pack) HK$375 (about USD48, or USD16 per year)

Kaspersky AntiVirus

KAV boxed version:

Home user license (2 years) HK$290 (also USD37)

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "But NOD32 in Hong Kong is even more cheaper.

NOD32 Boxed versions:

Education licence (1 year) HK$168 (about USD21.5)
Home user license (3-year pack) HK$375 (about USD48, or USD16 per year)

Kaspersky AntiVirus

KAV boxed version:

Home user license (2 years) HK$290 (also USD37)" }-
I think retail stores in Hong Kong would have cheaper priced Virus Chaser too. I know the stores in Taipei did....

Anyway, what I'm saying is that the price for Virus Chaser is now more competitive on the global scale. If you can find a regional reseller, then prices will always be lower.

As such, Virus Chaser costs the least in Korea, because its a Korean product, with Technical assistance and virus research done in the Hong Kong labs.

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "The latest version is still version 5.0a, which you have tried and tested, Blackcat. :)

As for me, I won't buy Virus Chaser now because I've already made my choice. :)" }-

Well, it seems I'll have to eat my words. :-[

Anyway, I've got a license for Virus Chaser now. The interface is a lot better than Dr.Web, and quarantined files are in encrypted format. The product is using the Dr.Web 4.33b engine, but seems faster while scanning. However, Virus Chaser will not allow you to choose separate actions for heuristic detections and signature detections.

The real time monitor has a smart mode, contrary to what was said earlier. An email scanner is also included, though it is unknown if it scans IMAP protocols too.

A strange but very interesting thing is that Virus Chaser has more records in its database than Dr.Web. I do not know why this should be, but currently VC has about 1100 more records in the database than Dr.Web.

Support is fast and very knowledgable; I am very satisfied with the level of support offered. :)

[n8chavez]

I think that is a matter of personal opinion. I happen to like Dr Webs interface better that Virus Chasers. I like the fact that it is very straight forward...which is because it is very simplistic. There are features that were mentioned, such as encrypyted quarantine, that will be in Dr Web 5, right? I very much like Dr Web. But I am curious, how much will version 5 change? Will it look more like Virus Chaser? Also, for my money, you can't beat Dr Web; $33/2 years with Migration discount is a pretty good deal.

[Firecat]

-{ Quote: "I think that is a matter of personal opinion. I happen to like Dr Webs interface better that Virus Chasers. I like the fact that it is very straight forward...which is because it is very simplistic. There are features that were mentioned, such as encrypyted quarantine, that will be in Dr Web 5, right? I very much like Dr Web. But I am curious, how much will version 5 change? Will it look more like Virus Chaser? Also, for my money, you can't beat Dr Web; $33/2 years with Migration discount is a pretty good deal." }-
Yes, Dr.Web's migration discount is a very good offer. I remember that Dr.Web was planning to introduce another discount scheme based on how many years the users have stayed with using Dr.Web. What happened to that? ???

Yes, encrypted quarantine will be present in Dr.Web 5.0. At the current time, it is very hard to say what the GUI will look like, but since a previous version of Virus Chaser (5.0, not the current version 5.0a) was written by the Dialogue Science team, we could assume that it would look a bit like the original VC 5.0

If you want to see screenshots of this earlier version of Virus Chaser, go to this link and download the Virus Chaser User Manual:

http://www.viruschaser.com/enwi/3_02.jsp

Anyway, I am pretty happy with Virus Chaser. It also gets all engine upgrades from Dr.Web, which is really nice. :)

[lodore]

i might try vrus chaser since i am in seach of a replacement av for f-secure. dont get me wrong but f-secure is great product but uses to much resourse imo

[n8chavez]

I hope the Dr Web interface does not change that much. The user manual, in my opinion showed, a very crappy interface. Since for me the 'look and feel' of an AV goes a long way, I hope Dr Web stays the same with just a couple tweaks. That interface looks too much like VirusChasers, which I hate.

[Firecat]

A bit of an update: Virus Chaser currently does not support heuristics or variant detection, which is why it would score less than Dr.Web on various tests.

Even if you configure drweb32.ini to use heuristics, the Virus Chaser GUI and program simply ignores heuristic detections and does not report the same. A classic example of this is Trojan.Popuper. Dr.Web detects this trojan by variant and heuristics detection, but VC detects very few of these because there is no heuristics or variant detection.

I am not sure why heuristics is disabled in the current build of the product, but I have contacted their support team about this and received a reply saying that they have acknowledged the issue and I will receive an update on this as soon as they receive the analysis from the Virus Chaser R&D team.

Due to this discrepancy at the current moment, I cannot recommend Virus Chaser over Dr.Web to anyone. The lack of heuristics is a major problem; I hope I can get it fixed.

I'll update this thread when I have further info.

[Firecat]

Regarding my previous post,

Some variants of Trojan.Popuper are not detected by Virus Chaser because the Dr.Web engine being used in VC is an older version compared to Dr.Web (drweb32.dll--->version 4.33.2.2271).

Virus Chaser will be updated soon to use the current version of the Dr.Web engine (drweb32.dll--->4.33.3.6020)

I also asked about enabling heuristics and updating SpiderMail to the latest version from Dr.Web, and I will alert you when I receive a response.