New Avast user questions

[Jeleal]

Being a new user of Avast Home, I have a few questions. How does Avast do so well in the AV Comparitives without heuristics? Also is the Web Shield needed? And last. Would using Online Armor Free and ThreatFire with Avast be a good security set up? Thank you.

[the Tester]

I used the Web Shield and it didn't slow things noticably.It's up to you but I would use it.
Heuristics for Avast are in the near future.;)
I would think OA free + TF + Avast would be good.

[solcroft]

{QUOTE-> How does Avast do so well in the AV Comparitives without heuristics? <-QUOTE}
Kaspersky had utterly crap heuristics until v7 as well. I don't see any universal law that dictates that only antivirus software with heuristics can do well in tests. Do you?

{QUOTE-> And last. Would using Online Armor Free and ThreatFire with Avast be a good security set up? Thank you. <-QUOTE}
Get rid of one or the other. They're not both needed... unless you want a firewall, in which case OA comes with one while TF doesn't.

Actually, on second thought, if you don't know enough about either to know which one you should keep, I'd say keep TF.

[Jeleal]

Thank you solcroft. I think I know enough about OA Free to say that it would be the one to keep. However doesn't TF detect malware differently than OA Free, and couldn't both of them be used with Avast? Also thank you the Tester for your response.

[RejZoR]

Well avast! is peforming surprisingly well for signature only antivirus.
They however put quiet some work on generic signatures that sometimes work as heuristics. However we are all waiting for avast! 5.x with it's uber detection :D

[the insider]

euh.... uber what in Avast! ? Please explain this to me ???

[WSFuser]

Über can mean super. Just know that avast 5 will have better detection rates.

[solcroft]

{QUOTE-> However doesn't TF detect malware differently than OA Free <-QUOTE}
OA doesn't "detect" malware. It just prompts you when processes try to perform certain actions, regardless of whether that process is legitimate or malicious, and it's up to you to decide.

[the insider]

{QUOTE-> Über can mean super. Just know that avast 5 will have better detection rates. <-QUOTE}

ok thx but when will it be available ??

[strangequark]

I wouldn't be turning Web Shield off, as the Tester says it doesn't seem to slow things down in a significant way.

[benton4]

Avast rocks!!! Other than I believe one test, AV-comparitives has given it an advanced ranking for like the last 3 years. It is a solid product, that combined with Threatfire and Comodo(my personal choice), you've got a good defense started against the bad guys.

[WSFuser]

Actually...avast has gotten "Advanced" 7 times and "Standard" 7 times too. There was also one gray.

[djohn]

I agree it does rock. I had a nasty and was missed by several other popular paid ones.the ones that where top rated and offer on line scans I wont mention names. I downloaded avast and it nailed it on the boot scan.since then I have been using avast for over a yr virus free.

[Wordward]

Just curious how well Avast runs with other security software? I haven't used it for a long time, but I was now thinking of trying it out. I would be using it with Webroot Desktop Firewall and DSA, or maybe even Zone Alarm Antispyware since it's free right now.

[djohn]

I use kerio firewall and spyblaster among windows defender these apps play nice together. I am not sure about the others.avast does seem to get along well with many apps

[FadeAway]

{QUOTE-> Just curious how well Avast runs with other security software? I haven't used it for a long time, but I was now thinking of trying it out. I would be using it with Webroot Desktop Firewall and DSA, or maybe even Zone Alarm Antispyware since it's free right now. <-QUOTE}

That can depend on the build. A few months back, I was running avast,
and when a new build came out, my computer boot time increased by
about 30 seconds. In playing around, I discovered that uninstalling
the free version of SAS (no real time), brought my boot times back
to normal. So I switched to AVG AV temporarily. After avast came out
with a couple of program updates, the problem vanished, so I'm back
to avast, which I've been happy with for years.

[Arup]

Avast is one of the most rounded offerings, free or paid, its protection modules like web shield, P2P, mail etc, offered on both free and paid versions give excellent protection, it has network shield that will protect you from viruses and trojans in case your firewall gets compromised. For a novice, I would recommend Avast over other AV.

[Wordward]

Starting to agree with you Arup. I'm liking it more and more. Trying out a few different Skins and I love the spinning Sys Tray Icon. I'm only running 4 Shields though. Web, Standard, Network, and IM. I don't use Outlook but do use Yahoo which has Norton I think for it's mail scanner. Also I don't go on P2P sites. Anyway because it's running well with ZA Antispyware and ThratFire, for now it's a keeper.

[Macstorm]

{QUOTE-> Trying out a few different Skins and I love the spinning Sys Tray Icon. <-QUOTE}
Does avast systray icon 'spin'? ???

[WSFuser]

Yes. It spins when scanning.

[Macstorm]

Thank you, i didn't know that :thumb:

[CJsDad]

You can stop the icon from spinning and you can also remove the icon the from the tray if you want.

[rhuds13]

It works great with SAS Pro.