Avira Info! Scan speed

[Medank]

The Avira virus scanner was already one of the fastest products on the market, and now they want to make it even faster with 20%, WOW :D


Avira is releasing an update of its scan engine which increases the speed of virus search by another 20 percent

Tettnang, 17 October 2008 – More power: The IT security specialists at Avira have managed to increase the speed of its already fast anti-virus solution by an additional 20 percent. The engine update will be distributed automatically to private and business customers.

The developers have written new code to deal with the reading and writing files. This has accelerated the reading rate and reduced the number prompts and output requests made to the hardware. The programmers have also optimized the internal administration of modules when scanning, which makes scan runs approximately 20 percent faster on an average end-user system. These enhancements have also been added to the Avira Professional solutions for networks.

The Avira virus scanner was already one of the fastest products on the market. The IT security expert underlines this with the new optimizations that enhance the scanner. “An anti-virus solution is useless if the user deactivates it because of slow performance. It needs to be user-friendly, fast and remain in the background”, says Tjark Auerbach, founder and CEO of Avira. “We attach great importance to the fact that our solutions are fast, have high detection rates and use very little system resources. With automatic updates and fast scanning the user should be protected without noticing any impact on his computer and benefit from worry free computing.


http://www.avira.com/en/company_news/avira_speeds_up_its_virus_scanner.html


any comments? :argh:

[trjam]

they just continue to make the right moves as needed. Not surprising to me. I think this next time around on a suite will bring some very inovative ideas to the product.;)

[oliverjia]

I am using avira and very happy with it. Very good, probably the best available now in the market.
One thing though, if they can manage to improve the self-defense ability of avira, that's would be a great move too.

-{ Quote: "they just continue to make the right moves as needed. Not surprising to me. I think this next time around on a suite will bring some very inovative ideas to the product.;)" }-

[Arup]

As they say, like fine wine, the best just keeps getting better notwithstanding the curses and hex of the detractors. Avira takes step in right direction and not in haste, that has been their forte' and they have been quite successful so far.

[mvdu]

Does this mean the web guard will have faster browsing? I still get browsing slowdowns with the web guard, but I'm putting up with it.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "Does this mean the web guard will have faster browsing? I still get browsing slowdowns with the web guard, but I'm putting up with it." }-
you will always have a slowdown with a webguard but with a faster scan engine it will be reduced.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "Does this mean the web guard will have faster browsing? I still get browsing slowdowns with the web guard, but I'm putting up with it." }-

You don't need the webguard- it is totally redundant. If a file executes, the guard will protect you. My advice: uninstall the webguard.

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "You don't need the webguard- it is totally redundant. If a file executes, the guard will protect you. My advice: uninstall the webguard." }-
there is some malware which cant be caught by the file guard so thats why webguards where created
Sefan created a post about it ages ago.

[RejZoR]

Exploits usually aren't even written to a file and are executed directly in memory through browser or any other program. HTTP scanning is clearly not just a gimmick...
Btw good job AVIRA guys. They seem to be pushing their tech really hard.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "there is some malware which cant be caught by the file guard so thats why webguards where created
Sefan created a post about it ages ago." }-

Then all AVs that don't have webguards are very vulnerable to some exploits? It that were true, companies with no webguards in their software would be out of business.

[Waterfox]

-{ Quote: "Then all AVs that don't have webguards are very vulnerable to some exploits? It that were true, companies with no webguards in their software would be out of business." }-

Yeah, totally agree with this. It's just made for people who want to feel more secure, when all it really does is slow down your browsing speed.
Btw I'm running Avira without webguard too. :)

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "Then all AVs that don't have webguards are very vulnerable to some exploits? It that were true, companies with no webguards in their software would be out of business." }-
why dont you ask the experts?

[mvdu]

Well, I've seen both sides of the web guard argument and prefer to use it with Avira just for the extra sense of security - despite the slight slowdown. I really am not an expert on how effective it is.

[trjam]

It is very important. Stefan did a very long post awhile back as to why it is important. If it were not, why do all the top AVs include it. So Buck, if you use one that doesnt have it, you are already one down on protection. Even the new Dr Web will have it.

As far as slowdown, I dont see it. Kaspersky yes, Avira, Eset, Norton, no. I have done speed tests with all and I dont see it. That doesnt mean it doesnt happen, but as Lodore said, the faster scanning the more you will not notice it.

Avira has some other, bigger surprises coming for the future. But as Arup said, at their on time frame, at their on secure pace. But trust me, 2009 will be very, very special.;)

[Boost]

:thumb:

Gotta love it!~

[QBgreen]

I appreciate Avira's attitude of not resting on their already impressive laurels. Makes me even happier that I re-upped my AntiVir Premium sub! I wouldn't bet against them coming out with a suite that will rival or surpass any out there in all areas.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "why dont you ask the experts?" }-

I don't necessarily trust most so-called experts. Having used computers since 1967, I am confident in my own ability to make a rational decision. I do not agree that webguards serve any useful function. There is no proof I have seen that they in any way provide additional protection.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "It is very important. Stefan did a very long post awhile back as to why it is important. If it were not, why do all the top AVs include it. So Buck, if you use one that doesnt have it, you are already one down on protection. Even the new Dr Web will have it.

As far as slowdown, I dont see it. Kaspersky yes, Avira, Eset, Norton, no. I have done speed tests with all and I dont see it. That doesnt mean it doesnt happen, but as Lodore said, the faster scanning the more you will not notice it.

Avira has some other, bigger surprises coming for the future. But as Arup said, at their on time frame, at their on secure pace. But trust me, 2009 will be very, very special.;)" }-

Sounds like a sales promo. Have to disagree on importance and speed.

[trjam]

fair enough, you know I respect your thoughts.

Sales? Cant sell what isnt here,,,, yet.;)

[Macstorm]

-{ Quote: "any comments? :argh:" }-
ok, just :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

[Osaban]

Avira seems to be one of the most dynamic and innovative companies in a field that is probably the most competitive in the security industry. It is sad though to realize that the average person taking an interest for the first time in security might be mislead into thinking what are the best players.

The last Virus Bulletin (VB100) failed Avira because of one false positive, even though it has arguably the best detection at the moment (other companies with as much as 10% less in detection passed VB100). Furthermore in most AVs reviews Avira is often not mentioned at all as a major player.

My point is not about principles, I think when a company is doing so well they should be rewarded accordingly by selling more licenses, and reviewers should help spreading the word.

[yeuxbleus]

I always say: if you don't see any slowdowns with http scanner then why not use it?

-{ Quote: "...As far as slowdown, I dont see it. Kaspersky yes, Avira, Eset, Norton, no..." }-

BTW, I don't see any slowdowns using KAV 2009. I guess like anything else, it is dependent on system and setup.

[doktornotor]

-{ Quote: "why dont you ask the experts?" }-

Which ones? The ones that work for vendors that market webscanners/webshields/webguards and whatever as next best thing after beer and sex, or the ones that don't implement such features and consider this a wrong approach to the problem? ;D

[lodore]

-{ Quote: "Which ones? The ones that work for vendors that market webscanners/webshields/webguards and whatever as next best thing after beer and sex, or the ones that don't implement such features and consider this a wrong approach to the problem? ;D" }-
well getting a response from a few experts would be nice.

[Arup]

My take on this is for naive users, webshield is indeed a good idea. Better to stop it at pipeline than when it gets into your browser cache. For veteran users needing the speed and response of loading pages, webshield is something they can well do without and rather use their experience and intuitiion alongwith the real time guard to keep them clean.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "My take on this is for naive users, webshield is indeed a good idea. Better to stop it at pipeline than when it gets into your browser cache. For veteran users needing the speed and response of loading pages, webshield is something they can well do without and rather use their experience and intuitiion alongwith the real time guard to keep them clean." }-

Amen Brother!:thumb:

[RejZoR]

Well, you can be uber veteran and still fail misserably with all your experience if someone injects exploit into perfectly legit webpage thats visited by milions of users daily. You won't even know it. And i have no clue what "speed" you ppl are talking about. I never noticed ANY speed difefrece not with 1Mbit connection and not now with 4Mbit connection. In fact i can't even see any real difefrence with or without Web Shield. However i did noticed bad slowdowns with IMON back in days of NOD 2.5, not sure how v3.0 performs.
Same goes to Kaspersky (with settings set to High). Very slow page loading and slight delays. Nothing like it with avast!'s Web Shield.
Well i'm not surprised, it's been like this since it's release and it's still the leading HTTP scanner among all of them. It's just the best and the least problematic.

[Arup]

Could be a figment of my imagination but pages load a tad bit slower, specially those with heavy images. I have two PCs on same connection, one with Avira Premium and one with Free, both use Opera and the one with Premium always loads slower.

[TonyW]

-{ Quote: "For veteran users needing the speed and response of loading pages, webshield is something they can well do without and rather use their experience and intuitiion alongwith the real time guard to keep them clean." }-I could be considered a "veteran user", but I still use the HTTP scanner in KIS. I notice no slowdowns in the loading of web pages so I'm quite happy to leave the module turned on, and that's on a system only using 256MB memory and an 8MB 'net connection.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "Well, you can be uber veteran and still fail misserably with all your experience if someone injects exploit into perfectly legit webpage thats visited by milions of users daily. You won't even know it. And i have no clue what "speed" you ppl are talking about. I never noticed ANY speed difefrece not with 1Mbit connection and not now with 4Mbit connection. In fact i can't even see any real difefrence with or without Web Shield. However i did noticed bad slowdowns with IMON back in days of NOD 2.5, not sure how v3.0 performs.
Same goes to Kaspersky (with settings set to High). Very slow page loading and slight delays. Nothing like it with avast!'s Web Shield.
Well i'm not surprised, it's been like this since it's release and it's still the leading HTTP scanner among all of them. It's just the best and the least problematic." }-

So you are saying that Avast has the leading (fastest) http scanner?

[pykko]

Avira just gets better and better.
A good move.

[risl]

-{ Quote: "So you are saying that Avast has the leading (fastest) http scanner?" }-

I'd guess he was trying to say that it has been trouble free since people don't seem to complain about it, or mention it when discussion is about http scanners & slowdowns.

[Bunkhouse Buck]

-{ Quote: "I'd guess he was trying to say that it has been trouble free since people don't seem to complain about it, or mention it when discussion is about http scanners & slowdowns." }-

If that's what he meant, I would trade a little of the http scanner for better heuristic detection.

[RejZoR]

Ppl seriously overhype heuristis WAY too much. I bet you'd all be so happy if there was just "Heuristics" checkbox that actually does exactly nothing. But it would be there. Lets face it, avast! doesn't have heuristics in a strict meaning of the word. But it does have several proactive detection capabilities (AV-Comparatives proves that where avast! scored even better than some well known AVs that do have so called heuristics built-in). The fact is also that they are working for massive proactive feature for avast! 5. When it's released of course.

[risl]

It does have excellent generic signatures(&packer detections?), which I believe are those "proactive detection capabilities"

[RejZoR]

Yes, mostly generics and lately pretty aggressive cryptors detection that already proved as proactive measures quite few times.

[Medank]

-{ Quote: "Ppl seriously overhype heuristis WAY too much. I bet you'd all be so happy if there was just "Heuristics" checkbox that actually does exactly nothing. But it would be there. Lets face it, avast! doesn't have heuristics in a strict meaning of the word. But it does have several proactive detection capabilities (AV-Comparatives proves that where avast! scored even better than some well known AVs that do have so called heuristics built-in). The fact is also that they are working for massive proactive feature for avast! 5. When it's released of course." }-


well that's good that some AV's are working to improve the detection and not just ignore to improve detection rate as bitdefender did from version11 to new 2009 version, i was surprised when i heard it :wacko:
they do care alot of defragment and registrycleaner etc,

But for avira they are improving the scaning-engine, and that's good