Antivir Result On AV.Comparatives.

Hi,

I have just saw Augusts on demand comparison today for the first time and was personally quite shocked with what I saw with regards to this Antivirus.

So was just wanting to discuss this one result with everyone. I have done a quick search on the forums but cant find anything on this.

But according to this test. This free Antivir Antivirus seems to be now have better detection rates than both the big two, i.e Kaspersky and Nod32.

I know the test itself said it was the premium checked but if i have understood Antivir's webside correctly the premium version only offers extra spyware detecting capabilities. Its Virus scanner is the same as what is available in the free.

So was just wanting anyones take on this curious result.

e.g Antivir's total detection = 99,51%
Kaspersky 6.0303 = 99,06%
Nod32 = 98,61%

Thanks
Anthony

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Don't forget to take into account the number of false positives You'd be surprised again.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

read above.

about FPs: lets wait the results of the next false positives test.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Antivir has great heuristics, although prone to more false positives than others.

They also seem very quick at adding signatures.

I'd rather have an AV that reports false positives that you can quarantine and check on, rather than ones that don't add signatures for the samples I send.

Regards,
Suggers

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

I don't put much stock in the av-comparatives test. Virus Bulletin ITW tests are important to me, but the results were very interesting, to say the least and a good read.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Thanks, but i am now very curious as to why this is.

I personally have always used AV.comparitives as my bible for choosing a good Antivirus product.

As mentioned above. A False Postive test would be invaluable to cross reference these potentially outstanding results for Antvir.

Thanks
Anthony

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

my personal opition on this is as follows.

light on resourses, easy to use even for newbies, great detection,really low cost.

soon it will include firewall. atm its my favourite av.

well done again avira!!!

sure there's some false positves but you can report them. better to flag a wrong file than to miss a real file.

i got a licence for my sisters laptop today. she does seem to like it. i checked the reports and its done a invisable scan and she didnt even notice it because it didnt slow it down. btw the laptop is a celoron m 256mb ram acer £350.

lodore

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

In business enviroment, antivir's FP might be a big problem. But for individual use, it depends. I would say for users who visit security forums like wilders on a regular basis, it is not a problem at all. They know how to handle such cases.

From my personally experience, I found about 4 FPs with highest setting from the last year and a half. It's ok for me while enjoying the powerful heuristic ability.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Wouldn't it be a nice gesture from some 'great experts' here, to admit that Avira is doing just a great job. It is a great scanner now, a fantastic improvement. It's indeed an easy 'out of the box' product!
I am runnign the beta with the firewall and it runs like oil on my system, just great and don't notice it at all.

No sir, the first reaction on the good outcome: Mind the false positives!

What about false positives? I rather see a few FP's than no detection.

My compliments for Avira and the are aiming for the top!

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

AntiVir's FPs have noticeably reduced since the last retrospective/proactive test. It shouldn't be that much of a problem.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

I am going to have to do some serious reading up on Antivir. The "big two" are starting to have some serious competition.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Now if only the Notifier Window would be discontinued, it would perhaps soon be more popular than AVG Free. I really liked Antivir, and miss it, but am using AOL AVS because I eventually got tired of hitting ok. Even when I had Antivir set to update early in the morning and late at night while I wasn't using the PC, the Notifier Window would be there when I did. Small thing, but I can never tell when AVS is updating, and believe me it does alot of that. As far as heuristics, well that was one of the main reasons I liked having Antivr. I can tell you though, that if Kapersky adds heuristics like it is said to do, I would be tempted to pay for it if it is no longer free after my year is up, simply because of how much I liked the Free Version. This is something that Antivir may not be understanding by having that darn (I'm going to say it) Nag Screen. Anyway, I can live with the .45% difference in detection, by not having to hit ok anymore.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Notifier window? Not in the Premium (paid) version! Check it out, you won't be sorry!

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Well, I must agree. The Premium version is a very well-done product and has very high value for money.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

There are many ways working around to disable the notifier. Make a search on the forum.

Btw, Stefan mentioned the http scanner before. Does anyboday know when it will be implemented?

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Well, I'm certainly no great expert, but I think the response has been rather balanced and positive overall.

The first reaction voiced regarding Avira's performance on this site certainly wasn't mind the false positives.

Everyone has their personal take on must have/would like to have/could care less attributes and false positives are just one of many possible tipping points for a potential user. For some it will be a critical feature, for others an irrelevant footnote, although for casual users I would hazard a guess that it is more likely the former than the latter; just a personal read from someone who happens to be in the latter camp.

Blue

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

In eight months use with Heuristics set to "High" I have seen exactly two FP's on WinXP system and two FP's on Win98fe (ancient backup system).

These were all on System Scans, not the ProActive Guard, (except for testing Email with them). Ewido and KAS Online Scans come up perfectly clean now.

After almost ten years of NAV (tried most of the other popular antivirus softwares as well) AntiVir PE (free) is like a breath of fresh air.

It had been "Mega Antivirus Test" - 9/10/05 {link} that convinced me to try it and I have never looked back.

The *kind o'tacky* AvNotify screen need never be seen by a simple security setting.

From reading the complaints, it looks like it can be 'touchy' on some systems and for those who can't fix their problems,
it is good that there are so many other choices of fine security software.

For my ancient Pentium 1/133MHz w/72MB RAM maxed out ten year old Dell Latitude LM laptop,
I have had to deal with an inconsequential “Close Console get GPF” anomaly and avoid Update w/ Consloe open since the current build 163.
No way is that enough problem for me to even reload AntiVir, much less switch to an inferior antivirus program.

Just since the latest "Search Engine" (avewin32.dll V7.01.11) I have suffered serious problems until I turned the Guard's Heuristic setting from High down to Medium
{see "Hard Freeze w/Guard’s Heuristic on ‘High” Thread on AntiVir Forum} on my WinXP-pro (SP2) Dell D800 Centrino 2GHz w/1.5GB RAM.

Glad to see that it did so well on AV-Comparitivies and know that must be difficult for people who love other AV-Programs.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Antivir's heuristics and generic detection have improved a lot IMHO. Every single new zlob I've come across latley is detected generically as DR/zlob.Gen by Antivir. Often it's the only scanner to flag it as a zlob (i.e. not just as "suspicious file"). One or two of the 'big guys' don't even seem to be adding signatures for zlobs anymore...

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Where can I get the instructions to disable the Antivir Notifier Window? I looked for Windows Xp users, but couldn't find them. I have used Process Guard Free in the past to block avnotify exe, but I didn't feel I needed PG Free. I like the idea of Antivir Premium with the spyware detection, although I am getting some of that with AVS. the http scanner in a Free version of Antivir ould nice though. Thanks everyone.

 

Re: Antivir Result On AV.Comparitivies.

Like this...

 

The heuristic is constantly being improved, that means improved detection but also possibly new false positives due to new rules. I test on a very large "good stuff" test set, but you cannot have every piece of software or version. Engine 7.1.1.11 contained such an update of the heuristic (2.6).

If the heuristics trigger one of your files and you are not sure about it's status, just send it to heuristik2(at)avira.com, I will have the heuristic adjusted quickly.

I made those generics aswell, especially doing DR/Zlob.Gen is big fun - because the Zlob authors notice that and update their malware to avoid the generic. Well, I just improve the generic aswell. Let's see who has more patience. ;-)

Also the polymorphic virus detection improved alot, thanks to the hard work of a co-worker of mine. Now if only that Junkcomp preselection would be more... selective... ;-)

But after all these good changes, there is still much left in AntiVir that needs improvement.

 

There's always room for improvement in this field

 

I have antivir premium for more one year.It's wonderfull.I recently renew my license for 2 years 36euros only.Very light but very efficient.Put heuristic on "medium"

 

Excellent, keep up the good work! at the moment Antivir is the only one who seems in control of the zlobs heuristically/generically.


Complete scanning result of "intcodec-v6.107.exe", received in VirusTotal at 09.03.2006, 14:47:06 (CET).

Antivirus Version Update Result
AntiVir 7.1.1.11 09.03.2006 DR/Zlob.Gen
Authentium 4.93.8 09.02.2006 no virus found
Avast 4.7.844.0 09.01.2006 no virus found
AVG 386 09.01.2006 no virus found
BitDefender 7.2 09.03.2006 no virus found
CAT-QuickHeal 8.00 09.02.2006 no virus found
ClamAV devel-20060426 09.02.2006 no virus found
DrWeb 4.33 09.03.2006 no virus found
eTrust-InoculateIT 23.72.113 09.01.2006 no virus found
eTrust-Vet 30.3.3056 09.01.2006 no virus found
Ewido 4.0 09.03.2006 no virus found
Fortinet 2.77.0.0 09.02.2006 suspicious
F-Prot 3.16f 09.01.2006 no virus found
F-Prot4 4.2.1.29 09.01.2006 no virus found
Ikarus 0.2.65.0 09.02.2006 no virus found
Kaspersky 4.0.2.24 09.03.2006 no virus found
McAfee 4843 09.01.2006 no virus found
Microsoft 1.1560 09.03.2006 no virus found
NOD32v2 1.1736 09.02.2006 no virus found
Norman 5.90.23 09.01.2006 no virus found
Panda 9.0.0.4 09.02.2006 Suspicious file
Sophos 4.09.0 09.03.2006 no virus found
Symantec 8.0 09.03.2006 no virus found
TheHacker 5.9.8.203 09.01.2006 no virus found
UNA 1.83 09.02.2006 no virus found
VBA32 3.11.1 09.03.2006 no virus found
VirusBuster 4.3.7:9 09.03.2006 Trojan.DL.Zlob.YK.Gen

 

the heristics look great like i thought