2007 Internet Suite Comparison-Mine

I have spent the last 3 months, ordering and trying out all of the newer suites and just felt like giving my thoughts on each. I figure from a layman’s stand point, it can’t hurt. First, I have tried these out on a HP Pavilion Desktop and a Toshiba notebook. Both have been purchased in the last 4 months. Also my license for Avira is a 2 year paid, even though I was given a 1 year freebie for beta testing. I don’t believe in giving feedback on a gift, thus my choice in paying for one. I think lodore can attest to my generosity and accuracy in my beliefs. This are ranked in order from last to first, and you can beat the hell out of me afterwards.

A. AVG- Sorry Chris, but this suite has potential but in my thoughts, it killed a great product in Ewido, and that coupled with their poor ratings in detection, give it the infamous, who would buy this crap award. And I will leave it at that.

B. Trend Micro- Not a bad suite and with their newer 3.5 antispyware software added, this suite will sell great, just based on features and price. I think as time goes on, this may be a contender down the line, but I want protection, not modules.

C. F-Secure- Damn lodore, it really does everything, but it is like having the entire US Army boot up every time you restart your PC. I was impressed with its ability, but God you are right when it comes to being a ball and chain around your PC.

D. Panda- Tru Prevent rules, but that is about it. They didn’t do crap to make this suite what it could be for 2007. I would buy the AV alone and leave it at that. This is the one suite that will get my dollars in years to come if they just wake up and listen to their beta testers.

E. Dr Web- No suite and never will be, but I fell in love with this AV and the founders comments so I just through it in. For a laptop, their isn’t anything better, but work please on the false positives.

F.NIS 2007- I use to puke at the thought of Norton. But this would be my winner if I still didn’t get nausea from the name. The best at actually removing key loggers, Trojans and root kits from what I found. They get a hell of thumbs up for negating the negative impact of name recognition alone, for this year’s suite. I think that 2008 might be the one, but hey, it isn’t here yet.
But if the little green man loves it, it must be good. Really another heavy suite though.

G.- Eset- Another non-suite but will be soon. I have gone back and forth with this product. I have 3 licenses that I continue to dump other products for, but end up reloading this one. But only for a short time, and poof. I think if their suite has easier settings, which it will. along with better detection of malware, this will be the suite of the future. It is still being developed, and that is what is giving them, the future edge, seeing how others screwed up. I would not release a suite till January if it were me, to see what and how others react to the current new ones. They have faltered a little in the latest tests at AV Comparatives, which tells me they are more concentrated in Vista and the suite, instead of improving on their malware protection. Balance it out guys, please.

H. Runner up-Avira-Yeah, bet you thought this was my first choice, but it may be as time goes on. Also, if I did that it would have taken away from the validity of my comparisons. This is the lightest suite out their. If you are a gamer, this is your suite. I have the fastest boot times, system operation times of all of them, including the winner. I love their ability to detect, prevent, and groooooow. Their spamware protection will be out soon along with root kit detection and removal. But without these, it came in an honest second place. Please keep in mind, a lot of the others have been around for a long time and are just now getting to where this suite is starting out. ITS CALLED PROTECTION. Isn’t that why you bought one of these in the first place. The hell with you if you judge any of these products based on their GUI. That is pure stupidity. You buy one to protect you at a reasonable price and then this is your suite. Firewalls-Personally I use a router and an outbound firewall means crap to me. With all of these suites, I had popups saying approve or disapprove, and I couldn’t understand a damn thing they were saying so I said go for it. Except maybe Norton who seems to have it right. Also, for most improved for 2006, if AV Comparatives doesn’t give it to this company, well, I am throwing the red flag in for an instant replay. They did what was needed to earn this ranking. Keep an eye on this inexpensive but very protective suite as 2007 starts.

H. WINNER- KIS 6.0 MP- Even though I wont use it, just for the fact that my system gets slower as time goes by with this suite, they are the true protection suite for 2007. This suite, or the new MP, and yes I was a beta tester for them so I have been there, with their on little green man, it is the total package, for now. It will wipe your ass if you set it to. But it comes with little things that can aggravate. They need their own Blackspears, to suggest the correct settings, but we all know, he is one of a kind. It will give you pop ups, even after a frigging week, but it will shoot the hell out of anything that tries to invade your PC. Heuristics Don? You said by the end of the year and right now antibanner I think is the only thing that has them. Once you have this ability, Kas, will be able to lay off 100 people just from not having to type in signatures every hour. Cost savings maybe ? But you are the current Big Show, and you damn well deserve it. So enjoy the ride, you earned it.

 

Thanks for posting that trjam

Can you enlighten us as to any malware testing procedures you used.? Did you test with spyware also.?

Does your rankings pretty much reflect detection also?. Because i would say it's bang on!.

 

Procedures? Hey man, I am not IBK. I am though, the guy that buys this stuff. The best reporting I can give you is what they each found in scanning and figuring out if it was real or a false positive. I also read a lot, and took each comment with a open mind. Like I said, I am not the expert, but the paying consumer, and which do you think they all care about.

 

lol!

I just meant, do you have a collection of malware, even a small testset that you used in testing these programs out. Or did you go surfing on the darkside and try and get infected, etc. I used F-secure for 2 years and i'll tell ya, protection wise, it can't be beat!. But yes, those RESOURCES!.

 

ewido is still there.... their detection / sigs / and real time protection (not win9 are in with the suite.

and as for detection, avg have improved their heuristics and added ntfs data stream scanning, so dont be sooo quick to judge their 'potential', and await the next test results.

and dont agree KIS to be the best suite, kav maybe... but not kis, a pop up blocker that doesnt work and a v.poor anti hacker in my opinion, stick to KAV but no way is this the best 'suite' , oh.. and its expensive, whether you can afford it or not, 1. it aint worth it 2. there are better for cheaper.

i do agree with your comments on f-secure though, very very good at security, but the boot up time sucks.
i also agree with your comments on norton 2007, their 2007 range is very very impressive.

 

I can tell you now, their next results will be no better from what I found. It really isnt hard to test stuff yourself.

 

ibk has already said its improved alot on detection, and with better heuristics, ntfs data streams and ewido sigs aswell, doesnt take a genius to know it has improved. (plus the fact it states it on their site, that detection has improved)


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oh and i agree with panda is 2007, tru prevent is cool but when i used it ... i thought "what firewall?"

 

Hello trjam, Thanks for the reviews. I would like to share my thoughts on some of these products:

I just finished trying the new AVG 7.5 Internet Security, it's awesome! Ewido is no longer, it's a product of the past, although it's technology lives on in the new AVG Anti-Malware and Internet Security products. AVG's scanner has now become a formidable contender with other heavyweights, and there's a big difference between lab samples and real world threats when it comes to detection rates. AVG continues to recieve 100% VB awards, is ICSA certified, Checkmark certified Antivirus Level 1, Antivirus Level 2 and Trojan. These are industry standards and credible.

Dr.Web, is the cats "meow" when it comes to an antivirus solution in my opinion, personally, I have never had any false positives with this program, but reading through the forums, you will see it has had far less than other antivirus programs, including Avira. Dr.Web's performance and protection, are second to none.

I also hold a license for Nod32, this is the worst performing antivirus program I have ever run on my computer, it's an annoying, frustrating and finicky software, that requires constant tinkering to make sure it works properly. The update utility is severly flawed, regardless, how many new servers they bring on line, it continues to have problems.

I also own a copy of Norton Antivirus 2007, and I agree with you on this one, it's a great running program, I liked it alot and would not hesitate to recommend this product.

I tried KAV/KIS 6 also, I was impressed with the improvments in overall system performance, but it's still a buggy software and for some reason, I just don't like Kaspersky products, no matter how well they work or run on my computer.

Thanks again.

 

@trjam et al

Nice post;
Agree: I sometimes feel that the consumer can be forgotten !!
Lots of nice techy tricks in all your reviewed apps: but might alienate many end users. (heh:like me )

The Symantec 2007 Suite is very close to the goods for end user friendliness, but maybe goes a little too close to the "net nanny" approach: I have commented before that the gui for settings has become a bit complex: I suspect to discourage too much fiddling from basic users; perhaps not a bad thing; higher level users can still tweak a bit.

One thing I did not do: did not install System Works and box seems much faster. Shame really; SW has a couple of useful tools.

Some of the problems with uninstalling/reinstalling seems to come from SW
Uninstalling Norton is still a fun filled hour or two ! ! ,another negative imo.

trjam:
Did you factor support into your choices?
Unfortunately Symantec direct support is shi**y.
The web page support is a bit of a java quagmire although you can find most stuff there and there are some support forums about with experienced help available.

If support was a bigger factor I might go to Avira as first choice

Not fair giving ESET "Suite" a rating?
Doesn't exist yet ?? or does it lol

(heh: still waiting for ESET like you: if their suite is a bit easier than NOD and Blackspear sets up some templates it may well be the go, but will probably have to wait for a couple of revision versions after beta testing and first launch.

KIS attracts a lot of attention as it should: parts great, parts not for the faint hearted: as you say heh:

Look hereNorton 2007 for some more comments and interesting observations re NAV 2007 and some ?incompatabilities, roflmao,
Look here:Spybot targets Norton as malware
Actually might be a good thing if PK can uninstall NAV/NIS with SBS&D

For real ease of use and out of box comfort with recent improvements in term of reference as a suite per OP which is a finished product: Norton has done well imo.

Regards.

 

Support? Out of all the suites I tested or beta tested, only Kaspersky and Avira not only had forums for their beta testers, but still do after the fact. That tells me something. Avira has left theirs open to all testers for future products. No re-registering, they figure you are in for the long haul and treat you like family. Yes, maybe not currently the most feature enriched but the most loyal to their followers for the future and yes, that tells me something to. I have never, never, felt more of being a creator of a product, as I have with Avira. And still the best detection rates around, hey Chris.

 

I probably agree
Have been testing Avira AV and been to the forum a bit: VERY quick responses from developers much of the time.
I get a lot of false positives with some packed softs and the database links dont seem to work too well.
I will be going back to check the full suite in a new snapshot soon.

 

What did you use to test for detection of MSFT Office macro virus.

Is there a site, such as EICAR, that has sample macro virus that can be used for testing?

 

im no mod but there is no need to quote all that so please unquote it and say who you want to talk to.

anyhoo,

thanks for saying im right about f-secure and i like the comment about the us army Lmao.

i agree that kaspersky is the best suite there is atm.
when it has its heristics it will be almost unbeatable
updates every hour. proavtive defence and heristics for 0 day attacks.
i think kaspersky should have sort of blackspear settings in that sence.
i think all the scans should have scan new and changed files only option on them as default.
that always knida annoyed me during trialing.
sometimes it starts the first scan if you set it up to scan say once a week it starts right away before you have chance to change the option to scan new and changed files only.
lodore

my two favs av's are kav and nod32.
lodore

 

Cannot do so.
Moderators do not allow me to edit postings.
In any case, they seem to have done da edits.

 

until kaspersky sort out their anti hacker, their spam and their pop up blocker, it struggles for top 5 in suites, nevermind no1.

stick to KAV, no point paying the extra for the suite cos the extra bits that make up the suite are poor, but KAV is great.

im still not too sure about this proactive defense, keeps popping up that i have invaders on my machine whenever i try it, it also did it evertime i clicked favourites in IE7, very annoying suite.

 

seems they reduced the quote size.

so what do you sergest i use as firewall instead of getting kis6.0?
lodore

 

i just think the 'bits' that make it a suite from KAV or poor and noway worth the money, that pop up blocker dont even work.

i suggest getting KAV as you like the kaspersky features, and i think that still has the proactive defence, and get a firewall of some kind.

if your behind a router, you dont need a firewall, but if you like... outpost 4.0 or zonealarm would be my choice.

 

KAV is a fine product, but the Office Guard is @%$@$%.
See http://www.standards.com/Index.html?OfficeStuffExamples.

 

Maybe the winner and runner-up should be reversed.

 

Well, it's really great having reviews of any security programs, but I myself find Security Suites a little to slow, big and noisy. Not that there aren't exceptions but that's my opinion.

As for what I think is the best - I think that people should go with an AV they trust, ASpyware they're most familiar with, and as simple and easy-to-use Firewall there is.

I'm using Avira PE for the moment ( trying around), Ad-Aware, Spybot and Win Firewall (SP2), and I'm having a perfectly clean computer. That's about it

 

you will find the suite the lightest out their. Trust me on this one.

 

by lightest what do you mean ?

ram usage - btdefender 10 is the lightest
by speed of machine - avg suite is the lightest
by boot up time - avg suite is the lightest

fact

 

By what I have seen, as a layman, it runs totally quite on my computers. I realize that isnt what you are looking for, nor, does it mean it will on yours. But that is the best I can do my friend.

 

Sometimes speed isn't the most important factor. If an app is slow but does the job just right for you, then it isn't a problem.

 

I'll throw my 2 cents in,and its this, use what you want to use, If you read every review out there, you'll be swapping and changing like a damn Idiot, and just f*** up your computer. Unless your some high profile company who are prone to hackers, unless you surf the internet for any other purpose than what its designed for,and unless your some paranoid schitzofrenic crackpot, then all you need is the simplest of antivirus programs,(even the weakest stop viruses) a basic antispyware,and a basic firewall, even windows firewall is adequate for the average joe. Simply put unless your a hacker yourself, or virus spreader, or malware spreader, or any other kind of geek like that, Or if your a Bank or Credit Card Company, then these Hackers arnt going to give you a second glance, they have more bigger fish to fry. So swapping and changing all the time isnt going to keep you better protectedis will do is eat away at your hard drive and degrade it in time, installs/uninstalls all chip away a little at a time at your hard drive, untill it gives up and fails totally. And in anycase, I doubt you'll ever be satisfied, pick a program,and install it, then leave it the "hell alone" Theres always going to be somone wanting to be better than the rest,and claim to be so also, this is how they lure people into spending their money. "Whats tried and tested,is better than whats sugested"

Edit: By the way, just as a mater of fact, which I find Interesting, Have you ever noticed that on The "Biggest" Internet Company in the world!, i.e "Yahoo!" have you ever noticed that whenever you receive an email in a Yahoo account, its always scanned by.............You guessed it "Norton" have you ever wondered why that is? I better you never even thought about it did you Makes you think why they would choose them, but thats another story, and it isnt because they are sponsers neither