A squared antimalware antivirus

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Superman20, Jul 22, 2009.

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  1. Superman20

    Superman20 Registered Member

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    Hi,
    I am an intermediate computer user. I have vista home premium 64 and my current setup is kaspersky internet security 2010. I was wondering do I need another layer of malware protection. Recently I have been recommended a software called A squared antimalware by my friend. I checked it out and saw that it comes with antimalware engine and ikarus antivirus. Will this cause conflicts with kaspersky, if so if it possible to disable the antivirus component of A squared antimalware?

    Also I have noticed that A squared antimalware website claims that it detects more viruses and other malware than other security vendors. (http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware/) - lower half of the page there is a graph illustrating this. If this is the case shall I switch to A squared antimalware.


    Any comments appreciated

    Jaz
     
    Superman20, Jul 22, 2009
    #1
  2. hamzah95

    hamzah95 Registered Member

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    a-squared has a HUUUUUGE database, and it does have a really amazing detecting rate. As you have stated above that you are using Kaspersky, you should just get the free version of a-squared for on-demand scanning. You CAN try out the full version with real-time scanning, and if you like it, stick with it. It can slow down your pc though.
     
    hamzah95, Jul 22, 2009
    #2
  3. danny9

    danny9 Departed Friend

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    Hi Superman20,
    I'd say no.
    KIS 2010 already protects you against malware.
    What I would do is get either A-squared, Malwarebytes'Anti-Malware or SuperAntiSpyware, the free versions, and use it as an on demand scanner.
    Maybe once a week.
    Your computer will thank you for using less resources and will run better.
    The less scanners running in real time-the better. :D
     
    danny9, Jul 22, 2009
    #3
  4. Montecristo

    Montecristo Registered Member

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    I couldn't agree more :thumb:
     
    Montecristo, Jul 22, 2009
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  5. kjdemuth

    kjdemuth Registered Member

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    I'm currently running both KIS 2010 and A-squared in real time protection. I'm running a dell inspiron e1505 w/ 2g ram and windows xp pro. I don't see any slow downs other than booting it up. I haven't had any conflicts with it running in realtime yet. You really can't beat the protection.
     
    kjdemuth, Jul 22, 2009
    #5
  6. 1boss1

    1boss1 Registered Member

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    I would not recommend A-Squared as an on-demand malware scanner, the false positives are way to high which can lead to confusion and more problems than the actual malware itself.

    However another on demand scanner would be a good idea, such as Malwarebytes, Super Anti-Spyware or even Prevx.
     
    1boss1, Jul 22, 2009
    #6
  7. Ade 1

    Ade 1 Registered Member

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    I agree. I do, however, still use A-Squared as on-demand only but it has the highest FPs of any security product I've tried.
     
    Ade 1, Jul 22, 2009
    #7
  8. firzen771

    firzen771 Registered Member

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    well if u have some common sense, usually these FP's arent a problem for an ondemand scan.
     
    firzen771, Jul 22, 2009
    #8
  9. 1boss1

    1boss1 Registered Member

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    Yes i have it installed and i actually have a paid license for it, but only use it as a last resort if i think i'm infected.

    Currently it's showing i have 348 infections (all false positives) when i really have none. So it's not just a matter of common sense, it's the time involved in manually reviewing 348 programs and files and seeing if it's malware or not.

    This simple HTML will show as a "High Risk Worm":

    Code:
    <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>
<table width="920" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="10">
  <tr><td>Wilders</td></tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
    Definitely not a great hassle free, or beginner friendly scanner.
     
    1boss1, Jul 22, 2009
    #9
  10. firzen771

    firzen771 Registered Member

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    maybe not begginer friendly but how many begginers have u seen that have even heard about asquared?

    and are u SURE non of those are real? i find it hard to believe u actually have 348 FP's unless u have a lot of pirated software and games that its detecting keygens and such... :cautious: idk
     
    firzen771, Jul 22, 2009
    #10
  11. kjdemuth

    kjdemuth Registered Member

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    No its not a newbie scanner by any means. It does have alot of false positives but you can usually weed through alot of them. 348 is alot but they are all mostly cookies I assume. A2 has actually caught malware that KIS missed on a realtime basis. I would much rather have a few FP than miss a virus/malware that my primary AV missed.
     
    kjdemuth, Jul 22, 2009
    #11
  12. andyman35

    andyman35 Registered Member

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    I have to say in my own personal experience A2AM has improved a lot with regards to FPs,although it still throws up a higher number than some other products.What isn't in doubt though is it's awesome detection rate.:thumb:
     
    andyman35, Jul 22, 2009
    #12
  13. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    If they are cookies, they can be blocked at browser level remembering to only keep those that are needed for logins to sites like Wilders for example. Using something like SpywareBlaster will add many domains to be blocked. I would also suggest not accepting cookies from third parties. If you use a program like Ccleaner, you can also routinely purge cookies keeping only those that are needed.

    By using a combination of those strategies, one should have far less cookies on their system.
     
    TonyW, Jul 22, 2009
    #13
  14. 1boss1

    1boss1 Registered Member

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    Ahh lots, my 60yo mother asked me if it's any good and she barely knows how to upload a picture to her Photobucket account.

    Pirated Software? Hardly, i'm a web developer and many are plain old HTML and PHP files like i posted above. Yes i'm sure they are not malware, i coded every character in them by hand and i can assure you i'm not in the business of writing malware.

    The code i posted above simply makes a standards compliant page, with a 960px table containing the word "Wilders". It's a pretty bad thing to trip up on and label as a "High Risk Worm".

    It's picking up on the border="0" because if you change the value to 10 it's no longer a high risk worm. Totally horrible method of detecting malware.

    Look, i don't care to get in to a pissing match over it as i said i own a paid copy of A-Squared here's my (pirated) members access:

    asquared.png

    If they could sort out the false positive issues, it would be an absolutely fantastic malware scanner. However at this point, unless the OP wants to pick through false positives and be second guessing if something is malware or not i can't highly recommend it when there's solid alternatives.

    They have a free version, so there is nothing to lose by trying it as long as you are 100% sure before acting on anything it flags.
     
    1boss1, Jul 22, 2009
    #14
  15. Arin

    Arin Registered Member

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    Is Andreas Haak still related to this product? A-Squared looks good since now it incorporates an AV as well. However it has a long history of FP and as per my observation, the removal of FP results in one less malware record in the database. :p
     
    Last edited: Jul 22, 2009
    Arin, Jul 22, 2009
    #15
  16. Miyagi

    Miyagi Registered Member

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    Good point! :thumb: On a positive side, I've noticed some AV's detecting exploits which is a PLUS in addition to the malware signatures.
     
    Miyagi, Jul 22, 2009
    #16
  17. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    But are we using the throw-away line, 'a-squared gives a lot of false positives' through our experience (and most of us use a lot of various programs), but your average Joe uses the standard windows setup, with maybe just firefox, and wouldn't experience a single one?

    Our experience, all of us on the board, definitely counts. But you have to put it into perspective, the false positives I receive from a product, would be obsolete to an average user. So I couldn't just claim 'the program gives tons of false positives'. I should change it to, 'on lesser known programs, a-squared gives false positives, but to your standard setup that an average user would have, they won't have an issue'.
     
    Saraceno, Jul 22, 2009
    #17
  18. JohnnyDollar

    JohnnyDollar Guest


    From EMSISOFT

    Version 4.5.0.19 - 7/13/2009 - for Windows XP, 2003/2008 Server and Vista, limited functionality on x64

    http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 23, 2009
    JohnnyDollar, Jul 23, 2009
    #18
  19. hamzah95

    hamzah95 Registered Member

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    I don't know why you guys keep on saying a-squared=FPs. Till now I haven't got one FP from a-squared. My friend did tell me that he had a crack which a-squared marked as malware. Of course it will have a malicious script to infect and do whatever the crack for made for.
     
    hamzah95, Jul 23, 2009
    #19
  20. The Hammer

    The Hammer Registered Member

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    Nicely put.:thumb:
     
    The Hammer, Jul 23, 2009
    #20
  21. andyman35

    andyman35 Registered Member

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    The FPs will be proportionately higher for a lot of the users here on Wilders than the wider community because,as was mentioned by Saraceno,we're far more likely to be using more obscure software,Betas,etc. For users that stick to well known applications they shouldn't be a serious issue IMO.I actually don't mind some FPs when related to 'unusual' applications since to me it shows A2 is erring on the side of caution rather than letting potentially bad stuff through.
     
    andyman35, Jul 23, 2009
    #21
  22. firzen771

    firzen771 Registered Member

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    i know what u mean, i feel the same way
     
    firzen771, Jul 23, 2009
    #22
  23. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

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    I very rarely use scanners, as I think (some arrogance there) that my system is immune to anything. As an average Wilders's member I thought I'd give A squared a try and see what happens: it scanned for more than 2 hours, and it found my system clean with 0 FPs. I'm only reporting results.
     
    Osaban, Jul 23, 2009
    #23
  24. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Thanks for the feedback Osaban. I have had some FPs from the programs downloaded from Nirsoft, but these were tools to monitor network connections etc.

    Some regular users have had FPs with the program, and I respect their opinion.

    I'm not saying the program doesn't produce FPs, as people say the same about Avast but I'm yet to see one. I'm just having a beef with all forums (even a powerlifting one I visit, and another for V8s), there's always a proportion of people who recite what they've heard (that type of lift is dangerous / wouldn't drive that car etc) without actually trying it out for themselves.

    But the good side is, at least people here are overly critical, so you do get usually a lot of 'cons' to factor in with a few 'pros'. :)
     
    Saraceno, Jul 23, 2009
    #24
  25. JerryM

    JerryM Registered Member

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    I wonder if A Squared will be tested in the next series of tests by AV Comparatives?

    A year or more ago I tested it and did get enough FP that I uninstalled it. Although many here can make a correct determination of the FP fast, I cannot and it takes me too long to run it down.

    Regards,
    Jerry
     
    JerryM, Jul 23, 2009
    #25
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