any thoughts about Avira Free?

A client of mine is having problems with AVG 8.0 free version and asked me about Avira Free.
Feedback please
Pros, cons etc
thanks
robin

 

Avira Free has very good signature and proactive detection rates and it is not heavy. Updates are frequent (every ~2 hours but you need to create several "daily" jobs for that because the lowest interval for the free version is 24 hours). However every 3 months there is a large update, causing update problems for 2 or 3 days because of the load in the free servers.
There is an advertisment windows during updates but there are ways to block the advertisment (https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1043430&postcount=14) .

 

The above post sums it up nicely. Apart from that Avira free version doesn't have adware and spyware detection. However, AVG free version integrates the excellent Ewido antimalware.

 

If you are using Vista the lack of Spyware definitions in Avira free should not be much of an issue as Vista has Windows Defender turned on by default. That combination should be enough for all but the most paranoid.

Its also possible to add additional update times to the scheduler to get around what looks like a once daily update schedule.

There is a nag at every update, but it can be disabled by preventing avnotify.exe from running. Change the file permissions.

 

After getting advice from members in this forum, I am using Antivir free in one of my computers along with Threatfire free & Super Antispyware free behind XP firewall. Things are smooth here for last 2-3 months. You may try this combination.

 

I agree with diver Avira is a good free choice minus the email scan.I would also leave the windows defender on it may not be the top of AS scanners but is not that bad either.Just keep everything updated surf wisely you should be fine.

 

pros: its free
welll here are the cons
no adware/spyware protection
hopeless at cleaning infected machines.
update fails quite alot.

i belive in being honest. i have tryed it.

 

Be honest based on 2008, not 2007.

Aviras free updates are fine. New servers were put in place to deal with the iisue lodore mentioned.. My advice, Avira free coupled with Superantispyware free will be ample protection for most users. Ad I agree that its cleaning ability needs improvement, but unlike lodores avatar, you have to detect before you can clean.

 

Jeff,
your unbelievable.
im a very nice person do i wont be to hard on you.
i didnt mean updates failed i ment the whole update module breaking and no further updates possible.
i will use my superior tools which can acually deal with malware.
aka see sig.
see Stefan's thread from the other day malware writers are laughing at avira for detecting anything packed as malware.
i agree with the sergestion of superantispyware free.

 

What tools, an array of blacklist scanners. Seems Dr Web would suffice in place of several of those. As far as Stefan, well that is between him and upper management from what I am told.

And you can be as hard as you wish. My scars are very pronounced.

 

Cant argue with that, but the gent was specifically asking about Avira free, which is a pretty good product for those on a limited income looking for protection. Sometimes we all, myself included, forget where we came from and posted here for the first time seeking some basic information. It may seem old hat, but to new members, it is all the start of a long journey, that we all have made.

 

well that is true.
but adding extra layers is always a good idea.

 

Agreed, that is why I mentioned SAS. Just trying to help. Sorry for the bite, but name me one vendor that at one time or another hasnt had the server issue thrown in their face.

 

Hey Jeff,anger gets the best of all of us at some point.
server issues are a drag. just think soon enough i will be the person getting up at god knows what time to sort some out

 

yep, you come a long way from having to figure out how to get your Dad to dump F-Secure for Kaspersky. Kind of ironic, look at F-Secure today. Congrats my lad.

 

I was under the impression that Antivir scored one of the highest in the last AV comparative. Am I wrong?

 

the free version doesnt have the spyware detection ability like the paid. Now how much that takes away is debatable. Both will protect you, but as I said, if you use the free, supplemement it with SAS free and you more or less have the paid version of Avira.

 

But they do have the same definitions database/heuristics, right?

 

For what it's worth, the free Avira version has definitions for spycar tests

 

Windows defender ?

It used to be junk.

Has it changed ? (I'm still on Windows XP)

 

As I said, no one has shown me any definitive measurements as to the difference in the two. Maybe there isnt.

 

Avira is not the only AV that tends to detect most packed files as positive. I have seen this behavior with Bitdefender free and Symantec corporate products as well.

 

It has gotten much better and updates almost daily, it also has "HIPS like" protection if you enable it.



Avira Free is an excellent program, by far the best freebie out there. It is extremely light and has an excellent detection rate, as posted above, used in conjunction with Threatfire and you will have just as good protection as just about any pay for program.

 

I always try to check forums to gauge how things are going with an av ,and the updating problems still seem to be pretty prevalent at avira....
http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=Board&boardID=135&ee92a796

ellison

 

first of all i am not a gent. I know the name robin can be a boys name but I am all female

I personally like AVG 8.0 but since he asked me about aviria and it is also free, i decided to test it on one of my test machines and wanted your opinions here.
I tried Avast free, but there is no way to set up a scan unless you go into windows and set one up- i do not like a program that makes you manually scan and you need to be a techy person to set this up.

Avira has scheduled scanning and so far it did the scan exactly when it was suppose to and has gone out and checked for updates with no problems yet. (I only have it on for one day so I have to give it some time to see how it works)

I know it has no antispyware program in it and I would highly recommend superantispyware pro with any antivirus program that does have it as a backup.

I just wanted to know solely about the program, what your opinions are about it, and for that I thank you all.

robin