AVG or SuperAntispyware

Can anyone offer an opinion about these two excellent programs. I have both as on-demand scanners and feel that there is duplication. One should go but which?
Thanks in advance.

 

Hi,folks: Why? Both are freewares, AVG As was AT king(Ewido), still good at trojan detection, while Superguy is good at kernel level spyware detection. These two are currently the most valuable AS apps your mooney can save!

 

if its only one keep superantispyware.
it updates more and seems generally better and lighter.
the only bad thing about superantispyware free version is the annoying splash screen.
lodore

 

Isn't kernel protection eliminated in the free versions? I think that's one of the reasons why there are free vs paid versions.

 

Anyway, you've convinced me to keep both. Thanks again.

 

i got rid of avg antispyware free version because during updates it really made me lagg sometimes and it can be a bit slow to open.
i have A squared free for on demand scans mainly for antitrojan/keyloggers
and superantispyware free version for antispyware
so i only have two on demand scanners and kis6.0 does the rest for now at least.
i might get online armor mainly because i like the program and not because i need it lol.
lodore

 

Like i said before somewhere, if they are on-demand, the limit is your hard drive capacity. IMHO.

 

I agree,keep both.
A-Squared is another good one.
As for differences in AVG AS and SUPERAntispyware;
I think one would be that AVG has heuristics.

 

SUPERAntiSpyware uses many types of detection including Heuristic detection to detect variants of known threat bases.

 

Thanks.I didn't know that.
I never saw heuristics in the config options.

 

It's actually built-in to our rules/definitions system and active at all times We error on the side of safety and have little to no false positives as a direct result of the heuristic system.

 

Hi Nick.

As one of the few Antispyware vendors who visit our forum I was wondering if you would be interested in our little discussion here
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=912366#post912366

Basically Paranoid2k and I were wondering what exactly it is that sets aside a antispyware product from an antivirus product. Aren't you guys using essentially the same technology?

If my antivirus offers antispyware detection and removal as well, why should we use antispyware as well?

No ill will is intended, this is just a nice discussion....

 

I suspect but maybe you can confirm why i have seen SAS have a very high sucess rate against repacked morphine z-lob's& infections.Either that or you guys are beating me to the punch on the malware repacks,but in some cases i have witnessed SAS nuke the z-lob repack before any of the AV's/AT's/AS's start flagging the name by title at VirusTotal service.

Also the same with the detection of the protected service file(EPF) at the core of the Gromozon's infections possibly was that due to a *smart* rule ?

Keep up the great work Nick,SAS free has been saving my badly abused "victim" of a 'puter from R&R's for quite sometime now

 

I would be more than happy to participate. You asked an excellent question : "If my antivirus offers antispyware detection and removal as well, why should we use antispyware as well?"

Many anti-virus programs are including an anti-spyware component to weed out many of the typical spyware infections. I believe this is because the number of actual viruses found on the "typical user's" system is much less than the number of spyware/adware/malware items found and the anti-virus companies want to make their products appeal to a broader market which includes both anti-virus and anti-spyware - which seems reasonable.

In my opinion, the real issue is that no one (or company) can be "the best" or "great" at everything, meaning anti-virus AND anti-spyware. Hence the phrase "Jack of all trades, master of none.". Typically viruses replicate (hence the name 'virus'), and attach themselves to other software, documents, spreadsheets (macro viruses), etc. Spyware/Adware/Malware applications on the other hand tend to not "attach" to other applications (we are seeing many hiding in ADS - Alternate Data Streams - but that is a whole other topic) but they tend to "install" and "bury" themselves in the system and guard against their removal. Viruses are also "typically" file based (yes, I know about boot sector viruses, etc.), and may only contain a few files, where as the spyware applications tend to be groups of files, registry keys, etc.

Anti-Virus applications have the "disinfect" or "remove" the virus code from within existing applications where anti-spyware applications need to locate one or more components that may be hidden in the file system, registry, alternate data streams, .ini files, etc.

The technologies are quite different, to me at least as a software developer of over 24 years. Both are required technologies but are very different "animals" to tackle.

I believe that the dedicated applications will always have the advantage as they are more "focused" on the type of infection they are going after.

 

You are correct - we do have "smart" rules that are designed to handle the specific variants of those types of infections. They seem to have worked quite effectively in the "field" on live infections.

Our rules/definitions have multi-pronged approaches to detection, as well as sub-components designed to avoid false detection.

As a side note we now handle all the QBot style infections via smart definitions - quite and intesting infection.

 

Hello Nick

While we have you here, could you comment on Superantispyware's abilities dealing with the less seen of but very difficult to remove 'NSIS Media Popups'. There doesn't seem to be a product that can deal with this infection effectively.

 

We have many definitions to deal with that infection - you have/find/know of infected systems with the NSIS infection, please direct them to me, or get the files and submit them to samples AT superantispyware.com and I will promptly analyze them and update our definitions.

 

Alrighty then, Thanks!.

 

I would choose the great SUPERAntiSpyware!

On the systems that I cleaned, SAS made a much better job than AVG AntiSpyware.
The support of SAS is also great.

I remember you that AVG AS is more an anti-malware than an specific anti-spyware, but I'm not so happy with it this year...
Maybe the new version will have something really new on detection...

 

I have a question for Nick or anyone else. Would you please explain to me why I need to run any RealTime AS if I use Firefox with NoScript, whether it's SAS or AVG AS, or even Windows Defender and Spyware Terminator for that matter? I'm not asking out of contempt mind you, and I do use SAS as on demand with AVG Anti-Malware as my RealTime. ( AVG was given to me as a gift) It's just neither one ever finds anything. Of course ST and WD have never found anything either, whenever I have had one of those installed while using FF. I would be just as happy to reverse my current AS software and purchase SAS for RealTime if I could be convinced I even need one at all with Firefox and NoScript.

 

Heh i field this one,lol

Would i be wrong in guessing that you also keep your OS patched upto date,don't download free pr0n codec's,do not frequent and download cracks,serials and keygens for *free* pay for software,click on random links in instant messages , check file attachments before opening reguardless of the source and finally connect to the WWW without a firewall.

Congratulations duke1959 you have attained a level of security awareness that the average joe computer user dose not unfortunetly fuuly have.Your attack surfaces have been greatly reduced and the likelyhood of a brush with malware is greatly diminished.

So you are accurate in your own assessment

 

to original question:
Keep both. IMHO: AVG AS/Ewido micro, SuperAS and A-squared are the best on-demand scanners for spyware and generic malware. Each one have their strengths. SAS is specially strong against the newest blended nasties while AVG AS and/or A-squared are great at fighting trojans and worms.

 

Excellent reading material and comparisons this thread. SAS won me over in a big way and i have no regrets (issues) to speak of. I Simply suppliment SuperAnti-Spyware with using A2Squared. A nice combo although i'm certain there are others that satisfy just as well and raise end users prevention/protection confidence higher up on the bar.

Keep up the fine effort.

 

I don't surf a whole lot, but I do use McAfee SiteAdvisor and surf safely. I used and loved Comodo Firewall, but have elected to use ZA Free which I feel suites my needs for now, and also use what was the AVG Internet Security Suite until I uninstalled the firewall that comes with it. In the past at one time or another I have used WinPatrol Free, Arovax Shield, Cyberhawk, Spyware Terminator, and Windows Defender for RealTime, and SAS, AVG AS Free, or A-Squared Anti-Malware as On-Demand and never found anything. Antivir PE found something one time that Avira said was a Trojan of some sort, but I honestly don't remember what RealTime program I was running at that moment. I do know that Antivir caught this particular Trojan while I was actually running SAS, which didn't. And caught it again when I tried to see if AVG Anti-Spyware Free would pick it up, which also didn't. There is an old thread on this somewhere in the Antivirus Forum. I do understand what you're saying about the average user though, and would agree they probably do need something in RealTime. I was asking if I needed to using FF with Noscript, because no matter how safe I may surf, I still wonder if something can still get in. I guess what I'm really doing is looking for an excuse to use RT AS, rather then to not use any.

 

duke1959,

Using Firefox does not prevent you from get spyware or other malware.
Of course that with Firefox your chance to be infected is much minor, but you can still download some program that contains spyware or some security flaw and your system became infected...
At least you should have to monitoring some areas of your system to help you, if your AV and common sense failed...