Bit Defender

I finally got fed up with Norton AV. LiveUpdate killed my system once, customer support could not be worse, and the program just is not coded very efficiently. So I finally cut my ties after having remained loyal since 2002.

Due to First Defense and the ease at which it allows for system restorations, I tried all of what I consider to be the major AVs. Here are my official, unofficial, and unscientific results:

KAV & KIS: Could not complete a system scan on my system. It would hand around 8-11% despite having an expert walk me through the installation process and trying to install multiple times.

NOD32: Was better than KAV & KIS from the standpoint that it installed on my system and completed a full system scan; however, it would not scan what it called "password protected" files among which were Lavasoft's Ad-Aware files. These were only a portion of the files that it refused to scan. My thinking may be wrong here and I'm sure that many loyal NOD32 users will chime in to defend this popular software; however, if a legitimate program can hide from NOD32 this way, then can't a virus do the same?

F-Secure: I was going to give this one a fair shot at becoming my Norton replacement despite its price, but the person that recommended the software, bigc73542, whom I respect very much apparantly abandoned it as evidenced here:

Normally, I would not let one person's actions shape my opinion in this manner, no matter how much I respect him/her. However, in this case I coupled it with a report that claimed that F-Secure flagged more false positives than any other AV tested. I cannot have a trigger happy AV.

McAfee: I did not give this AV a chance. I read a recent article that discussed the system administrator nightmare McAfee's AV caused by wrongly identifying Windows system files as a virus and taking "appropriate action" and deleting them. As a result of this mishap, it will be a long time before I give McAfee a shot at being on any of my systems.

BitDefender: This software is the leading candidate at replacing Norton on my system. Very frequent updates, fairly clean interface, rates highly by almost every reputable magazine/tester. So far, so good.

 

Well Dallen I change av's quite regurlarly to give them a try. but I am back to F-secure simply because it gives me the protection I want with the least user intervention. I have never had a false positive with it. F-secure internet security is a lot more than just an sntivirus, it is a complete protection suite that actually works.

bigc

P.S.
sorry if my trying Fprot gave you the impression I wasn't happy with F-secure, nothing could be farther from the truth.

 

Fair enough. Have you ever tried Bit Defender? If so, what are you thoughts? If not, why not?

With the beauty of First Defense ISR (Instant System Recovery) I can still very easily give F-Secure a fair shot.

 

There is a known issue with Bit Defender and FDISR. I had to reload an ATI image after playing with the new beta.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=132220&page=2

 

dallen - it is normal for nod32 not to scan password protected archives. do u know of an AV that can?

 

I tried Bit defender about a year ago, at that time I didn't really care for it. Probably just a personal feeling but it just didn't strike me as what I wanted then. Truthfully I have no desire to really change antivirus programs since I started useing f-secure internet security. I uninstall what ever av I have running at the time whenever I want to test another av or a newer version of one I have already tested to get a clean test. But I will always put f-secure back on right after I am through testing what ever software I was testing. And I agree FDISR rocks

 

Just because it's normal for nod32 does not necessarily mean that it's acceptable. I am not an expert, or even knowledgable, on this topic. My only concern is that if I can keep nod32 from scanning my files by simply password protecting them, what would stop me from designing a virus that takes advantage of this?

 

Bigc,
I have read a couple of times that F-Secure is a bear to uninstall. I have read that also with KAV, Norton, and McAfee, none of which were problems uninstalling for me.

I downloaded the 6 months trial of F-secure, not the suite, but have hesitated to install it due to the posts that said it was difficult to uninstall.

Since you have obviously installed and uninstalled it more than once, what has been your experience with the uninstall. Did you need more than the Control Panel or the module in F-Secure?

I would like to put it on my laptop where I have Avast with Ewido. Of course I would remove Avast. I wonder if F-Secure is compatible with Ewido?

Thanks,
Jerry

 

JerryM,
My guess is that bigc73542 simply uses First Defense ISR to remove it. If you have not seen this program, you should look into it. It shifts the paradigm.

 

I have not experienced any problems at all in the fifteen times or so I have installed/uninstalled F-secure. It is about the best behaved security program I have ever used. I may just be lucky, but in all of the installing and uninstalling I would have figured that if there was a problem it would have shown up at least once and that hasn't happened.

and dallen I just use the add/remove in windows to uninstall f-secure

 

divedog,
Thanks for pointing this out. I hope that this issue is related to an older version of BitDefender. There is nothing that will rule out a software from being considered for my system than not playing well with #1 and First Defense is #1, make no mistakes about it.

JerryM,
I stand corrected about bigc73542's removal technique.

 

Thaks you both for the replies. I think I will install it on my laptop.
I guess at worse it can blow up, and I'll have to buy another.

Jerry

 

It won't blow up, you will like it I am sure at least I hope you will. I think you will be amazed how light a large program like f-secure internet security can run. And if you are going to use the antivirus by itself it really should be light. But effective

 

It was the new beta 10.

 

I just installed F-Secure, and it is now scanning my computer.

BigC, are there any settings that you would change? I am just using the default settings. It seems less complicated than either NOD or KAV. I am not geeky so I need something that runs well with the minimum of tweaking.

Just had Scotty, Win Patrol, barking as to whether to allow it or not. Now I think the pup is used to it.

I am going to be interested in how this performs. There is no doubt that one needs an effective AV, and one that will work well on the system.

I may be yelling for help. So far, so good.
Thanks,
Jerry

 

are you running the security suite or the av alone ??

 

The av alone. Also what are the abbrev that show on Windows task manager? I am also using on the laptop, Kerio 2.1.5, Avast, Spyware Blaster, Spyware Guard, Win Patrol, Snoopfree, and UnhackMe.
During the installation it told me to remove AsAware. Not a big deal for me. I also run, on-demand, Counterspy. WinXP Home SP2. 1024 mem

Deleted LnS. Got the two computers mixed up. I suspect you might have said do not run two firewalls.

Jerry

 

I imagine you have very few f-secure entries in the task manager as compared to the security suite. I missed one

 

this is not all of the listings in f-secure internet security suite

 

Thanks, I think I can identify them now.
Are there any changes to the settings you would make for a non-geek. Does it run well and secure out of the box?

Jerry

 

Do you have system control and browser control in your settings?

 

Yes, I've tried BitDefender. It is a very nice Anti-Threat program and has a clean interface and hourly updates. Most malware submissions are added in 2-3 days. You can send suspected malware for analysis through the program itself, rather than sending emails. Although Live Support is *very* fast, email support is a bit slow in responses.

In case you are looking for a suite, I recommend you look for BitDefender Internet Security Edition and not the Professional edition. This is because the Pro version's firewall is not so good as the Internet Security edition's Firewall.

The program is very clean and uncluttered, and the default settings are set for maximum protection, so you don't need to fine-tune the program much.

It is not recommended to use BitDefender with 3rd party AntiSpyware programs.

The detection rates are pretty good, the heuristics works nicely (though not as good as NOD32 yet), and spyware protection is decent.

 

Yes, and they are both enabled.
Jerry

 

the only changes I made from the default settings in the antivirus section was in the system control. of course you can set these settings to suit your security needs

 

Many thanks for your help. I am glad you try so many AVs. I hate to mess up my system.

Now I will be interested to see how it runs, and also how dallen likes BD. Hope it turns out well on his system. I liked it.

Have a good evening.
Jerry