F-Prot?

I am seeking information from users of F-Prot -- the kind of information that isn't available from AV-Comp et alia.

Namely...

1) How frequently does F-P update its sigs?

2) Are F-P's heuristics a Rottweiler, or a Poodle? (I prefer aggressive heuristics. Occasional false positives are just fine with me.)

3) Have there been any large updates in the past few months? If so, were Frisk's servers able to keep up with the load, or did gridlock ensue?

4) Is F-P's updater fast & smooth (like DrWeb's)?

5) As to F-P's on-demand scanner: fast, medium, slow?

6) Have you come across any annoying quirks in F-P's GUI or modus operandi?

7) If your F-P license expired tomorrow, would you (a) Definitely stay with F-P? OR (b) Probably stay with F-P? OR (c) Definitely switch to another AV? (Please explain your answer.)

I appreciate any comments that you care to offer.

aloha... bellgamin

 

Hi bellgamin

I'm just trying F-Prot having won a copy over at Castle Cops. Can't really answer your specific questions yet as it's early days.

RAM usage looks very good though - less than 2,500 k at present.

As regards updates, my settings say updates are 'completely automatic' but just opened the GUI and I've had to manually upload updates as last known were 25/26/04 - sorry can't remember which !

Scan times are acceptable with NOD as far as I'm concerned.

I have no expertise whatsoever on AV comparitives but I don't see many negatives so far.

The team at Frisk seem very responsive and Inspector Clouseau appears regularly here and has been very helpful to me.

I'll happily post further findings as I come across them.

 

Hi Bill,

Take a look here.

This site is not completely accurate in terms of F-Prot's exact updates but it gives you a good idea. IMO, they need to increase the frequency of updates, although the new heuristics help in this respect. Overall, they would push out an update fast if required.

I have only seen 4 false positives in 5 months of use and this was on the highest heuristic setting. Other users have reported a number of false positives, which are generally fixed quickly. Further, unlike F-Prot 3, in the new version, a temporary fix is to place these FP's in the Excluder.

I am still restricted to dial-up here and there have been no big signature updates during this time but there have been larger version updates. My initial problems with the Servers seem to have been solved.

Yes, but not as fast as Dr Web's

IME, the on-demand scanner is very fast; comparable to NOD for example but much faster than Dr Web.

No. It has a simple GUI and it is basically install, set and forget.

I have mainly switched to F-Prot 6 as I have several machines at Home and therefore have chosen it because of its generous Home license. IMO, it still has a number of weaknesses, as do all AV's, but it has improved considerably since F-Prot 3, particularly in detection. It's an AV which is improving over at av-comparatives rather than going backwards like some others.

However, at present FPAV 6, on my systems, is still not as light on system performance as the older version and I would still like to see more configuration options, particularly in the Guard and more spyware/adware detection.

Overall, I am pleased with FPAV but potential users have to take into account that Frisk is a small AV vendor and therefore changes/improvements will take longer than with some of the other bigger vendors.

 

FPAV 6 together with BOClean ( now FREE ) make a good, layered combination

 

Thanks, Alan. A very informative review, as always.

Thanks, also, for calling attention to the Dozleng link of updates -- it's a real eye-opener. I have visited Dozleng from time to time in the past, whenever I wanted to buy a software license (they have some really good bargains on upper tier software), but I hadn't noticed that they have such a well-documented historical list of software updates. I have added this jewel to my treasure box.

By the way, Dozleng's software shop presently is down for a few days while they update prices and availabilities. They are promising a *sale* once the shop comes back online -- so stay tuned!

Meanwhile - back at the thread -- I'm a bit disappointed at the *apparent* low frequency of F-P updates. Is F-P updating at less-than-ideal frequency? Or are KAV, DrWeb, Avira (et alia) updating more frequently than is truly essential? I wonder

 

I am still on the 30 day trial but will most likely be purchasing.

They seem to update once a day on average, not sure when it was but last week sometime they updated 3 times in a day I think. Heuristics a pretty close to NOD.

As Blackcat said this is a much improved version over the old 3.16. Not much in the way of configuration, so if you like to tweak stuff you will feel frustrated.

I had 1 FP that took 3 days to get fixed, that maybe my own fault though as the first time I submitted it I didn't ZIP the file so their server may have stripped it. When I did ZIP and sent it, it was fixed in a matter of hours.

The only complaint I have is on version updates, ie from 6.0.6.3 - .4 a restart was required but they say that the latest version should eliminate some of that. Additionally this latest update resolved the issue some people were having with MS Office that was mentioned a few posts up. I wasn't having any problems but some people were having probs with Outlook scanning.

Overall I would say F-Prot is on the way up and especially for those of us with multiple systems I say give it a shot. Try the 30 day trial, see how you like it.

 

Compared to other AV's, it seems that FPAV updates less frequently. BUT you have to take into account that some vendors push out only very few signatures in some updates and Frisk as mentioned before would release an update for a rapidly spreading malware. Further, Frisk are well-known for their clean database, so great care is taken to distinguish between real and corrupted samples. This takes time.

Overall, although the frequency of updates are similar to those of the old version, you are much better protected with the new heuristic engine.

 

F-prot usually update once per day (excluding weekends, although they do sometimes update over the weekend), as far as I know they don't officially release the details/number of signatures they add per update on their site or elsewhere, however you can still (approximatley) see the number of sigs added by comparing the total threats detected in the 'help' screen on F-prot's GUI before and after an update. From what I've seen typically their updates are quite large, often a thousand or more sigs in an update in the last couple of weeks, so they may not update as often but their larger updates probably compensate for this.

 

The size of the FPAV 6 signature database over the last few months; includes worms, viruses and other malicious programs.

30th November; 338,000
24th December; 386,016
22nd January; 466,267
20th February; 500,000
26th April; 579,917

In addition, if you check the Reports section of the av-comparatives tests, you can see that the Frisk analysts are very quick in adding the "missed samples".

 

The frequency is usually once a day on weekdays usually at the later hours. I have seen updates on the weekends as well as more than once a day when the malware activity is high. I have seen a huge number of signature numbers added at times.

I have not encountered false positives. Using the heuristic in real-time does not slow down as much. It's quite fast and unnoticeable.

There has been large updates (thousands) and I asked this in their forum and the reply was company secret. Can't complain.

Have not encountered any server issues here from Honolulu. Pretty fast and smooth with broadband connection.

In the advanced setting, you can choose the THOROUGH mode for max setting. More files will be scanned in this mode so it will take more time than the default scan. It still is fast but not as fast as NOD32.

The current GUI is very easy to maneuver and few clicks to apply your desired settings. It's a set it and forget it approach. Blackcat mentioned in the forum his desires which I agree too. Maybe have something like Avira's expert setting for future versions.

Honestly, if Inspector Closeau continues with Frisk, I will continue my license with them. There are many good options out there but I know I can count my trust with him and his team!! So far my overall comment with this AV is Blackcat's comments "A lightweight AV, fast on-demand scan speed, good heuristics, very few false positives, large malware database, fast, incremental updating, great support and a license that covers 5 Home computers; a great deal overall." Couldn't have said this better myself.

I gave up with Dr.Web. Sorry C.S.J...

 

Others gave you more informative and more competent answers (or will give you), but just want to say that you will not be satisfied with F-prot. You are looking for strong and aggressive anti-virus, F-prot is just an average at this moment, not so good as earlier. Stick with Kaspersky, Avira, NOD or Bitdefender.

 

See link in post#1 in this thread. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=993081#post993081 Apparently F-Prot didn't do very well (11%) for what it's worth. As to what it is worth I don't know.

 

No offense TheHammer, but that site is bs.

 

Yep I agree that site is a complete joke.

 

I would like to echo the words of BlackCat and Miyagi.
Another satisfied F-Prot 6 user here. Been with F-Prot since the early DOS versions. I can't remember the last time I had a virus. really!
I also like the simplicity of it's GUI but would also prefer expert options in the next versions.
Since I trust it's real-time protection, which is very lightweight, I simply schedule full system scans during the weekends, when I am not using the computer and, with F-Prot 6, only to satisfy the GUI which reports the last time the system was fully scanned.

 

My twin!!

 

Just one thing I wanted to explain here was that you cannot keep switching AVs just because someone who is familiar to you has changed companies. No offense towards the Inspector, but one man does not make a company. So, if tomorrow Inspector leaves and works for Symantec, this doesn't mean that F-Prot's detection rates will start dropping! FRISK itself has many well known and experienced/respected employees and analysts in their staff, and they will continue to retain the same standard that they have right now.

As for F-Prot, my thoughts have pretty much been echoed here: Light, fast, effective AV which provides good protection and good value for money along with very good support. F-Prot's updates are not much to worry about, they update fast when there is an outbreak. Heuristic detection is also quite good.

 

Firecat, I understand that but I LOVE and RESPECT Mike. There are others too like Stefan and VLK. I like them too. They all are here providing valid methodologies and comments. I think we all can change AV's. To me, I like to follow Mike. That's just me.

 

Seems to me a lot of these Av experts are like gypsies moving from place to place. But I'm glad to see this thread continuing as F-Prot isn't discussed enough here.

 

If Mike ever goes to Quickheal, now that's a different story.

 

Is that why your avatar wears a mask?

 

Maybe because not much issues to discuss... it simply works! well, at least, for those who posted in this thread. I can't speak for others as I can see some very minor glitches being posted in F-Prot forum.

I don't know if 'average' is the right word to use for F-Prot, but the February 2007 AV-Comparatives rated F-Prot version 6.0.5.1 as ADVANCED. It would probably reach ADVANCED+ rating in the next comparatives.

but I don't blame anyone saying F-Prot 6 is just average antivirus. IMO, F-Prot could easily be the most underrated antivirus around. But from a long time F-Prot user's standpoint, it's way better than that.