Free Antivirus with easiest update?

Re: Fee Antivirus with easiest update?

I wasn't talking about update quantity; I said the update mechanism itself is better, or atleast that's what I was trying to say.

 

I think, it,s enough. So many people have almost made me convinced that Avast updates are best in fee AVs. Thanks all of you. I am going to use it.

 

Latest McAfee updates nicely in background with no problems, it,s my favourite AV, also captures lot of spywares as well, I think most effective against spywares and trojans of all dedicated AVs.

 

Antivir now updates for me,trouble free.Avg also did when i tried it years ago.

 

A 'Clean Install' of AntiVir Version 7 is doing a nice job for me on its Auto-UpDate,
(since uninstalling Version 6 that quit updates except by "UnZip & Paste" 31 January).

Its default Scheduler is Activated on the "once a day" default and I have noticed that if Console is open,
it does not check if done earlier that day.

Otherwise, as soon as I establish a dial-up connection, a tiny (expandable) box appears in upper right hand corner, (over my [Start] button)
connects, checks and last time it was just a :20 second download/install of just VDF-3.

Would expect that after H&BEDV's AntiVir Free Servers get back to normal, that you will be able to specify the recommended
"Six Hour" Schedule or whatever keeps you comfortable. They still seem tb be overloaded at times with (7) issues and those 'Nag-Screens' to load.

No experience with Avast or AVG, Norton and EZ-Trust are completely in the background on their updates.
(but they are not quite "Free")

 

You will never see that happen. They appear to be blocking regions during certain hours of the day. It has been that way for a long time even with version 6. So there is no way one can do the update every 'x' hours. You'll have to settle for once a day.

 

I did not even know it was possible to block regions during certain hours.

Guess I am lucky to be in a region that they are not blocking.

I only began with AntiVir on 16 Jan and it worked very well until 1 Feb and then
the "Block" was that updates that you could watch download, would never install.

It began with a Version 7 download that I Blocked and then progressed to updating my
Version 6's UnInstaller but I Never allowed it to attempt an Automatic Install,
due to all the problems reported and chose to clean and do a manual install of 7.

The third Automatic update for today, was 23:09GMT 2 files totaling 2,419,240 in under two minutes,
a little less than 9 hours ago it was 25KB in 20 seconds, plenty to keep me loyal.

______________________________________________________________

No doubt, with all the problems that others have reported,
my advice would also be to avoid AntiVir, for the near future.

Unless you really feel you need a free AV with the best detection right-now,
you would be better to stick with what you have, for the moment.

Just Like, Microsoft may release a new Operating System late this year,
my advice would be to hold-off for six more months before you buy it.

_______________________________________________________________

Since the point of this thread is about "ease of update" I can say that
AntiVir is easier now with new version than version six,
which had been strictly manual, for the free version.

For the other top free versions that I considered, AVG was tops in "Fuget-a-bout-it"
ease of use but #3 in detection score.

Avast was reported to have superior protection (#2) but the most to "learn"
for setup and use. I will follow the crowd and vote for a new user to
start with Avast.

Along with a good (free) Firewall (like ZoneAlarm) and Three good AntiSpy's
(like Spyware Blaster, AvBot S&D and AdAware) all free, user should have
no problem related to low detection scores.

To be sure, after a time period, run a Kasperski Free OnLine Scan and then
see if you think you might need to 'up-the-detection' score

 

To be fair, I have to say that I am only speculating that's the case based on my experience with AntiVir. I am in the U.S., Pacific region, California to be precise. I used version 6 for quite some time last year and have used version 7 for several weeks since it came out. I have NEVER been able to update AntiVir's defs from approximately midnight my time till noon the next day. That's a 12 hour window when all I get here is AntiVir sitting there trying to connect for a half hour or more until I give up. If I run the update from noon my time to midnight, I can get thru instantly. So my conclusion is: they are blocking during certain hours. What else can it be? This occurred with version 6 all the time, so please no excuses that the servers are overloaded due to version 7 traffic and program updates. Nonsense.

Anyway, as I say, that is MY experience with AntiVir. I really don't know if my theory is true or not. I cannot prove anything. And apparently others can update any time during the 24 hour period(?). At any rate, it's no good for me. I can never schedule updates say every 4 hours or so. Just won't work here.

And sure, it's possible to block traffic from any 'region' during any hours any time you like. People do it all the time in business to keep unwanted traffic out of their servers for various reasons..

At any rate, if you get better mileage with AntiVir then by all means, use it. I have decided to move on to other things myself..

 

Time is the key, H&BEDV's servers are located in Germany, which is GMT+one hour,
or US Pacific Standard Time plus nine hours, so Midnight to next day's Noon would be Nine AM to Nine PM in Germany.

I HAVE noticed that lately it has sometimes taken a few minutes to establish connection with Server,
during Nine to Four PM German Time.

It would stand-to-reason that for the past month or so, that they would be doing more service to their servers during
weekday working hours, with all those 11MB Bombs to serve.

But would expect that with customers WorldWide, that
the load should even out some and assuming that they
added server capacity (as they said) then would expect
following delivery of most of the 7's and all the mad users
jumping to AVG, server access should improve.

http://www.files.bz/files/3227/AntiVir%20Updater.jpg
This is what I usually see for a few seconds on establishing connection
unless AntiVir Console is open and up-to-date.

Looking for H&BEDV to add a slight mod to the program to send the
"Already Up-To-Date" signal from the TaskBar and eliminate a lot of
un-necessary server connections. I like to watch the new "Guard" at
work, but most users don't have the console open all the time

 

Being the tinkerer that I am, I will no doubt give it another try some day, but for now it's on to trial some of the others.. thanks for your input pilotart...

 

Well Alwil is located basically in the same timezone as germany and they don't have such problems. So timezpne location doesn't play as big role as many think...

 

Yep, I have tried at least a half dozen other AVs and have never had one problem with ANY of the others. Just AntiVir. Avast has always updated flawlessly..

 

On-thread- BitDefender-free does its updates fast as greased lightning, & smooth as a baby's posterior. Of course, it's on-demand only-- I mean BD (not the posterior).

Off-thread- No offense, but (IMHO) selecting an AV based primarily on ease of update is sorta like selecting a doctor based on the sweetness of his receptionist. Further deponent sayeth not.

 

Ah but if the receptionist is sweet and good looking, there is a good chance the doctor's business may very well pick up. Now on the other hand?

Thanks
Wildman

 

the way i look at it, updating ur definitions is necessary for proper protection so the least companies can do is make it easy and fast for people to do.

 

Yep, very true. If you're in the business of providing updates then things ought to work smoothly..

 

Efficiency update mechanism is *very necessary* if you manage antivirus solution in a large corporate network (extra automatic, smallest/fastest/easiest as possible), in my opinion, any antivirus software can guarantee reliable protection only if it is updated timely, as soon as possible when a signature released.

 

If you are restricted to dial-up, then the effectiveness of the update procedure becomes more crucial, particularly Server availability, size of updates and incremental updating.

So for me, AntiVir Classic, despite its high detection rate and negligible effect on system performance, would not be a suitable candidate for any of my computers.