I am about to install AVG or Avast (free ones) stories?, advice?

I am trying to beef up my security incrementally without going overboard and too fast. I surf pretty safely. I have started using Firefox and Avant with ActiveX and scripting off. I added Microsoft AS running live (lots of on-demand backup) and Spyware Blaster. I have a NAT router and I enabled XP SP2 firewall.

1. I haven't gone to a 3rd party firewall yet
2. I do not have resident real-time AV yet.

I like free, of course, like anyone else. I have downloaded the free Avast! and AVG but not installed either. I am trigger happy to install one or both of them to run live. I have a 2.2 GHz AMD athlon with 512 megs of DDR (will be a Gig or more soon) on a cable internet network.

I am eliciting horror stories, stories of grandeur, and more advice from you guys concerning these free AV software and my security measures in general. I have read a lot of posts here and at Castle Cops but I have not been able to figure out if these free AV or Clamwin (an open source, free AV) are good or not. When I say good, I think that "good" should be fairly obvious, it should catch and kill viruses on the fly and on demand without crashing my computer or slowing it down much.

If these free options give up too much to the paid AV software then I will go with NOD32 (I have already decided that part).

Thanks,
B.

 

We run AVG professional version at work. Whilst it's OK, it does miss quite a few trojans.

IMHO AVG is certainly a LOT better than having no AV and should catch most things for you, especially if you surf safely (ie not high risk sites - gaming, porn, warez etc). It should be good enough if you also run regular scans with an alternative backup scanner to catch the things it misses (good advice with any AV).

Avast is supposed to have slightly better detection rates than AVG. Personally, I hated the skinned interface, but that's just me

Ned

 

There is also skinless interface that works just fine. There is also many skins to choose from.

 

I say go with Avast!. I ran AVG before and frankly I was not impressed at all. Avast! is IMO a far better AV overall than AVG and it will detect more trojans for you as well. Give it a try and see if you like it. I liked it so much I bought the Pro version license.

 

In my opinion, Avast Home Edition is far better than AVG Free and it even better than some pay AV.


For example,

- Avast Home has the reliable-excellent-complete auto updates/interval updates mechanism, while AVG Free has no

- From my experience, Avast Home has no update problems, while AVG Free has update problems from time to time because AVG free is restricted to use low-priority update servers, so it's absolutely frustrated if your AV can not be updated or checking if an updates available

- Avast Home has real-time HTTP scanner/basic Web filtering/real-time network traffic scanner to deal with network-based malware, while AVG Free has no

- Avast Home has boot-time scan to deal with active malware, while AVG Free has no

- Avast Home can protect you from common adware/spyware

- Avast Home is relatively easy to use while it's flexible at the same time

- Avast Home has an excellent support forum

- Last but not least, Avast Home has sound and skins/skinless interface


The detection rate is an important consideration, but it is just one aspect of the AV software.

 

Indeed, Avast Home and Professional beat AVG hands down in detections. Get a real-time AV as soon as possible. Dont go to the net without it.

I would also suggest you to install a software firewall like ZoneAlarm Free or Kerio Personal Firewall or Filseclab. These offer better protection than Windows Firewall.

You might also go for Ewido as your anti-trojan. Beef up your anti-spyware arsenal by using Spybot, Adaware, Arovax Shield, Spyware Guard etc.

Go for a backup AV scanner like Bitdefender free or Escan or Dr.Web's Cureit.

And Finally tighten the plug by using things like PrevX Home (Intrusion prevention) and processguard.

This should make you very secure.

Feedback and questions are welcome!

 

Try antivir personal, I used it for a while before I had the money to buy kaspersky. Its very good and in my opinion better than avg and avast as it is lighter than both and has better protection.

 

If you look at the recent AV Comparatives results, and discount the DOS etc viruses (which in practice you are not likely to encounter) you note that Avast and AVG got 84.4% and 83.3% respectively. Thus the overall detection rate of Avast and AVG is more or less the same.

AntiVir, on the other hand, scored 93% which is clearly superior to the other two.
When it comes to Trojans in particular, Avast gets 73.36% and AVG 58.96% while AntiVir scored a very fine 93.68%.

It is clear that in terms of detection AntiVir runs circles round the other two.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

 

Does this test involve Antivir Personal Edition Free or the Professional Edition? Do these editions use the same engine and signatures?

 

A very good question adhi mittal; I've never been quite clear what the difference in test result is likely to be between the free and paid for versions of these apps.

However it does seem that the Pro version is used in each case so presumably the relative differences will be similar in the free versions?

 

No they don't. AntiVir Pro also detects spyware while Classic (free) Edition doesn't. On the other hand Alwil doesn't make any differences so both avast! Pro and Home sport the same engine with exactly the same detection capabilities.

 

Apart from Spyware, do they have the same detection capabilities for other malware like viruses, worms, trojans etc.?
Is the SCAN ENGINE the same?

 

Yeah,thats the same. At least from what i know.

 

Antivir did very good in recent test,beating alot of paid programes.however it does cause slowdown while gameing.

 

There was no spyware/adware in the AV Comparative test, so absence of the ability to detect these things should not have affected the relative results. In other words the free versions are likely to have performed pretty well the same as the Pro versions on that particular test.

Of course much of the nasty spyware is dropped by trojans that are detected by AntiVir free, so we are only talking about the somewhat less dangerous Adware stuff which can be satisfactorily dealt with by an AS program in any case.

Are you able to place your games in the Guard's filter?

They would still be scanned by the demand scanner, but not by the realtime scanner.

 

Yes ,that solves the problem.

 

As posted by Firefighter only 4 av:s were capable to detect all samples without any FP:s and misses in the WinXP VirusBulletin 06-2005 test.

AntiVirusKit (GDATA)
AntiVir
Avira
Norton (Symantec SAV)
add to this the av comparatives test, and antivir seems to be a good choice for a free and light antivirus

 

So, you mean to say that Antivir Perosnal Edition FREE beats Avast Prof hands down?

 

Antivir is now awarded Advanced in av comparatives August.

 

I wouldn't exactly say hands down... thats more a comparison of KAV against AVG...

 

I have run Avast for about two years, on four different laptops, and I have recently given up on it because I have found it too demanding. Of the four machines, the only one that I thought really managed with it is my home 2.66gHz P4, on which I'm now using NOD32. My work Athlon XP-M, which runs at 1.8gHz, struggled with it, especially online - Avast's updating is very effective, but very aggressive, so until it's finished uploading, I found it difficult to do much else online. This was a drag for me when travelling in India, where I had to rely on a 3G mobile phone for my internet connection. The other machines were a 1gHz Celeron and a 750mHz P3, and I experienced severe drag on both of these. I'm switching them all over to AVG - I don't think it's as good as Avast, and I really dislike the look of it, but the Athlon (the only one I've switched so far) is running significantly faster - visibly faster.

 

All I would say is that, based on these results, there is a statistically significant difference in detection rate between AntiVir and Avast in certain key areas such as trojans, backdoors and worms. Since these are the malware types likely to be of most concern to users, this difference will not be compensated by the fact Avast may be better in other areas, such as Adware/Spyware (which can be dealt with by AS scanners), than AntiVir free.

In another sense though, you can say that all the scanners tested did well and can be said to have 'passed'; so the difference may not be that great. Most people would consider Avast and AntiVir to be rather similar in detection, therefore they concentrate on other features in making the decision which one to use. For example, AVG has a mail scanner which decides the issue for some people!

 

The program abilities or lack of I'll leave to the expertise of others. This is my take on the three mentioned thus far.

(1) AntiVir/Classic (free). Obtaining and maintaining this product can be a hassle at times due to a rather overworked and quiet possibly outdated server(s). A BETA version is available and while still not perfect (down loads can still take awhile) improvement does appear to be on the horizon.

(2) AVG (free). The individual does not have much control as to what this program will or will not due. It has in the past been know to be some what of a memory hog also. Use of and maintaining the product is very easy however.

(3) AVAST (free). This program in the past has placed files in areas beyond the control of the owner and these files are difficult to delete if one wishes to do so. The program has also been know to be a memory hog. Use of the product can be overwhelming to those with limited computer knowledge also.

Thanks
Wildman

 

my reccomendations:
Don't bother with AVG, the detection rates aren't really that great.
Run either Antiviir (sp) or Avast as resident scanners, and haver antiviir, avast, and bitdefender free available as on demand scanners.

get yourself a third party firewall too. ZA 6.0 free is very good for someone with little experience with firewalls.

 

I still say you should at least trial the Avast solution and see for yourself on your system how well it runs. Personally I think Avast is certainly a very good AV.