i setup avira for hourly intervals but...

with avira do they actually update that often? is that even needed or should i set it for like every 4 or 5 hours or leave it at once a day?? with nod i always saw updates sometimes 4 or 5 a day and i rarely see them with avira and i do have it set to show me (minimized) when it updates. it is a bit discomforting not seeing these updates as fast as nod or kav does...

 

I update once a day and it only updates one file. I think Mele stated that it actually updates maybe 4 times a day. Try every 6 hours and monitor if updates anything. (I used the KAV-freebie "AVS" from AOL, and I miss the updater too)

 

yeah i mean even nod updates a LOT MORE than avira does. it kind makes me feel unsafe in a way. and ive been getting a LOT of update failed in the logs.. the one thing i hate is if it fails it seems like it will wait till the nest interval to update .. and in that case i may miss a important update.

 

If the update fails, try a manual update to see if it still fails. (The pay version doesn't have this problem) Sometimes the servers are overloaded. My "once-a-day" occurs in the middle of the night (German-time) so servers are never busy. I use HIPS so I don't worry about updating more often. (When I used AVS, I didn't use HIPS)

 

I believe they call it heuristics. Updates are not needed as often as say a signature base AV. You are just as well protected by Avira as Nod. Both know what it takes to protect you.

 

zfactor,

Looking at all your posts it seems inevitably Avira is not for you, I suggest you try out quality stuff like Dr. Web KAV or Nod.

 

dr web does not have a suite, also does not have the 98-99% detection rate i am looking for in a av like avira and nod. i will not use kav yet till they fix the chkdsk issues. and i am using nod on another system, the new ess and honestly im having way more issues with that than avira, blue screens, higher cpu usage, long startups and failure to connect to the internet unless i re-boot or disable the ess firewall.. so sorry but not sure i agree with you comment there...there are only a few small things im not liking about avira so far and it runs by far the best out of any suite i have ever used including ess beta or not.. i guess after being a nod user for 4-5 years its just hard for me to trust anything else im learning to like avira more each day though

 

Good, now you see the pros and cons, its all about compromise, no product is perfect but Avira is quite a good and balanced offering.

 

arup what about avira's heuristics? are they as good as the ones used by nod? i know i WELL known for them, how are the ones used in avira?

i actually liked gdata suite A LOT. but man that was a heavy setup at least on my system. i now see that my system just does nto like anything heavy at all and i do not know why. i did a full format and a fresh install and same issues. the only 2 that seem to run completely smooth are avira and ess.

ive now tried gdata, f-secure, avira, ess, kav, nav 2008. are there any i should try as well?? thanks

 

Avira is pretty good with heuristics and I have mine at max and get no FPs btw.

Also give Avast and McAffee a try.

 

Outpost is offering 2 years license for the price of 1 for the month of November.

 

no way ^^^ i hear way to many issues with the new outpost... and imo the av they use is sub par from my past experiences..

sorry forgot to include mcafee i did try them. i have not tried a avast suite do they offer one?? i thought they were only av?? thanks

 

All software react differently on each pc. I beta'd the Outpost Suite and it ran good for me, but the firewall is what I really liked. Avast is working on a firewall but for now just the AV...

 

There is also OnlineArmor which offers a FW, AV & HIPS as an all in one...

 

I would agree with 'TRJam' on the view of once-a-day updating. My realtime scanner were set to 1update/48hrs, C

Heuristics doesn't need hourly updating and if you "missed" a set-schedule update - in Avira, you can set it to 'repeat' missed update once net connection was detected again -the missing datfiles would be downloaded along with any additional new files.

And, mentioning about "high detection" rates... THAT does NOT mean being accurate nor effective in a realtime/on-demand malware defense!

"High detection" rates from a comprehensive anti-Malware, but results of which are a lot of "false-Positives" (aka: bogus detections) would only taxed you from 'running for covers & being apprehensive' every time a popup tells you... no less giving you additional stress on your heart. C?

I... rather go for a 'median' detecting rates but Very LOW in 'false-positives' than the other way around.

Another critical consideration is how heavy your anti-Malware is taxing your rig's resources (aka: ddrs'; vMems). These two are foremost for considerations in your selection.

---------------------------------
EDIT: typos

 

i do like the ess firewall better than avira.

 

Is there a reason for wanting a suite rather than stand-alone apps.

 

...and lastly - since most of the post within here had mentioned their favs... i would like to recommend you a couple of reliable, effective & speed-demon of an anti-Malware bunch!

Check these out (in any order) -
VBA32 (in different flavour)
F-Secure, latest (in different flavours)
Command-AV/authentium
NOD32/esset
Clam-AV (software-Libre, available in win32 & Linux flavours)

... these are the one etched in my mind, if it's about reliability, accuracy and speed-scans (...err, you don't need to walk for mile just to smoke a Camel)

 

ease of use for the wife. she does not know much about firewall and av's so i want to find her a reliable setup thats simple to use. and she does notice when there is system lag she is picky about that. this will also end up for my mother as well who know next to nothing about these. i will set it up for her and then hope it protects her okay she is a very careful person though so i assume any will work.

 

...if that's the case - ease of use & no-brainer operation. My recommendations in this particular category are (in any order)~

NOD32/esset (latest); VBA32 (latest); Command-AV (latest)

The last two needs minor variable tweaks - post-initial scan. Thereafter, 4gettaboutit! And out of the 3, the first 2 has a very attractive pricing. Command-AV is on the premium side, but heck... it was a speed demon alright!

"Suites".... darn. It's just a way to aggregate a bigger amount of mullahs from naive folks thou.

---------------------------------
EDIT: addendum

 

As for ease of use, OA has probably the easiest FW+HIPS to set up and uses no more than 16MB/ram. AntiVir with the default settings has little chance of false/positives and uses 7-9MB/ram. Together they work pretty well as long as they don't conflict on your pc. OA may need 2 reboots to load properly.

 

"Usually, AntiVir offers updates for VDF files several times per day,..." {see this AVIRA site}

Hueristic Engine Updates are not listed on above site, but are about a weekly affair

I have had excellent protection and performance with AntiVir Classic {free} on three systems for two years now,
had I ever seen some of the problems posted by others,
I would consider another one of the excellent programs (or a format...).

As for those infamous False Positive's

with my Hueristic (and scan) settings at maximum and High I have seen less than one detection every three months,
mostly Hueristic and half False Positive, but half were True Positive.

Submission to the AVIRA Lab has been quick and response was prompt.

I would much rather deal with a 'False Positive' every six months,
than risk missing a 'True Positive' infection of my system.

 

Avira releases most updates between 8 am and 8 pm. For Florida it's between 2 am and 2 pm.

 

There were 4 updates on Nov 5, 3 updates on Nov 6, 6 updates on Nov 7 and 5 so far today (with 1.5 hours left in the day). I have Avira set to update every hour but I think setting it to 4 times a day would be fine or twice a day. Avira has great heuristics (maybe too great ...the FP problem). I wouldn't worry about it not updating every hour or whatever.

I really do wish Avira could cut down on the FP's though. I just got one last night when I went to install Lyrics Plugin for Winamp. Avira said it was DR/Zlob.Gen. I went to the Lyrics forum and saw several others complaining about Avira detecting it. I submitted it to Jotti and only Avira detected. On Virus Total only Avira and Web Washer detected it. I sent it to Stefan and he wrote back and said it was the installer that was being detected as the installer is very simple and old and similar to the latest Zlob installers. Of course, I am glad that Avira is zealous ...I wouldn't want to get a Zlob variant but...I spent too much time posting in the Lyrics forum and manually installing the plugin and Avira didn't peep on the .dll (so I knew it had to be the Plugin package), and then submitting it, etc. I have to do this too often. The only AV with as many FP's is DrWeb. I am not a high risk user so I prefer lower protection and less FP's. The best thing about Symantec is they almost never have an FP...lowest rate of FP's of all AV vendors.

The default config since Sept update is prone to less FP's because under extended threat category both Applications and SPR are unchecked by default (they had been checked by default and caused me big headaches when I first got Avira) and keeping heuristics at medium level helps also. Avira is so sensitive that I can't even open the Downloaded Programs folder without an alert on the Lyrics file in that folder. The Lyrics file is at the bottom of the folder and the folder is huge. I don't think Avira should peep unless I hover the mouse over or very near the file. Just two weeks ago, Avira alerted on GRC.com entry page and on the ShieldsUp page. Duh. It claimed an Iframe infection. Of course, that was an FP...there are just too many FP's. Other than that, it's an outstanding AV and extremely light.

 

I have had zero, zilch FPs with Avira. But I am a fairly safe surfer. had a couple with Web, but they were borderline, more with VBA over time, but really not many period from all vendors if you total them up.