Is Avast a worthy AV?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by tonyseeking, Dec 17, 2008.

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  1. Saraceno

    Saraceno Registered Member

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    Good that you mentioned it. There was a lot of 'crud' on that machine, don't even know how it was functioning, but Avast did install properly. Although it didn't remove all of it, and had trouble deleting a few from the 'virus chest', it still brought the system to a functioning standard.

    Only one test I know, and another test might show it to be poor. But as another example, I installed it on another friend's system recently, only that and nothing else. He goes through his fair share of 'entertainment sites and downloads', at least a few GB a day. I ran SAS, MBAM, AVZ, cureit, hoping to find something, but all I found was I wasted an hour of my time! :)

    Overall, it may not be the best, but for most users along with the $0 price tag, it's a more than decent AV with a support forum that helps users experiencing problems.
     
  2. JimIT

    JimIT Registered Member

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    avast! is a great AV. We like it enough to offer it as an option to our customers, and I just installed the managed corporate version in a small police department network. They are delighted with it.

    Cool things about avast! Home:

    Boot time scanner.
    Incremental updates (one of the first AV companies to offer this feature, btw),
    Anti-rootkit/spyware (other free alternatives don't offer this)
    Virus removal tool included,
    Skinnable,
    No crippled d/l features...the list goes on.

    avast! will do a great job for you. :cool:
     
  3. clocks

    clocks Registered Member

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    I would not be surprised if we see Windows 7 before seeing Avast 5. LOL
     
  4. gery

    gery Registered Member

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    it is no big deal if they delay it another year because Avast is a very stable and competitive AV in the present state. So no big hurry for v5
     
  5. midway40

    midway40 Registered Member

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    I'm with gery, I rather have stability right now and I am willing to wait. I don't want to go through what NOD32 users did when it went from 2.7 to 3.0.
     
  6. normishmael

    normishmael Guest

    The software itself is very good,with many usefull features,
    yet, it is the Suport Forum that is in a league of its own.
    Simply excellent.
     
  7. manOFpeace

    manOFpeace Registered Member

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    I used Nod32 for 3 or 4 years and defected this year when subscription ran out before I got a chance to renew it.
    I started out with Avast free and was very pleased with it. I then went Avast Professional. No regrets. Unable to comment on technical aspects of this AV but it gives me no bother and that is good enough for me. :)
     
  8. The Hammer

    The Hammer Registered Member

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    Avira has heuristics then? I'm not trying to make fun. I'm just asking.
     
  9. firzen771

    firzen771 Registered Member

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    im pretty sure the free Avira does have heuristics. someone correct me if im wrong.
     
  10. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    Yep, I recommend it, using it here, and have been for years off and on. It just keeps getting better... :thumb:
     
  11. sded

    sded Registered Member

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    Sure, I have it on 5 machines (2 Vista, 3XP) and wouldn't be without it.
     
  12. Someone

    Someone Registered Member

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    I think Avast is great, but the amount of false positives are a problem for me.
     
  13. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    ALL versions of Avira have heuristics on steroids.
     
  14. progress

    progress Guest

    Yes, but I hope that v5 has an up-to-date GUI like Avira or AVG ;)
     
  15. Page42

    Page42 Registered Member

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    Absolutely! Been running avast!4 Home Edition for a year and a half and it's an exceptional program. I haven't experienced very many false positives and I like the different shields and spyware and rootkit detection features. The support forum is excellent. I hear some people complain about the GUI but I don't care if it's pretty or not. It's always at or near the top of detection tests and knowledgeable folks say it has good removal abilities. :thumb:
     
  16. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    avast! is now a top AV, and they are improving a lot on every new release!

    They also have a great support, and what other company gives you all these protection and support for free!?

    Maybe Comodo, but its AV isn't ready...
     
  17. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    The avast! forum is very good.
    But I have recently had two infections after downloading files from BitTorrent. Sure, in both cases avast! detected at least some of the malware, but to remove it I had to use avast! + MBAM + SUPER. In the first case a problem arose after a reboot, I had to restore an image of the system partition. Now I use Returnil when I download from BitTorrent, and I see avast! mainly as a detector...
     
  18. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

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    Ok thank to everyone who contributed and answered my question.

    I am now running Avast :thumb:
     
  19. Konata Izumi

    Konata Izumi Registered Member

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    I wonder if it was true?
     
  20. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    So unless you have 3 checkboxes with words like "Heuristics", "Advanced Heuristics" and "Aura Heuristics" (this one actually sounds cool) and bunch of sliders ranging from None to Insane levels, then it's fine (even if it does exactly nothing). But if you have none of it, it automatuically has bad heuristics. Mhm. Ok. Every detection with tag [Cryp] and -gen is technically a heuristic detection. And lets don't forget Rootkit detections that are pretty much all heuristics (or shall i say behavioral) based. And other parts also use heuristic methods of detections, they just don't advertise it as others...
     
  21. wildvirus88

    wildvirus88 Registered Member

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    I think it's a poor AV with poor detection rates and a lot of false positives. You have better option FREE or paid. Avira, Kaspersky, F-Secure... I don't recommend Avast.
     
  22. dw426

    dw426 Registered Member

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    Tests seem to shoot down that opinion. Is it top of the line? No. Is it more than an adequate AV? Tests show very much so, yes. Here's something some people don't think about, quite a lot of FPs come from programs that change a deep system setting, such as a TCP patch and things of that nature. A lot of these types of programs ACT like a malicious program would, so the AV flags it. The AV is doing its job, that's not a sign of poorness.

    Avira in my case flagged things bad much more often than Avast has, but I don't consider that a bad thing, it's merely more "aggressive". Avast may not have always been the best in the world, and may still not be, but they have and are still coming a LONG way.
     
  23. progress

    progress Guest

  24. emperordarius

    emperordarius Registered Member

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    Who cares
    That's only for LinkScanner.
     
  25. progress

    progress Guest

    Do you know another test page? :p
     
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