Is Avast a worthy AV?

script blocking is a nice additional protection, not completely ground breaking if you dont have it, but its a nice addition.

 

Absolutly agree.

 

I apologize for unclear question. I meant what is the strongest part of Avast in your opinion. Is Avast in something particularly good or the best? Thanks for your answers.

 

to me Avast is like the all around good player, not the best at a certain thing, but does everything decently well. so i dont think Avast has a strongest part of it, i think it pretty good all around.

 

I'd agree with firzen771, except to say that I think it's very good all-round (rather than pretty good).
Because of that, overall, it's best, for me.
Never given me a reason to consider changing.
If the absence of the features missing in the free version were of significance to me, I'd probably pay for the pro, rather than looking for an alternative freeware version.

 

If you use Firefox, you can use NoScript extension.

With this, you will get excellent script protection.

 

I try different free anti-virus's and I always seem to come back to Avast. Less FP's, less errors, always seems to update, very good all around.

Ice

 

Same here. The closest second that i liked a lot was actually Comodo Internet Security. But still avast! is simply better.

 

Avast offers full fledged protection with a good anti rootkit and network module, all for free with minimal system impact and drama, can't be beat there.

 

I was having some updating issues with AVG, so now I am trying Avast, and so far I like it.

 

You won't be sorry. Avast is a better program in many ways. I use it exclusively when I run Vista. It just keeps getting better.

 

To be honest with you. I just use Avast's Standard Shield on High along with Sandboxie and I feel secure.

Ice

 

The only reason I bought NAV2009 was that avast! has poor detection of binaries, otherwise I'd have used it with no nagging doubts.

avast! scores well in tests, but that's on samples that are already weeks or months old and have fallen out of circulation in favor of new variants. On new samples its performance is poor, and adding new samples to the database takes days. A typical update frequency of once per day also doesn't help.

On the plus side, it's the most stable and feature-rich of the free antivirus offerings. If only it did its core task better...

 

I had it for awhile just to try...it worked just fine. I think it is a good free one.

 

I just want my antivirus software to be lightweight, and do a good job. When I use Windows, I am careful where I surf, what I click on, and what I download. If I'm not sure, I use my Mac.

Thanks for the feedback!

ETA: How often does Avast update? I have Avast on my laptop, and I only use it twice a week.

 

Does the Avast Webshield detect/block (PDF) exploits?

 

I think that in settings the update frequency is set to four hours.

But manually you can update the definitions at any time.

And if you ask for the daily update frequency of Avast, it depends. Several times a day. This information is from the time that i was trying it.

P.S. I don't have it on my PC at this time so i can't answer you correctly.

 

yes , without doubt..

 

sometimes it doesn't update in 24 hours just a week ago it happened twice. I asked at their forum and they said it was something normal and not something to be aware of. But i don't have any idea why they say so. I have seen other AV's update more then 3 times a day

 

I am using the PRO VERSION so no idea about the free

 

The free and pro are the same in that regard. I think it defaults to checking every 4 hours, but this is configurable. It actually updates when there are updates to download, which would be as often as necessary.

 

No idea?

 

I have set Avast to check for updates every hour. Sometimes it doesn't appear to update over the period of a day, more usually it pdates daily or twoce daily, and once I've seen it update in four times in one day.

.PDF is not a file type that's on the default exclusions list for the webshield, I would say it will detect them. That said, I don't know if PDF exploits are common, nor how they actually work. The webshield seems mainly to block pages and sites that have active exploits on them. Something buried in a file hosted on the site that has to be downloaded then run to manifest...I don't know, sorry.

 

if I recall correctly there are hundreds of new viruses that come out every day. I understand that advanced heuristics look for viruslike behavior - so maybe it doesn't need to update everyday.

 

I don't thank Avast uses heuristics detection other than in its mailshield.
My last Avast update was 5:28 Pm Feb 21st.
My local time is now 10:03Pm Feb 22nd.