What do you guys think of BitDefender?

I tested this product late last year, and loved it. But opted for a NOD32 license instead because of scanning speed being so much faster under NOD32. However Bitdefender was pretty amazing in my tests.

However, lately, I notice BitDefender being the first to release definitions on most outbreaks and some good press around it as well.

NOD32 has caused me alarm lately, its lack of Advanced Heuristics, HTTP Scanner, and a true realtime unpacker have me worried. (I thought it had a realtime unpackager?). For example, on the EICAR tests, NOD32 misses all of them, unless you run them, or unpack and run them, then it gets them. It completely misses the text file version of it. In testing BitDefender today, I noticed it aces all of the Eicar tests, even without unpacking.

Secondly, i've had BOCclean pick up no less than 3 trojans this month that slipped right past NOD32, causing more alarm - especially causing me to lose confidence in NOD32's trojan capabilities.

Third, email scanning in NOD32 seems lackluster, only scanning inbound, ignoring outbound, and missing most of the test things I send through! While BitDefender seems to pick them all up.

So my question is, with my license for NOD32 nearing expiration, i'm now considering various options for an AV. Does anyone use BitDefender and have any comments on it? I'd like to hear any responses regarding this product if anyone has anything constructive to say.

Thx in advance.

 

here is some testing results from VB on bitdefender VB results

 

Well its 100% on VB since 2002 for WindowsXP, thats all I really care about, so thats ok! Plus, I don't use VB as the gosphel, because according to what i've read, even a single false positive can destroy your 100% rating.

I was more looking for longterm user opinions though, if anyone has those.

 

Lighter on resources than KAV 5.0. Scan time was about the same as Panda Ti 2K4 and 40 mins quicker than KAV 5.0. Frequent updates.

Didn't run across any compatibility problems other than not being able to double click on my freemail accounts in trililan which opens a browser window and automatically logs you in.

I'm also on a search for a solid AV. At this point, I'm fairly happy with the way BitDefender 7.2 and KAV 5.0 performs.

I am intrigued by NOD32, lot of advocates for it on the forum (take their responses with a grain of salt, they seem to be in the majority. Whether it's from groupthink or the fact that NOD32 is really that good is up in the air IMO) but I'm not terribly fond of the way the app is structured and don't like the fact I have to tweak things with the command line/make regedits. That smacks of laziness from a programming perspective, once the core is tweaked, user interaction is key. Be nice if the gang @ ESET filled in some of the gaps. I don't think they update as often as some of the other apps do, but supposedly the advanced heuristics will catch something suspicious. I think the app has potential for OEM sales if they did a better job on it.

Here's another comparison for you
http://www.av-comparatives.org Click on Comparatives then February 2004

The guys @ Rokop have run a series of tests as well. They're in german so you'll need Babelfish if you don't sprech deutsch. Do a search for rokop.

Pro version has a nice package.

URL and edited to make Detox happy

 

I just ran some tests today, BitDefender has a hella nice realtime monitor, much better than KAV or NOD32. I also like its built in registry protection, etc. Seems really nice so far.

NOD32 has been pissing me off lately, for some of the reasons you say as well. Namely, command line stuff, lack of quality realtime scanning, no HTTP or P2P precache scanning, and worst of all, no AH for its realtime scanner. Stuff passes right through NOD32, which required me to buy BOClean as a secondary guard for it.

KAV while it ALWAYS scores really high on all the tests, just isn't something I like. Its pretty bloated, lacks a really good realtime scanner (certainly not like Bit!), is a pain to uninstall, and takes way too long to scan your HD.

That link you gave me had some surprises.. I knew Panda was a hellava AV product, i've tested it before. But seeing McAfee up there is a shocker, I always hated that product, but its been scoring really high. I do hear they are very slow to release definitions though. One thing I hated about Panda Platinum was its bad firewall, and really useless spyware blocker and crap. Seems to me they just rushed and threw together that platinum suite.. I *LOVE* the idea of a nice suite, but thiers is just bad...

Another product i'm wanting to look at is AVK.. Its scored 100% on every test I can find where it was tested, and uses two engines - RAV and KAV layered protection. Also the new E-Trust warrants a looksee as well..

Either way, i'm not renewing my NOD32 license unless I see some dramatic improvements in it.

 

To Kobra from Firefighter!

By the way, AVK Pro 2004 has BitDefender nowadays as the other scanner, the other is naturally KAV.

About BitDefender, very good backup to KAV, has found the same amount of infected files (not the same files however) than Panda Platinum 7.0 from my infected CD (that CD has 1232 infected archives, more than in Rokop tests) that KAV missed, more than Avast 4.1 Home, AVG 6.0 and NOD32 2.0 with Advanced Heuristics.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

 

This statement is incorrect and misleading. This is Wilder's Security Forum. If you check through the sections of our forum, you will find there is a lot more than NOD32 here, all hosted by Paul without charge.

 

I would disagree. I think Paul does a great job and everyone appreciates his/all the mods' efforts. However, there is a noticeable overall NOD flavor to things.

Back OT, I would assume AVK is using the KAV engine for signature and BD for heuristics and the other goodies. One thing I'm curious about with AVK is the frequency of updates, drag on resources and scan times.

I checked out E-Trust AV 7.1 (BTW CA bought Zonelabs so EZ Armor firewall is Zonealarm). Not a bad little program. I haven't found any tests of it though.

Kobra, check out KAV 5.0, real-time has been beefed up, heuristics have been tweaked and they did a good job on the interface. KAV 5.0 also uses less resources than BD. Downside that I came across is ridiculously long scan times and startup scan pretty much keeps any apps from opening for a minute or so once the desktop is up. I've heard Personal Pro is much more tweakable and a bit more secure. Supposed to be out end of 2Q. Whether than proves to be true remains to be been.

However, despite all my messing around, I also keep going back to BD.

Edited for spelling because I can't type while on a conference call.

 

Hi tazdev!

Link don't work.....

Ciao,

Smokey​

 

Getting truncated for some reason....

http://www.av-comparatives.org click on Comparatives then February 2004

 

I like bit. I like the frequency of updates. Many times 3 times a day.
Sometimes I find that BIt will not restart after an update though. I use bit on one of my rare checked systems and on occasion I see BIT not loaded. SO I investigated further (no infection) blah, and eventually discovered that after some updates the bit will no reload it self. Oh well I guess it's a small bug that should be fixed. I have the 7.2.
I also like the online scanner. Very comprehensive.

 

THE only AVK Pro 2004 which uses Bit engine is the GERMAN VERSION.

I tried the US version and I got KAV and RAV.
Maybe I am doing something wrong?

 

http://www.gdata.de sells english version as well.

But please stay on topic here...


tECHNODROME

 

Thanks!

Have seen the predictable results, 'cause I don't want to hurt somebody I don't write the name of the expected natural winner here!

Take just a look at my signature and guess who the winner is.....

Ciao,

Smokey​

 

Well since I can't read German, and I see no option for English on that website, I guess i'm out of luck!

As for KAV5, i'm waiting for the Pro version, as I want to check out those x-tended definitions and stuff, I didn't like KAV5-Lite when I tried it, and emailed them, and they said to wait a few months for KAV5-Pro.

But needless to say, theres other things important to me rather than just some score on a test or two, thats why i'm investigating BitDefender. I'd like to hear from more people that use it, with results of their usage. Thanks!

 

Ever heard of Babelfish? You can translate it to English. Copy the URL and paste it.

http://world.altavista.com/

If you're talking about GDATA, click on the International link in the top left corner.

KAV 5 was reviewed at Rokop.

Linky

 

Uhh, I know about translations - especially when you consider i've been surfing the internet since the internet existed. So I don't appreciate the degrading tone of your reply.

I don't care about translating the website, I care about a ENGLISH PURCHASE OPTION and a ENGLISH VERSION of the program. Perhaps I should have been more specific? Either way, I missed the "International" text option at the top, which does lead to the english purchase option and download.

Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Actually it wasn't degrading and if you've been surfing the internet since it existed, then you know that in many cases the written word is misinterpreted incorrectly by the reader. One of the reasons why I prefer the phone over email for business issues. Email causes too many problems because everyone interprets things differently. Believe it or not, there are still a large number of people that don't know about Babelfish or the other translation services on the net.

Back OT. Glad I could point that out for you. I'm also interested in AVK. Too bad they seem to have neglected their international pages. If GDATA put a bit more effort into their international marketing, good chance they'd sell a fair byt more product.

FYI there are some resellers that have better descriptions and screenshots if you google.

 

http://www.gdata.de/gdc/start


tECHNODROME

 

TD, thanks for that, problem is, compare the content versus the German pages. No screenshots and I'd prefer more details as I think Kobra would.

 

ronjor,

Extendia AVK is an older version of Gdata's AVK(v12).


tECHNODROME

 

BitDefender has poor unpacker support.

 

Proof?