Why the recent poor Antivir PE reviews

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by duke1959, Aug 4, 2006.

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  1. duke1959

    duke1959 Very Frequent Poster

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    Hello. I am now using Antivir PE because of the recent Virus Bulletin Tests. Antivir scored 100% in all the tests including the one for detecting Polymorphic Viruses. On the BetaNews FileForums however, there have recently been some bad reviews. I can't understand why this would be. I do understand that the Notifier can be obtrusive when it pops up during update, but Avira has made this a little more tolerable by showing the latest virus threats on it. I have Antivir set to update in the morning, and again in the late evening as it sometimes has two and three of them a day. I've used AVG Free, and Avast and liked them both, but for me Antivir seems like a good medium between the two. Low on system resources, (AVG) and great detection rate.(Avast compared to AVG) Just wondering what experiences anyone else has with Antivir lately, and what Firewall are using with it? I currently am only only using Windows XP. Hope to here from some happy Antivir users.
     
  2. TAP

    TAP Registered Member

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    I think it's a good antivirus, I had tried it from time to time but I don't like its Notifier, stratup splash screen and it seems to slow down my machine slightly.

    Unfortunately, AVG Free seems to be the most popular and well known free antivirus, most people I know seem to like AVG Free over avast! Home and AntiVir Classic which I don't know why. Grisoft must have been doing something right.
     
  3. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    theyre just reviews by trol---err users like u and me. overall it has a good rating and from my personal experience its very good.

    im not particularly fond of the notifier or the update setup, but theyre minor compared to antivir's good side like its good detection rates and lightness. id much rather have it than AVG. avast is good too but antivir is lighter.
     
  4. TAP

    TAP Registered Member

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    Lighter?, AntiVir is strange on my machine, from the task manager its 2 processes take memory about 30-40 MB and it's also slow down my machine slightly, especially when Heuristic is turned on.

    avast! takes about 15-25 MB, AVG is about 10-25 MB and both don't slow down my machine.
     
  5. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    i dont remember any numbers for memory usage, but i used 5 modules of avast compared to only using antivir resident protection.

    also the slowdown was more CPU related. while browsing files (with avast as AV) i sometimes noticed a delay. no such delay with antvir, or maybe the delay was just much shorter.
     
  6. Blackcat

    Blackcat Registered Member

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    Compared to Win XP, most of the problems seem to be with Win 98/Me systems. Personally, I would not recommend the Classic version on dial-up together with a non-NT system.
    You may want to try the beta of the Avira AV + Firewall sometime in the near future ;)
     
  7. pilotart

    pilotart Registered Member

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    I have a Dell Latitude D800 w/WinXP-Pro 1.5GB RAM & ZoneAlarm version...644 Free
    and an old Latitude LM P1 w/Win98fe 72MB RAM & no Firewall.

    AntiVir has consistantly been perfect on the WinXP System w/Pop-Up hidden by XP-Pro's Security Setting.

    Win98 did suffer the GPF's of AntiVir for the month of July, but that has been fixed now.

    I can detect no system slowdown on either system, the Win98's UpDates now take several minutes "Checking files" (used to be seconds) on either DSL or Dial-Up. I keep the Hueristic Detection Settings on High for both Guard and Scan and have not been bothered by False Positives.
    Total RAM on WinXP is >25MB and on Win98 can detect no loss of 'System Resources' w/AntiVir.

    WinXP UpDates in 20 seconds to a minute, on Dial-Up or WiFi, the (about every six to ten weeks) huge Program Update is much quicker on High-Speed of course and that process can clog AVIRA's Servers during peak Europe time period. (see; alexa.com/data/details/traffic=free-av.com)

    It would seem that a lot of the problems reported are a result of a 'less than clean' install. AntiVir will react badly even if installed over a 'less than completely removed' older version of itself. AVIRA provides program/registry cleaner utilities on its Website.

    I migrated from nine years of Norton (removed with Control Panel "modify" and kept the non AntiVirus/Firewall products of NSW plus WinFax-Pro and GoBack) and never needed Nortons 'removal' utility.

    On the old Win98fe System, I used QuarterDeck's CleanSweep to remove the Norton 2kVersion.
     
  8. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    This is about what I think. see my sig. for my current security set up. I like Antivir. The notifier can be a pain to deal with but a small "price" to pay for free AV of such quality. I know nothing of this review organization. :p I use XP OS and have a cable connection this could be some of the reasons why I have no problems some complain about.

    As for Notifier it is creative with the type of information that is put there. It is not really annoying like some T.V. Ads are. Far less of a bother. Remember this is free AV ;)
     
  9. lu_chin

    lu_chin Registered Member

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    I think Antivir is light on resources partly because it does not contain as many components as other AV programs. For example, KIS 6 has firewall+proactive defense while Avast 4 has WebShield and all extra features take up system resources. I do agree Antivir is doing a very good job at catching viruses which is its core function. The free PE version is good as an auxiliary scanner.
     
  10. the Tester

    the Tester Registered Member

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    I wouldn't be concerned about any poor reviews of AntiVir PE.
    Some users will love a program,others will hate it.It's just personal preference.
     
  11. TAP

    TAP Registered Member

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    No, it's not.

    With avast! (or KAV), you can *choose* to install what components you really want to use, nobody forces us to use all that components.

    Just install only avast!'s Standard Shield to see how light avast! is...
     
  12. maddawgz

    maddawgz Registered Member

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    im trying there new beta suite love it im shocked at how light it is for a suite and scans quick i think im move move on from TMIS 2005 just hope its better detection , Maybe a winner at last! MD
     
  13. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    I allways recommend AVG Free to newbies, because it is instal and forget software, almost none false positives, easy to maintain, update are automatic, small and fast. Antivir has the best detection, but it takes about 40-50 MB, its updates takes minutes, if it updates at all.
     
  14. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    And avast! ? It's install and forget too but no one ever mentions it...
    Update servers are super fast and reliable too, updates probably the smallest among all AVs (in size not detection terms).
     
  15. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    As I noted, in response to your similar query at CastleCops forum, the BetaNews forum is unmoderated and largely unpoliced. If you read through a number of the BetaNews reviews of AVs, as well as other applications, it becomes clearly evident that many of the posts are by *ringers* and de facto spammers.

    The more objective sources for AV reviews would be above-board test sites, such as AV-comparatives, as well as well-moderated forums such as Wilders -- where there are plenty of AV experts to pull the masks off of spam posters, astro-turfers, and the like.
     
  16. maddawgz

    maddawgz Registered Member

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    how do u get antvir to scan msn messenger files? the Beta version suite thanks
     
  17. duke1959

    duke1959 Very Frequent Poster

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    Hello bellgamin. Thanks for your response. It makes me feel better about using Antivir, alhough so does the low memory use, and the AV Comparitives. (Free version uses same scan engine as the Pro version used in tests) At this moment Antivir's 3 processes if you include schedule exe. is only around 8200k total in my Task Manager with Guard set to heuristic for macroviruses, but not Win32 file. I feel these heuristics are far more advanced than AVG Free offers, and even though Avast has good detection rates, it doesn't have better ones than Antivir or even have heuristics at all. Plus Antivir is as light on my PC (2% CPU usage while idle) as AVG Free, and Real Time Guard doesn't seem to slow programs opening up like I felt Avast's did. Finally the GUI is nice, and in my opinion fairly easy to use once you know your way around. All of this by the way, is why I started the Topic to begin with. Thanks again for yours, and everyone elses friendly and helpful responses. Which reminds me of just one more thing. Antivirs Forums seem friendly, and helpful too.
     
  18. colt45allstar

    colt45allstar Registered Member

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    I really like antivir and though I'm quite happy with Kaspersky 6.0, it would no doubt be my choice if going the free route. (and if for whatever reason kaspersky ever let me down, it would be one of my first three or four choices paid wise as well)

    It's a rapidly improving antivirus and whether going for the free version, or the paid version of antivir... you can be assured that you're getting a quality product.

    Don't put much weight on those negative reviews.
     
  19. SDS909

    SDS909 Registered Member

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    Since when does Antivir have "Obtrusive" notifier on update? I have never noticed it, you just set it to "Invisible" and be done with it.

    As for betanews, that place is a cesspool, seek your data on reliable forums and test sites. Antivir is a fabulous product.
     
  20. duke1959

    duke1959 Very Frequent Poster

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    Hey SDS909. I agree that maybe that was too strong of a word used to describe the Notifier. I too have it set to invisible, which works fine. Whay I meant is the nag screen, as some have called it, that pops up while updating. You know what though? I'm so happy with how many updates there are with Antivir compared to Avast, and AVG Free, and the better detection rates, that the pop up no longer even matters to me. Plus, I have Antivir scheduled to update in the morning and the evening, which is something AVG Free can't do. Sorry if I got you in an uproar over this, (just kidding) and thanks for the info on BetaNews. Seems you have a lot of company with that opinion.
     
  21. q1aqza

    q1aqza Registered Member

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    Are you using the free version? I have recently started trying out antivir but on the free version it seems the minimum schedule for update is 1 day - so I would be interested to know how you schedule an update in the morning and in the evening?
     
  22. pilotart

    pilotart Registered Member

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    On your Console Schedule page, select "new job" (can be problematic to 'edit' default jobs) and keep in mind that Updates are usually put out between 06-17 hours GMT, creat a "morning Update job" and put a check in its box. Now go back and do it again for your "evening Update job" and another check.

    Click this link to see historical times and dates of Updates.

    You can create as many "time of day" update jobs as you want, but you can see from the above link that they should fall within the time period of releases.

    After you have been in the "Scheduler" do one "Start Update" to reload AntiVir and then it will follow your schedule.
     
  23. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Will the firewall component be offered in free version as well?
     
  24. kdm31091

    kdm31091 Registered Member

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    Just a few AV comments:

    For AVG- I really love how it's light, free, fast, no-frills. It doesn't have awesome detection but you should't really rely on ONE thing to detect everything. I use some other malware detectors too. AVG is fine for regular classic viruses.

    For Avast- It slows down my startup too much. And I don't know if anyone noticed, but AVG is going higher in detection and avast is slowly getting lower. AVG is 90% right now, Avast 89%. Granted, barely diffent, but different nonetheless. I'm sick of Avast fanboys. Yes, you can customize the install, but with a good light AV you wouldnt have to bother doing so. And Avast still slows boot on many computers, no matter what. The only advantage of it is the totally automatic updates.

    For Antivir- It's awesome. It's got the lightness of AVG with the detection of a paid program. 96% detection (these %'s are based on av-comparatives last test from May). For some reason, it bugs me that Antivir always has a pretty close expiriation date, although it never seriously expires, it bugs me nonetheless. But it has awesome detection.
     
  25. q1aqza

    q1aqza Registered Member

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    Thanks, I'll give this a try. I had only tried editing the existing schedule.
     
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