Lavasoft Ad-Aware Latest Version [Threads merged]

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by FOXP2, Jun 3, 2014.

  1. Brandonn2010

    Brandonn2010 Registered Member

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    Wow, does AdAware Free include AVC? If so, that would make it so much better than having just BD sigs.
     
  2. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    No, it is not in Free. A friend just did the upgrade and there is a setting in the Real Time Protection panel with an "Install" link which pops up an invite to upgrade to Personal, Pro, or Total. But I run Personal and Total, so let me see if I care... Let me get back to y'all on that. :D
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 28, 2014
  3. bigc73542

    bigc73542 Retired Moderator

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    AdAware Is running extremely well on my Dell Inspiron. So far I really like it. But time will tell.
     
  4. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Request for nasty, unprofessional overly technical details:
    Free? Personal? Pro? Total? Windows what?
    And those Pentium III Inspirons are real workhorses. :D

    Going on about eight months here on two Win7x64 i5 & i7 systems, Pro and Personal. Experience so far has been five out of five stars. IMHO, Pro is the best no-bloat Bitdefender solution on the market.
     
  5. bigc73542

    bigc73542 Retired Moderator

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    It is the free version
     

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  6. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Version 11.4.6792.0 changes:
    - Bug Fixing
    - Better support for Windows 8.1
    - Stability improvement

    For the Personal, Pro and Total versions, significant enhancements were made to Active Virus Control as a result of a markedly improved Bitdefender SDK.

    In September I had expressed some concerns to Lavasoft regarding their implementation of AVC which resulted in email correspondence initiated by Lavasoft's Product Owner and Coordinator, as he signs his email. I presented technical data and he promised a solution in short order and delivered - in 14 days. :thumb:

    The AVC components now implement the same redundant sigs/defs/libraries local storage as do the antivirus, phishing, etc. components.

    Monitoring the avcuf32.dll and avcuf64.dll libraries in Mister Group's System Explorer verifies greatly improved monitoring of processes by AVC.

    Cheers.
     
  7. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Is this the free version? If so can somebody link to the offline installer.
     
  8. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Oops. I forgot to mention... 11.4.6792.0 is Free also.

    Free gets BD's AVScan (sigs/defs) and B-Have (heuristics) and the Lavasoft engine. No Web protection unless you opt-in for the browser-only Toolbar at the beginning of the install. I suggest an opt-out of that and the separate install of the new Lavasoft Web Companion. The Companion uses a TCP filtering servce that scans URL outbounds against a malicious & phishing blacklist published by Malware Domains Labs and fully updated weekly and incrementally by the hour. I think it will eventually replace the Toolbar opt-in, if it hasn't already.
    http://webcompanion.com/

    Paid versions get all that (Toolbar/Companion also opt-in) plus AVC and additional BD components for Web/phishing, firewall, parental, etc. depending on the product.
    http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware.php
    AVC hasn't shown up in that chart yet, but it's in all except Free.

    As of earlier today, the offline installer I downloaded was still 11.3. But the inline stub installer updated my Personal and Pro upgrades A-OK. I don't see how it would cause any issues on a new build.

    I am also a fan of offlines and would have waited, but I was anxious to check up on the AVC enhancements.

    They don't make it easy to find this:
    http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/..._on_a_frozen_pc/ad-aware-standalone-installer

    Cheers.
     
  9. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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  10. Brandonn2010

    Brandonn2010 Registered Member

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    I was wondering the same thing. If they have the engine, defs, and even B-Have, I don't see why they are doing so much worse, unless AVC (which it doesn't have) makes that much of a difference.
     
  11. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    B-Have is part of the makeup of the overall core operations of the BD engine and has been from early on.

    AVC was added in 2010. And it would seem it makes a big diff.

    But it's not just AVC. BD Internet Security has integrated in its firewall a network protection component which monitors network processes for malicious activity via several NDIS filter drivers. I've never seen that written up but if one watches them in action (with an appropriate utility), it's evident that's what's occurring. Over the years there have been some referring to it as "HIPS-like." These components are in Ad-Aware Pro and Total.

    I've been on Lavasoft's case here and there that in the 2015 rounds they submit their Pro version. Because as Mayahana so eloquently pointed out, it wasn't Lavasoft Free that bombed, but Lavasoft.

    And it wasn't Bitdefender Internet Security that did so well, but Bitdefender. For a 99% of those that view test results, the products are generic. So if Ad-Aware Pro does really well, Lavasoft does well.

    I've always been a Bitdefender fan (G Data, Emsisoft, BullGuard, ahem cough RoboScam cough) but I've settled on Ad-Aware Pro as being the current leader in the bloat-free, cloud-free, free-enterprise Bitdefender solutions. Even at $36 full retail, it's a really good bang for the buck. More so if you stumble onto $25 or $18 deals. And as I reported in my OP, very responsive support. Yeah, Lavasoft garnered some hapless street cred a while back, but I've moved on.

    Now for Bitdefender AV101:
    source active_virus_control_wp.pdf undated
    Compiled for brevity and clarity.


    Files are checked against the BitDefender Signature Database. If the file contents match one of the signatures, the product disinfects/quarantines/prompts (user options). If no signature is matched, the file is passed to B-HAVE to be checked by running it in a virtual environment (aka sandbox) inside the BitDefender Engine. If the file exhibits suspicious, malware-like activity, B-Have reports the file as malicious. If not, the file is declared clean and allowed to run.

    After passing B-Have, Active Virus Control, if present, monitors the actions of the processes as they are running on the computer. Unlike heuristics, AVC monitors everything applications do for as long as they are active and so cannot be defeated by the delaying tactics that some advanced malware deploys. This also prevents malware from exploiting or hijacking already trusted applications. AVC does not determine a process to be malicious based on any single action; instead, it keeps a running score and only categorizes an application as malicious when a certain threshold is reached. When the overall score for a process reaches a given threshold, the process is reported as harmful and it is either terminated or the user is prompted (user options).


    Pretty slick. I wish I could find such a paper on their firewall.

    BTW, AVC depends somewhat on a set of about a dozen frequently updated files of exceptions (whitelists) and defintions like exploits.avc and obscure binaries like avc3.hx, avc3.rd. Because AV def binaries aren't obscure. :D

    Cheers.

    LS-AVC_AtWork.jpg
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 16, 2014
  12. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Cloud-Free is becoming synonymous with lower detections, and this is growing by the week. Traditional signature based AV's can't keep up, or react to changes quick enough. While products like Norton 2015, Trend, Webroot, and others are rising in performance, and detection due to the scalability of their response, and leveraging millions of dollars in machines w/fingerprinting and such. The numbers don't lie.
     
  13. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    As I posted up, cloud-free means free of, or without, cloud. I think you mean Cloud-Free as in free of cost? Whatever, your assertion that "(Cloud) is becoming synonymous with lower detections, and this is growing by the week" is more than debatable. And off-topic.

    My point was/is that if one prefers to choose a without-cloud solution (while waiting on those becoming/growing things), then Lavasoft Ad-Aware Pro Security and Total Security are pretty darn good Bitdefender bloatless suites for that.

    Bitdefender clouds only its anti-spam protection and on-demand Quick Scan in Internet Security and Total Security suites* and their AV detection "numbers (that) don't lie" are better than or equal to than their competition and their engine-only licensees that load up their offerings with additional proprietary components, cloud included.
    *Source: Bitdefender_TS_2015_UserGuide_en.pdf

    And for me that's the end of this unnecessary discussion. But thanks anyway. :thumb:
     
  14. IvoShoen

    IvoShoen Registered Member

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  15. Mayahana

    Mayahana Banned

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    Was speaking of the real world test, which I view as the most important because it attempts to mimic what protection is like under real or semi-real circumstances. Lavasoft seemed to fail totally in that one.
     
  16. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    The offline installer is cute, just 512 MB for a single installer file. :thumb:

    Edit: After reboot AdawareTray.exe is running but there is no icon in the systray. Hm, very nice. o_O
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2014
  17. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Yes, we got what you were speaking of. Some of us have reading comprehension skills.

    Again, it was Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free AV+ and not "Lavasoft."

    ~OT comment removed. Focus on the thread topic only.~

    In full recognition that generalizations and indifference to detail are, with occasional exceptions, of the normal at Wilders, your posts are nonetheless appreciated in that I will link this thread to the folks at Lavasoft. I need to press to them the need to submit Ad-Aware Pro Security for the 2015 rounds. In that way, for the mainstream thinkers here, when that does well, do does Free.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 17, 2014
  18. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    @Impet
    The offline installer includes ~300MB of Bitdefender sigs/defs. The even cuter 1.7MB online installer, upon completion, will download those. One way or the other, you get to download those. :'(

    I noticed the lack of a tray icon when I brought my laptop out of hibernation the first time after the 11.3 > 11.4 update. I had to reboot to regain it, but that problem has not subsequently returned. The icon is A-OK on my desktop. (But then, I rarely reboot that. I suppose I'll find out after I do this week's patch Tuesday; I always wait a week or so after I read "all clear" or "don't do KB..." in the tech news feeds.)

    If it does, I am going to try and "reset" the systray first: in "Notification Area Icons" toggle "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar." Or maybe stopping it in Task Manager and opening AdAwareTray.exe. I hate rebooting.

    Hopefully 11.4 didn't introduce an annoyance. However, protection is not affected and the UI can be accessed via the Start menu.

    Cheers.
     
  19. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    USA still the best. But barely.
    Any link to the current offline installer free version?
     
  20. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    Try this one: http://www.lavasoft.com/mylavasoft/support/supportcenter/ad-aware-standalone-installer

    What's really interesting: I skipped the download of the 300 MB Bitdefender sigs due to the slow connection here. After complete installation I pushed the update button: Signatures already up-to-date. Do I have Lavasoft without Bitdefender sigs now or was the download of 300 MB completed in 0,5 seconds? :D

    After a second reboot the tray icon is there, it seems to be a glitch in the software. I like the Lavasoft GUI, it's clean and there is no ad stuff in it. However, Lavasoft isn't light on this old system: Browsing is getting slow. :ninja:

    I think Lavasoft is as fat as the old FortiClient or GData. :thumbd: Please make it lighter and it could be my favourite free AV.
     
  21. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    The Ad-Aware Security Toolbar,
    http://toolbar.lavasoft.com/
    has been superceded by the Ad-Aware Web Companion
    http://webcompanion.com/

    Presented as an opt-in during the install of the Lavasoft Ad-Aware Anti-Virus products, the Toolbar was, well, a toolbar that worked only in some browsers as an add-on/extension. By virtue of a process running as a locally proxied TCP service, Companion is a stand-alone application.

    As its name and marketing implies, it serves as a companion to existing antivirus applications, not just to Ad-Aware.

    It scans URL outbounds against a malicious/phishing blacklist by Malware Domains Labs which gets updated weekly and incrementally every hour. The blacklists are in two protected zip files but in one sample set I viewed in the beta appeared to be an enhanced DNS-BH blocklist.

    Companion should close the zero-day gap in Ad-Aware Free AV+ where the Toolbar began to fall short in detections quite a while ago.

    Ad-Aware Personal, Pro and Total already have Web Protection and Anti-Phishing components powered by Bitdefender where Companion would be IMHO an inessential layer.

    In this assessment, the author thought he was testing Pro Security.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRWm0_uDb2M
    Well he was testing Pro but eight of the nine valid samples were blocked by Companion and the one that slipped through got snagged by Pro's Realtime Protection - a signature or B-Have detection (not AVC) that would have also been the result in Free AV+.

    In my own casual tests, it did exceptionally well, a seat of the pants combined 97-98% URL blocking with PhishTank listings and VXVault and malc0de samples opened in Portable Firefox ESR 31 and in Portable QuiteRSS's embedded QtWebKit browser.

    Cheers.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 29, 2014
  22. garrett76

    garrett76 Registered Member

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    Hi, FOXP2. I tried this webcompanion application together with ad-aware free, but noticed on my system it consumes a lot of ram (80-100 mb), while the old toolbar was perfectly integrated in the browser and not heavy at all. Considered that ad-aware consumes about 150-200 mb by itself, I found this couple to be quite heavy on my system.
    Edit: I forgot to mention that webcompanion process always uses cpu. Very little, around 0,5 % but costantly.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2014
  23. What happened to the Ad-Aware adblock extension. When it is possible to apply malware domains, why not for easyist f.i.? Or am I missing something (because I don't use it).
     
  24. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    Of course the old toolbar was perfectly integrated in the browser. That's what toolbars do. Well, some of them not so perfectly. :D Where in portables they rarely integrate at all unless one can find the xpi for a manual install.

    Those numbers cited are meaningless and I don't stand alone in that regard - there is much more to acquiring relevant performance metrics than watching Task Manager.

    In fact, if Task Manager and like utilities didn't exist, 99.9% of the community wouldn't have any data at all to post up in attempts aimed at achieving technical credulity when in fact it does just the opposite. And I can never figure out what a my system is which most everyone is using.

    My signature presents my lighthearted opinion on the whole ridiculous "heavy" and "light" discussion.

    I tested for a few weeks on an ancient E8400/G35 system with 2GB RAM running Windows XP where with a Companion, Ad-Aware Free AV+ and WinPatrol combo even the most heavily content/ad bloated Web sites snapped right up. No other decay in system performance was experienced other than Task Manager taking about a half hour to open... :gack:

    Cheers.
     
  25. FOXP2

    FOXP2 Guest

    I give up. What happened to it?
     
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