What's the best free AV?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by notageek, Aug 17, 2002.

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  1. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    Hi RejZoR

    Well ‘Peak Mem Usage’ is like second nature to me; you obviously fail to see what I’m getting at. Readings on my system it is totally reliable, while it may mean nothing to you, it means the world to me…
     
  2. Happy Bytes

    Happy Bytes Guest

    Only real programmers will understand this ;)
     
  3. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    Happy Bytes

    You like degrading people don’t you?

    Well for your information, let me point out something,

    ‘Peak Memory Usage’ - The peak ‘amount of physical memory resident “”in”” a process since it started’.

    I have never seen anything using Peak Memory Usage pass 50 K (and that is normally from Explorer.exe) on my system, and I keep my system up for numerous days, and only matter of 12hours, Avast! ashServ.exe drawn 339, 316 K…
     
  4. gigaman

    gigaman Guest

    Especially in that case, you should understand that the number doesn't really mean anything. A program can have as much "Peak Mem Usage" as your memory is - and not have any effect whatsoever on your computer.
     
  5. Happy Bytes

    Happy Bytes Guest

    Thats exactly right gigaman.
     
  6. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    Did I say anything regarding it affecting the performance of my system? Some people here needs to wake up...
     
  7. vlk

    vlk AV Expert

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    Avast tries to do as much unpacking in memory as possible. It will use up to one third of all RAM available on the system to do this.

    This is most likely the reason the peak value is so high here.
     
  8. Notok

    Notok Registered Member

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    All software will play differently on different machines. Of the free AVs I've seen this report more often with Avast! than the others.. just as with KAV works great on some machines, and drags down others like a boulder. If all you want is a basic resident scanner, then by those standards Avast! may be bloated.. that's a subjective opinion, and I don't see anything particularly wrong with it.
     
  9. YeOldeStonecat

    YeOldeStonecat Registered Member

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    All antivirus programs will slow down a PC, that IS normal, they will all slow the rig down in some degree. It's a matter of "How much the PC will slow down" that's the variable across various PCs and various antivirus software.

    And IMO, Avast is a little bit heavier than some other AV products in bogging down PCs, especially bootup time and waiting for the desktop to finish loading. I've heard the complaint from quite a few people about it too that I've installed in on, matter of fact this weekend I replaced CAI's EZTrust with avast because a friends 12 year old daughter has a way of getting malware on the laptop..and even the kid complained the next day that it was substantially slower in booting up and moving around. It was a somewhat new Dell P4 laptop with average memory specs, nothing too hot, but nothing too old and slow either.

    I've been flipping to Avast over AVG more on my "freebie antivirus installs" lately because I feel it's better at protecting against browser junk and ad/spyware over AVG, so I just let the end users deal with it. They don't wanna pay for a quality lightweight antivirus, they'll have to deal with Avast. If they wanna pay, they'll get the green eye in the sky.
     
  10. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    As long as it’ll only use up-to one third of my RAM available, I were curious, interested in the reasons for such high peak value of AshServ.exe process, now I suppose I have my answer..

    Avast! Free awesome, awesome Free Anti-‘Virus’ system :)
     
  11. waters

    waters Registered Member

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    Antivir=advanced,it will protect better than other free ones
     
  12. vlk

    vlk AV Expert

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    Phant0m, so am I right that you have 1GB of RAM in your system?
     
  13. Blackspear

    Blackspear Global Moderator

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    Ladies and Gentlemen, enough shots over the bow, keep personal comments to yourself and remain on topic please or this thread will be closed.

    Blackspear.
     
  14. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    Well talking about performance of AVs is perfectly ontopic. Afterall we're talkin which free AV would be the best...
     
  15. wildman

    wildman Registered Member

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    Rejzor: I think you have a hang up with AVAST, while it may be a good program, I do believe that there are others out there also. Hay I may not be a technical expert, but I do know what does and does not work on my system, and there is not a damn thing wrong with it. I take away AVAST and it runs with no problems, I add AVAST and it slows down noticeably. Now what more do I need to know than that?

    Thanks
    Wildman
    o_O :rolleyes:
     
  16. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    the fact that an AV can slow down one comp but not another just shows the differences in compatibility among programs and computers.
     
  17. Don Pelotas

    Don Pelotas Registered Member

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    Your completely right, Wildman. Av's will have different behavior from pc to pc. Since Avast was not for you, may i then recommend another free choice called AntiVir, it is generally light on resources and with the latest beta it uses incremental updates making the update process very fast..............................:D :D :D ;)
     
  18. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    Hey, use whatever you like. I don't care much tbh...
     
  19. Benvan45

    Benvan45 Registered Member

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    I had exactly the same with Avast....that's why I don't use it either.

    ;) Putin
     
  20. wildman

    wildman Registered Member

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    :) Not incremental enough I fear. I think it is rather well known what I think about the company behind this product as well. Like the product, think the company behind it is the pits. They could get their act together, but they seem to arrogant to do so. Ask Mr. Mrrockford over at Castle Cops about the offer they have apparently not even acknowledged.

    Thanks
    Wildman
     
  21. 532423

    532423 Guest

    There are 3 major FREE antivirus product on the market that have realtime scanner:

    AntiVir
    Avast!
    AVG

    All three of them doen not detect spywares! (you need to buy full version)

    Any of them would perform good but you need antispyware with realtime scanner such as Microsoft Antispyware.

    So my favorites are:

    AntiVir
    Microsoft Antispyware

    background:
    Ewido
    BitDefender 8

    ================================================

    Or just NOD32
     
  22. WSFuser

    WSFuser Registered Member

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    wildman, then i guess ur sticking to AVG? good luck and hope it works out well.
     
  23. wildman

    wildman Registered Member

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    :) For now it would look that way. Believe it or not, I still hope that AntiVir can get it's act together, as I liked that one as well.

    Thanks
    Wildman
    :D :cool:
     
  24. Don Pelotas

    Don Pelotas Registered Member

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    I know, i was only teasing a bit.;)
     
  25. toploader

    toploader Registered Member

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    there arn't enough free AV's to fight over here - this is plea to kaspersky and NOD to renounce their capitalist ways and to make all their software free to all. in return they will be richly rewarded with praise and red beans and rice (unless of course their scanner misses something) ;) :D
     
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