eXtendia AVK AntiVirus AVK Pro vs NOD32

Which is the best overall program for virus protection? (I already have a dedicated anti-trojan program, and money is not an issue.) Has anyone here tested both programs themselves? I've seen reputable third part reviews on NOD32, but haven't been able to find one for AVK. I've seen a review on AVK in this forum, but I prefer reviews by a nationally known organization to ensure that it isn't just a disguised sales pitch. The two engine concept of AVK with separate signatures sounds good, but maybe NOD32's single engine is better. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

 

I used AVK pro for about six months and I have used nod in the past. And my personal preference between the two would go to NOD32. Nod is faster very good detection and light on resources, if this is a concern then you should know that avk pro is not very light on your machine.


bigc

 

Sorry, I have AVK in the title twice, it should have been "eXtendia AntiVirus AVK Pro vs NOD32

Also, their address is:http://www.extendiaavk.com/

 

I am not a gamer so I prfer AVK over Nod32 because I feel it has better detection based on independent test by objective individuals. I only found one, for lack of a better term, official test review and Extendia AVK was rated at the top. If I can find the link I will post it.
But from my observation in this forum and others, both are excellent AV's, it just depends on your habits and preferences.
AVK is very light on memory MB's but with 2 engines scanning it does delay opening of some apps and other operations. I don't mind waiting an extra second or two because I feel very secure with it running.
I would also recommend you take a look at MKS vir here: http://www.stormbyte.com/
Trial them all and decide for yourself which one fits your needs.
Good Luck

 

I appreciate the responses. I didn't mean to ignore you guys--I was away on unexpected business. Based on my comparison of their web sites, I have more confidence in NOD32, since I can't find any official test results for AVK.

Thanks again,
Decided

 

Some testing sites will not sample multiple-engined AV's, such as AVK Pro. However some recent results for this Antivirus can be found here;

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archives/products.xml?gdata.xm
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=67&mnu=67

Since this AV contains the KAV and RAV engines, detection is excellent; http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2004_08zz.php


AVK Pro will therefore probably give you better overall malware detection than NOD, BUT.

AVK Pro is fairly heavy on system resources with the double-engine running as the RTM. The program only updates definitions, there will be no engine upgrades. And there is practically no adequate support for this AV.

Compare this with NOD, which is probably the most improved AV of the last 12 months, showing many new components. Add together, a very light footprint, superb heuristics, greatly improved trojan detection and excellent support here at Wilders and you can see that detection abilities should not be the only consideration in your choice.

However, as stated many times before, trial the AV's you are interested in and see which one suits your system the best

Despite starting out with a list of criteria, it invariably boils down to personal choice.

 

Tech support from AVK amounts to basically receiving information you would expect to find in the troubleshooting section of the manual. I am not convinced that these support people are that knowledgeable about the product.
Another thing is that their is no information about the future of this product, i.e. will the engine be updated, the virus bulletin is a month or 2 behind always, and no FAQ page (has been under development for some time).
I am using it now but unless I see some changes, I will not be renewing subscription.

 

eXtendia/Boomerang are only the resellers of GData's older AVK. They offer no true technical support for this AV.

It is probably a good choice for the remainder of your license. But after this time, the questions then remain whether the 2 engines will be upgraded or not, whether eXtendia AVK continues to receive RAV definitions, or whether the BitDefender engine replaces the RAV engine.

 

I bought AVK when GDATA introduced it with a second scan engine (RAV) a few years ago. Over the time I came to the conclusion not to recommend it any more because

* the background scanner is extremely slow (even if you use only one scan engine) - compared to NOD32's speed it is a nightmare

* at least for the German version you have to pay extra money to receive daily updates (about 30 Euro/year extra)

* the latest version comes with the Bitdefender engine which isn't as good as the RAV's engine was

* GDATA does a bad job on maintaining the update servers. I had it already several times (the last time was the previous weekend) that no updates where available - knowing that KAV released several during these days.

Therefore I suggest to go with NOD32 which has in my opinion these advantages over AVK:

* extremly high scanning speed
* very good worm (and partly trojan) heuristic - picked up several times already this year worms that AVK/KAV missed without signature updates

wizard