Looking for a good AV.

With TAUSCAN ?

 

ROFL

 

KAV Lite goes for about $20 and is geared toward newbies evidently. There's a UK Kav forum where there are threads about it.

http://forums.useice.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=3ed63b5b5ee5ffff;act=SF;f=1

 

Been experimenting recently, i think in the top four avs with superb unpacking engines - KAV, AVK, Mcafee and RAV coming to mind, RAV antivirus strikes a good balance.

Nothing comes close to KAV as an all around av especially when it comes to its unpacking engine; it's equally effective against trojans and virii, but it tends to weigh down a system a lot and it scans slow, especially the newer, 4x versions. Likewise with AVK.

On the other side Mcafee comes close to KAV plus it has a fast scan speed, but its flaw is its big footprint, the numerous modifications it makes in the registry, and it's also uses a good chunk of systems resources.

RAV has an above average unpacking engine, much better than Nod32. It can be used as a stand alone av capable of dealing with both virii and trojans, without supplementing it with an AT. Unlike KAV, AVK and Mcafee it doesn't have a big footprint and it doesn't consume a lot of systems resources, plus it has pretty good on demand scanner in terms of speed.

 

Imp - would you not agree that it is possible for someone to have the "worst" programs in each categorie installed and find they are easy to use and configure (not demanding much from the user) and then the user has no problems whatsoever either virii, trojans, worms or other malware?

Think about it. If no challenge presented itself to the user's computer then no problem would appear. The user might think after awhile, "Hmmm, I sure must have good programs because I have never had any problems with malware infections."

"Good" software is found out by testing it by an (ideally) professional third party organisation (unassociated economically with the vendor/author/distributor) and then further learning there have been no user problems posted on the forums (although this step does not guarantee anything but could help to indicate quality or lack thereof). A "good" program gets the job done and that is indicated NOT by a user having no problems but by meeting and overcoming challenges.

 

I remember my early days with an AV of respectable name but several online scans found known live nasties on my stumbling system like CIH, BO2K which that AV real time protection never found.
Another scanner found lots of suspicious files (that can happen with highest sensitivity / heuristic scanning) but their support was really bad, rude and un-interested.
Around the same time came across TDS which people explained me bunches.
So which is the good product: the one never finding a thing, false sense of security? The one with too many false positives of normal files leaving the user in pure frustration? Or the one besides good scanning also giving very good support?
It's all what works with you and your system, but do care to do some second opinion online scans at times.

NB: i know TDS is from the AT area, i just wanted to illustrate that even though the finds were not all in their specific area (several were false positives fortunately) their support went over those boundaries and helped me getting better covered, first steps in layered protection, etc. better choices for the AV area too, etc.
But those discussions are a lot on this board and everywhere already

 

Hi Jooske & QSection,

I fully agree to what you have said above. Let's state it like that: a good software stands and falls with its support. If the support is good, the software is good as well (or will be good after a while, because they solve all the problems the users have). If the support is bad, even the best software is worthless (that's the experience I made).

Best regards,

Patrice

P.S. You don't invest in the software/idea, you invest in the people who are behind this product/idea!

 

Hmm i agree partly Patrice, if i know the software is great in detection and protection you won't hear me complain too soon, but i'll probably not get that devoted to the product and less to the people behind. It's just a product which i suppose to be reliable, uptodate, doing it's job without messing my system.
That's why i like a few different products to use the one or the other, online scans between that.
I do like specific AT and AV products beside each other, be it that the known AV products have grown into covering lots of trojans and worms too these days.
I have the most experience with AVP and NOD32, with most others i've not experimented so can't say how they would be on my system.
Reading so many attractive details here in the forum about several products, and how GAV is developing into a serious threath for the products of known names, etc. so if that would seriously cover the virus part in the first place in my system situation could be a next to try.
I am betatesting other software at the moment so need to keep my system clean from other testing till all is clear and worked out.