ArcaVir 2005 - REVIEW

First I want to thank Stormbyte for giving me the possibility testing this product!!!

Installation:
The installation was nice and easy, no real comment on this... The only special thing I've noticed was that the installation program was skinned like the programs interface.

Recource usage:
arcascan.exe -> 12.876K
ABmenu.exe -> 2.412K
ABRegMon.exe -> 652K
System remains fast, a slight slowdown like found on NOD32, the starup (on bootup) time could be improved.

First sight:
At first sight the interface is beatiful, and very colorfull with nice icons. But I really needed to search the program to find the options I needed to find. All the components have a abart screen and I really miss a central control panel...

A closer look:
Finally I understood the interface, when you know it it's usable, but it could be easier. I would also prefer a way to turn off the skins, to get a more standard windows look.

Scanning my Harddisk:
Let's try to scan my harddisk, now I found my way in the interface it cost just a second to preform the action.
I was curious about it's scanning speed... The scan speed was ok on my system, around the same speed as F-Prot. But where there are archives or big cabs (like in the windows folder) this program needs it's time...
Afterall i found the scanning time reasonable and liked the log it generated at the end.

A look at the Firewall:
I never like intergrated firewalls, but I gave it a shot... One thing dissapointed me imidatly, no program control.
In my eyes a firewall is useless then. Also I found the rules wich can be setup for the incoming traffic quite complicated. Sure I believe when people say it does protect you against attacks, but I want to give premission to programs entering the internet/network...

The Regmon:
This is one of my favorite components, it keeps track of your registery changes and asks premission for them... It's very clear to understand, and I really liked it...

Help and support:
The helpfile is in pdf format, nice but I prefer a basic .chm file more. You can fill in a form on the ArcaVir website for support and on Stormbyte's website there's a forum...

Detection:
I heard good things about the detection, but didn't saw any tests of it yet... The only test I saw was for the vb100 in Febuary and it failed. But maybe it has to do with any false positive it gave... Because this antivirus is quite new and there're no tests for hand I won't trust it at productive systems yet... That doesn't mean it's bad, just I want independed clarification that it's good.

Recommends to the developers:
1) Work on your GUI, you made a nice start, try to simplely it, and make a central control panel for all components, and pls remove the splashscreens.
2) The Right-Click scanner launches the main on-demand scanner screen along with the scanner screen, this is not needed.
3) Enhance the firewall, simplefy the rules and make outbound program control.

Concusion:
This is one of the best new AV's i've seen in years, it has great potential... But it needs some more time to grow up...
I hope stormbyte will let me test this product every 3 or 6 months so I keep everybody updated from the changes made... The price of this product is just great, and when it's grown up this is a killer app...

Buy it?
No not yet, I want to see test results first. But feel free to try it yourself, and if you like it, sure buy it...

(Expect updates to this review during the weeks since I keep on playing with it.)

 

StyleWarz

Thanks for taking the time on this post and adding your views about this AV. Together with other recent threads, a substantial background to this AV is being built up.

Are your resource usage figures, Virtual memory readings? I tested this AV a week or so back and I am sure I saw much higher readings on my system, but there was still little effect on performance.

As for malware testing, the only one I have seen so far is that carried out by FireFighter where detection rates seem very good, particularly against trojans. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=69731&page=2&pp=25&highlight=arcavir

 

No the recource usage are RAM readings... But I had the mail-scanner disabled by mistake, so I update the numbers later on

 

According to Mariusz at stormbyte only about 10mb of memory is actually used the rest is in pagefile. There is a post in one of the threads where Mariusz states the actual ram usage.

EDIT:
See this thread, https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=69731 Post #7

 

Hmm....StyleWarz, the suggestions I gave were quite a bit different from yours....much more complex (no you cant see it, I PMed stormbyte about that).

BTW, ArcaVir also has a few more processes. Read MY review at honyak's link for that. If you want more info you can click Start--->Run--->services.msc and see which services are related to ArcaVir.

I'll be giving out test results too...as I keep playing. This interface is still better than my previous eScan...

Nice review though

Regards,
Firecat

 

mks_vir (orignal ArcaVir ) has been around for quite some time. First time it was released in 1988. Since then this product received many awards.
http://mks.com.pl/nagrody.html
http://mks.com.pl/prasa.html

Mariusz

 

I know they're around some longer already in Poland... But they're new in the "outside" world.

 

I wanted to trial ArcaVir. I downloaded the installer about a month ago. Anyhow, I just got around to installing the program last night. The serial key was invalid. I think the trial is for 14 days. The only thing I can figure out is the 14 day countdown started when I downloaded the program installer Even though I didn't install the antivirus until last night.

 

Hi Mr . . Contact Stormbyte . He will take care of you

 

Yes...the serial key's time period starts the very day it is issued.

 

From my observations @ Jotti, MKS is the #1 performing antiviral engine in the world. It seems to be the most capable and BY FAR the fastest. However, in application I have heard a number of complaints regarding its speed... and I get the impression that this engine has not been implemented to its potential.

 

That's what I thought too, the product has lots of potential on the whole range, but it needs some more polish here and there

 

Observing the results at Jotti's site with the different AV's is interesting.

But to extrapolate these 'results' to the conclusion that it is the 'best' antiviral engine in the world is pushing things a little far.

Best to look at the performance of any AV at a number of testing sites before any firm conclusions can be made.

 

Indeed, that's why I won't choose for ArcaVir yet, to little tests avalable...

 

Hi Stylz . I am using Arcavir as a backup . Ondemand only . Doing nicely . It will be interesting to see some results in testing in the near future . Numbers are not everything but , their sigs are high .

 

And dont forget the heuristics engine!

 

Sure, if you can effort to use a paid backup scanner it's a great choice... I'm using avast! as a backup scanner on my system, but i doubt if it's needed, never use it anyway neither... I don't think avast! catches things F-Secure misses...
No offence to avast! ofcource, if I didn't get F-Secure for free the change is big avast! would be my default

 

Nope, that's one of their specialities...

 

Who said I denied it?

 

How could we with you around, Kaushik . Anyway i'll install the Arcavir trial shortly, thanks to you and Blackcat.

Regards

 

Nice to know you still remember my real name Don

And remember to post your review OK?

Regards,
Firecat

 

I'll post my impression, but i doubt that i could rival the reviews that you and StyleWarz have submitted.

 

Hi Firecat, so you are Kaushik? Why didn't I knew about it?

lol

 

We're young guys. Your a full grown adult. There is no direct comparison, your review will be better any day than ours.

Have a nice day

 

I became an adult too in January