a-squared Anti-Malware 4.0.0.50 Released

Welcome to the club...

 

It doesn´t sound like a good deal ...

 

More than likely there's a large number of happy users too It's just that they do not appear in forums that often (if ever) and thus the vocal negative posters tend to give distorted view of the product.

Just my 0.02€

 

On the other hand, there is a large number of 'happy' users (i.e. Always & Totally 'Satisfied')
who give a distorted view of a product by posting nothing but 'positive' comments.
Some people called them Shills...

Because, I don't like vague statements,

-Is it a Distorted view that

(a) the Ikarus AV engine has many False Positives
(Even Windows/Office Genuine files that a few days ago it had scanned them as Clean)?

(b) the IDS-Surf Protection -Frequently- Alarms as 'Malicious Hosts' Legitimate/Clean sites?

Initially, I thought that A-Squared 4.0 would be so effective/powerful that no AV was necessary.
After what I experienced, I will think again to use even A-Squared 4.0 -Free- (when it comes).

-The More False Positives of A-Squared 4.0, the Less you Trust it,
and the More you have to Double-Check its 'Results'
by using other scanners (free/online/paid).
-It is really Exhausting to have to Double-Check
with SAS Free, MBAM, Dr.WebCureIt!,
and many online Multi-Scanners
-Every Time- A-Squared 4.0 detects a file as 'Malicious'.
It is even more Exhausting! when the other scanners (free/online/paid)
-All- or in their -vast Majority- claim that the respective file is Innocent/Clean.

This was my experience with A-Squared 4.0.
Maybe, other users will be lucky with it,
and they will not waste their money/time.

 

I've had no trouble whatsoever with A-Squared 4. Works well with Sandboxie, Defensewall, OA, etc. I do not think it is a stand alone yet (getting close), but can be a great complimentary product.

I felt the need to express some positive views after all the negativity.

 

getting close it is not enough to spend your money and time and yet be uncertain and not secured which you expect to be when you buy software.
it is heavy and full of FP

 

I haven't had one FP yet. Go figure...

 

Guys

To be honest, I had A2 installed on my mom's PC (75). For a reference she is perfectly happy with defensewall. She asked me to remove A2, because of the warnings. I installed Avast dutch again on her PC.

So I installed A2 on our PC to check. Especially the web protection causes warnings for commercial sites (of which we buy music like radio538 ). After switching the webprotection off everything ran smoothly again.

Regards Kees

 

What is the point of buying a product and swiching off features? don't bother buying it at all

 

i understand kees what happen
gerry is that some features in(some programs are eitheir annoy or you dont need it cause probably you have it in another program or dont like it on at all }

 

i understand it . but there are two different thing ranked here
1- you dont like it- and that is fine
2-you can not use it that's totally different
case closed

 

will this new version-4 of a-squared be tested by av-comparatives and av-test org ?

and if it use Ikarus engine then it must have alot of FP's right?

How is it on resources is it heavy or light?

 

I set the tracking cookies to stop without pop-up, others allow. The rest of A2 is really agood package. Ikarus is a decent AV, A2 a decent AT/AS, the IDS has really developed, so for someone looking for a easy solution it is a nice deal IMO. You can also make your own for free with ThreatFire and Avira.

 

-What about the False Positives of the Ikarus AV engine?
-Are they 'decent', too?

I guess users facing problems with the False Positives of A-Squared
are -ALL- liars, drunk or have illusions.
Maybe, it is just in our imagination...

 

If I remember correctly, you said it was finding MS Office docs/files as suspicious. Considering I do not use office, as I am suspecting many users here do not, that is why you get differing experiences. Imagine that...

As for it flagging legit sites as malicious....again, I personally haven't seen it flag anything yet. So either the sites you are visiting are not as legitimate as you think, or they have some scripting (probably benign) on the site that triggers. Either case, me personally, I'm glad my software would alert me to that.

No one is calling anyone a liar here, but for you to expect that what you are experiencing is the end all be all, is just foolish.

 

Dear Balatsokas,

I am not saying your lying, neither drunk. Ikarus is a good AV (just a tiny bit after Avira). It is true that Ikarus generated more FP's. Decent is to my reference and my average PC usage behaviour.

Tests agree with you that Ikarus generates some more FP's. These tests also show it is a good AV in terms of detection rate (often just behind Avira).

I trust A2 will get their act together on integrating the two engines. For such a dramatic code change (two engines integrated at driver level) they really did well (may be because I am an old software developer that I am so mild in my critism)

Regards Kees

 

1) In a previous post of this thread I wrote: "A-Squared 4.0 Paid detected some Microsoft Excel setup files as Viruses!"
I never talked about -Suspicious-.
So, you do NOT remember correctly...

2) I am not the only one who experienced False 'IDS-Surf Protection' Alarms.
In fact, many users were forced to turn off the specific feature.
From a point and on, these False 'IDS-Surf Protection' Alarms were so many that
even if a -Real- threat existed, users wouldn't take it very seriously.
That makes the product not only inappropriate, it makes it unreliable.

Now, if someone is glad, because his software offers him
-False 'IDS-Surf Protection' Alarms for no -Real- Threat
he has to revise his perception of 'foolishness'...

Not to mention the always happy and totally/perfectly satisfied "u$ers" who write
nothing but po$itive comment$ and attack on the ones who dared to report problem (a) or (b)
with product X. Software Security Forums are full of these "u$ers"...

 

No problem, Dear Kees.
I wish that A2 will be improved, too.
Time will tell...

 

1) So yes, I was correct, it was MS Office.. Not whether it was a virus or suspicious. Again, my point being, many people have different experiences with software. The fact that you are running office and I am not, points to one glaring reason why.

2) I can exaggerate my experiences with it as well. fun.

3) I have not had only po$itive comments to say. I have only played devils advocate to what seems to be an agenda to disparage a product.

It is plainly obvious that you do not like the product, and that is fine. But it does not give the totally un$atisfied u$ers the right to attack those that do. Security forums seem to be full of them as well...

It appears we shall agree to disagree.

 

No, you were wrong Again!
I said as -Viruses-; not just -Suspicious-.
It makes a hell of difference in terms of Detection (if you are familiar with the field)...

I was among the first ones who welcomed A-Squared in a Forum that loves SAS and MBAM.
However, A-Squared needs a lot of improvement.
The A-Squared Forum is full of postings of people having similar problems - LINK
False Positives that they keep fixing and fixing with updates, updates, and updates...

 

Reading comprehension is your friend...

Again, my point was the reason in differing experiences (FPs) is you use MS Office, I do not. Trust me, I know the differences in being tagged as a virus or suspicious, and that was never my point, as much as you would like it to be.

 

Apart from MS Office-related FPs, many users have faced problems with *OTHER* -LEGITIMATE- programs
the Ikarus scan engine detected as 'Malicious'.
Why are you only/DELIBERATELY-
focusing on MS Office as if if it is the only source of FPs?

Also, don't ignore the IDS-Surf Protection/Alerts
that drove crazy many users who were
obliged to Turn it Off.
If you search on other Software Security Forums, you will read about these problems.
If A-Squared 4.0 proved to be so great for you, I am happy that you did not waste your time and money.
Others believe that A-Squared needs much of Improvement and regret for wasting their money on it!

 

i have tested their cmd line scanner, and it put my explorer.exe in quarantine...too many false positive...

 

Welcome to the Club, too.

 

thank you.

here is the report:

C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
detected: Worm.Win32.Downloader.sz!A2

C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\msconfig.exe
detected: Email-Worm.Win32.Brontok.cu!A2

C:\runscanner\runscanner.exe
detected: Trojan-Spy.Win32.Banbra.df!IK