Antivir Frustration

Hi all,

Thought I would blow off a little steam. I run four computers on a daily basis. All of them behind a firewalled router. Two of them using AVG Free, and two of them using Antivir Classic Free. I have not gotten a virus infection since 1991 - (Klez on dialup.) Because of the recent and prolonged update issue with Antivir Classic on two of my aforementioned computers and because of its past update record, I have dumped it and replaced it with good o'le AVG Free. Granted the guard portion of AVG is poor on detection, but the on demand and scheduled detection is right up there with the best of them. Plus, I have NEVER had an update problem with AVG - NEVER.

So, my quad comps are humming away with compatible AVG. I think Avira is up to something more than a "massive update!"

SourMilk out

 

I blew off my steam over a bottle of Bacardi...

I immediately went back to Active Virus Shield and updates are smooth and painless. It has comparable detection rates, but also has spyware detection and such which is not present in AntiVir PE Classic. Therefore, more protection. Also includes a mail scanner.

Hopefully Avira will get their act together one of these days. But until then, no more Luke Filewalker for me.

 

Oh my.

What do you think them sneaky guys at Avira are up to?

Oh wow. I've noticed that my computer problems always look less important when I go for the Bacardi too.

 

Making their free version frustrating to try to lure people to buy a license. Sounds like a good business practice to me - you know, bait and switch.

SourMilk out

 

I have also been frustrated with Avira, but I don't believe it has to do with an attempt to upgrade. I have the same problems with all including the Beta suite, Premium, and Classic.

I do not question the motives, but the expertise to fix the update, icon showing, and the guard being activated or not at start.

Personally I have given up on them, but still hope in time it will be corrected. I might even give them another try in a year or so.

Jerry

 

Yes I dumped AntiVir a few years ago due to poor updating amonst other things, have been trying it again recently, and I see littlehas changed, at least they're consistant I suppose

 

Thought it was just me who might be having trouble updating. I had no trouble for the nearly 3 months I've had Avira. Then, in the past couple of days, regardless of morning, afternoon, evening or night, I haven't been able to get an update.

So, Avira is gone and I flipped a coin between going with AVG or AVAST. Two out of three and AVAST won. I installed it last night after one last attempt to update Avira.

 

Hmm... I use the PE classic and I never have update problems except a few oddball times about once every several months. Do peoples' internet connection have anything to do with it? I have an extremely fast connection. I can download a file at 600Kb/s.

 

nope, when i used the trial, i experienced issues with this, and i can download at 1250kb/s

apparently its a problem from wayyyyyyyyy in the past, and the issue apparently is still here, wayyyyyyyy in the future. lol

 

Whilst I download at a mere 60kbs I think you'd be hard pushed to make a case that the fault doesn't lie with AntiVir

 

No problems with AntiVir here (updating, speed, etc.). Running on two computers and very happy with it.

 

A soul mate for Wildman.

 

I tried it several weeks ago, installed it, would not run well on my system, got tired of messing with it, uninstalled it, end of story.

 

@sourmilk you got the lodore syndrome huh?
lodore

 

The frustration is over here.
I successfully updated today.

Hopefully Avira will correct this problem soon.
At least they did improve the update size issue from the past with smaller size in general.

 

Jerry, you are right. There is nothing hidden here ...
It is just the Update fever at every release ... Everybody wants better products, right ?

Just have a little patience and the problem will be solved by itself.

We are sorry for this inconvenience, but it is not much that we can do in this moment.
We are thinking at alternative solutions for the future.

 

@smustaca,
yup and also people have also complained about nod32 not being able to update
right after a big upgrade but they still use that.
lodore

 

After reading Jerry's reply, I may have jumped the gun a little in my recent rant. But given the past update problems with the recent slowdown, Antivir makes me a little leery of its ability to deal with new threats. Let's hope Avira gets some Akamai or similar heavy duty servers that can keep up with their increasing user base.

Their product is sterling but the update portion really needs work. My apologies to Avira but I think I might hold off using Antivir Classic for a while until the updates are as smooth as some other antiviruses.

SourMilk out

 

don't know about 'heavy duty' but they did add a few (DL6, DL7 & DL8 ) servers last February
after the UpGrade from version 6 to 7 really choked them up.

There has been a long history of complaints every few months about how the build updates slow the delivery of updates
and a "new threat" during this time period could add to the problem.

AntiVir Classic works so perfectly on both of my systems that I have no thought of trying any other AV (including AntiVir Premium),
even after solving the 'fun-puzzles'

Anyone that will be stressed by AVIRA's 'quarterly' Build-Update slowdowns would be best to stick with AVG or pay for AntiVir Premium.

If history is a guide, they will likely never get ahead of their exploding popularity.

It has been less than 5% of the time, that the large Updates have seemed to overload the servers
and it looks like AVIRA does not regard this as a problem.

 

Same as you guys.

Antivir may be the best at detection. But update is a nightmare, the guard works when it wants and the support is awfull. So after several back and forth in the past monthes, I'm now more than fed up with it. Went back to Avast and I'm will not go back to Avira until I read that a new version is released and this update issue solved.

 

I have been using the free AntiVir for 3 months, an excellent AV, especially as it is free. I had the closed umbrella problem when I first installed, but I had tried to selectively restrict some internet access (through my firewall) that AntiVir was seeking. I reinstalled and gave unrestricted access through my firewall, and I haven't had the closed umbrella problem since.

I don't see the "nag screen" that others have complained about. I gave unrestricted internet access to AntiVir and then I disabled the AntiVir schedule service (XP services), so automatic update is disabled. I then go to the AntiVir support download page and download the latest virus defintions,around 11 MB's. It is slow, perhaps 5 or more minuets to download, but I just let it download in the background, while I do other things. Once the download is complete, I open AntiVir, select "update" and then "manual", and select the downloaded definitions, and 30 seconds later, the update is complete.

I find the update procedure far simpler and completely trouble free, as compared to when I was trying Nod32.

 

Hi ad67,

I use my laptop when out of town and on dial-up. I think that takes care of a 11meg download.

Jerry

 

I gave up too. Now I have almost completely new security waggons.

I never managed to fit Cyberhawk and AntiVir PE Classic play together. Too many missing AntiVir icons in the taskbar after rebooting. The last thing was those update failures a couple of days ago lasting too many days. Maybe better luck after some months.

Best regards,
Firefighter!

 

My major problem is that this, and a couple of others, is not a new problem. It continues to go on, and statements that it is fixed or about to be do not change things. The problems just go on.

Jerry

 

I like the way Antivir is laid out, and the way you can schedule it to update three times or more, plus it's very light on the system. The thing is though, that if you use the free version and want to do away with the Notifier, you have to boot in safe mode and change some things. That plus the update problems yet again, are starting to make alternatives look better. The fact that AVG Free may very well have improved, Avast being a very good AV, and AOL AVS with the KAV engine being a super nice AV, (possible CHKDSK problems not proven) I think Antivir should be more in tuned with the Freeware users. If not for my AVG ISS being a gift, I very well may have bought it from using AVG Free, and I certainly wouldn't have mind buying KAV because of my pleasant experience using AVS. As much as I liked Antivir PE though, I can't honestly say that I would have purchased the Pro version, or the Security Suite, because of the Free version. I know it's free, has high detection rates ect... But it bothers me that Avira won't make this right for all it's Freeware Users, like other Software Companies have.