any thoughts about Avira Free?

Key points, I agree about protection in the realm of cleaning, but not in the realm of detection. I to know where you are coming from and in Stefans defense, he is an employee, not employer.

 

And I also think you would get 2 totally different reasons as to why Kaspersky may not compared to Dr Web. Avira isnt alone either Chris.

 

And the answer is that: they don't know how to.

As a longtime Avira user, I've personally yet to see anyone who can write generic detection routines like Stefan does. The home truths which you seem to be implying to be something umbrageous and shady are actually very straightforward: Avira delivers solid results with a minimum of fuss. Simple as that.

By the way, Stefan, if you're reading this, TR/Dldr.Swizzor.Gen needs updating. Apparently the newest variants aren't being detected anymore.

 

When I was evaluating some antivirus programs, I recorded the Commit Charge (for what it's worth!!) in XP Task Manager after the PC has booted up and activity ceased. All the AV progs I checked out ran light on the system, but I was surprised at the difference in Commit Charge differences. Antivir 8 was the HIGHEST of the three I tried, slightly higher than McAfee 8.5i Corp and both of these were 30-40 MB higher than NOD32 v3. Antivir's Peak Mem Usage was also high but not as high as McAfee. Other than the change in antivirus progs, the PC was identical in all cases since each prog was installed separately from a clean drive image.

I found I preferred NOD32 2.7 over all three of these with McAfee 8.5i a distant second and NOD32 v3 and Antivir both slightly behind. This observation isn't based on detection rates, but on other factors.

I was impressed with Antivir's GUI, ease of backing up my settings, and compatibility with other programs and it is amazing that something free could give the pay stuff a run for the money.

 

I'm sorry, but I disagree.


Not doing it the same way as a particular company doesn't mean "not knowing"... each takes a different approach to their protection. Web and Kaspersky and all of the antivirus companies have their fare share of very talented analysts and coders. Avira do good work and props to them for that...but so does every security vendor

 

If Avira cheats, then KAV and Dr. Web just make plain junk as every tests thrown at them reveal their poor detection rates so if one can't detect the culprit at the gate, whats the point of keeping a security program. As I have said in the past, wish to Gods sincerely that Avira would score lower than the so called paid bloats out there.

Looking by the number of issues KAV has had in the recent past and even present, it should not be called a AV, rather it should be called a OS HOSER.

http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/03_13a.xml


Not only does Avira detect more, but it gets the same cleaning rating as KAV but then I guess they got to the top of the charts by cheating for sure.

 

So, if Avira's removal routines are not all that good, what is a good program to use to remove malware that Avira has detected? TIA.

 

Well if Avira is a cheater and it lies, there is no guarantee that the detected malware is actually so.

 

What does all that actually mean?

All I know is that Kaspersky makes my PC run terribly and causes crashes.
I also played with Dr.Web and found it missed malware that Kaspersky / Antivir detected.

All I care about is an antivirus product that protects me and has minimal system impact. For me that generally means Avira or NOD32.

I don't think putting down Avira's product is very professional and I doubt it will encourage anyone to buy the product in your avatar.

 

Run some tests with http://virusscan.jotti.org/ and compare the results. I find Avira is doing a great job finding and eliminating Malware.

 

This one has about had it and We'll take the liberty to conclude the thread starter has more than enough thoughts concerning Avira Free to take back to their client.

Thread closed.