AV-Comparatives 2011 dynamic tests

Thanks very much!

Wow Symantec sure looks impressive!

 

More a rhetorical question as I thought Microsoft would be included this month.

 

Avira

 

Ranked them based on compromised percent (Mar-Apr):

1. Symantec - 0.1%
2. Bitdefender - 1.0%
3. F-Secure - 1.1%, Kaspersky - 1.1%
5. Avast - 1.6%
6. ESET - 1.9%
7. GData - 1.4%
8. Panda - 2.0%, Trend Micro - 2.0%
10. PC Tools - 2.4%
11. Avira - 3.1%
12. Qihoo - 3.3%
13. Sophos - 3.6%
14. Webroot - 4.5%
15. AVG - 5.7%
16. McAfee - 6.9%
17. K7 - 7.6%

 

Avast free, has the best thing out there. It truely is amazing.

 

if you're upset over a +/- 1-2% variance between avira and the top performers, i'm sad for you.

 

good job norton

 

Basically this. Preliminary results are fun but they aren't legitimately helpful.

 

Perhaps but maybe it's an indication that Trend Micro isn't dead in the water anymore.

 

From March to May, Minimum to Maximum possible blocked:

Symantec: 99.4 - 99.9% (I hate you Norton).
Bitdefender: 99% (Makes me want to try their free 2012 version when it comes out).
F-Secure: 98.8 - 98.9% (No surprise considering they won AV of the year 2010).
G-DATA: 98.6% (Avast+Bitdefender = Winning).
ESET: 98.1% (Always dependable).
Panda: 98% (Surprising but I guess it's not the cloud version).
Trend Micro: 98% (Very surprising: I though it was supposed to be junk).
Avast!: 97.8 - 98.4% (Excellent for a free AV).
Kaspersky: 97.6 - 98.9% (Always dependable).
Avira: 96.9% (Surprising it wasn't a bit higher).
Sophos: 96.4% (No comment).
Webroot: 95.5% (Not doing bad for its first year of testing).
Qihoo: 95.2 - 96.7% (Should be higher since it has a high FP rate).
AVG: 94.1 - 94.6% (Ouch, it has been on the decline these last few years).
McAfee: 92.2 - 93.1% (Haha, I can't believe Intel bought them).
K7: 91.7 - 92.4% (No comment).
PC Tools: 89.7 - 97.6% (Wow, they need to take away user decisions)

Good job Avast!, beating some of the big name AVs.

Anyone know what the total sample size is up to this point?

 

I'd like to try BitDefender, but it has a buggy rep.

 

There's a lot of people praising Avast Free, but do note that it's the Internet Security version being tested. The differences are minor, but still affect score.

 

I don't think they do. Why do you think so?

 

Quotes from several posts in this thread, below;

Actually quite some folks in this 'AVC 2011 Dynamic Tests' thread have praised 'Avast free version'.
Praise well deserved.
But not for these particular 2011 test results. Only the 2009 WPDT report has results on Avast 5.0 free.
The 2010 report has results for AIS 5.0

As AVC themselves have written in their 'Whole Product Dynamic Test/WPDT General Notes PDF';
'Every Antivirus program to be tested is installed on its own test computer (please note that the term "antivirus program" as used here may also mean a full Internet Security Suite)', perhaps this and the change from AV free version to AIS has caused some unclarity.

So those praises for Avast free in this thread can only relate to 2009 results.
This 2011 test results thread, doesn't really have anything to do with Avast free scores.

 

You're not answering the question. What items in the Internet Suite, not present in the Free edition, are going to contribute to a superior score in this test?

 

Yes, I did.

JL wrote; "There's a lot of people praising Avast Free".
VLK replied; "I don't think they do."

Hence I posted those quotes above.
You have a different question.

 

buggy and heavey too..

 

Sandbox, SafeZone, Silent Firewall, and maybe Antispam

 

sandbox is manual activation only, as is the SafeZone, firewalls dont stop malware from infecting u, and the antispam is just for mail clients; all irrelevant components to a dynamic test tbh, so wen it comes to dynamic protection, avast free is essentially the same as the pro or IS versions

 

Are you sure AV-C doesn't do manual tests? Firewalls can stop connections between malware and system, which can disable it or prevent the download. Some malware depends on mail clients.

 

Still, the full sandbox functionality is only available in Avast Pro and AIS.
So doesn't the scoring percentage which is 'user-dependent', also rely on the full manual sandbox functionality?
(Not meant argumentative, just a question)

 

No, the AutoSandbox feature is available in both Free and paid versions of avast.

 

This is correct. As an Avast Free user I know that the AutoSandbox is available in that edition.

BenMar

 

OK, good to know.
It's just that on the Avast forum, in a thread on the 'AutoSandbox Test Tool', a question was posted there;
'I am running the free Avast and the setting has the sandbox enabled and it is set to ask (I noticed that I had set it to auto, but it changed back to ask - I'm assuming maybe that is for the pro version?)'.
Any thoughts on this?'

In his reply, Avast team member Igor wrote;
'No, sorry, there is no way.
The full manual sandbox functionality is only in the Professional and IS version of avast!.' Avast forum thread link

Does this means, all versions have the 'Autosandbox' but only the paid-for versions also have the 'auto-setting' where as the free version offers (only) the 'ask-setting'?
Is it because (perhaps?) the 'Autosandbox' default setting is 'ask' (instead of 'auto') that the AVC Dynamic test score for AIS has a tiny 'user-dependent' percentage? (I currently don't have AIS installed so I can't check this myself)

 

from what i know they dont go around looking for malware to come thru mail clients, but i could be wrong and the firewall wont stop the malware from installing on your system, it will only stop connections once it has already infected you. and im pretty sure they dont make use of on-demand sandboxes in these tests.