F-Prot, NOD32 or KAV???

I consider myself as a novice with computers. As a result, i've stayed loyal to Norton for the past 3 yrs. But i've decided to ditch it for good. Its so called most recent version (2004) is driving me mad. It is not a 'normal' resource hog. I can only use the word 'extreme' to describe. My computer takes forever startup. And it takes ages to perform a full scan.

I am now considering F-Prot, NOD32 and KAV I've 'test drived' both F-Prot and NOD32. I am extremely impressed with their scanning speed and the 'minimal' resources required. NOD32's scanning speed seems too good to be true. But even after tweaking the settings, it seems not a lot of files are being scanned? For example, F-Prot scanned 30,000 files on one of my partition, while NOD32 only scanned 6000

Can anyone tell me if F-Prot is any good? It seems that not a lot of people are using it? Is it 'inferior' when compared with the other brands?

I've also read rave reviews on KAV. It seems a lot of people are recommending it. But at the same time, a lot of users are saying it is a 'resource hog' too. I gather its engine is one of the best in the industry, but how does it compare with Norton (in terms of the amount of resources used)?

Can anyone give me their opinions about them? Which one should i get?

Many thanks in advance.

My specs: P4 1.8 512MB RAM 120GB HD

 

The three programs you are thinking about are all good and maybe better
than Norton.
I must say that you have to try KAV yourself before decide.
It is not behaving the same way in every PC.
It seems to have its likes and dislikes

 

NOD32 is NOT set up optimally out the box. Many of us users have asked Eset, along with some resellers and distributors, to have NOD32 to NOD32 set up for maximum scanning effectiveness as the default. Then users could back off some if they wished. The way it is now, many new users end up with poor settings and wonder why NOD32 did not scan more files.

Here's an excellent thread with pictures by Blackspear that will get you set up just right so NOD32 will scan a lot more than 6,000 files. Not every screen will look like yours because Blackspear already has the beta version. So just i8ngnore those screens for now. The trial version and the current release version doesn't have some of the settings that are in the new beta that will be released any day for public testing.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509&page=1&pp=25

 

Welcome to Wilders, dwma200x,

1. Before you trial any other AV's particularly KAV, make sure you have removed all traces of Norton from your system, using their specific removers;

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...sf&view=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=

2. You can probably increase the number of files scanned by NOD by adjusting the default settings;

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509

The number of files scanned is not particularly vital information as different scanners have different ways in counting/naming files. However, AV programs with a good unpacking engine generally scan more files than those with a weak unpacking engine. For example, KAV will unpack a greater number of files than F-Prot or NOD and the scan will therefore take a lot longer to finish.

3. F-Prot is certainly not an 'inferior AV' but is considered one of the 'best'
virus detectors. Take a look here at some recent threads;

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=38967&highlight=F-Prot Antivirus

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=20205&highlight=F-Prot Antivirus

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=10006&highlight=F-Prot Antivirus

4. Some of the people who say that KAV is a resource hog have either not used the program, or in the case of KAV 4.5 have not used the latter versions. I am running KAV 5 on an ancient 5-year-old computer, 400MHz, 192Mb Ram, with no slowdown whatsoever. However, these are my OWN personal observations and KAV may not run this well on your computer because of differences in software and hardware. Potentially, your system should be able to cope with any of the 3 AV Monitors.

NOD and F-Prot have very fast scanners but, depending on your surfing habits, both may need additional protection against trojans. KAV has the widest malware definitions base but it has a slow ( but very thorough and effective ) on-demand scanner and there are problems with system restore and defragmentation on some systems. NOD is settling down now in version 2, KAV 5 has only recently been released so some minor bugs are to be expected, while a new version 4 of F-Prot is due out, hopefully in a few months time.

Support is also very important when choosing an AV and my personal observations are that both KAV and F-prot offer quick, excellent support.

As to which one of the three to use, the choice will be down to you. You will have to trial the three and see which one suits YOUR sytem the best.

 

A major upgrade version of NOD32 will be in public beta any day now. A few days ago, we all got a module upgrade in the current release version that has caused NOD32 to scan a great deal more files and thus slow the scanning process. Some have stated (accurately or not I don't know) that NOD32 now scans as many or more files than KAV. I doubt that, but I saw the number of files scanned by NOD32 on my W98SE box go from 43,000 to 65,000. Some have seen the number scanned quadruple. My scan time on that box increased only by about 3 minutes to an average of 17 minutes. I hav KAV 4.5 currently on my new XP box so I can't say how the upgrade has affected XP.

I have the beta version of NOD32 already and it is impressive.

 

I am currently running KAV 4.5 PRO [KAV 5 personal seems to be the problem one at the moment, so better to get 4.5 PRO or wait until KAV 5 PRO comes out but that won't be for a while].

For "me" KAV is perfect. No slowdowns, etc. plus I use the 'Extended Data Bases' which includes masses of malware not normally associated with AVs.

I can do a total Full System Scan in around 25 mins, which has over 120,000 files, and that has a lot of ZIP/RAR files included in that.

Cheers, TAS

 

I chose F-Prot due to it having good detection rates, a keen price and a licence allowing installation on up to 5 computers for home use (this may swing it if you have a home network).

It is fast - but you cannot tell it to exclude specific files or folders which may raise issues with some software. The background scanner also seems to go loopy and tries using up all available CPU in some circumstances (I'm finding this happening with games mainly) - and when you shut it down you cannot restart it. For this reason, I would recommend you run a trial version first.

I'm currently mixed about it - but it knocks the spots off NAV 2002 (which could only unpack ZIP files).

 

Many thanks for all the replies and advice.

As i've mentioned in my previous post, i've 'test drived' the trial versions of both F-Prot and NOD32. I am impressed with both of them.

I was gonna try KAV 5 as well when i read a thread about the 'ADS tags' of KAV. I am a novice with these things......can someone explain to me what are these 'ADS tags'? What potential problems will they cause?

 

I choose NOD32...

NOD32 - low resources, very good config, very good AV, updates a lot of times...

KAV - the new version have a lot of annoying problems, so I don't recommended until all the problems are fixed...

F-Prot - very low resources, very good AV, but doesn't have email scanner and the size of the updates are big...