Jus' curious about this.....

Hi, I woz jus' wonderin'....
Which program iz better and why, out of A2 Free (A-Squared), or Ewido Free...or are they just as good as each other

Pleaze answer my question....coz I'd really like to know

Thanks In Advance (Regards)
LJM

 

I my personal opinion Ewido, they update daily and the product looks and feels more finished, they had a problem with the guard (speed) in the beginning, which they acknowledged, and they seem to be more responsive in terms of dealing with users.
a² , although their signaturebase is big, they don't seem to update as often as Ewido and other's (BOClean TDS-3) are doing. Ewido in it's present form has only been out a couple of weeks, A2 has been out since late last year i believe and stil when you download it on the downloadpage it says "a² personal has currently not all planned features implemented but is stable. The greyed parts of the Background Guard will be completed and installed via the online update soon. All purchased licenses will be reset on the day of the release of all features to ensure a full year license period." that is not very impressive IMO, i know you are only talking about the free version's, but still. As i said in the beginning it's my personal opinion, other's will feel different, but if i had to choose it would be Ewido at this point.

 

cheers Don Pelotas, your reply iz greatly appreciated, altho u ultimately chose Ewido (which I choose as well), I still believe that A2 iz a pretty good program, an' there signature quantity iz great....which leeds on to my next question....

Which, of the 2 programs, helms the largest signature database??

Thanks to any1 who replies back....
Regards
LJM

 

Right now a2 has about 26600 sigs whereas Ewido has over 50000. That's because the a2 team is PURPOSELY not releasing signature updates! This is because the program load is slowing down with the more signatures they add. When a2 v2.0 comes out it will include 70000 sigs standard.

 

Wow!!! 70000 sigs standard huh.....Awesome!!!

So do u kno wen A2 v2.0 will be released then??

Thanks for a reply..cheers

Regards
LJM

 

Nobody knows when a² v2 come's out, they said in feb that "New version of a² free and a² personal is around the corner", that's why i would go with Ewido right now,because it's out, and being updated daily. I will be one of first to try it (a² personal v2), right now there's a lot of "when and if" surrounding a², let's see when they actually produce.

 

The number of signatures is meaningless and does not tell you anything about the quality of the scanner or its ability to detect malware.

wizard

 

Very good point Don. Well Wizard, I noticed you're a moderator so you mind helping us out here... What makes a good scanner? I mean I understand some things about scanners but then there's things like "unpacking" and ADS for NTFS file systems, what do they all mean?

 

"Unpacking" is one of the important features of a scanner. Over the past years all scanners (av or at) improved their detection capabilities of trojans. So the "trojan users" or "scriptkiddies" (or whatever you want to call them) had to search for ways to make detection of the trojan more difficult. One easy way of making a trojan undetectable is to use a packer software like UPX for example. These packers are used to compress the file size of a program. By compressing the size of a trojan you also destroy the "fingerprint" (signature) that is used by the AT or AV program. The only way of detecting the trojan now is to create a new signature. A scanner which features "unpacking" simply unpacks the file and has a chance to find the original "fingerprint" to detect it.

For information on ADS I suggest to have a look on the follwoing web site: http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=archive&id=ntfs-streams


wizard

 

Although I don't use ewido anymore... ewido seems better... the only bad thing is how thye made it pro for a couple of days and it shows security levels at red if you don't install the background guard thing... and the UI looks bad and makes a person not wanna use the program...

ewido also had a yellow e icon that takes up space and is a disturbance on the context menu when you right click on say... an icon..

The free version before they made ewido with the background guard is way better... the UI... i wish ewido had made their UI's seperate...

 

This will change soon (security level will be removed, icon removable, faster guard etc.)

 

Good news fish, looking foreward to it.

 

To Wizard: Obviously unpacking is an important feature of a scanner, can you think of any other desirable features?

Please post.

erikguy

 

Fish25,

Sounds good, if this is the case, then I think I would gave ewido another chance...

 

For an antitrojan scanner the following other important features are: memory scanning - this is required in cases the unpacking fails or the trojan is packed with a by the scanner unsupported packer.

Also important is the usage of "strong signatures" to prevent (or making it more difficult) to "patch" trojans. Patching is like packing another way of making a trojan undetectable for the scanner. For example Ewido uses such "strong" signature types while the current version of a² doesn't.

Also the scanner should feature a heuristic or "generic" detection.

Another important point for an antitrojan software is how much tools such a scanner has to help the user to identify "unknown trojan". Two good examples of such scanners are Trojan Hunter and TDS-3. Both give the user a lot of helpful tools to explore the system supporting the user to find unwanted nasties.

Overall my personal recommendations for anti trojan programs are still TDS-3 or Trojan Hunter. When to choose between Ewido or a² I suggest to take Ewido.

wizard

 

To respond to the original question, even if you pick one program to run in real time, I'd say run *both* scanners. One protective program, even if they cover the same ground, can pick up something that another doesn't. That's true regardless of which program is "best."

 

Thanks for your time and info Wizard, sir! Sorry I haven't been to the site recently to reply.

Hey, (directed at any person willing to respond, not anyone specific) I don't know how to say this but, I've noticed a lot of; how should I put this delicately...? "bashing" of the a2 program on this site. I believe someone somewhere on this domain claimed that Emsisoft had poor support? Obviously this person did not find the forum at Emsisoft's site. I've heard people say that the a2 team seems to be taking their sweet time with development of their product, in all fairness the development team seems to be shorthanded. I mean if you go to the homepage you will see a big red exclamation point next to the "jobs" link. I don't know what kind of response I'll get to this post but I guess we'll wait and see.

 

The problem with the current release of a2 is that there not really that much positive to tell about (just putting it in nice words. ). Overall the programmer of a2 lost a lot of his reputation and credibility because of a lot of broken promises in the past about "fantastic" features...

wizard

 

Hmm.... interesting, Wizard.... You're right, that was politely put.

 

...Sorry?? Lost his reputation and credibility? what reputation would that be? and with whom? what broken promises? and what "fantastic" features?

It saddens me to see you having a dig at Andreas like that Wizard. You seem to have a problem with Andreas, as you have a pop at him and his program at every opportunity. As you are a moderator I would have expected some maturity. Ah well.

A² Personal is coming along nicely now and I think users will be very pleased with it.
Yes there have been many problems with A²`s development and the program has taken much longer to develop than was first expected. That`s life


Cheers,

Trev.

 

Yeah. If this keeps up, it's liable to take as long as TDS4!

 

Yes, but then again TDS4 will certainly be worth the wait.... http://www.spywareinfoforum.com/html/emoticons/devil.gif

 

I`m hoping we won`t have to wait as long as we`ve been waiting for TDS-4! lol

Personally I can`t wait to get my hands on both programs.

Cheers,

Trev.

 

they say: when we are patient, everything comes right on time

 

Hi,

So far I have been unimpressed with Ewido technical support, even though I am a licensed user. On the otherhand, even while I was trial using TDS-3, I recieved excellent support. This kind of support is necessary, in my opinion, because if you believe you may have a trojan on the system, but not sure, then quick support allows you to continue to use your computer without concern. BOClean has also provided me with excellent support as has TrojanHunter. New companies such as Ewido, may do well over the longer term if they can get all aspects of support in order, but until then I would most highly recommend TDS-3, BOClean, or TrojanHunter ahead of Ewido for this reason. Support is the primary reason I have not purchased SpySweeper.

Rich