avast! Antivirus?

Community Forums/General Help/avast! Antivirus?

Hotshot2005(Posted 2010) [#1]
iT is good one? I used to have AVG 8 before but I thinking having avast! Antivirus for change.


xlsior(Posted 2010) [#2]
Avast isn't bad... One catch is that you have to register the free version to use it beyond the trial period, but it's still free.

AVG is at version 9 now - I use it (minus the link-scanning component) and haven't had any problems with it.


GfK(Posted 2010) [#3]
Avast is complete crap. Kept getting false positives all the time with it, then it'd reboot my system and do a full scan (which took my PC out of use for nearly 2 hours a time) and find NOTHING!

I tried Microsoft Security Essentials, which was OK, except Windows locked up every time I tried to access network drives.

I'm back with AVG9 now.


Hotshot2005(Posted 2010) [#4]
Thank for advice GFK :)


Kryzon(Posted 2010) [#5]
(not regarding Avast) I used Avira for a bit, until giving up on it when it found out 7 "viruses", amongst which were ATAPI.SYS and CDROM.SYS.

Thank god for the System Restoration tool.


Sauer(Posted 2010) [#6]
I've used avast for a few months now and don't have any of the issues Gfk said. But previous to that point I didn't even have an anti-virus and never got one.


GfK(Posted 2010) [#7]
I've used avast for a few months now and don't have any of the issues Gfk said.
Avast worked fine for me for about two months. Then it started getting all silly and thinking everything was a virus.
But previous to that point I didn't even have an anti-virus and never got one.
That's like saying "If I never have a biopsy, I'll never get cancer". You might - you just won't know about it [til its too late].


Kryzon(Posted 2010) [#8]
Avast seems to be well accepted.

Check this thread:
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic377553.html


Digital Anime(Posted 2010) [#9]
From the free versions I will only give Avast a few points. It doesn't have those "You want to buy Pro?" popups and registration is needed only once a year.

But lately I think most virus scanners are lame because they don't check in the Windows registry if stuff boots up from temp directories when booting Windows. And the few Viruses which entered my drive by own mistake downloading malicious crap all worked the same way booting up from the Windows registry. My fix is getting those manually out of the registry and remove the files where they are located and do a restore to the day before once I deactivated the virus. Just need to reboot a few times during these steps.

And if they can't even do a single thing like that it's a waste of CPU and HD space and power.

Also some virusscanners tend to remove executables that are harmless, thanks again to those virusscanners that made me redownload some of my games on Steam.

And some of the payed versions are even worse, like Norton... It turns Quadcores into Singlecores... (What I mean with this is that it uses too many recources)


xlsior(Posted 2010) [#10]
But previous to that point I didn't even have an anti-virus and never got one.


That you know of.

Like they say: Ignorance is bliss.


LineOf7s(Posted 2010) [#11]
I've used Avast for years. I had a bit of a dalliiance with AVG8 on release, figuring it looked betterer than it had, but I was mistaken and I went back to Avast.

I've had a few false positives I've had to work around, but not enough to make me look elsewhere yet. Granted, to put ones eggs in a single antivirus basket is a bit naive, so don't do that. :)


therevills(Posted 2010) [#12]
I've been using Avast for years too and found it very good on system resources. Had a few false positives but overall I think its pretty good (esp when you remove the skin so it looks like a normal app).

Granted, to put ones eggs in a single antivirus basket is a bit naive, so don't do that. :)


How many do you use/ have installed?

If I get a virus (very rare), I've uploaded the file to one of the online Anti-virus websites to double check it.


Matty(Posted 2010) [#13]
I don't use antivirus tools at home, but none of my PCs are connected to the outside world (internet), so as well as being difficult to infect there's also very little consequence if I were to be infected lets say with keylogging spyware or similar.

It does mean I go without internet at home, so no steam games for example...


LineOf7s(Posted 2010) [#14]
How many do you use/ have installed?

Personally, I have Avast running in the background (as it does), and then every few months (when I remember) or if I suspect something might be behaving 'a bit oddly', I'll hit it up with (in vague-but-changeable order of perceived severity of issue):
- Spybot S&D
- Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
- Trend Micro Housecall (The new v7.1 if I'm on Windows and any infection isn't too serious, or the older browser-based v6.5 HERE if I'm on Linux - which I'll do if I wanna scan/clean the Windows disk without firing up Windows)
- ComboFix - the big gun that's got me out of some tight squeezes before. Sometimes I'll just skip to this one if I'm feeling bold. :o)

Bear in mind, the need for all of these hasn't been on the one poor ravaged computer - this is over many fixups of family, friends and colleagues' computers. I'm no expert though - I'm just blundering along like most others - but I figured since you asked...


D4NM4N(Posted 2010) [#15]
Not had a problem with it myself, there are a few false positives as gfk said, but i would rather have a false positive than a false negative. IMO it is better than AVG (good but lately seems to have got a real case of the popups!) and symantec/norton (who just live off the name, the app is absolute shite and have the gaul to charge!).

The best IMO is sophos, at least on a corporate level, but if i had to reccomend a "100% freebee" it would be avast.


jfk EO-11110(Posted 2010) [#16]
I think Avast is too good for a free thing. So you should not be surprised when it turns out that for example avast is also used as a backdoor by security institutions and probably also by hitech criminals. That's a problem of all Firewalls and Antivirus Apps. You have to decide: trust them or unplug you machine from the internet. Personally I have unplugged my workstation machine. Only a notebook that acts as a web terminal is connected. I really have a slight suspect that there are sometimes "people" in my machine. No desaster, since the data on the hd is not very sensitive. However, if you don't give Avast Web-access, then your browser won't download anything. (Need to give access to AvastSrv and AvastWebSrv). And it is really accessing the web a lot, eg. addresses like "savebrowsing.google.com" etc.

Personally I'd prefere an Antivirus App that does not access the web as long as I don't hit the "update virus definition file" Button. Anyway.

From the point of view of a secret service it is of course only logical to integrate some secret features in popular antivirus software and also and probably especially in firewalls. Call me paranoid, I guess the truth is even worse.


Dreamora(Posted 2010) [#17]
I used to have Avast until they started with having false positives all the time and not responding to reports. Its hell annoying if it identifies your molebox protected product as a worm and the "security solution provider" does not give a shit about it.


I've switched to Nod32 smart security back then and haven't had any problems be it on security or performance, anymore


xlsior(Posted 2010) [#18]
And it is really accessing the web a lot, eg. addresses like "savebrowsing.google.com" etc.


That one is an API address that allows a program to check a URL against google's database of known bad addresses.

By comparison, AVG has an optional linkscanner component, where it will scan hyperlinks on webpages that you look at in the background to check that they are safe. (I chose not to install that component myself).
Based on what you're saying, I assume that Avast is doing something similar.


-=Darkheart=-(Posted 2010) [#19]
AVG is just massively better than Avast in every way. Don't use Avast just download AVG Free.

Darkheart


D4NM4N(Posted 2010) [#20]
AVG has gone totally west lately, 4 years ago i would have categorically agreed with you.


GfK(Posted 2010) [#21]
AVG is just massively better than Avast in every way
I don't think that's quite how I would put it, but AVG is certainly the lesser of two evils.