Which AV would you use?

[CurseTheSky]

I've been using McAfee for years. It's been pretty good - it's a little bloated so it's harder on slower computers, but with everything I run it does just fine. On the other hand, I've heard so much good about Avira lately that I decided to give it a shot on my laptop. It doesn't seem bad so far; now I just need to remember how to disable the ad popups when it updates, and I wish they didn't give their virus scanner such a goofy name (Luke Filewalker... come on.)

From a security and utility stand point, which would you use - McAfee Virus Scan Plus (virus scanner, firewall, etc.), or Avira Personal Edition? Avira PE is free, by McAfee is only $40 a year, or something like that. Either one will be used on home / home office PCs running Windows Xp or Vista.

Thanks.

 

[Billb2]

AV-Test release latest results

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
From a security and utility stand point, which would you use - McAfee Virus Scan Plus (virus scanner, firewall, etc.), or Avira Personal Edition? Avira PE is free, by McAfee is only $40 a year, or something like that. Either one will be used on home / home office PCs running Windows Xp or Vista.

Thanks.

I used to do a lot of malware hunting as a McAfee SiteAdvisor reviewer. I also submitted many hundreds of malware samples to their Webimmune.net submission portal. Based on the wretched results I was getting with McAfee, this is a no-brainer IMO: use Avira's personal edition, along with the Windows Firewall or another firewall of your choice.

If you're looking for additional features, try Avira's premium edition, which is only $26 per year. Enable its "Expert Mode" in the configuration panel and check out all the bells & whistles.

Tangentially, you can do soooooo much to secure a Windows system besides the antivirus you choose. It really shouldn't be a primary line of defense, in my opinion, mainly a tripwire and secondary defensive layer. mech's suggested layered defense for Windows

 

[tzdk]

I have Avira Premium and done a lot of testing from sources listing bad sites, installs etc. And yes it is good but not close to perfect. If you click on everything that moves or just want to hunt down 100% detection rate you will need more, like WOT http://www.mywot.com Many sites offering crap not detected by AV will be blocked. Easy to prove it is effective - beats WebGuard from paid Avira easily. Also compare to SiteAdvisor or Norton as you please. Does not really matter which you use, Avast is fine too. All should have help from other tools even if some try to make you believe it is only a matter of prolonging paid subscription. Dont fall in love with Aviras high detection rate but then again why not use the best?, see last few years test from AV-Comparatives. False Positives are now also under control though that site does not always agree.

2 things about Avira I dont like. 1. You only get license to 1 pc, not 3 in a household = price not that dif. from products not making you think Win98 and 2. Avira Premium does not disable Windows Defender like Norton/Mcafee? but unofficially they highly recommend it. Defender is built into OS and it dont make sense to turn it off. Part of the war about your $$$ I think, more so than a technical one. Microsoft will soon release free AV product, then they take over this business - or so some will be afraid of. Too much work adequately out of the box! Firewall, Antispyware, Antivirus, can even add parental control! Now IE8s smartscreen filter even kicks in, will WOT also be redundant? heh. Then comes the better security features in Vista and upwards. They will have to make up new demands then, has never been a problem but must be getting tough. Avira do give thumbs up to Defender in free version - may be good argument not to use paid?

Danger of a big fat utility-suite is you think that was it, hardly anything left to do - besides I paid money for it. Or you dont really know what is running, which threats/defenses are make believe, which are for real. xxxxx product protects me. When things go wrong or you just have to make a decision you will be ???? May be better to say there are advantages of being aware of those "layers" mechBgon talk about. Security is more about being aware than buying/using products - or changing software every other 2 weeks because a new "test" has arrived. Not what part of the security industry want you to believe.

No chance I could be bothered with SRP, and definitely not NoScript, but I see common sense in most entries from that guide. Think you should say yes, yes I know to most before paying for Mcafee or other tool. At the end he list Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware. Non resident extra scanners. Can add onlinescanner from Kaspersky, ESET, many others - not like there is a lack of free tools.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I've considered switching my wife to McAfee since it comes free with the cable connection. Also considered Kaspersky since it isn't US based. Using AVG free right now, but it seems to hiccup a little too often for my tastes.

Sunbelt's vipre looks nice. I like some of the stuff coming out of that company.

 

[compman25]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I've considered switching my wife to McAfee since it comes free with the cable connection. Also considered Kaspersky since it isn't US based. Using AVG free right now, but it seems to hiccup a little too often for my tastes.

Sunbelt's vipre looks nice. I like some of the stuff coming out of that company.

Why does it matter where they are based?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: compman25

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I've considered switching my wife to McAfee since it comes free with the cable connection. Also considered Kaspersky since it isn't US based. Using AVG free right now, but it seems to hiccup a little too often for my tastes.

Sunbelt's vipre looks nice. I like some of the stuff coming out of that company.

Why does it matter where they are based?

Off topic for this forum (where's the tinfoil hat forum?).

It doesn't really, I try to get a global perspective on things like this.

 

[Lemon law]

In MHO, the best two freeware antiviruses are Avira and Avast. If you need the superior detection rates, think Avira, if you really really need email prescanning, think Avast.

 

[BW86]

Avira I've been using it on multiple computers for years with no problems

 

[rasczak]

i've been using avira personal edition for while myself. i like it so much im thinking of actually purchasing it for my boxes.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: rasczak
i've been using avira personal edition for while myself. i like it so much im thinking of actually purchasing it for my boxes.

I've been using Avira for a few years, and I'm completely happy with it. I'd buy Avira before I used McAfee or AVG free.

 

[CurseTheSky]

After all of these replies, I'm going to be dumping my McAfee subscription and buying a 3-PC copy of Avira premium. That'll get installed on my desktop and two family members' desktops; the rest of the computers in the house (my laptop, two family members' laptops, etc.) will get free versions. That'll allow us to compare the two versions thoroughly, and it looks like we'll have better protection that we do right now.

Thanks for the info everyone.

 

[Sam25]

I used McAfee in the past and it just slowed down my system quite a bit. Switched to Nod32 and been totally happy with it so far.

 

[tzdk]

Avira is a good choice if you want something light with detection as great as it gets. May be not important if users can control themself but today I clicked on one of the million tinyurl type of links from Twitter. Obviously a scam of some kind but I clicked to check. Got thrown to a video site with an exe-download needed to watch the movie. Avira did not detect that exe-file, only 4-5 other products did according to Virustotal. Does not matter really, does not take anything away from Avira. You can make such test 24/7 - conclusion will be you cant trust any AV. Also that some are better than others and Avira will probably be among them.

 

[Zepper]

I've been using Avira Personal for a little while along with Comodo firewall and several anti-spyware products. I just subscribed to some of their update notice emails, and there were at least five signature file updates today and an engine update for a couple of their older engines. IDK if that's typical, but I was impressed.

.bh.

 

[tzdk]

Unless they changed policy since vers. 8 free Personal version only get 1 update per 24 hours, and with a nag-screen. If you try and force more frequent manual updates through preupd.exe you find out difference to paid Very slow if even functional. Possible this is changed in vers. 9, or their servers had a bad day when I tried, but I doubt it. 5 updates per day in paid is normal. They list content of each update here http://www.avira.com/en/threat.../vdfhistory/index.html - neverending story...

 

[puffywulf]

Avira PE since it's free and has less bloat than McAfee. McAfee detection rates aren't that high anyways. I believe for the VB100% tests, it fails sometimes.