Detection Rate of Avast!

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’m wondering about the detection rate of avast!, I used it for 3 weeks now on my testing system, and it seems to work fine… But before it replaces my default scanner (McAfee VirusScan Enterprise v8.0i) (free from university) I want to know a couple little things:

  1. How’s the detection of Trojan Horses in Avast!, I don’t want to run a serparate program for that.
  2. How long does it take for Awill to make a definition update when a big threat (like MyDoom or Slammer) shows up?
  3. Does Awill do regular ITW tests with their definitions?
  4. Does Avast! detect certain ad/malware like McAfee, it doesn’t have to detect all, but it might be handy it detects the evil ones who can cary viruses to your systems.

Hope this questions can be aswered, till now I’m very impressed by Avast!. And the cominity here is great too :slight_smile:
Keep up the good job on his wonderful product, another quality product from the Czech Republic…

Have a nice day,

Aleksandr

2
  1. I belive you don’t need anything else. At least i don’t…
  2. From my experience they are very fast. I usually got definitions before crap first hit my mailbox.
  3. Alwil is regulary participating on VB100% ITW tests
  4. Yes,lately they have even started adding signatures with [Adw] tag, which means Adware plus new Web Shield (it’s still in beta) detects spyware before it’s even downloaded to your PC. Thats pretty nice combination :slight_smile:
3

Thanks for your quick reply RejZoR :slight_smile:
Glad to hear they started adding [Adw] tags, I already played with the new Web Shield and it works fine :slight_smile: Personally I run the Beta without any problems at all… And the memory usage is soo good now :wink: Great job guys…

Thanks again, this is most likely gonna be my new protection :slight_smile:

4

I think new version of avast! will be good at adware/spyware too as it can distinguish the type of malware right now.

And besides that, when Web Shield is implemented into this new version of avast! so I hardly believe that the detection of adware/spyware will be greatly improved. I’ve also noticed that avast! 4.6 beta runs more smoothly and faster than ever on my machine.

5

As I’m using avast! Home for a quite long period, i can say that it has good detection rates, and very small and quick updates. also as i know it has the best resident protection, as a lot of shields covers your system. I’m looking forward to new version of avast! as I’ve a lot of good about it.

6
Does Avast! detect certain ad/malware like McAfee

Independent tests in 2004 suggest that avast has poor detection rates for some “other malware.” Dialers, especially.

Dialers - avast 5%, BitDefender 40%, AntiVir 98%, KAV 5 100%:
http://www.rokop-security.de/main/article.php?sid=757&mode=thread&order=0

Dialers, May 2004 - avast 3%, KAV 33%, VirusScan 32%:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/

7

It’s primary job are worms,viruses and backdoors. Next are trojans and last spyware/adware and dialers.

8

Yes, that is correct…you should run Spyware Guard and SpywareBlaster to block that other garbage. Security is all about layers…there is not a single program out there that will do everything.

9

I am a fan of Spywareblaster but according to me: Spywareguard is not updating anymore.
The last update I can remember is still dated from early 2004,…so a full year NO updates,…
So it is kinda useless that you install SpywareGuard,…

It is good that Alwil introduces a webfiltercontent-system in their 4.6 version of Avast!
In combination with Firefox and Thunderbird you should be pretty safe imho!

I did a test,…
I used firefox for about 2 months,…did Spywareblaster updates and the updates for Avast! off course,…and then downloaded “Webroot SpySweeper” and he found only 1 “cookie”,…that seemed to be harmless!
Then I did a Adware scan,…0 infections,…
And I surf on the internet every day! So when I am home, my computer is always online!

10

We’ve been adding huge number of dialer signatures lately after Pavel’s father got hit by one and had an incredible phone bill… ;D

11

LOL! :smiley:

Well if you are having a dial-up connection you are more vulnerable I guess.
If you are having cable or dsl connection in combination with router you don’t get it easily I suppose,…or am I wrong??

12

You get it quite easily but it’s quite benign - provided you don’t have a dial-up modem attached to the computer (even if you’re not using it - that was in fact the case with Pavel’s father - he’s on DSL otherwise but still had the modem plugged).

13

The weekest link when it comes to computers and security is (and likely always will be) the user. :wink:

What does he know?
What are his skills?
Does he read help files to configure things as they should?
etc etc etc.

14

But I assume if you have a software firewall like outpost or sygate,…you can prevent this from dialing?
Off course, it is always better to prevent then to heal!

Most dialers you can get, are caused by visting xxx-rated websites! (like we probably all have done! :wink: )

15
You get it quite easily but it's quite benign - provided you don't have a dial-up modem attached to the computer (even if you're not using it - that was in fact the case with Pavel's father - he's on DSL otherwise but still had the modem plugged).

Are you saying the dialer dialed out even though the modem wasn’t connected to a phone line?

–lee

16

The best thing about dialers is that they are ineffective on Cable/DSL connections :stuck_out_tongue:

17

You probably don’t want these criminal twits monkeying around with your OS, whether or not you use dial-up.

18

I’m using Dial_up and internet provider “Lietuvos Telecom” developed free program, which blocks all other numbers, and only dials the numbers specified, so dialers are not threat for me. 8)

19

You still probably don’t want criminal twits monkeying around with your OS! My niece had a service call (!) by a tech from her ISP to set up her DSL again. He thought that “someone had changed her settings.” When I scanned, later, I found a dialler. No dial-up connection, so no outrageous 900 charges, but expense and inconvenience nonetheless.