Avast...

ianhind · Post by **ianhind** » 04 Nov 2006, 23:51

I'm behind a hardware router which serves my work laptop (connected to VPN) and a Smoothwall/IPcop box - this latter distributes to the home network and keeps work and play separate.

However I still run Zonealarm because it provides alerts when something tries to "phone home" - first signs of a trojan, adware, or just an annoying piece of software.

cstorey · Post by **cstorey** » 05 Nov 2006, 10:24

I hate to Burst ben Watson's bubble, but the professionals in the European industry regard Avast as unrivalled. The professional version costs, but the home version which is licensed only for single machine use is just as high quality, if not as extensive in machime/system coverage. It is widely regarded as the best there is

FWIW Chris

Post by **TSR2** » 05 Nov 2006, 11:01

I do beg to differ. Having earlier this year gone through a very stringent procurement process for a Large Multinational top 100 company, and with independent research from Gartner and Avanade to back up our findings, Avast doesn't even feature.

The top enterprise level AV product... by some margin, is Trend

cstorey · Post by **cstorey** » 05 Nov 2006, 11:12

Ben - interesting isn't it - but Avanade, being a Microsoft Joint venture, can hardly be said to be "independent". I can only tell you what actual users, mostly ex IBM , in software houses say. You pays your money and you takes your choice....

Post by **RAF_Quantum** » 05 Nov 2006, 11:24

Just a quick point in here. I have Norton anti-virus which is way past it's subscription renewal date and won't auto-update. Once your subscription runs out you can still go to Nortons site and download the latest virus definitions for free. I have my Norton set up to 'nudge' me that my virus defs need updating.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/downlo ... S-N95.html

Rgds

John

Charlie Bravo · Post by **Charlie Bravo** » 05 Nov 2006, 11:27

I doubt Avast Home is as good as Avast Pro. Why on earth would you offer a payware product that is no better than a free option?

My mums PC used to run Avast and I found 7 Trojans etc on it. It isn't the best there is, none of the free AV programs are.

Post by **TSR2** » 05 Nov 2006, 11:38

Very true Chris, and we didn't buy Trend as their licensing model was prohibative.

I'm well aware that Avanade is an MS Joint venture, but as they don't have an enterprise AV product, in this case I'd say they were fairly independant. And to be fair Big Blue (IBM) are usually so far up CA's behind, so its quite refreshing to see them take a different view.

To be fair, just because a product works well at enterprise level, doesn't mean to say it suits the home user. We use McAfee on our Wintel environemt very successfully, however many of the guys on here don't like the home version, largely due to all the bloatware they package with it, and norton is the same (but the norton av IS crap) Bit of a minefield, but better to be protected than not.

ianhind · Post by **ianhind** » 05 Nov 2006, 12:09

Once your subscription runs out you can still go to Nortons site and download the latest virus definitions for free.

John,

That works for a while, and then the updates are not available for the older version - been there, done that.

Ian

nigelb · Post by **nigelb** » 05 Nov 2006, 12:26

Charlie Bravo wrote:I doubt Avast Home is as good as Avast Pro. Why on earth would you offer a payware product that is no better than a free option?

My mums PC used to run Avast and I found 7 Trojans etc on it. It isn't the best there is, none of the free AV programs are.

The home version lacks some of the features of the "pro" version such as an enhanced interface with more options, script blocking and automatic scheduling and a few others.

When I installed Avast, it found several problems that Norton had missed. To be fair, I imagine this could be true in any case where you switch AV products; the new one finds things the old one missed.

tonymadge · Post by **tonymadge** » 14 Nov 2006, 16:50

CB I see you use NOD32 Just had the 30 day trial on that seemed to work ok although the pc took ages to get up off its fat ass and do something, I used AVG before that and really rated it however I found a virus it had not!!! So it went ( still got it on lap top) but then I decided to havea look around at comparisons and found that AVG rated 1/10 Avast 2/10 NOD32 8/10 and a 10/10 was Avira... now they do various versions but the premium classic (nice name) is free to home users I have installed it and at present doinga scan. If it works then I will keep it if not I will fork out the "27 for NOD32 only one thing you can only use it one PC so leagally I have to buy it twice for the laptop :sad: