BleepingComputer.com: Antivir Free Edition

Hi All

My Zonealarm antivirus is nearing expiration in about a month and I have been researching some other antivirus software. I want to get away from Security Suites and would rather have a stand-alone antivirus.

I read through AV compartives, AV-test.org and other reputable sites that Antivir does very well on tests.

I looked at the product on their website but I see that the Free version does not have Email scanning.

Is this something critical that I would need? If I open an attachment, the file won't be scanned? Or do I need to save the file to my hard-drive first and then if I open it will it be scanned?

This is the only "sticking point" with this product. Please advise your opinions whether missing email scanning is a reason to look at another company.

Thanks in advance!

AVG does scan email attachments, it also has a link scanner, witch is really good, say you search something on google a green tick will appear to see if its safe, if not, it will be like two yellow "!!" and that will say "cannot be scanned or something" so yeah, i think the AVG 8.0 is worth having.

I have it near enough 2 months now and no problems with it.

This post has been edited by samuel3: 17 June 2008 - 11:47 AM

Samuel3, the topic says "Antivir" from here: http://www.free-av.com not AVG

Oops sorry my mistake, i swear i saw AVG 8.0 somewhere.

This post has been edited by samuel3: 17 June 2008 - 12:07 PM

I use AntiVir free. If you want to scan a suspicious email, yes, you do have to copy it someplace like on your desktop and scan it that way. But....AntiVir will still warn you inside your email program if you have clicked on a bad thing . The real time protection doesn't stop just because you're in email. I've been using it for years and although my computer habits make it less likely for me to get something in my email, it has popped a couple of warnings at me, although I can't remember what they were for.

You don't say what email program you use, but in my case in OE, I have blocked the preview pane so no emails open automatically. That's the first thing anyone should do in any email program that offers a preview pane. I don't have OE running to automatically check for new mail. I get all my emails manually, but after screening them first in Mailwasher and/or PopPeeper, (which is free). That way any junk mail that gets past my ISP spam screen can be deleted before I even download my mail to my computer.

Although sometimes a weird one will get through. But in OE, I can highlight that email in the Inbox and look at the Properties-Details Tab-Message Source button. From there I can read the entire email without even "opening" it. If I see a bunch of garbage, I just delete the email.

I can highly recommend AntiVir free. I've done fine without an email scanner. And if you want to reduce your spam, the programs I mentioned are good ones. There are also others that will integrate into the email program and do the filtering from there.

Thanks for the very informative information!

I use Outlook 2007 and it's spam filter is pretty darn good. I think I will have to get into the habit of saving attachments to a folder and scanning them from there.

So Antivir is pretty good then? The only complaints I see with this program that lurk around on the net are the slow updates or "busy" server issues when downloading updates and some others complain of more false positives then with other antivirus software. Since it's free, I guess I shouldn't have too much to complain about...

Also, what about Trend Micro or Bitdefender? I've been looking at these as well. Opinions on these products?

Dell Dimension 5150
2 GB DDR SDRAM
2.8 GHz Dual Core Intel Processor
250 GB Raid 1 Array
Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1

Much thanks.

You can get false positives in any antivirus program. As for delays with updates, naturally the free AntiVir users aren't given the priority bandwidth from the servers. But it doesn't take long to figure out a good time to try it depending on where you're located. I'm in the US, Eastern Time Zone. Their servers are in Germany. So for me, later in the evening or early in the morning works best. I prefer doing manual updates, rather than scheduled. I just have it remind me with a balloon popup every three days. Then if I'm busy with something, I click the reminder off and do it later, at my convenience.

I replaced avg 7 with Antivir (avira) and so far it's found a couple things that I believe weren't caught earlier by avg.
I've had it a few weeks, so far no issues with it.
Sharon

I have a question, does the AntiVir Free Edition stop malicious websites? I've used AVG and Avast! and they have the resident shield and web shield or whatever but I was wondering if the free edition of Avira helps guard you against malicious websites.

I know it has the AntiVir Guard but I'm not really clear on what exactly it does.

ColdFire, on Jun 19 2008, 10:29 PM, said:

I have to leave for work soon so I can't look it up for sure, but let's just say....

You go to an unfamiliar website to look for a certain kind of file. You've been to a couple of others that gave you no problems, but you've never been to this one before. So you start searching around and click on what you've been looking for. To your surprise, an AntiVir warning comes up on the screen. It's time to exit that site. So, if that's what you mean about blocking malicious websites, then yes, AntiVir will do that.

OK it looks like I'm sold on Antivir. Almost all the testing reports and review sites on the internet say that this software is excellent.

However, I'm debating whether I should go with the Free version or the Premium version.

I understand that the Premium version has more features but here's the BIG QUESTION:

Does the Free Edition use the SAME scanning engine and quality detection rates as the Premium version? In other words, will I be getting the same quality of product with what is available in the Free version as the Premium?

Or does the premium offer a better detection/cleaning engine?

Thanks!

You will still be protected just fine with the free version. There's no difference in the quality of the actual scanning and detection-treatment of viruses and trojans, etc. The only real drawbacks are the nag screen to buy during updates and the lack of a few functions like live email scanning. If you want the extra features in the Premium, that's a personal choice. But almost all of those extras that are "bundled" into the one program can be found in other freeware programs.

For example, here's what I have on my system and others I can recommend.

Antivir Free
Sygate Firewall (discontinued, but still an excellent firewall. I score Stealth at the online firewall tests.)
PopPeeper (to pre-scan and delete junk mail before I download my mail to my computer, which we've already discussed.)
SUPERAntispyware, Spybot, Adaware (to manually scan for any nasties that might have gotten through. Although with Sygate Firewall, I don't get much. Usually just a few tracking cookies get through now and then, but not often.
My default browser is Firefox, with CS Lite (Cookie Shredder Lite).

AntiVir, Sygate, and CS Lite with FF are the only live protection I run on my computer. I keep things clean with PopPeeper and SUPERAntispyware.

In the event you suspect something got through there's always a fully functional 30 day trial of Trojan Remover to dig deeper, or other clean up utilities out there to use. AntiVir has some free cleanup tools here too:

http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html

Like I said, it's a personal choice. For myself, I don't want a lot of stuff running in the background. So I usually stay away from the "suites" that do everything at once. So far...so good.