frederick
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 154
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
Kind of disappointed by the AV software out there. Not every single one is going to hit my list, but to me, I've found these ones to be very disappointing and can just be avoided without looking back. I recommend a couple of these, but I recommend them as "they aren't the best but they do the job". By the way, these are strictly my opinions
1) AhnLab. I don't know where to begin. I can walk up to a computer with this on it, and not only find a million traces of every single computer virus out there, but the fact that it hasn't really done a scan in a while, nor does it care to. I've had 15 computers with this program that came in for services other than virus removal. On 9 other computers, it wouldn't even scan. Rogue programs managed to control every aspect of the computer except this program, probably cause they knew it wouldn't stop them. My Verdict: Couldn’t uninstall it enough to even put a smirk on my face so long as I know this program is still being used
2) AVG. They've simply lost their way. There was once a time when I could say "AVG is a good program, get that." Now I say, "AVG is the last program you want on your computer, to include it's so called search bar." It used to be worth buying AVG, now it seems like you buy AVG so you can get infected. The only reason I think they added a nice Computer Tune-up feature was so all the computer viruses could be optimized every couple of days so they could infect your network faster. My Verdict: Change to something else
3) Kingsoft is one of China’s oldest software companies, if you didn’t know. Just recently, they were able to legally drink. Maybe that’s what happened to them. Instead of putting out a good AV, they started going to the bars more often and coming home with things that a wingman should stop you from. Assuming you can launch the program without it crashing and catching on fire, it seems to never detect the big things that come through. It might say it saw one go by, but that does nothing for protection. You can’t say “you saw a virus once” and somehow think that makes you an AV program. My Verdict: I say change if you want protection and not detection
4) Avast is on this list for the simple fact that they are blasting peoples screens with pop-ups after someone has purchased the service. You can’t really sell faster than a person needs, and pop-ups get annoying real fast. It does fair on my list of competent anti-virus programs, but the pop-ups are my biggest deterrent. My Verdict: Sitting on the fence still, but I won't even mention it to anyone
5) McAfee and Symantec, both for the home user products. You would think, that these two would be more on top of their game as they are basically the most well known products in any home when it comes to AV. McAfee is troublesome, it’s detection is fair, but they just don’t know how to release a product for the average Joe and Jane. Symantec sets the system requirements lower than what the program really needs. You just can’t go to Best Buy, purchase a $300 computer, and install Symantec on it. It’s not going to run properly. These two companies have the budget, have the resources, so they have no excuses. Symantec has made great strides in my eyes in improving their product, but sometimes, you have to look at your engineers and say “if this one doesn’t work, you’re fired”. McAfee has gotten lazy if you ask me. Both cause troubles for the average end-user, with annoying “I BLOCKED NOTHING FROM NOT OPENING A PORT!!! YAY ME!” And then they disable your internet. Thanks… My Verdict: If you can run them with no problems, keep them, otherwise smash the delete key in with all your might
6) Avira is lower on my list than it probably should be. I’ve yet to trust this program. Have I given it a fair chance? Probably not. But when you are a lot like the others on here, where you put up pop-ups about how they need to purchase your program after they just purchased your program a month ago, and block nothing as far as I’ve seen, it is fair to say, you are useless to me. My Verdict: Undecided but leaning towards no
7) Last on my list, is Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft made a great attempt didn’t they? I think they are still learning, and that makes me uneasy. They were great at the start, but as more and more clients switch to us for AV, the amount of stuff that is found is amazing. All kinds of Trojans and Viruses that are pretty standard for other AV programs. I would say this program is great with a companion, like Malwarebytes or Spybot, but not swimming solo. I’ve always been told MSE is not great against zero day stuff, but I learned it’s missing some of the more important, and that bothers me. My Verdict: I would say great if you don’t download porn
I would have to say, after getting a lot of exposure to Bitdefender, Vipre, ESET, and Panda, I'm really and truly satisfied with these 4. I don't think I could promote them any harder without hurting the customer and possibly killing them to get my point across. But just like seasons change, so do AV programs as to who is better. My biggest pushers recently have been Bitdefender, Vipre and Kaspersky. A year ago, if you would have asked me about any of these mentioned 5, I think ESET and Kaspersky would have been the only 2 I would have mentioned. And really, cause of technibble, I've been interested in trying out and playing with more AV programs than in the past because of your guys comments.
1) AhnLab. I don't know where to begin. I can walk up to a computer with this on it, and not only find a million traces of every single computer virus out there, but the fact that it hasn't really done a scan in a while, nor does it care to. I've had 15 computers with this program that came in for services other than virus removal. On 9 other computers, it wouldn't even scan. Rogue programs managed to control every aspect of the computer except this program, probably cause they knew it wouldn't stop them. My Verdict: Couldn’t uninstall it enough to even put a smirk on my face so long as I know this program is still being used
2) AVG. They've simply lost their way. There was once a time when I could say "AVG is a good program, get that." Now I say, "AVG is the last program you want on your computer, to include it's so called search bar." It used to be worth buying AVG, now it seems like you buy AVG so you can get infected. The only reason I think they added a nice Computer Tune-up feature was so all the computer viruses could be optimized every couple of days so they could infect your network faster. My Verdict: Change to something else
3) Kingsoft is one of China’s oldest software companies, if you didn’t know. Just recently, they were able to legally drink. Maybe that’s what happened to them. Instead of putting out a good AV, they started going to the bars more often and coming home with things that a wingman should stop you from. Assuming you can launch the program without it crashing and catching on fire, it seems to never detect the big things that come through. It might say it saw one go by, but that does nothing for protection. You can’t say “you saw a virus once” and somehow think that makes you an AV program. My Verdict: I say change if you want protection and not detection
4) Avast is on this list for the simple fact that they are blasting peoples screens with pop-ups after someone has purchased the service. You can’t really sell faster than a person needs, and pop-ups get annoying real fast. It does fair on my list of competent anti-virus programs, but the pop-ups are my biggest deterrent. My Verdict: Sitting on the fence still, but I won't even mention it to anyone
5) McAfee and Symantec, both for the home user products. You would think, that these two would be more on top of their game as they are basically the most well known products in any home when it comes to AV. McAfee is troublesome, it’s detection is fair, but they just don’t know how to release a product for the average Joe and Jane. Symantec sets the system requirements lower than what the program really needs. You just can’t go to Best Buy, purchase a $300 computer, and install Symantec on it. It’s not going to run properly. These two companies have the budget, have the resources, so they have no excuses. Symantec has made great strides in my eyes in improving their product, but sometimes, you have to look at your engineers and say “if this one doesn’t work, you’re fired”. McAfee has gotten lazy if you ask me. Both cause troubles for the average end-user, with annoying “I BLOCKED NOTHING FROM NOT OPENING A PORT!!! YAY ME!” And then they disable your internet. Thanks… My Verdict: If you can run them with no problems, keep them, otherwise smash the delete key in with all your might
6) Avira is lower on my list than it probably should be. I’ve yet to trust this program. Have I given it a fair chance? Probably not. But when you are a lot like the others on here, where you put up pop-ups about how they need to purchase your program after they just purchased your program a month ago, and block nothing as far as I’ve seen, it is fair to say, you are useless to me. My Verdict: Undecided but leaning towards no
7) Last on my list, is Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft made a great attempt didn’t they? I think they are still learning, and that makes me uneasy. They were great at the start, but as more and more clients switch to us for AV, the amount of stuff that is found is amazing. All kinds of Trojans and Viruses that are pretty standard for other AV programs. I would say this program is great with a companion, like Malwarebytes or Spybot, but not swimming solo. I’ve always been told MSE is not great against zero day stuff, but I learned it’s missing some of the more important, and that bothers me. My Verdict: I would say great if you don’t download porn
I would have to say, after getting a lot of exposure to Bitdefender, Vipre, ESET, and Panda, I'm really and truly satisfied with these 4. I don't think I could promote them any harder without hurting the customer and possibly killing them to get my point across. But just like seasons change, so do AV programs as to who is better. My biggest pushers recently have been Bitdefender, Vipre and Kaspersky. A year ago, if you would have asked me about any of these mentioned 5, I think ESET and Kaspersky would have been the only 2 I would have mentioned. And really, cause of technibble, I've been interested in trying out and playing with more AV programs than in the past because of your guys comments.
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