The antivirus program becoming the virus

JHefile

JHefile

Necrophilia Makes Me [H]ard
Joined
Jun 22, 2003
Messages
1,180
I don't use these programs but decided maybe I should do a scan and then delete it. I start the dl and when I get a chance to read the Avast terms of service I do. I paged down and once I seen this stopped and deleted it .

How about that. The antivirus used to stop intrusion becomes the intruder. It collects websites I have visited? For what? Data mining for profit? Is this why they are free? Plus they share it!
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Yep, that is why they are free, they make money off you in other ways. They all hijack your PC too so I just went back to using MS Defender, much less annoying due to no pop-up ads and they have recently improved it too so it is not that bad compared to Avast, Avira etc. It even gets false positives now just like Avira. Avira is rated No.1 right now purely because its heuristics is so aggressive and gets false positives all the time.

If you supplement Defender with non resident free stuff like Malwarebytes and Spybot you don't need those other 3rd party AV products. Also you can use F-Secure free online scanner and Avira free boot disk if you want a second opinion.
 
I stopped using Avast because it is so bloated.
Running a locked down system is not easy when that crap activates the security continually.
Its not clear what needs to be running to prevent protection being disabled and much of it I dont want running.

Now I run Panda, dead simple.
 
nod64 was the last a/v I ever paid for and that was a few years ago. since then, windefender and a second on-demand scanner like malwarebyte or spybot is all I use. WD works fine and doesn't get into everything like most others. KISS...
 
I use Avira Free on my Win 7 box and ClamWin on my 2008 Server. Also use MWB once a month or so. Having your browser locked down is just as important as having an AV.

Avast has always been crappy in terms of performance & detection rates.

Try to stick with open source stuff if you want to avoid being the product.
 
Are there good freeware alternatives to Avast? I`m using only on-demand scanner (like Dr. Web CureIt for example)
 
Trendsetted said:
Some tips? Why it`s better? Will it stole CPU and memory as avast did?
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Every program uses CPU and memory. It's free, if you don't like it uninstall and try something else. I haven't used AV on my rig in years so I don't know how much resource it uses. Avira seems to work fine in my kid's computers.
 
HeavensCloud said:
Every program uses CPU and memory. It's free, if you don't like it uninstall and try something else. I haven't used AV on my rig in years so I don't know how much resource it uses. Avira seems to work fine in my kid's computers.
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k, thanks. The issue was in lagging with the avast and CPU was about 70% loaded with a browser window opened
 
I've used Avast for years on many machines and install it on plenty of systems for users who don't want a paid solution. Sure they may track your info, so does every other service you use online. If you install without customizing the install options it can cause performance issues. I simply do the custom install and remove everything but the essentials. Never had a virus using an free solution but I'm also not an idiot when it comes to being online. My AV solution is just one part of my security system and I don't rely on any AV to stop every infection.

If you're interested in finding a program that rates well, take a look at third party testing. AV comparitives and virus bulletin are two I use as well as reviews from places like PC Mag and CNet.

The file detection testing from AV Comparitives showed Avast and Avira both at 99.9% detection rates. The performance impact scores were very similar. Some companies did very well others did poorly.
 
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One thing that is sort of a pet peeve of mine is judging an AV product's performance by its memory footprint.

A poorly designed algorythm can be both compact and slow.
It (the product) can also mess with performance by ways such as (badly done) filtering network packets, sending out samples over the network, writing overly verbose logs - all sorts of time consuming actions without really taking up a lot of RAM.

As an example - my experiences with MSE on people's laptops is that it can easily bog down a meek computer despite being 'small'. Whenever I encountered that, I changed up to Avast or Avira and oddly enough the computer worked quicker.

I do disable as much as possible in freebies, though. I don't like 'software updaters' or 'browser plugins'.
 
Trendsetted said:
Are there good freeware alternatives to Avast? I`m using only on-demand scanner (like Dr. Web CureIt for example)
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Bitdefender free is rated very high and lightweight but have never tried it myself. That is what I will try next if I ever want to try a free commercial product again.
 
I don't have an background scanner running but i do have XD bit enabled for all software instead of just windows services
i instead scane once in a while with:
- Dr web cureit
- mcafee stinger
- malwarebytes malware scanner FREEE ( not trial of premium)
 
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