FREE antivirus tips and downloads

Free Spyware Terminator Review and Free Download

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:55:00 -1200

Spyware Terminator is one of the few completely free full featured antispyware software. The company doesn’t even have a “full version” for purchase. The software boasts real time protection, detection of over 500,000 items with daily database updates, automatic update capability, and even integration with ClamWin free antivirus. As one can see, the software is truly full featured compared to other “free antispyware” which often contain partially functional real-time shields etc. In our tests, Spyware Terminator performed excellent at detecting and mitigating spyware and malware threats.

Features:

Since Spyware Terminator has such a comprehensive feature set for a freeware antivirus, I wanted to quickly review the functionality.

Real-Time Protection. Spyware Terminator includes a very comprehensive real-time protection system. The system includes several shields including a startup, service and driver, web browser add-ons, file extensions, Winsock, ie settings, system ini, and host shield. All of these shields rely on Spyware Terminators extensive classification database that classifies each change to the latter areas as safe, unknown, or a solid threat. In our tests, we were immediately prompted when installing a so called rouge add-on to Firefox (adware toolbar for free online games).
The real time shield also includes additional functionality such as a whitelist and a blacklist. If one felt that a process was misclassified under one of the lists, a review list is available to make necessary changes. In addition, to the unsafe/safe list capability, Spyware Terminator even has HIPS or host based intrusion prevention system which will essentially create its own trusted database on the target computer. There are two settings, the “high” level which will prompt for all unknown processes and supporting programs while the “low” level will only ask for the unknown processes. Of course, if this process seems too tedious a user can also disable the HIPS protection while still having the basic real-time shield intact.

Internet Protection. The Internet Protection capability includes an immunization feature. What this feature will do is automatically block 4,478 different attack functions which are essentially rouge Active X installations. Active X installers are a way for virus writers to install malicious code by a user visiting a malware website. In addition to the immunization feature, there is the web security toolbar which includes favorite and cookie protection in addition to additional real time protection.

Tools. Like SuperAntispyware, Spyware Terminator includes system restorers or repairs. While the repairs are not as comprehensive as SuperAntispywares, Spyware Terminator will allow a user to restore the active desktop, homepage, IE local page etc. The next feature is a file analysis tool. The analysis will display a report of all of the registry locations that the desired file appears. This information is perfect for a situation in which a user doesn’t know how a file (potentially a malware file) installs into the registry etc. The tools also include a remove file option for stubborn or locked files and a system restore functionality if a Spyware Terminator accidentally deletes important files after a spyware scan.

ClamWin Functionality. If a user has ClamWin installed on their computer, Spyware Terminator can utilize the antivirus engine during a spyware scan. This way a user only has to schedule a Spyware Terminator scan rather than 2 scans.

Updater. This is the first time I have seen a bittorrent p2p update functionality in an antispyware/antivirus software. One downside is that Spyware Terminator will uses an idle computer to seed new versions to other users this in turn will waste bandwidth. However, on the positive note, Spyware Terminator includes free automatic updates.

Virus/Spyware Detection and Scanning:

There are three different spyware scanning options the “Fast Spyware Scan”,” Full Spyware Scan”, and the “Custom Spyware Scan”. The Fast scan completed in about two minutes while the full spyware scan completed in about nine minutes. Ironically, the Full system scan could even be called a fast scan and is significantly faster than most antispyware software. While both scans didn’t detect any new spyware on the test computer, the crown jewel of the scanning process is the reporting feature. Spyware Terminator has the most in-depth reporting capability of any spyware or antivirus tested. Essentially, Spyware Terminator will present the user with a HijackThis like report with even more in-depth information. For example, the processes, drivers, and services will be identified by vendor and there is extensive use of color coding etc. Basically if a user wants to know everything that’s going on with their system, it would be advantageous to view this report. Finally, Spyware Terminator even includes an option to send the report to the support team for analysis and assistance.
Spyware Terminator also provides schedule scan capabilities. Therefore a fast spyware scan can be run upon every system startup or at a specific interval. Users report that Spyware Terminator’s detection and disinfection capabilities are excellent.

Interface:

Spyware Terminator’s interface presents the programs features in a colorful and user intuitive way. However, there are a few problems. First, Spyware Terminator claims there is no 64 bit support for the real time shield. This is unfortunate because more and more new computers come with 64 bit OS’s preinstalled. In addition , updates do not update automatically; the status will just remain as non up to date. On the test system a complete manual program restart was necessary for the updates to be applied. Finally, I encountered some weird errors with hex code. While the program didn’t completely crash, the software needs to be tested on different Windows OS.

Conclusion:

Spyware Terminator is free full featured antispyware and antivirus. Just this statement makes Spyware Terminator a great deal. However, the interface suffers from some problems and the software lacks full support for 64bit Windows. Regardless, Spyware Terminator will provide excellent benchmark protection on a Windows 32bit PC.

Spyware Terminator Free Download http://spyware-terminator.en.softonic.com/

SuperAntispyware Free Review and Software Download

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 06:54:00 -1200

SuperAntispyware is a free antispyware and antivirus program that boast over 20 million users and 1,000,000 threat signatures. SuperAntispyware has also garnered a lot of interest from review sites frequently being awarded high ratings and accolades for its performance. In our tests, these awards had a lot of validity to them as SuperAntispyware exceeded our expectations. It detected antispyware on the test computer in which over 30 different antivirus and antispyware full system scans had been run. SuperAntispyware also offers several innovative features and excellent locked process removal.

Virus/Spyware Detection and Removal:

As stated above SuperAntispyware does an excellent job at removing and detecting spyware and viruses. On the test system, the quick scan found a Trojan horse and two tracking cookies. All of this is surprising given the amount of scanning done on the test computers. SuperAntispyware detected a Trojan horse called Trojan.Agent/Gen-Zbot. While the executable was inactive (not in a Windows directory but hidden on the C: drive), it still was detected with a simple quick scan. The quick scan also found two tracking cookies. This is interesting considering all of the tracking cookies are deleted after the browser is closed on the test computers.

SuperAntispyware has several scanning modes including the quick scan (not quick at all and it actually took about 25 minutes to complete), complete scan (extremely slow took about 3 hours to finish), and the custom scan (can select or deselect the registry, memory, startup locations, and certain folders for scanning). However, the real treat is that SuperAntispyware offers some of the most scanning customization options for an antispyware program. In addition, to adding trusted or excluded items and folders, a user can specify whether the “System Restore” folders are scanned, close internet browsers before scanning, and use kernel direct registry access. The full list is available in the screenshot below.

The next thing that I like about SuperAntispyware are the System repairers. Frequently spyware and viruses will attempt to mess with several areas of Windows. After the virus is deleted, it can potentially leave its tracks in multiple places causing file not found errors and slowdowns. SuperAntispyware has built-in capability to clean up a lot of virus configuration messes. For example, there are viruses that attempt to hide the system tray (located by the clock). SuperAntispyware has a specific repair functionality to restore the system tray. SuperAntispyware can also remove a virus screensaver, reset the WinLogin Shell (so that logging in is a standard Windows screen), repair the WinSock LSP (crucial if after virus or spyware internet access is unavailable), and restore Windows policy settings (viruses can modify this area to prevent access to the start menu and program Uninstallation etc.). The free Windows repairs alone make SuperAntispyware an extremely attractive security tool.

SuperAntispyware also offers some advanced quarantine and virus deletion capabilities. The software removes viruses and difficult spyware on system restart. Interestingly, I think SuperAntispyware requires a restart after every virus disinfection. For the items that SuperAntispyware detected on the test computer, a system restart was not necessary (the processes were not executed or locked) even though that the software wanted to restart the system.

Finally, SuperAntispyware includes automatic updates. Frequently, this update functionality is manual on most freeware antispyware software.

Interface:

The SuperAntispyware interface is pretty lacking. The company still opted to use grey Windows menus throughout the majority of the software views. There are also some annoyances. Since SuperAntispyware also offers a full version. When a user navigates through the various settings menus, clicking certain features such as real time protection, scheduled scanning, and startup scanning will pop up a huge “Feature Unavailable Message”. I would have preferred that these full features and messages were absent in the free version while activated in the full version. I also ran into a problem/bug where the registration message could not be closed. Please note that SuperAntispyware will still detect and delete malware while unregistered.

Another pet peeve is that there are no built-in help icons. Other than a few explanations on the system repairers, there are no question marks or automatic explanations. A user has to find the small link in the help section or the help file located in the start menu area.
There is a positive feature to the interface. This is the BootSafe GUI located in the programs folder. While nothing extremely special, the BootSafe will allow a user to boot into safe mode automatically upon reboot. This is helpful for novice users who are unaware of when to push f8 upon a computer startup.

Conclusion:

SuperAntispyware has excellent malware detection and removal capabilities. Unfortunately, the interface is a little lacking and there are frequent popups to register the program. Since the software is free, it is actually hard to complain. If a user wants a competent antispyware program, then check out SuperAntispyware.

SuperAntispyware Free Download http://www.majorgeeks.com/SUPERAntiSpyware_d5116.html

Free ClamWin 0.95 Antivirus Review and Download

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:51:00 -1200

ClamWin 0.95 is a free antivirus that uses the GNU license (completely free and open to modification software). Two key features of ClamWin are the open source capability and the ability to be installed on any version of Windows including server editions. This is in contrast to almost all other consumer antiviruses excluding PC tools antivirus. Since ClamWin AV is an open source project, anyone can contribute to the software. This includes adding new virus definitions and even new program functionality. In fact, within the last eight days there have been eight code additions to the antivirus engine.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

Since ClamWin 0.95 is based on user contributions, virus definitions will be frequently updated and have a human touch to them. What I mean is that ClamWin users might get so frustrated with a particular virus that they will suggest a custom tailored virus definition to fix the problem. This process of constantly tweaking the AV engine and definitions produces a highly effective antivirus solution. In fact, many users report that ClamWin 0.95 detects few false positives and even viruses that several Norton versions had previously missed.
One of the things that I really like about ClamWin 0.95 is that the antivirus includes its own test files. Upon the first scan, I noticed a significant amount of test file detections. The test files are not simply a .com file etc. but include many obscure file formats such as .sis, tar.gz, obscured .exe files, .rar, and .arj etc. This is definitely an advantage because often antivirus engines can only focus on a select few compressed and executable file formats. In addition, it’s comforting to know that the antivirus engine is actually functioning correctly. Once the first scan is finished, a user will want to delete the test files to avoid subsequent false detections.

    ClamWin 0.95 has some problems handling large files. I have two .daa PowerIso files that exceed 4 GB in size. To complete a scan of one of these files took about 7 minutes. This is definitely the slowest of any competing antivirus engine tested. However, to ClamWin’s credit, the software did not ignore the files as some free antivirus have in the past.
    ClamWin detected zero false positives and scanned the entire test system’s 148 GB partition in about 4 hours and 35 minutes. This scanning speed is above average when compared to competing antivirus. ClamWin didn’t detect any viruses or false positives on the test system. ClamWin lacks any professional virus certifications; probably because they can’t afford it. However, the AV engine was tested in August 2007 by AV-comparatives. Their conclusion was that the ClamWin detection rates are about comparable to Comodo or Sunbelt’s Counterspy software. A memory scan took about 1 minute to complete by scanning all active processes and .dll files.
    One of the major disadvantages to ClamWin 0.95 is that it lacks a resident shield. This means that ClamWin will only be able to detect viruses through an on demand scan. This puts ClamWin in the same class as A-squared, Norton Security Scan, and Hitman Pro 3.5 antivirus. Therefore, it might be beneficial for a user to utilize a program such as AVG in addition to any of these on demand scanners. ClamWin also lacks heuristic protection and will be essentially be powerless at detecting zero day viruses. This is even more of an incentive for a user to install an additional antivirus. A user can still schedule scans for ClamWin 0.95 and there are SMTP alert capabilities.

Resource Usage:

ClamWin 0.95 averages about 50% CPU usage while utilizing about 116 megabytes of RAM during scanning. These measurements are respectable and comparable to an average antivirus engine.

Interface and Installation:

The ClamWin 0.95 interface is pretty basic. There are no status indicators and only icons to scan the computer’s memory, scan a selected file, update the antivirus, and display the preferences. The preferences menu is surprisingly in-depth. In addition to the ability to schedule scans and email alerts, there are file exclusion capabilities, file scan size limits, and cleaning options. Upon Installation of ClamWin 0.95 it automatically downloaded the latest virus definitions.

Conclusion:

ClamWin 0.95 is definitely a barebones antivirus but still offers an open source advantage. Essentially, active users will continue improving ClamWin and updating definitions against more obscure viruses. This ensures that ClamWin 0.95 will only improve as the community gets larger and user involvement increases.

Free ClamWin 0.95 Antivirus Download http://www.brothersoft.com/clamwin-free-antivirus-61473.htm

Hitman Pro 3.5 Free Antivirus Review and Download

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:09:00 -1200

Hitman Pro 3.5 is a new type of cloud antivirus that offers a “second option” approach. First, a cloud antivirus functions by submitting suspicious files to a server farm (cloud). Once on the cloud or uploaded to the server farm, the immense computing power at the Hitman Pro’s offices can be used to scan a file with 5 different antivirus scanners at once. The “second option” means that Hitman Pro should be used in addition to existing antivirus. The premise is that even well secured computers with antivirus and firewalls tend to miss 32.5% of viruses and malware. Therefore, Hitman should be used as a “second option” and run upon every computer startup.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

Hitman Pro utilizes 5 different antivirus engines the Prevx, ESET NOD32, G-DATA, Avira AntiVir, and A-squared antivirus engines. What’s ironic is the 5 antivirus engines are in fact 6 engines because G-DATA concurrently utilizes Bitdefender’s and Avast’s antivirus engines. Basically, all of these antivirus engines were chosen specifically for their individual strengths. Prevx runs the initial behavior scan on the target computer. This is how Hitman Pro 3.5 determines if a file is of suspicious nature determined by whether the file has uninstall capabilities, autostart methods, faking a trusted files name, and suspicious encryption and compression. The full list is posted below. Once a suspicious file is found it will be automatically uploaded to the Hitman Pro servers for an indepth scan with the remaining engines. All of the engines have extremely high detection rates and low false positive rates. In particular, G-DATA’s engine has a 98% detection rate while Avira AntiVir was antivirus of the year for 2008. A-Squared also has some of the best Trojan horse detection capabilities avilable.

Hitman Pro has excellent virus removal capabilities. Hitman Pro 3.5 can reboot a system and remove the malware when the process isn’t locked, utilizes low level hard drive sector deletion capability for really stubborn malware processes, and can close all active handles (dll’s).

The virus scanning speed of Hitman Pro 3.5 was extremely fast; completing in about 5 minutes and 6 seconds on the test system. The second scan only took 2 minutes and 38 seconds, which is even more amazing (clearly utilizing memory scan technology aka Prevx). This scanning speed is excellent and perfect for a system startup. Hitman Pro discovered one suspicious file on the test system. The suspicious file was compressed and sent to the cloud/server farm for extensive scanning. The upload speed averaged about 36 KB/sec which is slower than the cable line capacity of about 100KB/sec. Unfortunately, the upload servers seemed to be lacking in speed probably because they are located in the Netherlands. Since the program relies on frequently uploading suspicious files , this could be viewed as a disadvantage. Finally, Hitman Pro 3.5 didn’t detect any viruses on the test system.

Resource Usage:

Hitman Pro 3.5 uses about 3.2 megabytes while idle. When scanning, Hitman Pro will up to 60 megabytes of memory. CPU usage will hover around 30% to 40% which is about average for an antivirus scanner.

Installation:

The download size of Hitman Pro was very small at only 6 megabytes; significantly smaller than most free antivirus. Hitman Pro does not have a large file size because all of the antivirus definitions are located on the company’s servers and consequently do not need to be downloaded.

Interface:

The Hitman Pro 3.5 Interface is very simplistic and has settings and a scan button. To start a scan, a user simply needs to hit scan. In the settings menu a user can set if the uploaded files utilize SSL (slower but safer than a normal connection) and to have a scan run on every computer startup. In addition to the settings menu, there is a history list where users see all of the viruses detected

Conclusion:

Hitman 3.5 is an excellent free antivirus scanner. Unfortunately, the upload speed to the Hitman Servers are probably too slow creating a bottleneck. In addition, there are some privacy concerns with uploading files from ones computer to a foreign server. However, I tend to believe the “second option” as an excellent way at mitigating a serious virus infection.

Hitman Pro 3.5 free download http://www.softsea.com/review/Hitman-Pro.html

Free ThreatFire Antivirus 4.7 Review and Download

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:31:00 -1200

ThreatFire is a behavioral detection antivirus that studies a system for malicious changes (similar to Prevx). Any malicious activity is then detected as a virus etc. and deleted and or uploaded to PC tools servers. The advantage to all of this is the most advanced detection possible because of collective intelligence (virus discovery and detection) from millions of users. This makes ThreatFire 4.7 an excellent addition to a free antivirus program. However, ThreatFire 4.7 is not recommended to be used as a standalone program as per our tests.

Installation:

The ThreatFire download was extremely small at only 8 megabytes in size. The download is eclipsed only by Prevx’s 1-megabyte size. The installation was smooth other than the annoying and mandatory security advisor. The security advisor attempts to detect how secure the target computer is by testing for a firewall, antivirus, spyware, and a threat scan. The threat advisor will then link to products that can satisfy the above protections. Unfortunately, a novice user might interpret this as the actual ThreatFire program. Regardless, after the security advisor has completed, the program will immediately start and update; no system restart is necessary.

Interface:

The ThreatFire 4.7 interface is very interesting and resembles other PC tools programs. Upon opening the program, the user will be presented with a map and 7 of the latest and most prolific malware and spyware threats. A user can click on “more info” to learn about threat. I also like how ThreatFire displays global settings. According to the protection statistics, ThreatFire 4.7 has checked almost 3 trillion different computer events and 30 million programs for malicious activity (these numbers significantly exceed even Norton’s trusted program database). With statistics such as these, a user can confident that malicious activity will be detected.
I didn’t encounter any specific problems with the interface. I only found the lack of many configuration options as the worst problem. In addition, there are a lot of advertisements throughout the software asking for an upgrade etc. Thankfully, there are no startup pop-up advertisements such as the ones Free Avira frequently displays.

Features:

Threat Fire 4.7 is a little lacking on features but excels at crucial zero day malware detection.

Advanced Rule Settings. Just like a firewall, ThreatFire operates by a rule-based system. Rules are configured based upon the source (the program to be monitored), the trigger (a certain event that triggers a rule), options (ability to tweak the trigger), and the exclusions (what shouldn’t trigger the rule). Some of the event triggers are file access, renaming, writing to the registry, creating network connections, accessing on a certain port. These settings allow a user to setup a sort of alarm system on a computer. I can see how Threat 4.7 could be used as a honey pot to monitor changes to critical files. In addition, ThreatFire includes default rules such as host file and screensaver file protection (.scr files). ThreatFire also has hundreds of preconfigured rules that are constantly monitoring the whole system for viruses.

System Activity Monitor. This is a truly unique feature to ThreatFire 4.7. The system activity monitor displays all active processes and then assigns a trusted rating to them. In addition to this standard information, ThreatFire includes all active .dll files and even active program windows. The active program windows are helpful because often spyware and viruses will attempt to hide their active window from the user. However, the crown jewel of this program is the file system activity monitoring. On an application-by-application basis, ThreatFire 4.7 will display what files and registry keys are renamed, deleted, and created etc. This information is crucial in diagnosing what a rouge toolbar is doing within Firefox or Internet Explorer, a program accessing files that it shouldn’t be, and discovering program errors. I haven’t seen this level of detail in a system explorer found in other antivirus programs.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

    Threat fire includes behavioral detection to protect against zero day threats. This protection augments definition-based protection because virus definitions can only be released after a virus is discovered. Behavioral protection is always watching out for malicious activity regardless of virus definitions. The malicious activity is then uploaded to PC tools servers from the millions of active Threat Fire users. Since all of this happens in real-time, the latest definitions can be quickly complied (Threat Fire 4.7 updated an average of 4 times every hour) and sent to all active Threat Fire users. Therefore, a worldwide virus outbreak can be mitigated within minutes.
    ThreatFire also includes a rootkit scanner that is specifically targeted at stealthy rootkits. The scanner is actually one of the fastest rootkit scanners. There are two scanning options the Intelli-scan and the Full System Scan. The Intelli-scan completed in about 5 minutes while the full system scan took about an hour. In addition, the rootkit scanner can be scheduled for automatic scans.
    Since ThreatFire lacks definition-based detection, it lacks capability to detect a virus before it is executed. Therefore, it is crucial to have a definition-based antivirus to make sure that viruses are not started.

Resource Usage:

During idle operation, ThreatFire 4.7 used an average of 4 megabytes, which is ridiculously low and even lower than Prevx. When a full rootkit scan is run, the software used an additional 50 megabytes for the GUI. CPU usage was on the higher end averaging at about 50%.

Conclusion:

ThreatFire 4.7 is an excellent security suite and should be installed to augment free antivirus protection. ThreatFire gives the option to install PC tools antivirus with ThreatFire. The two software programs will combine behavioral and definition based protection. For example, schedule a regular virus scan at night and a rootkit scan in the morning for excellent security.

Threat Fire 4.7 Download http://www.brothersoft.com/threatfire-download-73801.html

eScan Antivirus 10 Review and Free Download

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:22:00 -1200

EScan antivirus 10 is a new type of antivirus that works in the WinSock area of Windows. WinSock is the way that software (e.g. a browser) hook up to TCP/IP (computer communication standard) to send information to Google or download a program. Since eScan operates at such a low level on the computer, all internet traffic and network activity (Skype, ICQ, updates) are checked for viruses and malware. This technology is similar to the security used on corporate networks via packet inspection. EScan also utilizes a variant of Kaspersky’s engine for even more application protection. To top the cake, the software even includes a firewall, which is surprising considering it is advertised as a standard antivirus. Does WinSock integration improve antivirus performance compared to standard application protection?

Installation:

The installation executable was 97 megabytes in size, which is moderate compared to other free antivirus. In general, the installation was pretty smooth and did not require a system restart. There was an initial virus scan but the virus definitions didn’t update before the scan started. I felt that the scan was very informative in that it showed exactly the locations it was scanning and the antivirus recipe (what specifically the scan was looking for). The quick scan also completed within 5 minutes.
One thing that I like about the installation was that it was highly automated. At every point, the user is completely aware of everything that the installer is doing. The automation theme is also repeated throughout every function of eScan. Finally, the program launched immediately after the installation and didn’t require a restart even though a firewall was installed.

Interface:

The antivirus interface didn’t really have any standout graphics. The manufacturer of the eScan is MicroWorld and they are a company based out of India. Escan’s and Quickheal’s interface have a lot in common in terms of icons used and the font settings. On that note, eScan doesn’t really have any stand out features. A few problems are that the Update Time is probably synced to another time zone about 8 hours ahead of the Windows Clock. I also don’t like when a menu item is selected, as there isn’t any way of indicating that an item is selected. Finally, on the antivirus status page, it is somewhat hard to know the status of the antivirus engines; there is just a small x or check mark. There is also a problem with the firewall configuration in that it does not correctly identify the network adapters.
However, I do like a couple of things. On the firewall status page a user can easily change how the firewall functions. In addition to allow all and block all, there are the limited mode (applies to incoming as per firewall rules) and the interactive mode (applies to the ingoing and outgoing traffic).

Features:

As stated above, eScan really does provide many unique options compared to other free antivirus.

Firewall. This is again a surprise inclusion in “regular” antivirus software. However, the firewall really only provides basic protection and is fairly difficult to configure. The first option is a zone rule. Unfortunately, unlike other internet security programs the zone rule does not configure for a network adapter rather it configures for host names, IP address, or IP ranges. The next setting is the expert rule area, which does allow configuration for a specific adapter. Unfortunately, the firewall states “any interface” rather than displaying the two common interfaces on the test computer (dell wireless and Realtek LAN). However, I do like the advanced ICMP traffic treatment, which can be abused by hackers. The final two settings are the Application Rule, Trusted MAC address, and Local IP list. The Application Rule gives an executable either permit or deny. The Trusted Mac and Local IP List kind of collude but still ensure that only trusted devices / computers connect to the target computer.

Remote Support. This is the first time that I have seen this in free antivirus software. The remote support feature is built into the eScan software and allows a technician to remotely connect to the software without any complex configuration. An eScan technician can diagnose any problem with viruses or the antivirus software itself. This really is an advantage to the software and can be achieved because the company is smaller than Norton or MacAfee. Users can therefore be assured that their virus problem can be resolved even if the antivirus software falls short.

Anti-Spam. EScan has excellent antispam functionality. In addition, to extensive on board protection through NILP and SPF the antispam also includes capability to add RBL servers and Anti-spam whitelists. By default, the RBL lists already include spamhaus.org and spamcop.net while the whitelist includes a Google white list among others. The antispam protection isn’t as advanced as AVG Internet Security’s but still provides excellent default protection out of the box.

Various System Tools. To complement the remote support features, eScan includes a TCP connection viewer, system information, and debug information. All of these tools will be extremely useful in diagnosing a problem with the antivirus or a virus.

Helpful Instructions. Escan Antivirus 10’s instructions are organized into an online wiki, which makes finding an explanation about any feature extremely easy

Virus Scanning and Detection:

As stated in the introduction, eScan takes a new angle in virus detection in that it works in the WinSock layer providing a kind of proactive detection. I found that this technology worked as advertised. For example, when downloading the Eicar test virus, the virus did not even need to be completely downloaded before the virus was detected. In fact, Firefox was not even able to assemble the file into an executable before the virus was deleted (the .part file was deleted). As a result, Firefox displayed a failed download as if the connection was disconnected before the download was completed. When using Bitorrent, a clear virus torrent does not even need to finish before it is detected and deleted (utorrent will then display an error message). Basically, this proactive detection and disinfection is truly an innovative feature in a consumer product.

A full system scan completed in about 2 hours and 30 minutes, which is on the long side for a virus scan. On the test system, zero viruses and zero false positives were detected. According to av-comparatives, eScan exhibits excellent capability at detecting adware/spyware and has won a gold award for malware removal. I tend to agree with these ratings, as eScan is extremely efficient at deleting a virus regardless of any program currently accessing the virus. Essentially, a user will not run into an access denied messages.

Resource Usage:

Escan has extremely conservative resource management. During a virus scan, the CPU will not exceed 15% usage. The memory burden is even more amazing. Escan will only utilize 27 megabytes of resources even during an active virus scan. This is a truly amazing figure and makes eScan the most efficient, tightly coded antivirus tested. I think it is truly ironic given that the scan provides the option to move the scan to the background even though it is unnecessary. It might be a good idea for eScan to increase resource usage to decrease the scanning time.

Conclusion:

In conclusion eScan Antivirus 10 includes an innovate antivirus technology not found in other consumer antivirus products. Usually anything “innovative” suffers from being first to market or being presented as a marketing gimmick. However, eScan is excellent at detecting network viruses and should be installed on computers that have heavy network activity. However, no one lives in a perfect world and eScan still suffers from a lackluster interface and long scan times. Regardless, eScan has a lot of potential and will definitely be improved in the future.

eScan Antivirus 10 Download here
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eScan Free Edition Download here

FREE Trustport 2010 Antivirus Review and Download

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:02:00 -1200

TrustPort antivirus 2010 is a relatively new antivirus with Czech roots. The antivirus is similar to G-Data Antivirus in that it utilizes two antivirus engines; the Bitdefender and the AVG engine. As with G-Data Antivirus, the combining of two free antivirus engines produces excellent detection results. According to AV-comparatives, Trustport has some of the highest adware/spyware detection rates but also suffers from slower scanning speeds because of the dual engine burden. Trustport also offers many unique features including internet protection and the ability to selectively disable antivirus engines. We will now see how Trustport 2010 stacks up against the competition.

Installation:

The installation of TrustPort was relatively smooth and completed in about 5 minutes. The whole executable was a whopping 144 megabytes in size, which is by far the largest antivirus executable available. In addition to the large size, the download server was particularly slow. The large executable is also interesting because the internet security version is only 19 megabytes larger but also includes a personal firewall and a whole slew of other utilities.
One thing that I like about the installation is that the software alerts the user to verify if other antivirus programs are already installed. This notice is important because often users will attempt to install a free antivirus program on top of an antivirus that might have been included with the laptop/computer. This situation creates problems especially if both antiviruses include real time protection. If one antivirus accesses a file, the other antivirus program will also access the file creating a slowdown.

Interface:

The interface most closely resembles an older version of Avast 4.8 in the sense that it is very basic. The helpful graphical interfaces of Norton 2010 or F-Secure free antivirus are absent. In the easy mode, a small 4 inch by 2-inch box is displayed with six different “small” icons controlling the on-access scanner and the on-demand scanner etc. There are no status indicators present or information pertaining to the last virus update etc. This situation could be confusing to a novice user. Trust Port does offer an “advanced interface” but even this view resembles a standard settings page of ESET NO32. In the advanced interface, the user is still left in the dark as to the status of the antivirus protection etc. This could be potentially dangerous because a user will never be completely sure that they are actually protected. Finally, to TrustPort’s credit the advanced interface does offer many configuration options.

Features:

TrustPort antivirus 2010 does offer a handful of unique features to the antivirus market.

Advanced Antivirus Engine Control. This Feature is unique to TrustPort and is not offered by G-Data. A user can actually specify the priority of the antivirus engine. For example, if av-comparatives finds the AVG engine superior to the Bitdefender engine for the month of March, then a user can raise the priority of the AVG engine and vice versa. In addition to engine priority, a user can control if an engine is in use for the on demand scanning, on –access protection, or the Internet Protection scanning. This is again useful if a user finds that Bitdefender On-Access scanning is superior to AVG’s and can therefore save computer resources with only one active engine. In addition to the on/off settings, Trustport also offers individual antivirus settings configuration. This leverages the original settings included with the Bitdefender/AVG programs and allows user to tweak them from within Trustport (i.e. scan email databases, analyze packed executables, and detect non-virus malware etc). Finally, it appears that TrustPort has left space or capability to add additional antivirus engines to be incorporated into TrustPort. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what engines Trustport will incorporate in the future.

Sandbox Capability. Both the on demand and the Internet Protection systems in Trust Port offer sandboxing. Essentially, this technology will take a suspicious file and execute the file in a virtual drive located safely within memory. If suspicious activity is detected, the file will be labeled as dangerous and quarantined. This technology is the selling point of Prevx antivirus and will only make standard antivirus (Trustport) more secure and capable. Unfortunately, the Sandbox capability is not enabled by default. A user will probably want to enable the protection but be prepared to wait longer for certain scans.

Internet Protection. This feature is hardly unique to Trustport 2010. However, the Internet Protection has some exclusive features. One being that the ports for the web and the email checking can be configured and changed. This is helpful for users who use obscure proxy ports or mail ports at work or home. The port configuration ensures that a user will be protected in all situations.

Virus Scanning and Detection:

Virus scanning was somewhat slow and took about 2 hours to completely scan the test system’s 152 gigabyte partition. Trust Port did not report any false positives, which is contrary to av-comparatives report about significant false positives. Other antivirus review sites also found that TrustPort has high Adware detection rates. We found that Trust Port successfully detected all of the viruses on our virus test drive.
TrustPort does not include a quick antivirus scan, which is somewhat unfortunate. In addition, the dual engines do not appear to increase TrustPort’s efficacy. TrustPort 2010 still receives lower ratings compared to a single Bitdefender engine. This is not the case with G-data antivirus that achieves higher virus detection rates because it utilizes two free antivirus engines.

Resource Usage:

TrustPort 2010 antivirus resource usage was standard at about 50 megabytes while idle and 100 megabytes will scanning for viruses. I did not detect any slowdown on the test computer while a scan was running. CPU usage was somewhat high during a virus scan ranging from 60% to 90% CPU usage.

Conclusion:

TrustPort 2010 is a standard antivirus and excels in Adware detection. Unfortunately, TrustPort really does not have a mature interface and this will be confusing to the novice user. Trust Port antivirus could be really appealing if the company incorporates additional antivirus engines into their software.

Goto this URL: http://www.trustport.com/en/promo/extendedtrial

Enter Code: WWEXT100430AV90

P.S. try changing 90 out for 120 etc.

Sophos Antivirus 9.0 Review and Free Download

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:42:00 -1200

Sophos is an antivirus company based in the United States and England and has been around since the 1980s. The antivirus software is frequently used in business and educational environments. Therefore, Sophos is often available as a free antivirus by the institution (the way I was originally able to test the antivirus). The software is fairly basic in that it only provides virus protection. However, Sophos does an excellent job at mitigating virus and malicious software threats. The software also has excellent memory and CPU resource management capabilities.

Installation:

The download file was 66 megabytes in size, which is on the smaller side for standard antivirus. The installation had a fair amount of menus and options to configure. A user will also need to enter in the provided username and password to download updates. The installer also needs to first extract files to a location however, this type of installer is usually indicative of a more manual experience. Interestingly, the installation process hasn’t changed for probably about 5 years. The whole installation process took about 5 minutes.

Interface:

The Sophos interface probably hasn’t changed for at least 7 years. There are only a few icons available to click on and even fewer settings. One pet peeve is that the tray icon doesn’t connect directly to the application. Therefore, if a user wants to open the main antivirus program, they need to navigate through the start menu each time. One positive functionality is the ease to setup and schedule virus scans. Finally, it is readily apparent that Sophos Antivirus 9 is a barebones antivirus and excels at such.

Features:

Application Control. Sophos has an excellent HIPS or application behavior analysis. Essentially, Sophos will analyze active processes and look for malicious behavior. If malicious behavior is detected, the software will quarantine the suspect files. On the test system, Sophos labeled a module for a remote access program as potentially malicious. While, Sophos was technically wrong, it is still a reasonable response to be alerted to any remote control software installed on a computer. Regardless, with the Application Control menu, a user can specify the remote access program as trusted and Sophos will safely ignore the program.

Windows Account Integration. Sophos account management requires zero configuration. This is because Sophos integrates directly into Windows User Accounts. For example, when an administrator logs in they will have complete access to all the settings while a lower privileged user may not even be able to open the program (as defined by the administrator). Some of the access restrictions available are moving or deleting files from the quarantine etc. The access controls are unlike competitor products such as Panda Antivirus, in which accounts need to be individually created and assigned privileges.

Messaging and Email Notification. Sophos Antivirus 9 allows a user to customize antivirus alerts. Sophos even provides the ability to create custom messages for users when a virus is detected. The best part about the software is the SMTP email function. An email can be sent if a virus is found or even if suspicious behavior is detected. This is useful for administrators who need to monitor several computers and cannot spend the time looking at individual antivirus logs. Sophos also provides SNMP messaging capabilities for larger corporations.

Virus Scanning and Detection:

The Sophos antivirus engine has been certified by all major antivirus accreditation companies and carries the VB100, WestCoast Labs, and ICSA labels. According to AV-comparatives, Sophos has moderate antivirus protection capabilities getting mostly “standard” ratings for detection against monthly viruses. The standard ratings also represent that Sophos Antivirus 9 has below average antivirus protection. Sophos did not detect any viruses on the test system other than the remote access software. Unfortunately, there were not any other scan options other than “Scan my computer”. Sophos’s On demand scanning is pathetically slow. The scan progress had only moved to 2% after an hour of continuous virus scanning. There was also a problem with real time detection being initially disabled. Users will want to enable this option after a successful installation. Sophos also provides protection for Macintosh viruses on PC’s which is an industry first.

Resource Usage:

Sophos Antivirus 9 uses the least amount of computer resources of any antivirus tested on Freeantivirushelp. The software will average between 1 and 5% CPU usage during an on demand virus scan. Almost all other free antivirus tested on this site maintained at least 40% CPU usage during an antivirus scan. The low CPU usage may also contribute to the relatively slow scanning. Memory usage is on the higher end utilizing about 120 megabytes of RAM during idle operation and virus scanning.

Conclusion:

Sophos Antivirus 9 provides basic virus protection. Unfortunately, I can really only see this antivirus used in a corporate or education environment because of its centrally management capabilities. Home users will want to stick with free antivirus such as AVG or Norton.

Sophos Antivirus 9 free download https://secure.sophos.com/products/enterprise/free-trials/endpoint/

AVG Internet Security 9 Review and Free Download

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:39:00 -1200

Free AVG is probably the best-known free antivirus on the internet. A simple Google search for “antivirus” will answer anyone’s question if they are unaware of this fact. Girsoft offers many different versions of security software in addition to AVG antivirus. The little known AVG Internet Security offers a lot of benefits over the free versions. The addition of a firewall, Web shield, anti-rootkit protection, and helpful system tools are just some of the increased functionality available. With the release of version 9, AVG Internet Security promises increased security comparable to Norton etc. We will now see how AVG stacks up against the competition.

Installation:

The installation of AVG Internet Security 9 was an average experience when compared to other antivirus installations. As always, I chose the custom installation to see the guts of the program. As with Avira, AVG Internet Security gives the user the option to selectively disable antivirus components. This is helpful if a user already has desired protection (i.e. antispam). The next step of the installation is the AVG link scanner toolbar. Unfortunately, there is an option to make yahoo the homepage and default search engine etc. While I can understand including the advertising in the free version, if they are going to provide it in the internet security product, I think they should also provide a free license. The next option is to configure the definition update frequency. I was kind of bummed that the most frequent update option was only every 4 hours especially because “increased update frequency” is an advertised function of the Internet Security version. On the other hand, Norton Internet Security can update in as little as every 5 to 10 minutes because of the company’s extensive corporate network. The final configuration option was to select the role of the computer. There are two options and a user must select whether the computer is a laptop or a desktop. However, AVG will not configure itself to save battery life (ala Bitdefender Internet Security) rather, it just simply configures the firewall for “extra” protection if a notebook connects to a hotspot.

Interface:

    The AVG Internet Security 9 interface is almost identical to the free antivirus version. The main page simply has a few more widgets than the free version (i.e. system tools, firewall, web shield etc.) I am personally not the biggest fan of the interface as it really lags behind Norton or Bitdefender’s multi interfaces. For example, there is no easy way to deactivate the components rather, the main page simply states the antivirus components status as active or has a problem. On the settings page there are few icons present making the huge list somewhat tedious to comprehend. However, the sheer amount of configuration options is still appreciated.
    One thing that I liked about the interface was when I was prompted to configure the firewall for the wireless connection on the test computer. The prompt instantly gives the user the ability to add or create a profile for the selected network adapter. Some of the preconfigured profiles are for a computer in domain or a small home or office network. These profiles only permit certain connections defined with the profile (file and print sharing etc.)
    I had an interface problem where the AVG taskbar icon disappears even when a virus scan is active. I can also confirm that this happens on other Windows Vista machines and affects the free version.

Features:

I will now review all of the configuration options that are unique to AVG Internet Security 9 and not included in the free edition.

Web Shield. The web shield appears to be integrated tightly with web browsers because it needs a complete browser restart to activate. The web shield will monitor for viruses and spyware programs that are downloaded via a drive by download (automatic installation by viewing a webpage) etc. One thing that makes the web shield better than its competitors is the option to define the scanned ports. This is extremely useful in a corporate/business setting because often internet users connect through proxies, which may be configured over several non-standard ports. I noticed that port 443 (https) was absent from the list to be scanned. In retrospect, a user might want to add this port to the list. AVG also provides an option to tweak the maximum part size of a file to be scanned. This can be useful if a computer is often used to download large files.

Identity Protection. AVG’s identity protection is similar to Bitdefender’s application and process monitoring. AVG leverages its experience and databases to classify processes as trusted or non trusted and categorizes the behavior of programs. For example, AVG will classify a program as executing from a windows directory, ability to survive a reboot, ability to spawn other process, whether or not the program displays a visible window, and if the program includes a signed or trusted installer etc. In fact, the test computer had over 421 different behaviors monitored and a user can monitor AVG’s decision for every active process/program. These security checks are very detailed and ensure every new program gets heavily scrutinized for malicious activity. The Identity protection/application protection is the most advanced that I have seen in an Internet Security software.

Firewall. The AVG Internet Security 9 firewall is again highly advanced and almost functions as a standalone firewall. I say this because the firewall settings are completely separate from the standard settings. The first thing that I liked about the firewall was the Trusted Database. The Trusted Database is maintained by AVG and will automatically create rules for safe programs. If one has read previous reviews, I frequently try to test how the firewall auto configuration (Trusted Database) performs compared to competing antivirus programs. The main test is to simply launch the latest safe version of Skype and see how the firewall reacts. I can say that AVG internet security 9 not only passed this test with flying colors but also with even more obscure safe programs such as Pidgin (instant messaging) etc. This indicates that AVG’s “trusted database” is extremely comprehensive and really covers a large range of different programs. The question is how does this translate to usability. Well, it means that users will be seeing significantly fewer pop-ups to allow program access. It also means that when a user sees a pop-up it will most likely be a malicious virus rather than a legitimate program. I also want to include that AVG firewall scans and displays all active adapters. Rules can be configured separately for each adapter and what applications they are able to interact with. The AVG firewall also found several network protocols that I did not even know where installed on the test computer. The AVG firewall will for the most part be completely automated but also offers extremely effective logging and configuration. The firewall really requires firsthand use to understand the firewalls functionality.

Antispam. The antispam component is by far the most advanced of any internet security product. I really like the RBL or (realtime blackhole lists). This means that a user can utilize third party lists in addition to AVG’s default protection (which is by no means default). I have not seen the RBL ability in any other internet security product tested on this website. The AVG antispam functionality is almost as if a user has been given a personal spam appliance. The filter can be trained via max word entries, auto training threshold, spam weight, country blocking, fingerprinting, and domain reputation etc. The AVG antispam protection ensures that a user will see little to no spam.

Virus Scanning and Detection / Updates –

    Virus scanning with AVG internet Security 9 should be on par with AVG free antivirus. The antivirus engine has been awarded the WestCoast Labs and VB100 certifications. The only addition that AVG Internet Security 9 offers is advanced root kit detection. Ironically, the advanced root kit detection isn’t even selected as a default option only the “quick” option is selected. Therefore, few users will actually experience the “enhanced root kit protection”.
    A full system virus scan took about 3 hours, which is definitely on the slower side. The virus scan also didn’t detect any viruses or false positives on the test computer. One complaint is that there is apparently an estimated time until completion for a virus scan. Unfortunately, I only saw the page once and wasn’t able to recreate the page again through the options. Surprisingly, AVG Internet Security 9 does not provide a quick scan option like most other antivirus programs. This is definitely a functionality that AVG needs to include in future releases.
    According to AV comparatives, AVG’s virus engine only provides standard to mildly advanced virus protection against the latest viruses. AVG Internet Security didn’t win any accolades in virus detection capability. Wary users may want to install Prevx to augment the virus detection capability.

Resource Usage –

While AVG Internet Security 9 doesn’t have a large combined memory footprint, it clearly uses the most separate process. The software uses a whopping 15 different process to achieve complete protection. The total memory footprint is about 43 megabytes even during a scan, which is definitely on the lower side. Unfortunately, CPU usage is too aggressive and I frequently saw 70 to 100% activity. In addition, it does not seem that the AVG scanner is properly utilizing multithreading.

Conclusion -

AVG Internet Security 9 is an excellent all around security software. The firewall and the antispam engines are good enough for one to definitely investigate. Unfortunately, virus detection capabilities do not stack up to the burgeoning competition. It might be best for AVG to combine their antivirus engine with another company’s antivirus engine (i.e. G-Data antivirus) for increased protection.

Download AVG Internet Security 9 http://www.brothersoft.com/avg-internet-security-download-60523.html

Avira Premium Internet Security Suite 9.0 Review: Free Download

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:25:00 -1200

Avira is best known for their free antivirus, Avira AntiVir antivirus. The free software has won numerous accolades from hundreds of sites for its excellent protection. However, little know to most computer users, the company also offers excellent internet security software. In addition to antivirus and antispyware, the software includes an internet firewall, web guard, and a mail guard. We found that while Avira lacked an excellent interface, it made up with exceptional antivirus detection and fast scan speeds.

Installation:

The installation of Avira Internet Security was very easy. The download file is only 33 megabytes in size, which is by far the smallest executable of any internet security software. The installation has two options, standard or custom. For the interest of this review, I choose the custom option. The first thing that I liked was the ability to omit the installation any of the antivirus/firewall/mail protection components. These options are really the most in-depth and welcomed if a user already has an exceptional antispam program etc. The next option is an area where a user can select additional protection provided by Avira (i.e. protection against phishing, adware etc.). I am personally confused why only select options were actually turned on. Avira Internet Security 9.0 will actually omit application, security privacy risk, and application protection in a default installation. It is beyond me why Avira would not activate the best possible protection by default. Therefore, it is imperative to “select all” during this process. If a user opts for the default installation, the protections can be reactivated in the Settings, “General”, and then Extended Threat Categories. Interestingly, functionality turned off that should be turned on is a common theme throughout Avira Internet Security 9.
One other option that I liked about the installation was the option to configure the firewall to allow default home network traffic (i.e. printer and file sharing) or opt for a more locked down private system. This will save the user the hassle of manually allowing individual ports required for basic file sharing.

Interface:

    The Avira Internet Security Interface is almost identical to the free antivirus albeit with a few additional buttons added. This is inherently a positive trait of the software because existing users won’t be confused. Unfortunately, the standard interface is starting to feel outdated when compared with the likes of Norton 360 and F-Secure 2010. This problem is compounded by the fact that there are no large icons indicating the status of the antivirus protection. The file menu also looks outdated and is way too spaced out. Another pet peeve is the difficulty to switch between basic and expert modes. Unlike bitdefender, the software will eventually prompt a user to switch to the expert mode and lacks an easy to find button.
    On a positive note, Avira lays out the settings menu’s (once the expert mode is activated) in an easy to understand way. The software provides a medium amount of tweaking capability; it probably lies between ESET NOD 32 at the higher end and Comodo Internet Security on the lower end.
    One problem that I had was every time I opened Firefox I received a block connection alert pop-up. I presume that an add-on is trying to contact a required website. Unfortunately, the pop-up only shows the blocked IP address rather than the reverse DNS result (most stand-alone firewalls display this information). Therefore, it is difficult to diagnose the suspected add-on problem.
    Finally, Avira doesn’t provide an anti-phishing/link checking Firefox or IE protection toolbar. All other free internet security programs tested included this functionality. To Avira’s credit, it includes an excellent webguard that can protect against attacks if they are detected. However, Avira doesn’t have the preemptive ability that can prevent phishing/web attacks like Norton or AVG with their security toolbars.

Features:

Avira brings a lot innovate features to the antivirus and internet security market.

Anti-Bot System. This is a crucial protection that I have seen only available in Avira Internet Security. Bots are essentially viruses that are distributed to vast amounts of computers via bad p2p files etc. After the bot has infected the target computer, it sits idle waiting for instructions from the hacker via a chat IRC server. The bot can then be used to send out spam, send out more viruses, or start DoS attacks without the active computer user’s knowledge. Guess who is legally responsible for the spam, the unknowing computer user. Thankfully, Avira Internet Security provides dual protection against bot infections. The first of course is excellent virus protection. The second capability creates white lists and blacklists of permitted SMTP (outgoing mail servers). If a server has been labeled as non trusted server (often ones that bots use), the request will be blocked and logged.

Web Guard. As explained above, Avira lacks a link scanner toolbar so a user will probably want to download AVG’s or MacAfee’s site advisor. However, if a user visits a harmful site Avira will protect the user against drive by downloads (a virus installed just by visiting a webpage). Avira achieves this protection by monitoring I-Frame (loads a different page within a webpage) contents and blacklisted MIME (file extensions i.e. .exe .dll). I have been infected by a drive by download installed from a simple search result from Google and Yahoo. The infection literally took control of a previous computer in a matter of minutes. It installed about 8 viruses and 2 Trojans in total.

Firewall. The included firewall is one of the most advanced I have seen in a non-standalone product. I like how the firewall rules can be configured separately for each adapter. IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) can be configured in a way that a user can specify how many ports can be scanned before the port scan is logged and shutdown. In fact, the tweaking of rules can be so advanced that it literally takes up a paragraph in certain situations; it is almost like a mini ISA firewall.
The firewall also includes trusted application rules in which applications can be specified as filtered or privileged. Avira also contains an internal listed of trusted vendors that combined with the application protection will provide superior defense against malware or stealth processes.

Virus Scanning and Detection:

Avira Internet Security really excels in industry leading virus and malware detection. The software was awarded the 2008 product of the year and received the highest advanced+ certification in 2009 from AV-comparatives. Avira’s virus scanning more than exceeded our expectations on the test system. I say this because the test system has had over 30 different scans run from all different antivirus vendors. Avira detected two previously unknown Trojan horses/security programs, TR/Hijacker.Gen. I have had this software on the test computer for months without a positive detection. The online report on suspect virus is also very in-depth when compared to competitors. A user will be able to see what definitions detected the virus, what the virus is called by other antivirus vendors, and what the virus actually does and how it’s spread (surprisingly rare on competing virus descriptions).

The speed of the virus scan is also the fastest I have tested. A full system scan of 151 gigabytes of files completed in under an hour. This is truly amazing when compared with the likes of other free antivirus such as F-Secure averaging about 2 hours on the same hard drive. As stated previously, Avira Internet Security 9.0 includes a ton of functionality but often much of it is disabled by default. The virus scanning engine has two critical components disabled, the integrity check and the optimized scan. The integrity check will scrutinize system files (presumably modifications via hash identification) while the optimized scan utilizes more than one processor core for faster scanning (not enabled by default on the dual core test system). I encourage a user to enable these features under the “Scanner” option in the settings menu.

Finally, Avira doesn’t include a quick scan option like all of its free antivirus competitors. Avira has a Windows Folder scan but this scan doesn’t include an active process/registry/startup scan as does the competition. In addition, it is somewhat hard to actually start a scan, as Avira lacks large buttons.

Resource Usage:

Avira Premium Internet Security 9.0 uses about 31 to 42 megabytes during idle operation. When a virus scan is started, a new 54 megabyte process starts raising the total consumption to about 100 megabytes. CPU usage during a scan is very small never going above 30% and hovering around 15% CPU usage.

Conclusion:

Avira is an excellent antivirus that has a highly optimized scanning engine and firewall. The program will definitely make a home computer let alone a server extremely secure. The only place that Avira lacks is in the interface department. The company really needs to make a concerted effort to increase usability. After this happens, Avira will be as close to perfection as possible.

Free Antivirus Avira AntiVir Personal Download here
Avira Internet Security Premium Suite 9 here

Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 Review: Free download

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:29:00 -1200

The Trend Micro antivirus company is one of the oldest around. I remember getting trend micro antivirus PC-Cillin CD’s over 10 years ago. In fact, the company actually owns antivirus.com. The company’s latest product is Trend Micro Internet Security 2010. The software offers internet security protection with antivirus, antispyware, firewall, antispam, and parental controls. Surprisingly, Trend Micro’s Internet Security stacks up to the competition and really brings a lot of unique features to the antivirus industry.

Installation:

Trend Micro’s Installation was probably the most hassle free of any of the antivirus reviewed on this site. The actual download is about 77 megabytes in size and comes with both 32bit and 64bit options. Two things that I liked about the setup were the option to disable the firewall (if a user already has a firewall solution) and the ability to run an installation malware scan. The later is a more and more common occurrence in free antivirus installations. However, Trend Micro’s option to omit the scan is important especially if the antivirus is going to be implemented on multiple systems or for a generally fast and slick installation. The antivirus setup also downloaded additional patches automatically.
Trend Micro needed to download a 10 megabyte update after installation. The company really provides fast updates maxing out at 1.6 megabytes per second (my cable modem’s capacity). This is in contrast to AVG and Quickheal in which their download servers may be located outside the US or heavily burdened by a throb of free users.

Interface:

The TrendMicro Internet Security interface is clean yet without many perks. The omnipresent large green checkmark is presented on the main page. One thing that I think makes Trend Micro stand out is the ease of control. A user simply has to click the protection status link “Good” etc. The user will then be presented with settings menus in which all of the antivirus components can be turned off with the simple click of the button. I just want to say I really appreciate the ease of turning off individual components. I say this because often a user will want to install a legitimate program that may be interfered by an antivirus component. My previous favorite antivirus with this easy on/off functionality was Quickheal Antivirus.

    The Trend Micro Interface feels mildly outdated when compared with the likes of Kaspersky etc. The menus probably need to be updated to compete with other 2010 antiviruses’ aesthetic quality. While I am personally indifferent to these artistic qualities, certain users depend on more vivid graphics to alert them to problems.
    Trend Micro is interesting in that it appears to be a very simplistic antivirus. It is on the surface because a novice user can easily complete all of their tasks with just a few clicks of a mouse as explained above. However, in addition to the primary settings menu there are also advanced settings menus. The advanced settings menus are a real treat if you are really interested in tweaking the antivirus/antispyware engine. We will look at some of the tweaking capability in the Features section.
    I do have one problem with the main page, the “Upgrade to Pro” button. This button will be displayed even if a user has a paid subscription. I believe this type of “advertising” is misleading to the consumer. Some users may think that Trend Micro is purposely providing reduced functionality. Ironically, most completely free antiviruses do not even have upgrade buttons i.e. free Avast.

Features:

As stated above, TrendMicro appears to be a simple antivirus but in fact, has many configuration options.

Network and Firewall Protection. The first feature that caught my eye was the advanced network protection. If a Network virus (worm, Trojan, or virus) is found, Trend Micro will automatically shutdown the internet connection. This feature is a version of IPS (intrusion prevention system) for home networks. The attack concept is that the active worm/virus may attempt to exploit remote vulnerabilities on other machines, there may be more additional worms on the infected machines (the virus/Trojan automatically downloaded additional components), and there may actively be information being stolen from the computer uploaded to somewhere abroad etc. Therefore, if an active network virus is detected shutting down the internet connection as soon as possible is crucial to mitigate damage. I know this because I have had a server that compromised by a virus and essentially became a malware ftp host. In retrospect, I wish the worm could have been shutdown sooner than it was.
I also really like the Trend Micro Firewall because of the way it controls applications and network protocols. TrendMicro Internet Security automatically detected trusted programs and I have not been alerted to any additional pop ups after initial configuration. Firewall rules can be configured with either an advanced method (specific port and protocol) or a simplistic method (allow, ask, block etc.). There is also an option to indicate if the application is an operating system component, giving it unfettered access to the internet. The network protocol layout is the most advanced I have seen in a free internet security program. Different Network Services (ftp, telnet, DNS) can all be configured for access across IPv4, IPv6, or both. This amount of configuration is really helpful if a user wants to have a gradual IPv6 migration. A user can also add an option to only warn if a connection attempt is made rather than allowing or completely blocking the connection. This is great if one wants to monitor exactly what a remote user is doing without alerting them to the administrator’s actions. Finally, all of the application and network protocols can be configured in different profiles i.e. for a hotspot, home use, and office use etc. All network activity can be disabled with the push of a button.

Unauthorized Change Prevention. Trend Micro Internet Security essentially incorporates the protection of an advanced antispyware product into its internet security program. In addition to the usual host file, active X, and LSP protection (TCP network stack) Trend Micro 2010 includes new service and Windows security policy protection. The latter two protection mechanisms are rarely seen in other antispyware / antivirus products. For example, Windows Security Policies are often used to configure a kiosk, public or school computer in that the Control Panel access or password policy etc. can be modified by the administrator. If a malicious program gets access to the security policy it can essentially control the whole computer and prevent its removal by antivirus programs. Trend Micro’s new service protection is aimed squarely at rootkits. Rootkits function by adding a stealthy Windows service to the computer. If new services are constantly monitored, then rootkits will have difficultly installing and functioning.

Detailed Antivirus Reports. The Trend Micro reports are very in depth and a user can easily trace a problem or false positive. An Unauthorized Change Prevention detected program can easily be allowed if there is a false positive. In addition, a nice graph displays the frequency of detections.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

As stated in the introduction, Trend Micro has been engrained in the antivirus business for decades. The program’s virus detection capabilities are fully certified by VB100, Westcoast, and ICSA labs. One thing that stands out with Trend Micro is its extremely fast scanning capabilities. A full system scan finished in a little over 1 hour 15 minutes when scanning 150 gigabytes of data. One thing I noticed was that TrendMicro has an excellent ability at scanning compressed files such as .zip’s or .cabs. Most antivirus (i.e.CA antivirus) really start to stutter when they attempt to unzip and scan compressed contents. There is also a quick scan option, which is actually the default scan. The quick scan finishes in about 8 minutes, which is kind of a long time for “quick scan”. I also liked the option to bring the scan to the background. This is useful if a user needs to work on other things while virus scanning (i.e. writing this review).
The antivirus detected zero false positives (probably because the test system has had over 30 different antivirus programs installed). All of the viruses on the virus drive were detected even with the incredibly fast scanning.

Resource Usage:

Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 utilizes about 50 megabytes across 5 different processes when idle. This is on the higher end compared to most other free internet security software and antivirus. However, during a system virus scan a user will only see an additional 10 megabytes in memory usage. The full system scan CPU usage initially tends to be on the higher end range around 50 to 60% but quickly moved down to about 15 to 30% usage. These numbers combined with the speed of the scan are very impressive. In addition, if the scan is brought to the background there will be little to no impact on concurrent processes. Update: Even if a scan isn’t “Continued in the Background”, there still is minimal impact on system performance. Trend Micro receives an A+ in promoting user productivity.

Conclusion:

Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 adds some really advanced features not included in other mainstream antivirus. It’s a shame that Trend Micro has lost some ground in the consumer market because they are really offering a great antivirus technology. Download the free software below.

Download TrendMicro Internet Security here

F-Secure Internet Security 2010 Review: Free Download

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:23:00 -1200

F-Secure is a Finish antivirus company that was established in 1988. The software firm is credited with several firsts in the antivirus community; F-secure discovered the first Windows Vista virus and made foray into accurate rootkit detection. The company’s most recent antivirus offering is F-Secure Internet Security 2010. In the 2010 version, F-Secure has abandoned the Kaspersky engine for the Bitdefender Engine for definition-based detection. F-secure also has added on 4 additional detection engines in addition to the basic definition engine. We will now look at some of the unique features that F-Secure supposedly offers.

Installation:

    The installation of F-Secure was very seamless as they really aren’t many options to configure. A user can decide to use the full installation or custom installation option. The later includes the parental controls, which I decided not to configure for this review.
    The installer download is very small at only 70 megabytes. This is even more amazing when you consider that one installer includes the antivirus and the internet security programs all in one executable. What’s also nice is how FSecure automatically checks and downloads newer versions or patches within the installer.
    Once the installation was completed, F-Secure immediately updated the virus definitions. Surprisingly, unlike most other free antivirus, F-Secure does not alert the user to a full scan not yet preformed, rather a large green check mark was displayed with the words “your computer is protected”. Unfortunately, some users may interpret this message that their computer is already virus free, when in reality; this cannot be the case if a full virus scan has not been completed.

Interface:

    One word can accurately sum up F-Secure Internet Security 2010’s interface, beautiful. F-Secure has really spent a lot of time thinking about what a user really needs to see and be alerted to on the main interface page. Prominent buttons display the “Status” (how the computer is protected), “Tasks” (check for updates, or open a firewall port), and “Statistics” (information on how many scanned and infected files). Also prominently displayed from the first page are the important scan, check for updates, and settings buttons. I also really liked the inclusion of the life preserver for the help files.
    I think the F-Secure Interface is probably best suited for the majority of computer users (easily 80%) however, it leaves out important tweakable features for the expert community. The settings pages are lacking the substance of Bitdefender and ESET antivirus. A user can’t really tweak the scanning sensitivity or heuristic sensitivity and the email filters and Intrusion prevention pages simply allow for an on or off option etc. It would have been nice if F-Secure included multiple interfaces based upon user proficiency levels like Bitdefender.
    There is a noticeable interface problem if a user were to select a trusted network adapter. The ip address information is garbled and illegible. I am also a little irked by the tiny hyperlinks that link to important areas such as quarantine and exclusion lists.

Features:

Unfortunately, F-Secure Internet Security doesn’t bring many new exciting features to the table; rather the antivirus attempts to excel at core features such as virus scanning and detection.

    Firewall. While F-secure Internet Security 2010 utilizes the simplistic main interface, it fails to impress when it comes to firewall protection. For programs such as Skype, a user will be alerted by a pop up to the program trying to contact an outside server. This approach is merited but is not helpful for most users (80%) who loath pop ups and usually just click yes on any dialog box that appears regardless of the information displayed. I think a better approach would be the Avast Free Internet Security method in which trusted programs are automatically configured. In terms of F-Secure, I think it was also interesting that F-Secure prompted for Skype’s access given that it is already an “allowed” program by the “DeepGuard”.
    Firewall rules can be configured for the F-Secure firewall. However, this process is tedious because a user has to individually locate the .exe file and create a rule. This cannot be done from the active connections list. I also noticed that there is an auto-configured rule that allows all outbound connections. I found this interesting because this is exactly the same protection that Windows Firewall provides (a one-way outbound only firewall). Therefore, a user is going to have to redefine all programs that Windows Firewall has already detected (i.e. Skype) for F-Secure’s purpose. If a user wants more protection, they have to move the slider to the non-default “Strict” setting and a barrage of popups will ensue.
    One thing that I liked about the Firewall was the preconfigured services that focus on malware ports etc. Unfortunately, many of the services are not activated by the current firewall rules. In addition, some of the rules such as “Acheron’s call” seemed outdated (version 2 was shutdown in 2005). The firewall includes intrusion prevention (no option to configure settings) and application control (essentially firewall rules but for specific applications which again conflicts with Deepguard 2.0).

Deepguard. Is an F-Secure technology that attempts to classify active processes as trusted or non trusted and continuously monitors any malicious changes to the processes. I think the idea is to detect malicious process that may take on names as trusted processes (IExplore.exe) or somehow modify trusted processes. On the test system, Deepguard properly recognized all of the safe processes. The only complaint is that this information should be combined with the firewall to auto configure application control and firewall rules.

Packet Logging. This feature is unique to F-Secure and essentially allows the user to capture all of the packets flowing in and out of the computer. F-Secure then provides a log viewer to analyze the packet’s HEX, ASCII values, Destination, Description, etc. This feature is essentially a slimmed down ethereal packet analyzer which can be tough to configure at times.

Dialup Control. The dialup control feature mirrors the Panda Antivirus functionality but with more specific application options. I again, believe that this threat to be almost nonexistent. Few dial up users will actually download F-Secure Internet Security 2010 and even fewer viruses/Trojans utilize this attack method.

Browsing Protection. F-Secure, as do most free antivirus, includes an anti-phishing toolbar with a link analyzer. I appreciate that the toolbar doesn’t include automatic 404 error page redirection as does free AVG’s link scanner. The toolbar also includes integrated parental controls even as a Firefox plugin.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

F-Secure has been known to have superior virus protection. These reports do have a lot of validity to them as F-Secure Internet Security 2010 was awarded the Advanced+ rating by AV comparatives. This should be expected as F-Secure utilizes the Bitdefender Antivirus engine, which also was awarded an Advanced+ rating. There have even been reports by several users that F-Secure detects the same false positives as Bitdefender (I personally didn’t have any false positives detected by both products). However, I want to go over how the two products differ. The first method is in rootkit detection. F-Secure has their own proprietary root kit detection technology that was formerly known as blacklight. F-Secure also includes Hydra, which is F-Secure’s own (maintained and developed in-house) virus detection engine. There are also two other engines, which presumably utilize F-Secure’s heuristic technology. Please use the comments area to add your comments on the available engines as F-Secure is not really specific about their detection technology.

F-Secure includes 3 different types of scanning technology. The first is the “Virus and Spyware” scan, which is sort of a quick scan option. The “Virus and Spyware” scanned about 5,500 items in about 10 minutes. The next scan option is the full system scan. The full system scan is unbearably slow and only completed about 30,000 files in about 45 minutes. A full system scan took more than 2 hours; I couldn’t even sit down for that long. The final scan option is the user defined scan, which is essentially a custom scan. The full system scan detected all of the viruses on my virus hard drive. There weren’t any false positives detected by the scans. One pet peeve about the scans is that there is no pause scan option only a stop scan option. All other free antivirus include some sort of pause functionality. I am also concerned by the fact that F-Secure advertises that their antivirus scans are “fast”.

Resource Usage:

During idle operation, F-Secure Internet Security has 10 different processes that utilize 29 megabytes of RAM. During a full system scan, F-Secure adds an additional scanner process of 22 megabytes and only utilizes CPU power that doesn’t exceed 20 percent. F-Secure utilizes the least amount of CPU power of any free antivirus and internet security software that I have tested. This is an amazing feat and should definitely be a main advertising point of this software.

Conclusion:

F-Secure Internet Security 2010’s interface is probably the best in the industry. The virus scanning and detection is also exceptional and the CPU usage is even more notable. However, F-Secure suffers from the lack of customization and control. However, F-Secure is still an excellent piece of software that should definitely be installed and downloaded.

Get the 2009 version for 3 months here
Get the 2010 version here

Bitdefender 2010 Internet Security Review: Free Download

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:29:00 -1200

Bitdefender is a German antivirus that is known for its excellent virus detection rates. The internet security suite takes PC protection one-step further to include a Firewall, Encryption, Vulnerability, Privacy Protection, Parental Controls, and Antispyware. The Internet Security suite really brings in a lot features that I have never seen before in other free antivirus such as Laptop mode, Extensive Vulnerability protection, and Encryption.

Installation:

    The Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 installation was marginally smooth and took about 5 minutes. There were a few annoyances such as a few command prompts that occasionally pop-up and promptly close but there weren’t any large complications.
    Bitdefender offers a lot of installation customization menus that attempt to custom tailor the internet security’s performance to a user’s specific need. The first menu simply asks what types of activities the computer will be primarily used. There are the Typical, Parent (focuses on content filtering), Gamer (focuses on putting the antivirus engine in idle operation and minimizing pop ups), or Custom Configuration (offers any sort of all of the above configuration options).
    The next set of configuration menus are unique to Bitdefender. The software includes a dedicated laptop mode that will alter how the resident shield and firewall function to lower CPU usage and memory usage. These modifications in turn will significantly conserve battery life. I am delighted with this feature because I am a road warrior and currently writing the review on battery power. I haven’t noticed a significant decline in battery power compared with other free antivirus that do not conserve energy. In addition to the Laptop Mode, there is a home network mode that works similar to centrally managed software in corporations. This will allow a single bitdefender installation the ability to modify all other bitdefender installations within a home network. A user won’t have to individually configure each networked computer to talk to each other. This is convenient and mirrors corporate antivirus software.
    The final configuration mode allows a user to customize bitdefender according to their computer proficiency level. There are the novice, intermediate, and expert modes. Bitdefender will actually display a separate GUI for each of the different settings. If one has read a lot of reviews on this website, they will have read that I frequently criticize antivirus companies for not designing their products for beginner users. Hence, the Bitdefender user level configuration is a welcome option.

Interface:

    As stated above there are multiple interfaces. The beginner interface is definitely designed for the beginner as it only has a few options such as scan now, update now, fix issues and large icons. This menu is perfect for users who have little to no knowledge about free antivirus and essentially resembles the CA internet Security Interface.
    The second interface is the Intermediate, which again uses large icons to display the antivirus engine status etc. In addition, this interface adds parental control functions and encryption.
    The third interface is the advanced interface, which completely omits any graphics and really gives the user the full control of the internet security software. I think that this is an excellent interface and really shows how powerful the software is.

Functionality:

Bitdefender is full of functionality in addition to its many interfaces. One main theme in Bitdefender is the amount of information that is displayed at anytime.

Firewall. The firewall is very detailed. For example, each active process displays a large amount of information including totals and active amounts of data each process is using and even the age of the process. The Firewall rules are also automatically configured and the user is alerted to a small popup when a change is made. The pop-up only requires action if a user doesn’t agree with the automatic rule configuration. In tests, the firewall AI was extremely accurate even with uncommon but safe processes.

Privacy Control. In addition to the usual important information control (passwords, SSN), Bitdefender Internet Security includes Registry, Cookie, and Script control. These controls will monitor each of the respected items and if a malicious script etc attempts to modify the registry.

Vulnerability Protection. Bitdefender takes the vulnerability protection one-step further than most free antivirus. Bit defender monitors windows updates, Microsoft updates (office etc.) and all other applications (Skype, Winamp, Firefox, Adobe). If there is a vulnerability in a certain application, Bitdefender will locate the patch and help you update the software. I believe this approach is better than other internet security options such as Norton that attempt to block vulnerabilities but don’t actually point out specific applications’ vulnerabilities. In addition, to the following protections bitdefender will also monitor weak passwords.

File and IM Encryption. Bitdefender also encrypts Yahoo and MSN messenger texts. Unfortunately, AIM is omitted but any protection at all is appreciated in this area. There is also file encryption. Bitdefender has a handy shell extension that when a user right clicks a file, a user can quickly and easily encrypt the contents.

Game and Laptop Mode. The game mode is similar to Norton Internet Security’s Silent Mode; the antivirus suspends the real-time shield and alerts the user so that a gamer is not distracted. However, I really like the laptop mode in which the resident shield is optimized and scheduled scans are also reconfigured.

Antispam. Bitdefender offers the best AntiSpam protection of any free internet security software. The antispam Bayesian filter sensitivity, whitelist, and blacklist can be configured.

Parental Control. Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 has extensive parental control settings. One of the standout features is the web limiter, which can block internet activity by day of the week and hour. In addition, to web access specific applications can be added to the block list and blocked. Finally, there is a security slider in which a user can select the intended audience’s age and have all the selected security filters automatically configured.

Helpful Menus. Most free antivirus have a question mark button that a user can select for assistance or an explanation. Bitdefender takes the help menus on step further. Whenever a user highlights an item with the mouse a helpful explanation will be displayed below explaining exactly what the option does. However, the explanations are sometimes a little lacking even though they are very convenient to read.

Virus Detection and Scanning:

First, I really like the Bitdefender scanning process. The scanning status is very informative. Bitdefender includes the current file scanned, the files scan per second, elapsed time, and whether any hidden items or hidden processes are detected. The scanning speed is pretty slow at only about 10 to 23 files per second. A full system scan took about 2 hours, which is standard for most free antivirus. The virus scan detected all of the viruses on my virus hard drive and didn’t detect any false positives. Excellent virus detection should be expected with Bitdefender because it was awarded the advanced plus certification by AV comparatives.

Resource Usages:

Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 is very light on resource usage. During a full system scan, bitdefender will only use an additional 11 megabytes and 50 percent CPU power for the scan. This is by far the least amount of memory used in a scan of all of the free antivirus I have reviewed. While idle bitdefender used 30 megabytes of memory spread across five independent processes. I didn’t notice a slowdown in normal computer operation while using Bitdefender on the test system even when running on battery.

Conclusion:

Bitdefender is an excellent antivirus. It really is one of the most impressive performers in that it offers 3 different interfaces in one single piece of software. CA internet Security 2010 and other competitors need to take some serious lessons from Bitdefender. In addition, Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 includes excellent virus scanning.

Bitdefender 2010 Internet Security free download http://www.winplanet.com/file/33595.htm

Ashampoo Anti-Malware Review Version 1.02: Free Download

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 07:55:00 -1200

Ashampoo has been a respected vendor of pc cleaners for years. They have just recently made foray into the “anti-malware” market. It appears that even though they are a new entrant their product has exceeded expectations. According to many user reviews, the antivirus software performs excellent at deleting viruses and spyware. In fact, the software is ranked number one of all antivirus software at Softpedia. Unfortunately, we found that while antispyware functionality was excellent Ashampoo’s performance falls short of mainstream antivirus products including free antivirus such as Avast and Avira Antivir.

Functionality:

The installation of Ashampoo Anti-Malware was extremely fast. The program started and immediately updated the database and started scanning. Ashampoo is not like a normal antivirus in terms of its speed of installation even though its executable (77 megabytes) is bigger than CA Internet Security and even Quickheal antivirus. The program generally feels lightweight and nimble.
The virus scanning is very fast and should only take about an hour to finish. The scan is interesting because it first scans about 417662 files/registry keys in 2 minutes and this scanning performance is very similar to Prevx 3.0 in terms of speed. Unfortunately, after theses initial files (program files, registry, windows folder etc.) are checked, the scan performance significantly degrades (this is misleading because the status bar is already at 75%). The next leg of the virus scanning will only scan about 40,000 files per 22 minutes. Therefore, the full system scan will actually finish around 50 minutes, which is still faster than most mainstream antivirus but the preceding discrepancies still create problems. If a user has a lot of auxiliary files such as MP3’s or AVI’s etc, Ashampoo will have a hard time scanning these files quickly and efficiently. Ashampoo also has problems with large files such as ISO’s or compressed archives.

I am personally confused with the discrepancies between scan times. Is it that Ashampoo isn’t checking the initial files sufficiently? I ran a virus test to see how Ashampoo works. I utilized the EICAR test virus. Interestingly, upon downloading the test virus file, I wasn’t even altered to the download of a virus. Ashampoo claims that its software has a “network protection” resident shield that detects viruses. Unfortunately, the supposed network protection did not live up to its advertised functionality. Even though Ashampoo doesn’t have hard drive write access scanning enabled, most mainstream free antivirus do not also. However, every free antivirus tested on this website with a resident shield was able to detect the EICAR test virus. In fact, all antivirus vendors are motivated to detect the EICAR virus because it’s a very easy way to confirm the effectiveness of any antivirus. In fairness to Ashampoo Anti-Malware 1.02, the software was able to detect the EICAR virus when it was opened and when it was put into the Windows System directory.

Ashampoo offers a variety of different scans. There are the “full system scan”, “Scan only system areas”, “registry scan”, “scan browser cookies” (doesn’t seem to be a necessary scan) etc. The fact is Ashampoo offers scanning options customized for each situation.
I don’t really understand why the “Signature update” and the “Search for Update” are different buttons. I always thought that they should be combined into one option. A user could inadvertently update the signatures while not updating the core program.

Interface:

The Ashampoo Antimalware interface is lacking. It simply does not have the refinement of other popular antivirus suites. The menus look outdated and the explanations of the tools will confuse a novice user. I also ran into problems when I wanted to open a certain security tool. If one of the tools was already open it wouldn’t allow an additional window to be open. There is no warning message that there is already an open window etc., the tool simply won’t open.

Resource Usage:

Ashampoo’s resource usage is different from the standard free antivirus. Most software only uses a lot of memory when the virus scan is actually in progress. However, Ashampoo uses a lot of memory upfront and only increases it’s memory footprint slightly after a scan is started. The application uses about 162 megabytes when idle and about 165 megabytes when performing a scan. This type of memory usage could create problems for users with not a lot of available memory available because Ashampoo is always utilizing a significant amount of memory regardless of operation.
Ashampoo’s CPU usage was pretty efficient but not outstanding. During a virus scan, the software would use about 40 to 60% CPU power.

Features:

Ashampoo includes a lot more features than most free antivirus. This is definitely where the software shines and shows it’s antispyware roots. However, there are not really a lot of standout features from most freeware antispyware versions.

Host File Checker and Protection. The host file is a text file that determines exceptions for DNS lookups. It is used for local servers so that they can be accessible inside a network while still typing in the domain. Often viruses will attempt to modify the host file so that “google.com” will point to a malware site. In a default Windows installation, there will be no indication if a modification is made. Therefore, Ashampoo includes host file checking that will detect modifications. There is also a great viewer for the host file if a user doesn’t understand the entries. The viewer explains each of the host file entries.

Rootkit Detector. The rootkit detector is another important feature that is included in Ashampoo Antimalware. Some free antivirus such as AVG etc do not include Root kit detection and this is alarming because rootkits have become a more prolific threat. Rootkits are often used in the latest viruses and Trojans. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of scan customization options.

LSP Viewer. A user can view all of the components of the TCP stack or essentially the files that allow a user to connect to the internet. Malware often try to infect this area with a modified TCP stack entry for devious ends.

Ability to turn off scanning engines. Ashampoo Anti-Malware 1.02 gives the user the option to disable either the Antivirus or Antispyware Engine. Only a few other mainstream security suites offer this functionality. This is a helpful if a user already a favorite antivirus or vice versa.

Conclusion:

Ashampoo Antimalware is not a mature antivirus product and probably should not be relied upon. A user should download the likes of AVG or something else to protect their PC. On the other hand, if a user needs good antispyware protection then Ashampoo should be utilized to clean up a nasty spyware infection. The Ashampoo company lists 3 people as responsible for creating the software. How can a software product such as Ashampoo compete with the likes of Symantec with 1000’s of employees ensuring the latest protection against viruses?

Download Ashampoo Antimalware free here.

Quick Heal Antivirus Version 11 Review: Free Download

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:25:00 -1200

Quick Heal is a relatively new antivirus program and is programmed in India. The software offers pretty basic antivirus protection but has a garnered a significant amount of interest. In fact, the program has received multiple accolades from Virus Bulletin 100 and Westcoast labs. The antivirus is similar to Rising Antivirus, and exhibits a special ability to detect viruses at their most likely source, developing PC markets.

Installation:

The installation of Quick Heal was somewhat burdensome comparable to other free antivirus. The installation took about 4 minutes to complete and included a quick initial virus scan. The initial scan is an important feature that most 2010 antiviruses include.
One downside, the installation is cumbersome because a user has to register. This is midly counter intuitive because the user can actually deselect the free registration option. If this happens before an update is performed, a user will be unable to update due to non-registration. It is difficult to find where the free registration is located. The required screens also have several required fields, which are annoying.

Interface:

    The interface is definitely on the lacking side even when compared with the likes of Panda Antivirus. The interface also has problems when compared with other free competitors such as AVG and Avast; there simply aren’t many graphics to help novice users. The messenger application is also annoying because when there is a new message and little icon, in addition to the antivirus icon, will flash repeatedly from the taskbar.
    On the positive side, there are helpful options on the main page of the Quickheal antivirus. For example, a user can disable all of the components or selective components with just the click of a mouse button. If a user were using Norton 2010, they would have to navigate multiple settings menu and eventually to a non-conspicuous place to disable the components.
    The settings area is also well laid out because all of the antivirus components can be easily disabled or enabled. A user won’t necessarily have to navigate to many internal menus to change virus scan features or disable extensions.
    The help menu has a particularly good explanation of the features. For example, the help files will introduce the technology, explain how it works, and what happens if each a certain option is selected. I find this level of detail interesting because Quick Heal is based in India and this information is very in depth.
    I also ran into a problem when I would open Quick Heal multiple times. For example when opening a new item, Quickheal would also open a new window. However, the annoyance factor really depends on user preference. If a user likes many tabs to customize individual features than this could also be useful. However, the multiple Window approach significantly increased memory burden on the test system.

Features:

Quickheal has a few notable features. The thing that I liked the most about all of the modules is that the DNA scan (zero day protection) can be enabled or disabled for each corresponding module.

Online Protection. Quick Heal offers an extensive network and online protection similar to free Avast. If any virus is detected via a download, a networked computer, or an email attachment Quickheal version 11 will immediately alert the user.

DNAscan. DNAscan as explained above offers zero day or unreleased virus protection. DNAscan will utilize heuristic protection to detect viruses that there are no definitions available for. If malicious activity or a virus is detected, Quick Heal will submit the file to it’s network defense center and users all of the world will be updated to defend against the new virus. This technology is very important with fast emerging viruses in the wild.

WindowsSpy. This feature allows a user to drag a crosshair over any process or exe. Quickheal will then display all relevant information about the file and give the user an option to kill the process.

Packer Identification. I particularly like this feature because packers are becoming increasingly more common. Packers essentially put two programs together into one executable. For example, a hacker could bundle Firefox with some other program or virus. When a user clicks firefox.exe, the virus would also be loaded because both programs are packed together. Therefore, I particularly like the focus on a dedicated Packer Detection because Packers are becoming more prolific in today’s environment with advertising toolbars etc.

Registry Restore. The registry restore feature is also helpful because Quickheal automatically makes a backup of essential registry SAM files. If a virus makes a change to any of the registry items deemed undesirable, Quick Heal will automatically restore the registry.

Antimalware Detection. Quickheal version 11 includes antispyware and antimalware protection. This is unlike the likes of other free antivirus programs.

Advanced Logging. The logging features are also an advantage to this antivirus software. Quick heal keeps independent logs for each module. This will help a user identify if DNAscan (heuristic protection) maybe interfering with trusted applications.
Boot Scan. The boot scan is nice because it will scan all operating components even before they are loaded into memory. This will prevent warnings such as “Access Denied” when other antivirus programs attempt to delete in use viruses.

Virus Scanning and Detection:

Quickheal offers a variety of scanning methods. To start, Quickheal offers an automatic startup scan of critical areas such as the Windows directory or Memory. When a user clicks on the Quickheal icon to start the program, the software will run an additional memory scan.

Unfortunately, Quickheal does not offer a quick scan feature. Quickheal version 11 does have scan selection were you select various components such as “My Documents”, “Windows Folder”, “Scan a file”, “Native Boot Scan”, “System Memory”, and “My Computer.” However, other manufactures typically include most of these features in convenient Quick Scans or Full System Scans buttons.
Virus Scanning is blazingly fast. A full system scan will take under 1 hour and the scan speed easily eclipses many of Quickheal’s competitors. I also really liked how detailed the scan status is. For example, Quick Heal will show how many archives are detected or I/O errors that may occur. In addition, a user can also view the report file as it is compiled and what settings are turned on for the desired on demand scan. The only thing that didn’t live up to my expectations was that there wasn’t an option for how soon the scan will be completed.
The virus scan detected all of the viruses on my virus hard drive. The virus scan also didn’t detect any false positives like other virus scans.

Resource Usage:

    Resource usage is pretty standard. The program uses about 14 megabytes when idle set across four different modules. When a scan is run, the program uses about 103 megabytes of RAM usage. I also like how a full system scan uses no more than 50% CPU power; it’s almost as if Quickheal sets up an invisible memory wall that it’s program will not pass. I really appreciate the emphasis Quickheal version 11 has put on using the fewest computer memory and CPUpower as possible.
    There is one problem with the memory usage and one that Quick Heal most correct in future releases. The various modules in Memory have malicious process names such as “Scanner.exe” or “Onlinent.exe”. Unfortunately, generic names such as these will make it hard for a user to distinguish good from bad files.
    I didn’t find that regular use of Quickheal, let alone a full system scan, resulted in any noticeable slowdown of my computer. Quickheal version 11 is a very tightly coded program.

Uninstallation:

The Uninstallation was also very pleasant. All modules deleted as planned and there were few left over in the registry.

Conclusion:

Quickheal is an excellent antivirus with an extremely fast scanning engine. Quickheal was definitely designed by very talented coders because of it’s efficiency. Unfortunately, sometimes great pieces of software lack a great interface. However, Quickheal is a great antivirus software and definitely one that any user should consider.

Quick Heal Version 11 Free Download: http://www.filecluster.com/Antivirus-Spyware/Antivirus/Download-Quick-Heal.html

A-squared Free Antivirus Version 4.5 Review and Download

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:10:00 -1200

A-squared is a venerable free antivirus that includes antispyware and antivirus protection. According to user and industry reviews, the antivirus is particularly good at detecting Trojans. In our own tests, we found this consensus to be true and more than exceeded our expectations. While the program does not include a resident shield, it still can be used in conjunction with other antivirus software to provide dual protection. We will now take a more in-depth look at all of the program’s functionality.

Installation:

The installation of A-squared was very quick. There was no added toolbar or advertising software included in 90% of other free antivirus. There were also few configuration options like adding the scanner to the context menu and a desktop shortcut. After the installation was complete, A-squared started immediately and did not require a restart. A-squared then prompted for an automatic virus definition update. The update was large at 7 megabytes but installed over 35,000 Trojan signatures (this was the first indication that a-squared is clearly geared towards anti-Trojan protection). The update downloaded at about 100 Kilobytes per second and did not appear to have speed limitations like Free AVG. After the update was complete, a-squared simply needed a program restart and the protection was ready to go. The installer also included many different languages including Arabic, English, Japanese, Russian, Dutch and many more.

Interface:

The A-squared Free 4.5 interface was very organized and clean. I liked the update process because it tells you what was actually download rather than just saying “database updates” like PC tools antivirus etc. This detailed information theme is repeated throughout the software as every aspect of the software is very informative. For example, the main page has information about the amount of signatures loaded, quick links to the support center, submitting a suspicious file, and video tutorials on how to use the software. Unfortunately, A-squared Free does not have taskbar integration like most other free antivirus. On the other hand, the software does have Windows Shell integration so that this kind forgoes the need for a taskbar icon. If a user wants to scan a file, all one has to do is right click the file and select scan.
I also ran into problems with the programs help system. I would click on the help button but no dialog box would appear. Emsisoft, if you are listening, please fix this bug in Vista.

Features:

A-squared is a little light on the features but excels at it’s core malware detection and deletion capability.

User Permissions. Rather than providing password protection, A-squared integrates with the Windows Login to provide access control. A user can select if a Vista, Windows 7 user can start the scanner, delete objects, start the application, edit quarantine objects, delete quarantine objects etc. These features are usually absent in free antivirus.

Quarantine Re-Scan. I really like this feature and it functions as the name implies. If new virus updates are released and download, the quarantine items will be automatically rescanned. This is a great feature because A-squared admits that quarantined items may not be actually malicious and ensures that only infected files are quarantined. In addition, most detection and deletion antivirus do not include quarantine functionality like this software.

Beta Updates. A-squared Free 4.5 offers beta updates, which will give a user the very latest protection. However, use caution when installing beta updates as they may delete important files.

Whitelist. The software includes a scanner whitelist or trusted file exemption. In addition, there is also a file extension filter to enable or disable user-defined extensions.

Virus/Spyware Scanning and Detection:

    A-squared Free includes multiple Virus Scan Options. They are the quick scan, smart scan, deep scan, and custom scan. All of the scans utilize definition and trace based scanning. Definition scanning looks at file and compares it to a virus encyclopedia while trace based scanning looks at known malware locations for suspicious files (this is frequently used in antispyware software).
    The quick scan was very quick and completed in less than 4 minutes while the smart scan needed about 1 hour. Unfortunately, the quick scan and smart scan do not scrutinize the registry as effectively as the other scans.
    The crown jewel of A-squared free is the deep scan technology. The deep scan detected a virus that no other antivirus reviewed on this blog found. TVU networks player actually has a Trojan installed and was not deleted after uninstallation of the program. A-squared also found traces of the Reveler Keylogger that I used in the Kaspersky review. Unfortunately, the Deep Scan is dreadfully slow. In 1 hour, the Deep scan was only at 4% completion on the test system. I will let one infer how long it will actually take to complete a full deep scan. However, props to Emsisoft for detecting these previously unknown threats. This episode alone is enough to convince me that A-squared is a must have freeware.
There is also custom scan functionality. The user can define the locations of the virus scan and whether the scan includes heuristic protection.

Resource Usage:

During scanning of traces and the registry, CPU usage was extremely low and would not go higher than 16%. Unfortunately, when the scanner moved on to hard drive files, the CPU usage went up to around 50 to 60%. However, there still was not a noticeable effect on concurrent processes. One problem I did run into was that Firefox would stop working during a scan. This is probably because the program scans Mozilla for cookie traces. A simple restart of the Firefox will solve the problem.
Memory usage for the A-squared service is a reasonable 12 megabytes while the scanner uses about 125 megabytes during a scan. These numbers are acceptable when compared to competitors.

Uninstallation:

While I wouldn’t want to uninstall A-squared, the uninstallation is the fastest on the market at only 2 seconds. This goes to show how efficient this program is and that it will not give users problems after uninstall ala Norton.

Conclusion:

A-squared has superior virus and Trojan detection. This software can work in conjunction with any other antivirus software program and will not cause conflicts.
Emsisoft has released a free command line scanner that is identical to this version. However, the command line has capabilities that will make it easier to schedule scans and automate scanner operation.

Rising RAV Free Antivirus Review and Download

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:50:00 -1200

RAV or Rising is a chinese antivirus from Beijing and the free version hasn’t been out for more than a year. Rising Antivirus provides enhanced protection against Asian computer viruses while also having the capability to detect and eliminate prolific western viruses. China is now the number one SPAM creator and has an increasing malware threat. Rising Antivirus promises to stem the growth of malware at one of the primary sources.

Installation:

    The executable file was about 66 megabytes and supports 32 bit and 64 bit Windows XP, Vista, and 7. The installation of the program was for the most part without hiccups. The installation performed an initial memory scan for viruses and needed about 2 minutes to finish. After completion, the software required a restart of the computer.
    Upon resuming Windows, the program blacked out the whole window. A dialog box appeared and then started to do an initial configuration scan. The premise is that this initial scan will make future scans faster. However, in practice, the initial scan was extremely slow and since the background is blacked out, a user is not able to complete any other concurrent tasks (Update: there isn’t the ability to run the initial configuration scan after install so it’s probably best to wait through it after installation).
    Next, the user is given the option to set a password. A user can password protect several options including a premature shutdown of a virus scan, modifying defense settings (disabling the real time shield), and emptying the quarantine etc. Rising is comparable to Panda Antivirus in its access control functionality.

Interface:

The Rising interface is interesting, but lacks refinement. While the majority of the graphics look professional, there are format errors. For example, on the main page the text for the “License” and “Scan All” are not formatted correctly. In addition, the text in the buttons is aligned correctly and the screen frequently flickers when a new menu option is selected. While these are small imperfections, it kind of degrades from the overall experience. I presume this is because the antivirus supports multiple languages each with separate formatting.
There are settings sliders that can change the security settings from high, to medium, and low. Unfortunately, when the slider is changed the features are not activated immediately. A user has to return to the previous menu and click apply.

Features:

Rising is a pretty barebones free antivirus and really resembles the likes of AVG in terms of functionality.

Active Defense. The defense shield is pretty standard. One thing that is unique, is that the there are lot of file scan settings. For example, a user can configure settings for DOS viruses, NTFS file streams, unknown Trojans, and expanded definitions. The only problem is a lot of these scan settings are not initially activated by default. In fact, in the scheduled scans option, the boot sector is not even selected as a scan area! After installing Rising free antivirus, it is crucial that a user changes everything to the highest security settings. If not, the scanning protection will be below industry acceptable levels. Finally, the “Smart Speed Up” setting, which attempts to speed up realtime scanning by ignoring previously scanned files, could be potentially dangerous. I suggest a user disable this feature because when a virus infects the computer it spreads like wildfire and frequently to files already marked as “safe”.

Email and Instant Message Virus Monitor. While this is a standard feature, some free antivirus still do not include email protection such as Bitdefender etc. Unfortunately, the instant messaging scanning didn’t detect that I had MSN installed. So, be wary of the advertised protection.

Custom Installer Creator. This is the first time I have seen this functionality in a free antivirus. Essentially want it does is create an installable .exe file with all of the latest virus definition updates applied. This is perfect for a computer that does not have an internet connection or cannot connect to the internet due to a virus. A user can also create one of these custom installers at any time.

Virus Scanning:

The quick scan was extremely fast at 2 minutes 10 seconds. The second time I did a quick scan it took only 1 minute and 8 seconds. The third time, the quick scan needed 18 seconds. These quick scan numbers are some of the fastest in the industry meaning that a Rising quick scan could be easily run on at every system startup. The full virus scan took about 2 hours and comes with a handy time elapsed and time until completion information. The scan also detected all of the viruses on my virus hard drive.

Resource usage:

Rising’s resource usage is also very good. While the idle operation tends to be a little high at 35 megabytes of RAM and 5 active processes, a full system scan only needs an additional 20 megabytes for a total of 55 megabytes. In comparison, this is about one-tenth what CA antivirus needs to run a single scan. I infer that the RAV’s minimal memory usage is because most foreign users do not have the latest computers and need programs that conserve memory.
Unfortunately, during a scan CPU usage is quite high on high security at 50 to 70%. However, if a user wants to sacrifice security over performance, medium settings will top out at about 50% CPU usage.

Virus Updates and Annoyances:

The binary that I download was quite old and hadn’t been updated since March. The update was therefore an extremely time intensive process taking about 30 minutes. RAV doesn’t download the whole update in one piece like PC tools antivirus but rather in multiple small pieces.
In addition, the help file includes screenshots and explanations for another version. Therefore, if you are a beginning user, the help documentation may be tough to follow. However, one can find online help relatively easy if there is a discrepancy.

Conclusion and Download:

Rising isn’t the most full featured free antivirus but it isn’t the least. If you’re in an Asian country or if you’re frequently bombarded with Far East viruses, give Rising or RAV a shot. Download Rising for Free below.

http://www.soft82.com/download/windows/rising-antivirus-free-edition_2/

Free CA Internet Security 2010 Review and Download

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:19:00 -1200

CA Internet Security 2010 is a new program offered by Computer Associates. The company claims to protect 97% of fortune 500 companies and has brought the same technology to the consumer program. The company is currently providing a free download and activation code. CA Internet Security 2010 is aimed primarily at beginner or novice computer users. Being a power user, I found some serious problems with this free antivirus program.

Installation:

The CA Internet Security installation was very easy and quick. Large screens and graphics display the progress and the program automatically downloads the installation file. One thing that sets CA apart from other free antivirus installations is that the software automatically performs a scan on install. This was a surprise as at the end of the installation, CA internet security already had detected 6 viruses. The software does not perform an automatic update after an install which is interesting for a product targeted at beginner users.

Interface:

    The interface of CA internet Security is clearly unique. The home screen consists of 4 tabs that rotate around according to which option is selected. If there are problems such as a full scan not completed or a virus update not performed all a user has to do is click “Fix Now” rather than clicking the respective buttons. There are also helpful pop ups that only alert a user to important problems; expect CA to not frequently bug or annoy the user.
    While the antivirus interface is very beautiful, it slowed the test system to a crawl. Just clicking on a tab and then viewing the rotating graphic would barely function on a core 2 duo with Vista’s “power saver” functionality. If the power plan was changed to “high performance”, the rotating graphic would move faster but still had considerable lag. I think even the slightest bit of lag on a 2 GHz computer is completely unacceptable.
    Antivirus settings were also a hassle to change. In some instances the setting sliders were almost too large. This forces a user to have to scroll down repeatedly within a window that can’t be resized. This is a hassle if a user wants to frequently tweak settings.

Features:

If other free internet security suites were thought to have few features, CA Internet Security takes the icing on the cake. There really are no standout features except the parental controls.

Parental Controls. CA offers the most in depth “My Kids” parental controls (website and applications filters) available in a free antivirus program. This filtering functionality is very clearly adopted from a corporate system. First, the software supports multiple users (kids) accounts for the administrator. Access to the internet or applications can be allowed or disallowed according to the time of day or day of the week. The administrator can select the users (kids) age range and have filters that are relevant to the group. Next, the administrator can be alerted to certain events such as a kid tampering with CA internet security. I thought this feature was particularly appealing and maybe even a little overboard.
In terms of application filtering, CA internet security 2010 has filters for P2P programs and Messaging programs such as Bitorrent, AIM, MSN, and other instant messaging programs. The administrator can even set blocked keywords and restrict contacts to a trusted list.

Helpful Antivirus Support. CA internet security 2010 has an innovative support system. Rather than utilizing the standard Windows help interface, CA has designed their own interface within the program. One of the best features is the inclusion of help videos. For example, if a user doesn’t know how to run an antivirus scan or update the software etc. there are videos to help the user understand. This is perfect for the elderly or novice users and is the only free internet security suite that I know of that provides this functionality.

Firewall. The included firewall is basically useless and is extremely difficult to configure. While the firewall automatically configures rules for certain applications (great for novice users), if you want to tweak any of these rules it is extremely difficult. Unlike other internet security programs where you can select the individual program (displays an icon) to set inbound and outbound rules, CA internet security 2010 only displays a log file of disallowed connections. From, this log file, which is displayed in an extremely small window and in light grey, a user has to look through all the disallowed connections and individually enable the connection. Adding a new rule to the firewall is also tedious as you don’t see the other programs that have rules already configured for them. This is completely contrary to 99% of the other free firewalls. Finally, the firewall performance is abysmal. When browsing the web there is a clear 2 second added delay when loading a webpage.

Backup Capability. The backup capability is one of the most pathetic I have even seen. What the backup does is essentially make one file of all of the selected computer files. This is like using a compression program (zip) and putting the files you want to back up in it. Why is this even called a “backup” utility?

Identity and Link Scanner Toolbar. The toolbar is one of the features that CA actually did correctly. The toolbar installs into Firefox and internet explorer. When a user visits a website the toolbar will give the user a risk rating, the whois information, and the server location. The link scan will also tell the user if a link is safe simply by highlighting the link. These features are great for novice users as it is color coded green, yellow, or red according to website safety. However, sometimes the server location doesn’t come up correctly (the toolbars fault) and it claims the website is high risk while false.

Resource Usage:

    CA Internet Security 2010 has the worst resource management of any antivirus or security program ever. After installation, the test system was forced into a crawl and started to sound like a jet engine. Just opening the Windows Vista start menu would elicit a 60% move in CPU usage. Browsing the web turned a 6 megabit connection into a 56k connection. Windows startup took 2 times as long. In addition to all these problems, svchost.exe had a memory leak and would go up to 370 megabytes of RAM usage and the event viewer service would go up to 106 megabytes. I have never seen these services reach these levels.
    CA Internet Security needs 11 different processes just to function correctly. In idle mode the software uses 348 megabytes of RAM. I thought McAfee antivirus was bad, but this is clearly the worst. When a user wants to perform a virus scan, the software will start a new process (caamscaner.exe) at 50 megabytes bringing the test system burden close to 400 megabytes and 50% CPU power.
    It appears the CA software designers had no intention of making an efficient lightweight program. Maybe they intentionally made a slow antivirus as it gives a user a second to think about their actions? Or, maybe they designed the software to make Kiosk computers slower? Maybe elderly don’t want a lot things happening on their computer? Unfortunately, I am (the user) left to infer why this antivirus program is crippled.

Antivirus Scanning Detection:

    The antivirus scanning is again the worst I have seen in any free antivirus. When an antivirus scan is run, there is no indication when the scan started or is going to finish, there isn’t even a progress bar! The antivirus scan is slow taking at least 2 hours plus.
    The antivirus scan detected 6 “viruses” called P2P Grokster (really Frostwire) and automatically quarantined the program. This is clearly were a corporate antivirus has conflicts of interest when directly implemented into a consumer product. Simply put, most consumers have P2P software on their computer and don’t want it automatically disabled.
    One advantage of the CA Internet Security virus scan is that it stops quickly when canceled compared to competitors. Usually, other free antiviruses take a few seconds to cancel a scan.

Uninstallation:

This is what a user will probably do after they use CA internet Security for a few minutes. It simply made the test computer unusable. Interestingly, the uninstallation screen has a great graphic (contrary to other antivirus) probably because users see it so often.

Conclusion:

If one still wants to download or they have a grandma that needs an antivirus program. Get the download below. One positive point, there is $10,000 of damage protection if a user gets a devastating virus or their identity stolen. But I feel few will be able to get that far.

https://home3.ca.com/SubscriptCenter/MicrosoftTrialReg.aspx?cid=20115&pid=1YTR&lang=en-US