confident and security level of free AV vs licensed versions ?

[Guest]

Hi,

Could someone tell me is the level of security and performance of free
antivirus systems could be on par with performing products and licensed like
Kaspersku AV ?
Or the first is necessary less performing ? Have you examples of performing
free products ?
Thanks

Thierry

 

[Art]

Hi,

Could someone tell me is the level of security and performance of free
antivirus systems could be on par with performing products and licensed like
Kaspersku AV ?
Or the first is necessary less performing ? Have you examples of performing
free products ?

This article claims that detection capabilities of the free versions
of Avast, Antivir and AVG are not on a par with their premium
counterpats:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/a/freeav_2.htm

The situation with the free AOL AVS product based on KAV 6 is similar
but different. In this case, detection rates, per se, would/should be
the same as KAV 6 but since AVS lacks the PDM and Web modules,
the level of actual protection of AVS is not as great.

So in general, I think it's fair to say that the premium or paid
versions of antivirus products afford better levels of protection.
In fact, considering other free av products as well (such as
ClamWin) I'd extend the generalization to say that the best
protection exists wiith paid/premium products.

Art
http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Guest]

Indeed, I suspect free products to be less performing for the simple reason
that I paid KAV6 to get a quality produst, a database, a forum, daily
updates, and a quick support in case of problem (essentialy these two last).
But it should be interesting to see a comparison sheet between the level de
detection of KAV6, Norton and other Mcafee vs free software.

Thierry

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: <Thierry>

| Hi,
|
| Could someone tell me is the level of security and performance of free
| antivirus systems could be on par with performing products and licensed like
| Kaspersku AV ?
| Or the first is necessary less performing ? Have you examples of performing
| free products ?
| Thanks
|
| Thierry

It all depends on which.

Exmaples:
The Free BitDefender is an "On Demand" scanner only and does not perform "On Access".
The free AntiVir does not target non-viral malware such as adware.