Battle Avira vs AVG vs Panda (since I'm having problems with Avast)

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petersaints

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Aug 4, 2015
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Hey guys, I'd like to know which of these two antivirus would recommend? After I upgrade to Windows 10 I'm having a few issues with Avast. I think it's related with me having VirtualBox installed, since they seem to be lessened/go away whenever I uninstall it. Maybe it's some conflict because Avast also packages VirtualBox as the virtual machine hypervisor for its sandboxing/behavioral blocking component. It has been hard to determine because the problems seem mostly to be random explorer.exe freezes and crashes, which are hard to test and reproduce consistently but that are very annoying. Nevertheless, this is not the first time that Avast has let me down by buying a bit buggy and by "messing" a bit with my system, so I guess that I want to leave it behind for now.

That said... I'm thinking about leaving Avast alone, at least temporarily. Turning myself to one of the other "classic" free antivirus, Avira or AVG, was what immediately came to my mind. So I took a look at a few tests (e.g., AV-Comparatives and AV-TEST), reviews and opintions by Googling and came to realize that Avira seems to be a superior product. It seems better in every way, except that it seems to lack any kind of behavioral blocker, such as Avast DeepScreen and AVG Identity Protection. Avira is a purely signature based antivirus with an heuristics engine that runs some static analysis, it has no dynamic analysis that runs a suspicious file through a dynamic behavioral analysis like Avast and AVG? Am I right? This is the only thing that is giving second thoughts on whether I should go with Avira or AVG.

Meanwhile, while doing my research about Avira and AVG, I also came across Panda Free Antivirus, which also seems to do well in some lab tests. Does it have behavioral blocking? Do you recommend it over AVG or Avira (or even Avast)?

Please share your opinion about these products, and also if Avast is vastly superior to all of them so that if I may actually want to go back to it in the future if I find that the issues I'm experiencing have been fixed. And also feel free to leave other suggestions besides your opinion that may make sense as viable alternatives.
 
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MagicTrout

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As many other people in the MalwareTips forums use Qihoo 360 Total Security (Free program) I would recommend that. However if you plan on using Qihoo then make sure you have either the BitDefender or Avira engine enabled in the settings, not the standard QVM engine as that is subpar compared to the others
 

petersaints

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Qihoo seems nice and I have used for a bit before. But it seems that they've built some bad reputation lately and they have been absent from tests at AV-Comparatives and AV-TEST. Also, does it have a Behavioral Blocker?

Meanwhile, I've tested Panda (I hadn't tested before I made the opening post) and it just kills my internet connection. So, just forget about it.
 
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Piteko21

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Avira seems, in my opinion ,the best option.
Avira has one of the best engines (despite some problems that can damage your system ... not always...)
AVG is good but Avira can be much better because their engine can be compared to Kaspersky or Bitdefender.
Panda is the product that I dont have opinion yet. Its good but work With the cloud, so if you use your computer offline You will lose protection, I mean, the new and latest virus signatures updates.
 
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jamescv7

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Simplicity: Panda Free Cloud; you need an active internet connection as their heuristics/generic signatures are purely rely on that techniques. Install and forget. with behaviour monitoring feature only which on the PRO it includes analysis.

Optimum protection: AVG Free, it contains already enough features + their ID protection which pretty good for suspicious detection since most of the time their realtime protection are bypassed.

Detection wise: Avira Free, their signatures and Cloud are their major components and sometimes failure rate may occur as they don't have any backup components.

Better yet put a virtualization software like Sandboxie to avoid any infections to go through your system immediately.
 

Rolo

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Jun 14, 2015
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I think it's related with me having VirtualBox installed
They've conflicted in the past and is why I uninstalled it some time ago. In my test about a month ago, I completely killed it (hangs/freezes) without even trying to. What was once my favourite for years is what I call now, 'garbage'.

Qihoo is the bees knees. It does have a BB/HIPS/HIDS. It's the most understated security software (they really could market their product better if they just said what it did without dumbing it down). It's a light install and has a thorough uninstall (only left a blank directory in ProgramData, which is pretty common).

I've tested it and spoken about it at length on here (search)--don't fall for the bad press.
 

Atlas147

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As everyone has already said Avira lacks a zero day detection module, meaning that if the malware is not in the signatures, it won't be detected. However the signatures for Avira are the best and they are one of the few AVs that update their signatures the fastest once a new malware sample is sent to them.

AVG has both a average detection and identity protection (zero day module), from a few tests I have seen, their detection has been improving in the past months and also their IDP detections have been used quite often, signalling that it might be really good.

Panda is almost like the other recommended AV Qihoo where it uses an internet connection to send files for analysis and if it comes back malicious the AV would block it. That being said Panda has a weaker detection than Qihoo but with a stronger detection Qihoo is filled with false positives. Panda updated their engine in 2014 to include a better zero day detection system but I have yet to hear good things about it. Panda has an excellent web protection module that can prevent the malware from even downloading onto the system.
 

Rolo

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Jun 14, 2015
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AV Qihoo where it uses an internet connection to send files for analysis and if it comes back malicious the AV would block it
It does this in addition to its own engine and, if enabled, BD and Avira engines.

Qihoo no ( u shuold't trust cheater company)
Baidu: good but need more improvment
Tecent: it seems good AV
All three were accused of cheating.
 

nissimezra

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Apr 3, 2014
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None of them.
Your options are:
  • stick with built in Windows antivirus and use caution
  • qihoo TS is for now the best free option
  • buy a good product like eset kasp etc
  • wait until avast fix the problem
 
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omidomi

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It does this in addition to its own engine and, if enabled, BD and Avira engines.


All three were accused of cheating.
i know qihoo do cheating on that test, but Tecent and Baidu no do have any document for show they do cheating also?
 

Alzie

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May 3, 2014
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was useing avast after upgrade to 10 tried avira for change did not run well possibly due to also running malawarebytes back to avast no problem
 
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starchild76

Do not use avg identity protection is very very weak as is their cloud detection the heavy lifting is done by their signatures , which are not the best either. You will notice impact on boot time , but for the rest systemimpact is not too dramatic. Best to go with qihoo 360 or avira imho :)
 
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MagicTrout

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Jun 20, 2015
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Qihoo seems nice and I have used for a bit before. But it seems that they've built some bad reputation lately and they have been absent from tests at AV-Comparatives and AV-TEST. Also, does it have a Behavioral Blocker?

Meanwhile, I've tested Panda (I hadn't tested before I made the opening post) and it just kills my internet connection. So, just forget about it.

The bad reputation from Qihoo 360 was that they submitted test samples with the much more powerful Bitdefender engine enabled, not the standard QVM engine. The bad reputation doesn't affect performance as you can just have the Bitdefender or Avira engine enabled. And yes Qihoo is equipped with a behavioral blocker.
 

Rolo

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Jun 14, 2015
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i know qihoo do cheating on that test, but Tecent and Baidu no do have any document for show they do cheating also?
However, only Tencent has been found to be gaming the antimalware tests, according to the antimalware firms.
cf. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2919...-stripped-of-rankings-in-antivirus-tests.html

Did Qihoo cheat or did AV-* commit slander?
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...regarding-cheating-in-lab-test-300076309.html
The allegation highlights that the default configuration of the product available for the public, differs from the configuration used by the labs for testing. This configuration was explicitly declared upon submission of the tests, and was thereafter confirmed by the test labs.

What does this mean to us? Absolutely nothing. You can't disable QVM engine (which is a bit false-positive-prone but so is every whitelist program but nobody complains about that) and you can enable Bitdefener and Avira engines.
 
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omidomi

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cf. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2919...-stripped-of-rankings-in-antivirus-tests.html

Did Qihoo cheat or did AV-* commit slander?
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...regarding-cheating-in-lab-test-300076309.html


What does this mean to us? Absolutely nothing. You can't disable QVM engine (which is a bit false-positive-prone but so is every whitelist program but nobody complains about that) and you can enable Bitdefener and Avira engines.
Great.
And Baidu Cheating?
 

petersaints

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Aug 4, 2015
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As everyone has already said Avira lacks a zero day detection module, meaning that if the malware is not in the signatures, it won't be detected. However the signatures for Avira are the best and they are one of the few AVs that update their signatures the fastest once a new malware sample is sent to them.

AVG has both a average detection and identity protection (zero day module), from a few tests I have seen, their detection has been improving in the past months and also their IDP detections have been used quite often, signalling that it might be really good.

Panda is almost like the other recommended AV Qihoo where it uses an internet connection to send files for analysis and if it comes back malicious the AV would block it. That being said Panda has a weaker detection than Qihoo but with a stronger detection Qihoo is filled with false positives. Panda updated their engine in 2014 to include a better zero day detection system but I have yet to hear good things about it. Panda has an excellent web protection module that can prevent the malware from even downloading onto the system.

Yes. Avira is extremely good, being able to compete directly with BitDefender and Kaspersky in terms of signatures. But I'm afraid that it lacks in the zero day departament. However, I usually don't do anything that dangerous on my PC that would expose me to zero days threats (or so I believe). So Avira may actually be a good choice. It is also extremely light from what I've seen. It seems lighter than Avast, even though there are tests that place it as a little bit heavier.

AVG signatures are a bit more "average", but they have a behavioral blocker component. However, on most tests, even the ones that are supposed to contain zero day threats, Avira usually comes o top of AVG. So it is probably not that good. Also, from the little bit I tested it seems a bit heavier to run than Avira in terms of CPU power (the only resource that I'm really concerned since I have more than enough RAM).

Regarding Panda, it seems interesting... but as I said above I tried to install it after I posted the opening post and it just killed my Internet connection. I didn't troubleshoot much, but as soon as I uninstall it (even before rebooting) the Internet connection starts to work well again. Maybe it's some incompatibility with Windows 10. Either way, for the time being is out of the table.

I also tested Qihoo 360 Total Security and it immediately detected a service I use (https://www.pushbullet.com/apps) as being malicious. So it didn't leave a good taste in my mouth. On top of that their extra stuff is a bit intrusive, so I'd probably prefer Qihoo 360 Total Security Essential if I would go with their product.

None of them.
Your options are:
  • stick with built in Windows antivirus and use caution
  • qihoo TS is for now the best free option
  • buy a good product like eset kasp etc
  • wait until avast fix the problem
1. That's what I've done for years. In fact, I used caution and actually disabled Windows Defender for extra performance. However, I still don't know how, I've got a ransomware into my PC a few months ago so I decided to look for something better. I mean, the best free options are usually better than the built-in Windows Defender, right?
2. I'm not sure if it is the best, but it sure has a lot of features and engines. That said, what would you recommend enabling? BitDefender or Avira? So that I don't have as many engines enabled slowing down the system?
3. That would be an option if I felt that I was really really in danger and that the free options are not enough. But thanks for the advice.
4. That's also true, I'll probably check Avast in a few months.
 

Rolo

Level 18
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Jun 14, 2015
857
Great.
And Baidu Cheating?
OK so I have to read the article for you; here goes:
The three antimalware firms said they found "some unexpected flags within [Baidu and Tencent] products, marked with the names of several test labs and implying some difference in product behavior depending on the environment they were run in."
Lest anyone take what I"m saying out of context, I don't fall for the clickbait masked as 'journalism' or the paid advertising masked as 'AV tests': I'm going with the product that's most effective and free rather than he said/she said malarkey. With this fiasco, all parties lose credibility (mass media, av-*, Qihoo, Baidu, Tencent) but...so what. Can't avoid every company that has the stench of impropriety...

One can argue that the magnifying glass may prompt these companies to be more transparent and more of a straight-shooter.
 
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