Battle BitDefender, Halfway in my trial

[camo7782]

So After all that said in previous post (Compare Protection - Security solution for prosumer? (2 PCs)) I have decided to give BitDefender a try. Currently it has 3 main problems:

1. It doesn't allow me to download .exe files, including safe ones. The connection is so much slowed than will eventually drop, I suspect that BD is checking the file while it downloads which looks stupid. It could just check it once finished I suppose. Disabling modules will resolve this issue but would be annoying to do so every time I need to download an installer
2. Similarly to previous point, it slows down some Prime Video streaming, some videos have sort of ads of other shows before the content. for those who are used to PV the ads can be skipped or the content can be added to the list for being watched later. When the main content has such pre-video or ads, the main content will not play. Again disabling all modules resolve.
3. This is probably the bigger problem; the support! It like hitting a classic rubber wall, they have a protocol and follow it blindly, they doesnt read the tickets. I'm pretty much sure that these issues are well known to them, having me beta-test their product is not resolving my issue. I also noticed that their support tool is trying to send 1 GB of data at every ticket over HTTP, which obviously fail, for some reason it is making a timestamp of my system, including the Apps folder where I keep all the installers.

This said I'd be tempted to drop it and try the WD+VS+CF combo, I could also evaluate Kaspersky IS again, even tho would not have my data sent in Russia. Another name that popped quite some time while Googling is Trend Micro, but I do not know much about it, maybe it was renamed? Sophos also remain a possible alternative, maybe paired with CryptoPrevent, not sure how popular is this one respect other ransomware software.

 

[blackice]

@Raiden Sure, some are willing to learn, but a lot aren't, even if they get infected. If they get infected, they consider that they need to be more careful and educate themselves about security, they think that the antivirus they are using is garbage and they need a better antivirus. Part of the problem is that a lot of money is spent on advertising antivirus software, but not so much on education about safe computing practices.

The following is a good example of people's attitude towards security. A number of years ago, a friend of mine was sent a virus on MSN Messenger. He opened the infected file and of course, the result was that his computer got infected. His response was that surely there must be a better antivirus he could use, that would protect against all viruses. He didn't consider that if he had not opened the file, sent from some random person who was not one of contacts on Messenger, he would not have got infected.

Agreed. The idea that getting infected is the result of a bad product isn’t limited to “average users”. It’s not an uncommon statement from people even in these forums when expressing displeasure with a product. As @Raiden said “Your habits are everything”, and I agree. Most people just don’t change till their bad habits catch up with them. This is why I keep my browsing habits fairly vanilla, also maybe I’m a boring person.

 

[mlnevese]

Agreed. The idea that getting infected is the result of a bad product isn’t limited to “average users”. It’s not an uncommon statement from people even in these forums when expressing displeasure with a product. As @Raiden said “Your habits are everything”, and I agree. Most people just don’t change till their bad habits catch up with them. This is why I keep my browsing habits fairly vanilla, also maybe I’m a boring person.

It's certainly a prevalent idea in security forums as well. That's why we are always seeing "what is the best" threads even when the protection offered by mostly all products is equivalent with negligible differences.

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

@Raiden Sure, some are willing to learn, but a lot aren't, even if they get infected. If they get infected, they don't consider that they need to be more careful and educate themselves about security, they think that the antivirus they are using is garbage and they need a better antivirus. Part of the problem is that a lot of money is spent on advertising antivirus software, but not so much on education about safe computing practices.

The following is a good example of people's attitude towards security. A number of years ago, a friend of mine was sent a virus on MSN Messenger. He opened the infected file and of course, the result was that his computer got infected. His response was that surely there must be a better antivirus he could use, that would protect against all viruses. He didn't consider that if he had not opened the file, sent from some random person who was not one of contacts on Messenger, he would not have got infected.

This is very true!

Marketing is a big issue IMO. It's one of the main reasons why I have pretty much gotten away from the vast majority of 3rd party AV's. I'm just tired of the scare tactics they use when it comes to security. Sadly the vast majority of people get scared from it, and buy into them.:emoji_disappointed: We've been told for so long that we need an AV that it's just ingrained into our everyday lives when it comes to using a computer. It has become an automatic assumption that everyone makes, no one thinks twice about it.

It's certainly a prevalent idea in security forums as well. That's why we are always seeing "what is the best" threads even when the protection offered by mostly all products is equivalent with negligible differences.

+1

 

[camo7782]

These problems stem from the fact that Bit Defender has an unworkable, almost completely broken Firewall. It WILL throttle connections, disrupt activity and cause you grief in the end. I don't even know how Bit Defender still has a following with how buggy and at times utterly unusable it is.

I noticed it is also blocking my Google Sync, however it is not the firewall in my case, disabling andvanced threat defense and safe files resolve the issue. It is also annoying that the support not always understand your ticket (in english) GData support was more sharp but it was slowing down my PC a lot more than BD not sure why really. Updating the signatures was a pain and at times modules quit working, I though I was infected but it seems it was just faulty for some reason.

I agree with this as well. If you aren’t opening unknown attachments or downloading cracks or torrents and are a home user a lot of security software discussed here is overboard. There are definitely use cases for locking things down, but don’t drive yourself crazy looking for a perfect combo of multiple solutions.

All the e-mail is passing by Google, even e-mails sent to my domains is downloaded from Google and from Rackspace before that, it should filter the most bad files, torrents could be a possibility on my gaming PC, I dont donwload crack or warez of sort I buy all my games/software or find a free alternative in case. I have replaced most commercial software on my work PC keeping it simple and as fast as an old PC could be.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

GData support was more sharp but it was slowing down my PC a lot more than BD not sure why really. Updating the signatures was a pain and at times modules quit working, I though I was infected but it seems it was just faulty for some reason.

GData has some bugs, one of the old ones is where modules cease to function. Incredibly annoying. Slow signature updates. But as far as slowdowns, I've never noticed anything too intense with GData in terms of impact.

 

[camo7782]

But as far as slowdowns, I've never noticed anything too intense with GData in terms of impact.

I noticed it when opening Photoshop or AI, I have to close firefox and other apps to have both GData and the software running.