Advice Request Which Antivirus has no HTTP Scanning?

[Shadowra]

Can confirm @Spartan. As a recent convert to F-Secure from Defender (and ESET before that), the following is true:

1. The new F-Secure Internet Security (successor to F-Secure SAFE) has no firewall component. Supposedly it adds rules to the Windows Firewall to make it more resilent to attack and/or shutdown. But I can’t confirm that. @Shadowra will likely know the answer to this. I use Windows Firewall Control (WFC) and killed all the previous Windows Firewall rules so if F-Secure added any, I didn’t see them. All connections on my system have to ask permission manually to connect due to WFC. And yes, both F-Secure and WFC work amazingly well together. Big thanks to @piquiteco for helping set it up for me and answering all of my niche and out of the ordinary questions.

I never saw the rules either. This has to be handled internally. It's like Avira and Trendmicro.

 

[Trident]

I never saw the rules either. This has to be handled internally. It's like Avira and Trendmicro.

Trend Micro firewall booster is a joke. I have a very long license for them (and some gifts from them too) and frequently revisit TM. In all my tests, all it ever blocked was one piece of malware with some IPS-like rule. I’ve never seen any other evidence that this booster even exists.

 

[a090]

Well that's good news, I actually have a 3 year license for F-Secure AntiVirus only

I’m clearly biased and in my honeymoon phase with F-Secure. But I say go for it! I’ve been enjoying how clean and light it is. I don’t do testing anymore so I can’t comment personally on its protection capabilities but I wouldn’t have picked it if it were sub-par.

 

[a090]

I never saw the rules either. This has to be handled internally. It's like Avira and Trendmicro.

In that case, those rules should still be active on my system, yes? I used the WFC Rules Panel to delete all Windows Firewall rules and start fresh, so if F-Secure handles those rules internally, they should be unaffected by my deletion?

 

[Shadowra]

In that case, those rules should still be active on my system, yes? I used the WFC Rules Panel to delete all Windows Firewall rules and start fresh, so if F-Secure handles those rules internally, they should be unaffected by my deletion?

Normally no

 

[a090]

Normally no

No as in they are unaffected? Or no as in they are affected / deleted?

 

[Shadowra]

No as in they are unaffected? Or no as in they are affected / deleted?

For me, it shouldn't be deleted

 

[SeriousHoax]

so still has impact on web connections

Yeah it has support for both HTTP & HTTPS connections.
F-Secure filter unecrypted HTTP traffic system-wide but not HTTPS.
HTTPS traffic is filtered on supported browsers only with their extension.
Along with Panda free and custom Avast that you mentioned in your post, maybe Avira Free also doesn't filter web traffic. Web protection is available on new paid versions only AFAIK.

 

[Spartan]

Yeah it has support for both HTTP & HTTPS connections.
F-Secure filter unecrypted HTTP traffic system-wide but not HTTPS.
HTTPS traffic is filtered on supported browsers only with their extension.
Along with Panda free and custom Avast that you mentioned in your post, maybe Avira Free also doesn't filter web traffic. Web protection is available on new paid versions only AFAIK.

that's true, but I wouldn't ever come near Avira after this: Avira

 

[a090]

that's true, but I wouldn't ever come near Avira after this: Avira

Completely agree with you. But be careful. You’ll make a special Avira fan on this forum very “angy.” He’s always watching, ready to defend Avira’s honor. It’s quite cute though, so maybe you should carry on.

 

[SeriousHoax]

that's true, but I wouldn't ever come near Avira after this: Avira

Yeah, full of unwanted bloatware.
Previously it was possible to install the bloat free version using an offline installer. But don't think there is any such thing for the new version.

 

[Spartan]

I installed F-Secure AntiVirus (not the internet security/Safe) and even with HTTP Scanning on, the Bufferbloat results are excellent on my ASUS AX-GT6000 router:

 

[a090]

I installed F-Secure AntiVirus (not the internet security/Safe) and even with HTTP Scanning on, the Bufferbloat results are excellent on my ASUS AX-GT6000 router:

View attachment 274101

First time I’m hearing of this program Bufferbloat (and now I’m looking into it—thanks for sharing), but it seems like F-Secure didn’t disappoint you in the performance / lack of bloat category.

If you’re curious about the protection of F-Secure, I recommend checking out this thread: Real World, Evasive Malware and Performance Test by @Trident. F-Secure is among the programs tested. It did well but dropped the ball on a specific type of java malware. Definitely an interesting read.

Also, check out his YT channel while you’re at it. Trident and @Shadowra might be collabing soon on their respective channels.

 

[Spartan]

First time I’m hearing of this program Bufferbloat (and now I’m looking into it—thanks for sharing), but it seems like F-Secure didn’t disappoint you in the performance / lack of bloat category.

If you’re curious about the protection of F-Secure, I recommend checking out this thread: Real World, Evasive Malware and Performance Test by @Trident. F-Secure is among the programs tested. It did well but dropped the ball on a specific type of java malware. Definitely an interesting read.

Also, check out his YT channel while you’re at it. Trident and @Shadowra might be collabing soon on their respective channels.

Thanks, Bufferbloat is a website I always use to check my connection, routers, network latency, etc. as I care about having the snappiest internet and fast website loading and upload speeds.

As for F-Secure, heck, I am good with even Panda Free Antivirus. All my software is legit/licensed, I have an adblocker (block origin) so really, all I want is a good file scanner just for that extra peace of mind and I'm not so obsessed with these tests that throw hundreds of malware samples at a security program as those are extreme cases that do not represent how a typical user would use their computer.

 

[Trident]

I'm not so obsessed with these tests that throw hundreds of malware samples at a security program as those are extreme cases that do not represent how a typical user would use their computer.

This is not how the test was performed. There are about 15 samples that are evasive, 10 links that lead to malicious executable and few links that lead to malware in non-exe format (the latter 2 represent real world protection test). All products passed Real World Protection test.

Hundreds of malware samples need to be thrown by people who don’t have knowledge of malware and antimalware. I can pick one that will be a miss by everybody.

 

[Spartan]

This is not how the test was performed. There are about 15 samples that are evasive, 10 links that lead to malicious executable and few links that lead to malware in non-exe format (the latter 2 represent real world protection test). All products passed Real World Protection test.

Hundreds of malware samples need to be thrown by people who don’t have knowledge of malware and antimalware. I can pick one that will be a miss by everybody.

I like your post and how it represents real world experience with these security solutions. So disappointed with Norton, I have a license for Norton Antivirus valid until 2027 which I will not use since it bombards the user with notifications and the program is full of bloatware, system optimizer, constant nags to install their crappy browser toolbar, yada yada.

 

[Trident]

I like your post and how it represents real world experience with these security solutions. So disappointed with Norton, I have a license for Norton Antivirus valid until 2027 which I will not use since it bombards the user with notifications and the program is full of bloatware, system optimizer, constant nags to install their crappy browser toolbar, yada yada.

The browser toolbar, just like with Trend Micro is necessary. Neither Norton nor Trend Micro employ dirty/instability-generating techniques such as patching/hooking browser memory or MITMing connections. The toolbar is the only thing that can protect you (though IPS blocks some type of web attacks). Without web blocking, your protection is reduced.

The bloatware (unlike good old Avira or Avast where everything is separate program) is just few dll files. So not that big of a deal.

Notifications can now be tweaked to display only critical ones (I deducted 5 points for bombarding with notifications as IPS block is a critical one anyway and it’s been displayed again and again).

The results on the test though are another question. They were disappointing.

 

[a090]

The browser toolbar, just like with Trend Micro is necessary. Neither Norton nor Trend Micro employ dirty/instability-generating techniques such as patching/hooking browser memory or MITMing connections. The toolbar is the only thing that can protect you (though IPS blocks some type of web attacks). Without web blocking, your protection is reduced.

F-Secure falls under this category too, right? I have my browser extension enabled.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Thanks, Bufferbloat is a website I always use to check my connection, routers, network latency, etc. as I care about having the snappiest internet and fast website loading and upload speeds.

As for F-Secure, heck, I am good with even Panda Free Antivirus. All my software is legit/licensed, I have an adblocker (block origin) so really, all I want is a good file scanner just for that extra peace of mind and I'm not so obsessed with these tests that throw hundreds of malware samples at a security program as those are extreme cases that do not represent how a typical user would use their computer.

If that's your priority, then the default Microsoft Defender should be the one with no impact on network latency. There was a guy on Reddit who had similar priority and tested network latency with most of the well known AV products with and without VPN. For both categories, it was Microsoft Defender with no/the least impact. The result was the same even when MD's Network Protection feature was turned on.

 

[Trident]

F-Secure falls under this category too, right? I have my browser extension enabled.

It’s under the same category, yes.