Avira AntiVIR vs Norton Antivirus 2009 – Performance

Most of the users nowadays love to echo what other people said. Sometime, the things they echoed already not valid in current time frame. For example, Karpersky AV might be one of the greatest AV last 2 years, but their current product (even KAV 2009) fails to make this big K, king of Antivirus hill.

So do with Norton. Since 2003, Norton AntiVirus (NAV) was known as resource hungry security product. It will slow down your Windows, slow down your games, file copy and everything. Prior to 2003, Norton was King of The hill but start from 2004 and upward, this product needs to pass its crown to other product. So, most users nowadays will keep saying, Norton AV is a heavy antivirus, resource hogger and slow. But for those who read my entry early this year, I wrote that NAV2008 was no longer a heavy and resource hogger as they used to be. But still, to beat Nod32 and Avira AntiVIR in term of performance (how bad it will slowdown boot time, slow your running application etc), it was quite an impossible job for NAV 2008.

So my aim today is to compare between Avira AntiVIR SE (Free, but use the very same scan engine as paid version except POP3 scanner, webshield and spyware remover) and Norton AntiVirus 2009 (3 month trial period, you may get it at the bottom of this review : AV scanner, IM, web protect, email pop3 protect etc).

Why do I choose Avira Antivir to be compared with NAV2009? Because Avira AntiVir is my favorite antivirus this year, top scorer in av-comparative.org, light on resource and free. I tested KAV2009 and uninstall it after a week. Too heavy for my liking. I tested RisingAV for 2 months and ditched it when I found my computer infected by a dozen of viruses. (Lucky for me to have a full backup image and at the end of the day, I still use Avira. However, NAV2009 start to make its noise in several computer tech. forum especially on how light it is (compare to previous version of nav and competitor product) and computer resource friendly. I can’t insist the temptation to test it and make a small benchmark between my trusted Avira SE and NAV 2009.

So, what I will do are :

• Boot time measurement: I will measure how long my computer boot, start from the boot loader, until vista show its desktop. Repeat 3 times for both Avira and NAV.
• Measure memory consumption after 12 minutes Vista successfully boot up. The idea is I want to let the OS settle down after the booting process. I decide to let it idle (after boot) for 12 minutes, and take a “task manager -> Performance” screenshot.
• Performance Test using Passmark 6.1 which I run 3 times for each contender.
• As reference, I will measure boot time, idle memory consumption and performance test 6.1 marks when there is no antivirus install in my system. This will give a clear indication how much antivirus does affect my overall PC performance.

 

Result :

 

	Avira Antivir SE	NAV 2009	Without Any AV
Boot time 1 (sec)	26.5 sec	26.7 sec	26.1 sec
Boot time 2 (sec)	26.8 sec	26.4 sec	25.83 sec
Boot time 3 (sec)	25.92 sec	26.44 sec	25.3 sec
12 minutes after boot idle memory consumption (MB)	605 MB	609 MB	602 MB
Performance Test 1 (mark)	674.1	680.4	688.0
Performance Test 2 (mark)	686.0	687.5	691.5
Performance Test 3 (mark)	690.4	689.4	691.8

 

 

 

Boot Time (in second, less is better) : Avira AV seem doesn’t toll my system too much during boot time. Averagely around 1 second which is very good. I used to think Avira Antivir slowdown my boot time a lot and these numbers amaze me. NAV 2009 also proves that it only slow down my boot time for averagely 1 second. I don’t expect NAV to perform this good honestly. Due to so many variable involve, I dare to say, NAV09 and Avira Antivir SE perform roughly neck to neck (in term of boot time measurement).

12 Minutes idle total memory usage (less is better) : During 12 minutes idle, I saw several times fluctuation between 607 MB and 609 MB on system with NAV installed. I guess Norton AV 2009 Pulse Update do its work and consume 2 MB more for that short period of purpose. I dare to say, in complete idle situation, system with NAV09 use approximately 607 MB, 2 MB more than Avira AntiVir. Not bad actually provided it protect my IM, web safe, POP3 outlook, anti-spyware where Avira AntiVIR free edition lack of those features. Kinda trade-off.

Performance Test Mark :

NAV2009 beat Avira for first and second attempt of the benchmark. However, Avira able to outperform Norton AV 2009 in third attempt. Norton might has its edge here but the different is not significant.

 

Verdict :

Norton AntiVirus 2009 is one of the lightest and complete antivirus solutions to date. In term of PC performance penalty, it performs as well as Avira AntiVir SE if not better. However, it offer more features than Avira Antivir free (Premium edition has all those bell and whistle too). Impulse Update is a good idea as it keeps update virus definition and white-list very frequently (4 minute interval?). Norton Insight, according to Norton community blog, could reduce scanning speed tremendously. However, NAV2009 is not cheap. Price range (internationally) from USD 20 to USD 30. In Malaysia, NAV 2009 will cost you approximately RM130. So, if money is an object, I rather settle with Avira Antivir SE.

I dearly hope this mini review will clear some of common misunderstanding regarding Norton Anti Virus. Yes, NAV was a resource hogger before, but Norton Dev Team finally able improves their product exponentially. NAV2008 show a very good indication toward system resource friendly principal and NAV09 make a quantum leap for Norton AV product. If NAV2009 is not the lightest AV in the market currently, it is ONE of the LIGHTEST (and protects your PC well) anti virus money could buy today.

 

Screenshot:

No Anti-Virus Installed.

 

 

Avira AntiVirus.

 

Norton Antivirus 2009.

 

 

Effectiveness :

I can’t review how effective they are but I put my trust base on av-comperative.org (an independent lab, that put their effort in testing various kind of AV in the market). According to them (http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2008_08.php), Avira score 99.6% while Symantec Norton 99.0%. (Kaspersky only manage to get 97.6%, ouch. Even Avast Pro beat big K). I honestly don’t very sure either Norton here (I mean from the link above) is NAV08 or NAV09. But I assume if NAV08 score this well, NAV09 should perform better due to Norton Insight feature. One thing worth to note is, NAV has few false positive but Avira, according to av-comperative has many. False positive is a situation where antivirus report legit and normal files as virus. Once they quarantine or delete this file, what will happen to your computer is unthinkable. A scanner with high false positive might lead to higher detection rate but it is kind of cheating for antivirus developer. Ideally, an antivirus should has 100% detection rate with ZERO false positive. So, practically, we as the users are looking for highest detection rate with very few false positive.

 

Download Link :

Norton Antivirus 2009 (3 months trial) :
HERE

Avira AntiVIR (free) : HERE

AV comparative on-demand report : HERE

PassMark Antivirus Performance performance report : HERE

Rising AV Performance

If you read my other post, I mentioned that I am using Rising Antivirus since last 2 months (almost). Previousy, I use Avira Antivir (Free) and would like to give Rising AV (free too) a try judgin from their features (AV+HIPS+Anti Trojan). However, recently the way my computer behave quite weird. Out of the blue the hard disk and CPU activity spike like no tomorrow till my Vista almost lock up. It happen many times (more than 10) so I suspect that my computer security already compromised.

A quick check at Rising AV Security Audit (as screenshot below), shows it got High Security with no virus infection. Run full scan exhibit no virus at all. I still not satisfy.

 

 

So, I redownload Avira Antivir again and update it. Run full scan and tadaaa… 13 viruses infected. Oh my God.

 

 

So, I have to say Sayonara for rising AV and welcome back Avira.

Best Free PC Security (AV, AS, etc) Sotware

“What is the best free Anti Virus and/or Firewall and/or Anti Spyware program?”
Therefore I have made a list of these programs.

To get the best security programs (Eset/NOD32 or Kaspersky for instance), usually you will have to pay but
there are however some very good (and some excellent) programs available for free.

Almost all programs listed are available for XP and Vista, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
These are all free programs, not time-limited trial versions.
You will have to find the right version for your OS yourself through the links below.

Rising Antivirus : Full Feature Certified AntiVirus

I found this product from WilderSecurity forum (my favorite PC security forum honestly). This FREE internet security product named : Rising AntiVirus. At first, I am very skeptical with this product. Perhaps it is my first impression as I never heard this kind of antivirus. But, after reading here and there, cross check with independent lab, I could rest assure this product is a legit one.

Before we go any further, let see what certifications this antivirus has :

Is your antivirus enough?

Trojans – myths & facts

Not so long ago, the more knowledgeable PC users were well aware of the risks that computer viruses posed. Only a few years later, almost every PC user is aware of the very-real dangers that a virus can pose. Many of us use some form of anti-virus software, and a reasonable number of us diligently keep the anti-virus definitions up to date.

Only a complete novice would question the need for good anti-virus software today. However many users do not realise that these programs may actually provide their users with a false sense of security. One common mistake is to assume that anti-virus software automatically means that your system is secure. It isn’t. Most anti-virus applications deal specifically with one thing – viruses. They don’t protect your system from intruders, and they don’t ensure that other software that you may use is secure and legitimate.

Another very dangerous assumption that many users of anti-virus software make, is that their anti-virus application will also keep their systems clear of trojans. Not so. In order to understand this, let’s take a step back.

Despite the fact that they are often confused, viruses and trojans are two very different things. A virus by definition makes copies of itself and spreads, in much the same way that it’s biological namesake will do among hosts. A trojan on the other hand, also known as a trojan horse, is simply a program that pretends to be something else.

So why are trojans or trojan horses so dangerous? The basic idea is that you download a program, for example one that you think is some sort a game demo. When you run the demo, to your surprise, nothing happens. Or so you thought.

What may have happened is that you’ve just unwittingly run some form of program that has planted itself on your hard drive. Perhaps it’s going to be a very basic application, and simply delete some files on your system. Perhaps it’s an even more sinister tool that will actually give other people full access to your hard drive and system. Sounds ridiculous? It happens literally every single day, to computer users all around the world.

Whether the trojan you just unwittingly downloaded and installed will delete files from your system, open your web connection to snoopers, share your emails or simply watch everything that you do, one thing’s for sure. You don’t want it there.

And the terrifying fact? You may want to be sure that you’re sitting down here. Most anti-virus applications will not protect your system from trojan horses. Why? Well the real question is why should they? As explained, a virus and a trojan are two very different things. Getting a shot from a Doctor against the flu won’t protect you from being hit by a bus after you leave the surgery. Other preventative measures are required.

So in the above scenario of the user downloading what they think is a game demo, they may even scan the file with their anti virus software, and receive the all clear. Why? Because the file isn’t infected with a virus. The anti-virus software isn’t saying that the software is safe to install, it isn’t saying that it won’t make a mess of your system files, and most importantly, it isn’t saying that it doesn’t contain a trojan or trojan horse.

In short, if you want to keep your PC safe, follow the three golden hints.

1. Use a good anti trojan application, that offers regular trojan definition updates. Use the software regularly, and keep it up to date.
2. Use a good anti virus application, that offers regular virus definition updates. Use the software, and keep it up to date.
3. Keep your operating system up to date with security fixes. Details of Microsoft’s security updates may be found at their website.

What is the best AntiVirus?

What is the best antivirus?

This one of the most popular question regarding PC security in any kind of discussion, be it in public forum or coffee shop talk. And we mostly heard a lot of recommendation and the best part is, some of the recommendation really contradict with each other. So, back to the question, what is the best one.

We flip our favorite computer magazine A, product ABC got editor choice and we flip another one, product XYZ got the throne. It really make general nettizen in wonder right. However, all those review are not absolutely right but not absolutely wrong.

In order to find the wright answer for this tricky question, we need to clear up what is BEST mean to you. Different people has different perspective in his/her best antivirus definition. So, we need to rethink what is it. Is it :

• The best detection rate at any cost?
• The lightest?
• The most complete even it actually bloat and don’t really need all the bell and whistle?
• The cheapest?
• Freeware?
• Most popular in the market?
• Fastest company reaction time to zero day virus?
• Most friendly and effective customer support (free or charged?)
• Got Offline definiton update?
• Got the best definition to date?
• or the best heuristic engine (even without proper definition database, it will catch the virus) ?
• has zero false positive?
• Able to support medium scale to large scale network environment?
• All the above???

In the ideal world, for my very own definition, it should be all the above. But, come on. No company able to provide top of the world antivirus (quality, detection, etc etc) for free right. They need some money to feed their kid too

That is why you need to re-evaluate which criteria is mandatory for your need.

In term of detection rate (definition and heuristic engine), we are blessed. They are several independent and reputable lab which intensively test and evealuate most antivirus detection capability for for free. One of them are av-comprative.org Click Here

•  Restospective Test November 2007 result
• Anti-Virus comparative August 2007 result

 

Beside that, if you are willing to subscribe, VB100 and WestCoast lab (to name a few) should provide you most up to date antivirus test result.

As a smart user, we shouldn’t rely on advert site which test antivirus base on which company fill their pocket most. I believe one of them :

http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

It clearly didn’t state how they test and evaluate it. Anyone with a domain and keyboard able to make those review right. So, logon to av-comparative and have a look on their latest finding. Just bear in mind, anti-virus evolve not annually but sooner than that. It depend on how aggressive the company respond to latest threat, update their definition database, improve their scan and heuristic engine etc. I find out from av-comparative, that excellent antivirus early of 2007 not necessary will be the best one, next 6 months.

Resource friendly antivirus, one of the most popular one is Nod32. It very light but yet effective. It is recognized by its advance heuristic engine which is able to catch virus even their database has no information about the virus. For layman term, Heuristic engine for antivirus is a mechanism for an antivirus to detect, recognize a virus base on its behavior, not signature. Certain people who has no 24-7 internet connection might think this approach really come in handy. Furthermore, heuristic engine able to protect your computer from zero-day virus (which obviously no other company has signature or defenition for it yet).

Norton was known for how unfriendly it was to computer resources compare to other competitor product. It was. But the latest version improve a lot. BitDefender also a little bit on heavy side.

For Malaysian market, antivirus software already cheap enough for local to buy it (read : genuine). Bitdefeder for 3 licenses only RM60. Kaspersky, the lowest price I able to find approx RM40. For the record, USD 1.00 = RM 3.80. If price is your main concern, then Kaspersky might be your best bet.

Avira Antivir, AVG, Avast, Comodo AntiVirus and Bitdefender 9 are among free antivirus for home user. Antivir has high detection rate but a bit too many false positive. Bitdefender 9 has no real-time protection. But still, it is a very good manual scanner. Avast and AVG also pretty good contender. If you ask me to choose any of them…I will go for Antivir. (Bear in mind, AVG free is not equal AVG paid version, so av-comparative result might not reflect well for free av).

*******************************************************

So, when your friend insist on certain brand is the best av in the world, all time champion etc, ask him to visit those independent lab website. Sharing is caring

PS : Some of my friend are hard die fan to certain brand. They keep promote their favorite antivirus like no tomorrow lol. Imagine, AVG free better than Kaspersky 7? Be my guest

NAV2008 Experience Update

After use it more than 24 hours, here is my current finding.

It very light by Norton standard. Almost unnoticeable when it idling.

BUT

It really slow down your CPU (not RAM), when you do anything related to intensive hard disk utilization like defrag and installation. Imagine, I use PowerDefrag GUI with Ms defrag API, one of my CPU core constantly 100%. When I install office 2007 from hdd2 to hdd1, both of my core running at 100%. I need double amount of time to install office 2007 win nav2008 in my system.

You judge it.

Norton AntiVirus 2008

Norton was my favorite brand for PC protection and windows maintenance since 1997. Windows 95 with first generation pentium (perhaps MMX addition), Norton Utilities and Norton AntiVirus. At that era, Norton was a very big brand (it still for major population). However, I start to disband this product since they release Norton AntiVirus 2004.

As far as I remember, using Windows XP with 512 MB (Athlon 1600+ at that moment), NAV always make my computer slower significantly. Sometime, I even relate this product as antivirus which act like a virus. NAV 2003-2006 really resource hungry. And since that moment, I started to look alternative AV. So, as the clock keep ticking, besides another bigboy AV such as McAfee, Pc Cillin etc, I started to know Nod32 and Kaspersky which till today, are the best AntiVirus for me and most computer geek as well.

Nod32 is famous because of its advance heuristic engine + small footprint while Kaspersky is well known for it superior detection rate. However, last night, I have to kiss a good bye to these products and restudy some alternative to protect my PC without these too big name in PC security.

Why ? You may ask….

Both nod32 and kav (with their latest update), conflict with my torrent program, precisely uTorrent. When I use uTorrent with nod32 protected my PC, I can’t even browse. I need to either shutdown nod32 or uTorrent (need restart). This is seriously not convenient for me. Just for the record, I was using Nod32 3.0 aka Eset Smart Security. Auto update (definition and program) was ON all the time. And to be honest, for the last 2 month, ESS has no problem at all with uTorrent. Only recently.

So, I open up av-comperative.org to study available alternative for me. And found out that Symantec Norton got Advance+ rating too. Not bad for detection rate. I rule out Avira AntiVir because I already evaluate that product couple of month ago. And I do not like it much due to aggressive advertisement (I use free edition instead of premium) and too many false positive for my liking. Nostalgic with the Norton name, I decide to make some homework regarding this product with uncle Google.

I found out that this latest version has improve in some critical area such as code optimization which lead to smaller footprint, less resource hungry, faster scanner and yada yada yada about their protection superiority. But what caught my attention was, they explicitly state this version is faster than Norton AV2005 and 2006. Hmm…. perhaps I should give it a try.

The installation file will cost you 52.2 MB to be downloaded. Normal trialware period is 15 days, but I manage to get 90 days promotion one. You may get it here.

However, bear in mind that, this product will eat up more than 300 MB your precious hard disk (well if you treasure every single MB), a lot more compare to competitor espcially nod32. However, i don’t care much about 300 MB thinggy when 250GB hard disk already consider low end hard disk for today standard. We are talking in TB term today, not GB anymore..so why should I care about MB thing.

Basically, NAV2008 require your PC at least :

Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 Home/XP Pro/XP Media Center Edition

Windows Vista™** Home/Home Premium/Ultimate/Business/Starter Edition

• 300MHz or faster processor
• 256MB of RAM
• 300 MB of available hard disk space
• Standard Web browser

Note that, NAV2008 do not support Win200 and older OS anymore.

So, my current rig are as follows :

• Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2 GHz (2 MB L2 Cache)
• 2 GB DDR2 667
• Geforce 8600GT
• 250GB Sata2 16MB x 2
• Windows Vista Ultimate (with latest update)
• and the rest not important for this review.

***********************************************************************

Installation was a breeze. Double click the installation file and the installer will take care everything including scan up your PC, update it and finalize the instalation. At the end of installation process, it will ask you for the license key or keep evaluating it for 90 days (I choose to evaluate it). Norton offer me to register and create and account ; and I did it (even I don’t even know when will I use it in the future).

Reboot…..(couple of seconds longer than fresh vista with drivers boot time)

So the best part is here. Norton AV2008 do not slow down my computer at all. It might eat some CPU cycle, couple of MB rams, but I didn’t notice it at all. Relatively, my boot time (from cold boot till my Izzi connection establish (usually the last thing will happen everytime I reboot my PC)) is much longer Eset Smart Security. Eset smart security or I prefer to call it nod32, has a nasty habit which it need so many seconds to start up. The splash screen showing metal android pasted on my desktop for more than 20 seconds. Kaspersky in the other hand has “Scan Critical Area during start up function” default to ON. So, everytime I reboot or boot my PC, my PC will become slugish. For normal user, which has no idea how to turn this features OFF will conclude KIV make his/her pc slower too. However, NAV2008 doesn’t exhibit any kind of these problems at all. It silently loaded into the memory during startup (no splash screen what so ever) and will not make my hdd led light up like disco spotlight. Honestly…really set and forget.

So, I investigate how much resource NAV2008 toll up from my system. Here is my finding.

Footprint on idle : 5 MB and Footprint while scanning : Approximately 65+ MB. (I can live with that)

Scanning my 500 GB hard disk take some time. Nod32 defenitely faster but Kaspersky slower.

But, I found that NAV2008 has one nice feature when I minimize the scan windows, as the picture below.

By let it scan my PC in the background, i barely feel any performance hit. So, I can scan my computer and keep doing my work. I am multitasking with graphics editor software, multi-tab firefox for this blogging, manual scan for antivirus, heavily download using torrent (with more than 500 global connection setting). I can’t do the same thing with KAV. Even nod32 can’t give this kind of performance experience. (Nod32 is lighter if it is compare to Norton without background scanning. And nod32 scan a lot faster too)

The above screenshot is my current CPU usage history while I do all those things I mention before. And I still have 1 GB of RAMs free.

So, I think, for those you just say NORTON SUX, a piece of shit, crap, uber memory hogger etc, you should try for yourself and judge it. NAV2008 is really different piece of software compare to its predecessor. Good job for Symantec Software Engineer who finally able to solve major norton product problem. At least, better late than never.

It may not lighter than nod32 but it A LOT lighter than Norton 2005 and 2006.

I guess, this product will stay in my PC for another 90 days at least. Welcome back Norton AV to my green listed book.