wshich is better your AV or avast to run with threatfire and your firewall.

[cricket01]

HI all right now i'm using your pc tools firewall threatfire and avast would it be better to also switch over to your anti virus as well? as i notest that threatfire with avast running sometimes says initiating and sits there lol. any advise helpful not sure how good your AV is.

[PC-Pete]

It depends on your needs and perceived risk level.

Avast is generally more capable, comprehensive and configurable than PC Tools AV (though it only uses heuristic detection for email).

Avast Home is better at IMAP email scanning, has a fully seamless plug-in for MS Outlook, is faster at on-access scanning and scans more file types by default, includes anti-rootkit, network, web, IM and P2P shields.

As a stand-alone, Avast offers better protection than PC Tools AV against malware getting onto your PC in the first place. Combining Avast with Threatfire makes it even more secure but from time to time there may be conflicts. I'm currently using Avast Home 4.8.1229 and ThreatFire 4.0.0.8 on a Vista 32 notebook and XP SP3 desktop with no apparent problems. I've contemplated trying the PC Tools AV and Threatfire combo but have never felt enough of an urge to actually do it.

Pete :cool:

[cricket01]

It depends on your needs and perceived risk level.

Avast is generally more capable, comprehensive and configurable than PC Tools AV (though it only uses heuristic detection for email).

Avast Home is better at IMAP email scanning, has a fully seamless plug-in for MS Outlook, is faster at on-access scanning and scans more file types by default, includes anti-rootkit, network, web, IM and P2P shields.

As a stand-alone, Avast offers better protection than PC Tools AV against malware getting onto your PC in the first place. Combining Avast with Threatfire makes it even more secure but from time to time there may be conflicts. I'm currently using Avast Home 4.8.1229 and ThreatFire 4.0.0.8 on a Vista 32 notebook and XP SP3 desktop with no apparent problems. I've contemplated trying the PC Tools AV and Threatfire combo but have never felt enough of an urge to actually do it.

Pete :cool:

would not ThreatFire and Pctools antivirus be about the same protection? i don't use outlook so not worried about e-mail plug. yes avast and threatfire seam to clash here sometime on start up making me restart. to get it out of limbo lol.

[cricket01]

so would TF and PC Tool firewall be just as good?

[cricket01]

:) anyone now if it would make a good combo your AV and TF i want a lighter package than avast and TF as there is minor problems with TF and Avast.

[PC-Pete]

:) anyone now if it would make a good combo your AV and TF i want a lighter package than avast and TF as there is minor problems with TF and Avast.

Hi cricket01

For me there are currently no "minor problems with TF and Avast" so this is not an issue. PC Tools AV is a good product, I think it is great that PC Tools make it available for free and it should work fine together with TF. But I also believe in using the best solution currently available. ;)

So if you are looking for a lighter setup why not first try custom uninstalling some of the Avast components you do not "need" given that you have TF as well. You can also customise the sensitivity of the "Standard Shield"

[cricket01]

Hi cricket01

For me there are currently no "minor problems with TF and Avast" so this is not an issue. PC Tools AV is a good product, I think it is great that PC Tools make it available for free and it should work fine together with TF. But I also believe in using the best solution currently available. ;)

So if you are looking for a lighter setup why not first try custom uninstalling some of the Avast components you do not "need" given that you have TF as well. You can also customise the sensitivity of the "Standard Shield"

the minor problem i speak of is avast sometimes stopping TF from not initializing if i turn off avast TF works great. so wanted to switch to something that plays better with TF. so i figured PcTools AV would be a good choice. is it just as good as avast? if so i switch to it and might have a lighter pc load. i have got most of the stuff i don't need in avast turned off or not installed already did that the first day i got it.

[cricket01]

reason i ask if the AV is good is i can't find any results about it online.

[PC-Pete]

In the absense of answers or comments from moderators and/or other forum members (the usual moderator of this forum, Anthony Chen, is on leave until November 24) Let me summarise....

You'll have to try it for yourself. :)


PC Tools AV effectively detects and removes viruses and some other malware and has a low RAM footprint.
Unlike Avast, Avira, AVG and Rising, it is free for both home and commercial use and I have generally positive feedback on it from (cheapskate) commercial users.

But as much as I like PC Tools AV, it has its limitations.

The core on-access service is not 100% stable, especially when scanning email with Thunderbird. When it crashes the PC keeps working with no protection until a reboot. The commercial users are behind a firewall/router and have their emails filtered so I've advised them to turn off the "Email Guard" resulting in very few stability issues.

Virus definition updates are not as frequent as Avast.

Virus definition updates are not completely automatic.

On-access scanning of executables is slower than Avast (but better than some).


Pete :cool:

[cricket01]

so there is know automatic update of definitions is that what you mean?

[PC-Pete]

If your PC is always on and connected, the once-a-day check will automatically install any available updates.

See http://www.pctools.com/forum/showpost.php?p=184076&postcount=18 point 3/.

[cricket01]

wow i'm surprised they have not fixed this yet. so the user actually has to be there to do this. that is not to good at all avast free and others i have tried always done this for me. i see what your saying by this being a security risk indeed. is there security suet the same whey? as it has the same antivirus.

[PC-Pete]

The PC Tools Security Suite, like Threatfire, updates automatically without user intervention.

[cricket01]

are they going to make it so the AV dose this as well as other free versions do. my TF for some reason dose not update itself i think there working on this issue :(

[cricket01]

still thinking of switching to this AV as i'm getting sick of the avast TF issue.

[Sam]

still thinking of switching to this AV as i'm getting sick of the avast TF issue.
Try BOClean instead of ThreatFire. The big problem is that when ThreatFire finds malware it also blows away safe apps such as Firefox and Free Download Manager that may be running at the time. It also takes up 100% cpu when it kills a file. I said enough is enough and installed BOClean.
http://www.comodo.com/boclean/boclean.html

[cricket01]

i haven't heard of this problem this is first time i heard of it. i don't like comodo products they fu@k up my computer and i refuse to install them ever again. TF i haven't had any issue with it except for the avast thing.

[Sam]

I currently am using PC Tools firewall 5 and ThreatFire 4 and recommend Avira Antivir Personal which runs seamlessly with them. Avira is free and has the best detection rates - http://www.av-comparatives.org :)

[haapy]

I have been running SD with AV and Behavior Guard (the integrated TheatFire). A very nice integrated package.

What I do for additional protection is to run Avira free AV and Malwarebytes free Antimalware as backup scanners.

I have had no conflicts and a very clean machine.

Give it a go.

[rajivrattna]

I've contemplated trying the PC Tools AV and Threatfire combo but have never felt enough of an urge to actually do it.

Pete :cool:

as I stated in the other thread, the slow update and the lack of multiple user switching capability is a real disadvantage with PC tools anti virus prog. which otherwise is good.