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| Thread ID: 80840 | 2007-07-06 09:30:00 | Avast vs NOD32 - a review | FoxyMX (5) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 566456 | 2007-07-06 09:30:00 | Having been a happy user of Avast for a couple of years I recently gave NOD32 a twirl to see how they compared . Avast won . Here are my thoughts . 1 . Price: NOD32 costs NZ$70 . 20 for a 1PC 1 year licence . This is the same as it was a year ago despite the NZ dollar being much higher now than it was back then so that means somebody must be pocketing a nice tidy little bonus . Avast Pro is $US39 . 95 (approx . $NZ51) for a 1PC 1 year licence . Annual licence renewal for NOD32 has a 40% discount which makes it $42 . 12 per annum after the first year . A 2-year licence for Avast Pro will cost $US57 . 94, approx $NZ74 at today's rate . Avast also offers a 3-year licence at $US74 . 13 . Avast does, of course offer a free version for home users with a few less features than the Professional version has . 2 . After a custom install NOD32 downloaded over 7MB worth of updates . Subsequent automatically updates were tiny like Avast's . 3 . The user interface is no better or worse than Avast and exploring all the options reveals the usual things that can be tweaked, such as what you want NOD to do when it finds something it doesn't like, etc . Pretty much the same as Avast . 4 . A shortcut was placed on my Desktop which, similar to Avast, opens the On-Demand (Manual) Scanner . What annoyed me the first time I opened it was that NOD immediately began scanning my entire system and gave me no choice as to which drive I wanted scanned or any other option . I couldn't cancel it without shutting the program down via Task Manager either, which didn't impress me much so I just let it do its thing . The scan itself took about as long as Avast for a "deep scan" so neither was better than the other in that respect . I have a bunch of emails infected with the KAK worm and was intrigued that NOD32 did not pick them up . It wasn't until exploring the options later that I discovered that scanning email files was disabled by default which I thought a bit unwise . NOD found the infected files after enabling this option . 5 . Avast is much quicker at "scanning on demand" when right-clicking on a file or files or a folder in Windows Explorer and choosing "Scan with . . . " . It immediately pops up a small progress window, does its thing then closes its window if no virus is found . If you wish you can set Avast to display the results even if clean but I never use that option, I like it when the window just quietly closes . NOD32, on the other hand, takes a few seconds to open its progress window and takes a lot longer to do the scanning . It also displays the results window which I then have to close . I can find no option to turn that feature off so I very much prefer Avast for this task . 6 . My essential CardFile took much longer to open with NOD32 installed and saving the files and navigating around CardFile suddenly took forever which was a real nuisance . Since I use CardFile all the time I was not impressed so I decided to go back to Avast and now CardFile is back to its usual speedy self . There are several options I could have turned off in NOD that might have prevented this slow down but in my view it shouldn't be necessary . It isn't slow with Avast when all options are enabled so why should NOD be any different? 7 . Apart from the shortcut icon on the Desktop I had no other shortcuts to NOD . Nothing was added to my Start Menu so when I quit NOD to try and investigate whether NOD was actually causing CardFile's slow-down there was no way to start NOD up again other than reboot the computer . Seemed a bit of a strange one to me but I could possibly have inadvertantly not enabled the option for Start Menu shortcuts when installing the program, I don't know . 8 . Upon booting up my computer, I initially thought it was just a coincidence when my PC sometimes froze upon reaching the log on screen but it hasn't happened since uninstalling NOD and reinstalling Avast so I am now certain that there was a conflict somewhere . 9 . Both programs took less than 2 seconds to uninstall themselves then a reboot to complete the task . In comparison Norton's takes a good 5 minutes or so to untangle itself on a fast PC and three times as long on a slower one . Both NOD32 and Avast are excellent anti-virus programs but for the above reasons Avast is the one for me . |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 566457 | 2007-07-06 09:34:00 | Very useful info there Foxy:thumbs: I recently installed Avast on my bosses new PC laptop. I use AVG on XP Pro in Parallels on my iMac since Windows still needs protection even if my iMac is safe. |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 566458 | 2007-07-06 11:38:00 | Foxy you must have had something wrong with your system. I have installed NOD32 on over 100 systems and never once had anything like you describe with no shortcuts etc or the automatic scanning when you first opened NOD. Also the email scanning has always been on by default. NOD32 also have 2 & 3 year licenses available. From memory the 3 year one is about $150. Does Avast stop spyware or root kits? |
CYaBro (73) | ||
| 566459 | 2007-07-06 19:31:00 | I have been useing NOD32 for about 3 years. During that period I have not seen a single virus. Therefore I have no interest in other AV's/ Price should not even be a consideration if you are happy with the results. Avast may be just as good, but I am not going to find out. |
JJJJJ (528) | ||
| 566460 | 2007-07-06 22:38:00 | Price: NOD32 costs NZ$70 . 20 for a 1PC 1 year licence . Avast Pro is $US39 . 95 (approx . $NZ51) for a 1PC 1 year licence . A shortcut was placed on my Desktop which, similar to Avast, opens the On-Demand (Manual) Scanner . What annoyed me the first time I opened it was that NOD immediately began scanning my entire system and gave me no choice as to which drive I wanted scanned or any other option . I couldn't cancel it without shutting the program down via Task Manager either, which didn't impress me much so I just let it do its thing . I have a bunch of emails infected with the KAK worm and was intrigued that NOD32 did not pick them up . It wasn't until exploring the options later that I discovered that scanning email files was disabled by default which I thought a bit unwise . NOD found the infected files after enabling this option . 5 . Avast is much quicker at "scanning on demand" when right-clicking on a file or files or a folder in Windows Explorer and choosing "Scan with . . . " . It immediately pops up a small progress window, does its thing then closes its window if no virus is found . If you wish you can set Avast to display the results even if clean but I never use that option, I like it when the window just quietly closes . NOD32, on the other hand, takes a few seconds to open its progress window and takes a lot longer to do the scanning . It also displays the results window which I then have to close . I can find no option to turn that feature off so I very much prefer Avast for this task . 7 . Apart from the shortcut icon on the Desktop I had no other shortcuts to NOD . Nothing was added to my Start Menu so when I quit NOD to try and investigate whether NOD was actually causing CardFile's slow-down there was no way to start NOD up again other than reboot the computer . Not if you buy it from a US site which I always do: $49 . 8403 NZ for a new license, $34 . 8882 for a renewal . Funny, must have been the way you set it up - did you let it install using default options? Because I always install everything custom and then its how I want it straight away . And I have never had to end task it, you just click cancel scan . |
pctek (84) | ||
| 566461 | 2007-07-06 23:19:00 | I recently installed Avast on my bosses new PC laptop. I use AVG on XP Pro in Parallels on my iMac since Windows still needs protection even if my iMac is safe.As an aside... whats the point having mac installed yet using windows (on vm)? Does mac not have the necessary applications or compatibility within its apps? | Myth (110) | ||
| 566462 | 2007-07-07 00:52:00 | As an aside... whats the point having mac installed yet using windows (on vm)? Does mac not have the necessary applications or compatibility within its apps? Yes OS X has the compatible apps. I carried my old PC versions of Photoshop/InDesign and my old PC fonts from Design school over before I got Adobe CS3 for Mac installed since I have a couple of design jobs that use those fonts from a job that I setup in Freehand. I have downloaded a demo version of Fontographer to convert the fonts - just have to figure out how it works. Sometimes it is handy to have Windows installed even if I don't use it for browsing. I have used it a bit for Safari in Windows. |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 566463 | 2007-07-07 05:01:00 | I knew it was a good idea to post that novel here - thanks for the feedback guys . :thumbs: Righty-ho . . . Foxy you must have had something wrong with your system . Does Avast stop spyware or root kits? I uninstalled Avast (again . . . ) and reinstalled NOD32 . This time I got Start Menu shortcuts and upon firing up the On-Demand scanner it did not go off scanning anything immediately . I also got a list of drives to select for scanning and I can't remember seeing that previously . Not that my memory is the greatest, mind you . :p I guess I must have had a corrupt install . :rolleyes: This time around the AMON protection option was disabled upon installation which has made a huge difference to using CardFile - it is no longer sluggish but as quick as it should be . :thumbs: Avast does not deal with spyware nor rootkits but there are plans for the latter in a near-future version . I have scanned my PC with several rootkits with clean results every time so the PC is not infected . Not if you buy it from a US site which I always do: $49 . 8403 NZ for a new license, $34 . 8882 for a renewal . How do you manage to buy from a US site? When I click on the Purchase button I get redirected to the NZ site with NZ prices . :confused: |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
| 566464 | 2007-07-07 05:23:00 | Foxy you must have had something wrong with your system. I have installed NOD32 on over 100 systems and never once had anything like you describe with no shortcuts etc or the automatic scanning when you first opened NOD. Also the email scanning has always been on by default. NOD32 also have 2 & 3 year licenses available. From memory the 3 year one is about $150. Does Avast stop spyware or root kits? I have Nod 32 and have just had a malware attack,old Speedy was needed to resolve. |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 566465 | 2007-07-07 05:32:00 | Yes OS X has the compatible apps. I carried my old PC versions of Photoshop/InDesign and my old PC fonts from Design school over before I got Adobe CS3 for Mac installed since I have a couple of design jobs that use those fonts from a job that I setup in Freehand. I have downloaded a demo version of Fontographer to convert the fonts - just have to figure out how it works. Sometimes it is handy to have Windows installed even if I don't use it for browsing. I have used it a bit for Safari in Windows. I have Windows installed here and it works for me. Along with my applications. Windows is not used for browsing as I understand it. So if I went and bought a 'Mac then I could browse on the Internet using just the O/S? Try getting off your Platform or Soapbox. Or if you can actually help a pressF1 member with a problem then feel free. A few people on this forum just want to fix a problem and may have a fair investment in hardware and software. They may not want to convert files from one format to another. They may not need to. My IE6 is broken. Answers:- Use a Mac Use Linux Use whatever And etc |
Sweep (90) | ||
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