Avast doing bad in the latest AV -Test

[Matrix Leader]

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-8/novdec-2013/

This is the first time I see Avast's score this low in the protection, they were always on par with the big sharks

[Secondmineboy]

This doesnt mean that they are bad, they are under the line of the others.

Every AV-Vendor has a bad time with his products sometimes.

[Alikhan]

Detection/Protection rates of programs will differ on a daily to daily basis and so will other factors.

[propheticus]

It also depends on the subset of viruses/malware that is included in the test. At av-comperatives http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php avast free scores better than many paid options.
Although I do feel this version has had more problems than I've ever seen in the previous versions, the latest (sub-)version/beta seems to fix a lot. The av-test is from December, so they must've used one of the bugged early 2014 releases. Plenty of people reported problems with the auto definition update. If this fails, especially 0-day protection suffers.

[schmidthouse]

Yes all valid points.
I don't put stock in comparatives for all these reasons.
My only reference point is Avast hasn't let me down in over 10 years so I don't know?  

[Para-Noid]

I agree with schmidthouse.
But when you compare the OP's link to this one avast looks pretty good. 

http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php

Looking at only one aspect can lead to premature judgement.
That is why when I check a website/URL for malware, blacklisting or anything bad I rely
on more than one online web scanner.

edit: Modify

[waking]

Plenty of people reported problems with the auto definition update. If this fails, especially 0-day protection suffers.

I'm not sure I follow that reasoning - protection against zero-day threats does not rely on signature updates. That's why such threats are called "zero-day" - they are newly encountered malware for which no signatures have yet been identified or configured. Detection of 0-day threats relies on other methods such as heuristics and behavioral analysis.

[DavidR]

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-8/novdec-2013/

This is the first time I see Avast's score this low in the protection, they were always on par with the big sharks

I don't understand the methodology used or know if these tests are purely on-demand scans or not. On demand scans don't use the full functionality of avasts detection methods.

[thekochs]

My only reference point is Avast hasn't let me down in over 10 years so I don't know?  

Agreed.....I have trusted Avast for many years on "protection".
I have more issues with the warts of the code readiness of Avast 2014 than anything else.
Hopefully the new BETA when released will elevate the level of this software to above it's buggy level.
I think there are a lot of folks on the sidelines waiting to see how this rolls.
For "protection"...I still hanging in with Avast...why personally I'm waiting around.

Also, was on AVG for a long while.....those guys blew it with AVG8 to AVG9 when they bricked so many PCs....never again for me there.
Norton in my experience is system PIG.
Seems the gold metric is Kaspersky....of course that is 100% pay service.

[Matrix Leader]

which is why I bought a 3 year Webroot SecureAnywhere license because it is so good in behavioural detection and 0 day exploits and doesn't slow my system down like avast's latest version does.

And no I'm not going to install a Beta AV

[CraigB]

And no I'm not going to install a Beta AV

That's your choice but the beta is actually more stable than the current release version imo.

[true indian]

There has been some very good improvements during this month and believe its just getting better and better at protection.

Avast did very well in AV-C and they got 3/3 stars in both real world tests.Although it really doesnt matter much to me I would still recommend if you have to consider avast's performance then wait until 2013 tests come up.I mean AV-C march real world to come out and you will improvement.Btw,there is already tremendous hike in performance at AV-C. 

But wait these guys are just using like 1000 samples but when there are like millions out there coming out everyday....So now you decide

[Pondus]

those who want to follow the daily (live) detection can see here  https://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.php/AV/VirusDailyStats   result will change from day to day

in lower left corner you can select statistic for day / week / month /..........

[irongod]

always really difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of an AV! ... which is the confidence of these results? moreover, for me the security of a system really depends from a lot of other factors: stating that 99% of threats nowadays come from internet, it really matters if your OS, Flash Player, Java Machine, Browser etc are updated... lot of threats can be blocked at that level!

[Nagan]

Just a simple question. Everyone answer for humor' sake so that it proves everyone in the forum is not only a geek.
Had that website declared AVAST as no1 product , and some one carried the report, how many would not have accepted that at face value and congratulated AVAST . C'mon guys...