avast! false alarms?

[LIONWOODS]

Good Evening,

I am startled about my test results with avast! home. Here is my problem. Since I could remember, I have used Grisoft AVG to protect my computer. About a week ago I heard that avast! is a great AV tool, so I tried it out. After updating and scanning, the results were staggering!

AVG detected NOTHING, not one single virus on my system, but avast! detected about 7 trojans and 3 worms! 

How can this have happened? One program detects nothing, and the other one does? 

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Werner Boshoff.

[Lisandro]

AVG detected NOTHING, not one single virus on my system, but avast! detected about 7 trojans and 3 worms! 

Generally, AVG detection rate is the same of avast!, slightly better sometimes.
It seems that, some of them could be false positives. Or you did not scan archives into AVG...

How can this have happened? One program detects nothing, and the other one does? 

Perfectly normal... there is not a perfect antivirus (or any program  ). avast! is very good in trojan/worms detection (in-the-wild infections).
AVG is better in other things.

After all, for me, avast! has some special features and configurations that make it better than AVG 

[LIONWOODS]

It seems that, some of them could be false positives. Or you did not scan archives into AVG...

Is this a bad thing? Is a false positive like a false alarm? 

[Lisandro]

Is this a bad thing?

Oh, not that bad. Better safe than sorry.
Submit the file to Jotti and let us know the results, i.e., if it is or not a false positive.

If you are getting a virus warning that you believe is a false positive, then if you can zip and password protect ('virus', will do) the suspect file and send it to virus (at) avast.com.
Give a brief outline of the problem, the fact that you believe it to be a false positive and include the password in the body of the email. Some info on the avast version and VPS number (see About avast: right click avast icon) will also help.

Is a false positive like a false alarm? 

Yes.

[LIONWOODS]

Thank you for the fast technical support! I'm very impressed. 

WB.

[DavidR]

It seems that, some of them could be false positives. Or you did not scan archives into AVG...

Is this a bad thing? Is a false positive like a false alarm?

Yes false positive is the same as false alarm, many AVs have false positive detections, when looking for a specific signature string, it may detect this in something that is not than a virus. They aren't a frequent occurance and it is best to remember that it can happen and instead of deletion being your first option, move to the chest where it can do no harm and investigate.

Is this a bad thing?
Without knowing more about the virus name, the infected file name and its location, it wouldn't be possible to categorically state they were false positives.
I would also say it is unlikely that they were all FPs so no I don't think it is a bad thing.

Welcome to the forums.

[Lisandro]

Thank you for the fast technical support! I'm very impressed. 

You're welcome... The speed? Oh, you don't know avast! forum, do you? We can do it even faster