Hi, I've been an user of a paid solution before, but right now I use Avast AV Free and Windows Firewall + Windows Firewall Control as a security combo, besides the UBlock Origin + UMatrix combo in Chrome. I believe the following:
- the size of the offline installer (which is prefer) is a bit too large compared to other solutions
- the "threat" alerts in Avast are slightly too generic, in most cases, and had already quite a couple of false positives, not to mention quite a lot do not disturb offers for programs that didn't need it
- the addition of a firewall to the free AV is excellent from my POV, but although I'd like to, I can't use it because other solutions offer much more control over that part (e.g. the network rules are locked; only the useless local address is available to set in the application rules and not the remote address - a generic address group like local subnet doesn't exist either; it's unclear if the profile refers to the location of the request, the type of network or the user settings; there isn't a possibility to allow or block only a certain service from an executable, e.g. only the WIA aka stisvc service from svchost.exe; there isn't a bare minimum - i.e. no update, telemetry or other useless crap - set of rules that you can apply in the firewall and then build on it, e.g. only the "core networking", file & printer sharing, ICMP v4-v6, network discovery on NB and SSDP and the time synchronization service; etc.)
- I understand that some additional features to the firewall are available only for premium usage, but if you do include the firewall in the free offer (a good thing, at least for the user), it should have at least the level of control available in other free products, or you'd end up with people wanting to use the module but choosing otherwise because they can't properly configure stuff they need to
- disabling AND enabling shields from Avast Shield Control should act on the shields that are / were currently in use, and not necessarily on all of them; for example, in my case, disabling all shields when I need it works fine, but since I use Avast with the firewall turned off (see above why), enabling the shields back also enable the firewall, thus requiring me to turn it off each time I re-enable the shields; of course, one normally wants to act on all shields at once, but then, it doesn't make much sense to disable something that's already off, or enable something that's going to be turned off anyway; as an alternative, a small list of available shields to turn on and off somewhere will do as well, since right now they are spread over multiple places in the application
Overall, the product seems good, but I guess it could be improved further. I still don't have the same feeling of absolute security whatever I would have done, that I had when using the paid solution, but that's probably natural and maybe it will improve with time.
P.S. Oh, and please, for the love of god, change the way you update the product (not the definitions). I have to remember to temporarily create a firewall rule for every C:\Program Files\Avast Software\Avast\Setup\New_[NumericalIDHere]\instup.exe file each time I update the AV, and then delete it afterwards, due to the dynamic nature of the path...
P.S.S. One more thing, this time regarding the forum: is it normal to see my IP under my posts? If so, is it visible to other users, or only to the moderators / admins, hopefully Avast employees? If the former, is there a way to block it from being visible to everyone?
