Author Topic: Please Test Avast Against This Site...  (Read 13213 times)

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ioyuioynx

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Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« on: February 15, 2010, 09:56:51 AM »
I usually test Avast, and other anti-virus against the latest bad stuff. This site (http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/mdl.php) helps me get the nasties needed for the tests. It would be great if the Avast company also worked on the latest stuff from http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/mdl.php that would make Avast the best against 0-day threats.

Comments, reactions, test results, anything to say at all???

Offline Vlk

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #1 on: February 15, 2010, 11:14:21 AM »
Yes, of course.

The whole MDL initiative is vey unfortunate IMO. Every day, there are thousands of new viruses, and MDL publishes maybe ten, twenty of them. Which is fine per se, but unfortunately, many self-proclaimed "testers" just take the MDL lists, run their favorite AV's through all the links and publish the results pretending they are meaningful (ideally by means of a youtube video).

I always hated to do something just because of getting better rankings, but in this case, I'm severly considering it. For example, it's trivial for us to blacklist all the URLs on the MDL immediately (by means of the Network Shield). Will that make avast better for the users? I really doubt that. But it will certainly "make Avast the best against 0-day threats" in the eyes of people like the original poster...


Thanks
Vlk
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ioyuioynx

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2010, 02:40:07 PM »
I understand what you mean.

How do you honestly think Avast Free 5.0 handles the nasties compared to Norton 2010 or Kaspersky 2010?

GhOstMaStEr

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2010, 03:24:18 PM »
ouchh

Offline Vlk

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2010, 03:37:02 PM »
How do you honestly think Avast Free 5.0 handles the nasties compared to Norton 2010 or Kaspersky 2010?

Very well.
I'm basing this on the data we have in our lab - all the nasties we receive are funneled through ~12 AV engines just to see how we're standing (including the two you quoted).
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coolsilver

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2010, 08:00:35 PM »
IMO, don't blacklist. Greylist maybe but I know Google has taken some heat over their domain tagging/soft blocking (blocking but only as a notice/warning page before loading the site if you continue) in their results. Not to say Alwil can't defend themselves; I can just see a better method to go about it.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2010, 08:02:24 PM by coolsilver »

Offline Zyndstoff (aka Steven Gail)

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2010, 08:11:27 PM »
Vlk won't blacklist, of course not.
What he stated is that the performance against those few domains is not meaningful, and if he wanted to gain a top-performance (in the eyes of the self-declared-malware  specialists), he'd just have to blacklist those domains...

I'm very curious to see the next av-comparatives review, when avast5 steps up against Avira AntiVir10 and the other "biggies" on the scene. I'm pretty confident it will be very high ranking.
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ioyuioynx

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2010, 11:51:48 PM »
If you say it does well, then how do you explain the VBlist or those other testing sites that always place Avast near the middle of the field, and not the top?

Offline igor

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #8 on: February 15, 2010, 11:57:39 PM »
What does VB have to do with malware domains?

coolsilver

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2010, 12:12:31 AM »
I'd say it should do as good as 4.8. Might be a bit more before all the goodness of 5 is visible as the newer definitions being added daily to take advantage of the newer scan engine.

ioyuioynx

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2010, 12:15:40 AM »
What does VB have to do with malware domains?

It doesn't have anything to do with anything else. It was just a separate statement altogether.
I'm sure you understood what I meant.
Now instead of that comment, could you please answer the question?

If you say it does well, then how do you explain the VBlist or those other testing sites that always place Avast near the middle of the field, and not the top?

ioyuioynx

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #11 on: February 16, 2010, 12:25:37 AM »
I'd say it should do as good as 4.8. Might be a bit more before all the goodness of 5 is visible as the newer definitions being added daily to take advantage of the newer scan engine.
That's my point. Avast 4.8 is always placed near the middle of the pack, never at the top. Why is this the case, if in the Avast labs they think  Avast is doing as well as Norton 2010 or Kaspersky 2010?

Offline Zyndstoff (aka Steven Gail)

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #12 on: February 16, 2010, 08:06:30 AM »
Look at av-comparatives.org.
Avast is in the top products.

av-comparatives is (in my opinion) the most independent and unbiased organisation to test av products, so I trust their statements. Very good and thorough reviews.
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olddog

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #13 on: February 16, 2010, 08:25:33 AM »
That's my point. Avast 4.8 is always placed near the middle of the pack, never at the top. Why is this the case, if in the Avast labs they think  Avast is doing as well as Norton 2010 or Kaspersky 2010?

ioyuioynx,
I suspect the main purpose of your questions is predominantly just argumentative.
Does it really matter what anyone else thinks about a product, and are you going to take their word for it anyhow?

One may gain some initial benefit reading product reviews and comparisons, which may or may not be biased for all sorts of reasons, but in the end it comes down to whether a product does what you personally want of it. If it does you use it, if it doesn't you move on. Asking the Ford Motor Co how they rate their vehicles against their competitors is a pointless exercise.

ioyuioynx

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Re: Please Test Avast Against This Site...
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2010, 08:28:13 AM »
Well...lets see then.....

I have attached some screenshots of the latest AV-Comparatives results. Avast is in the top three in only one test.

Do you trust that?
The product of the year 2009 was Symantec.

If Avast is close to Symantec, why were you guys 2nd or 3rd?