Avira antivirus (free) - Any good?

whattochoose

With my Kaspersky paid for AV expiring soon, I'm thinking about switching to a free one and have heard good things about Avira.
However when reading reviews I came across this....
Avira Free Antivirus lacks protection for email clients or Web browsers
Can somebody please clarify this for me please?
If it doesn't provide the above protection is there any point in downloading it?
Thank you.

GunJack

yes, it's still a very capable av. If you want an e-mail client scanner, then go for avast free.

esuhl

whattochoose wrote: »

Avira Free Antivirus lacks protection for email clients or Web browsers
Can somebody please clarify this for me please?
If it doesn't provide the above protection is there any point in downloading it?
Thank you.

Do you use an email client? If not, you don't need protection for email clients!

Can you configure the client to scan attachments with the antivirus scanner executable? If so, you can work round the absence of specific email scanning.

As for web browser protection, I find that many antiviruses implement inherently unsafe tools to provide browser protection -- often by forging SSL certificates internally. It's worth checking out how any browser protection works and whether that leaves you more or less vulnerable.

FWIW, I use Avast, which has built-in file, web and email scanners. I disable a lot of the components which can cause compatibility problems or (as with SSL forging) is a stupid and unsafe concept. Here's an explanation of the installation options, if you're interested:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=70585801&postcount=9

whattochoose

esuhl wrote: »

Do you use an email client? If not, you don't need protection for email clients!

Can you configure the client to scan attachments with the antivirus scanner executable? If so, you can work round the absence of specific email scanning.

As for web browser protection, I find that many antiviruses implement inherently unsafe tools to provide browser protection -- often by forging SSL certificates internally. It's worth checking out how any browser protection works and whether that leaves you more or less vulnerable.

FWIW, I use Avast, which has built-in file, web and email scanners. I disable a lot of the components which can cause compatibility problems or (as with SSL forging) is a stupid and unsafe concept. Here's an explanation of the installation options, if you're interested:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=70585801&postcount=9

Thank you esuhl, very useful and something I'll read up on.

takman

Here is a link show the effectiveness of a lot of different Anti-Virus programs:

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/