Avira Premium Security Suite

Name: Avira Premium Security Suite
Rating: 4.00
Author: Roger Gann

Roger Gann

PC Advisor (UK)

10/12/07

Expert Rating

4.00 / 5

Pros

Works on old as well as new PCs without any difficulty, it's an antivirus and firewall, easy to install

Cons

Too many access approval requests, updating process can be slow, MailGuard doesn't integrate directly with your e-mail client

Bottom Line

A good, low-cost security solution, easily on a par with its rivals. Note that a free lite version of AntiVir is available – marry that with the free version of ZoneAlarm on the DVD and you have an effective but cheap security system.

Would you buy this?

Yes 0
No 0

Price
$ 69.80 (AUD)

Avira may not be a household name in Australia, but to German and Austrian computer users its antivirus products are on a par with Norton and McAfee.

Avira's Premium Security Suite offers protection against viruses, adware, spyware, rogue diallers, phishing and e-mail viruses. However, it really boils down to a pair of products: a powerful antivirus, AntiVir, plus a firewall.

At just $69, Avira's a fairly inexpensive option. Installation is simple – it takes just a few moments to download the package and install the provided product key.

We especially liked AntiVir's light system footprint. Norton's antivirus in comparison imposes too high a system overhead, and slows systems down. We installed AntiVir on an old laptop and it ran nicely.

AntiVir provides the usual AV protection – a real-time monitor and a system scanner, which can be scheduled. Updates are provided frequently, but AntiVir uses heuristic techniques to detect virus-style action, too. And it will filter up to a dozen processes from on-access scanning, so it can coexist with, for example, a spyware scanner.

Avira's firewall offers far better protection than XP's built-in firewall, but it doesn't perform an initial sweep to automatically clear applications for Internet access. This makes for a lot of access approval requests – even Avira's own AV updater has to be approved the first time it updates.

However, we don't have many complaints. The updating process can be a bit slow and the MailGuard doesn't integrate directly with your e-mail client, but attachments are scanned upon detachment.