Need help with avast! Free Antivirus installation.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Mickey Shen

Honorable
Jul 3, 2013
38
0
10,530
Hey guys,

I'm installing avast! Free Antivirus right now & I'm doing a custom install but avast doesn't provide any information on what these real-time shields or components actually do? -__- I know some parts are self explanatory but some I do not understand.

So my question is...

Real-Time shields:
File shield
Mail shield
Web shield
P2P shield
IM shield
Network shield
Script shield
Behavior shield

Components:
Avast! Firewall
Safe zone
Antispam
(the above 3 have question marks? I'm assuming because I'm not using the pro version?)
Browser protection
Avast! Gadget
Avast! Remote assistance
Browser cleanup
Software updater
Secureline

I've searched on google for hours on this but haven't came across anything, Can anyone please take their time to explain to me what each of these does? Which ones do I neccessarily need? I mostly game on this system & abit of light net surfing, I know what not to click on, software updater seems useless to me, I can update it myself when I want to etc. etc. so yeah any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Solution
ddbtkd456
Generally all virus protection software is about the same underneath the skin.

Real-Time shields: Protects your computer in real-time (as your using it) from any threats
File shield: Protects your computer from threats from any sort of file on your system
Mail shield: Protects your computer from any mail (outlook or email) that may have threats with them.
Web shield: Protects your computer from any threats that you may run into while surfing the web.
P2P shield: Protects your computer from P2P connections (Frostwire) or Peer to Peer Connections like uTorrent,
IM shield: Protects your computer from incoming and outgoing Instant Messaging (Yahoo IM or Live)
Network shield: Protects your network and computer from any unknown incoming or...
Sort by date Sort by votes
Generally all virus protection software is about the same underneath the skin.

Real-Time shields: Protects your computer in real-time (as your using it) from any threats
File shield: Protects your computer from threats from any sort of file on your system
Mail shield: Protects your computer from any mail (outlook or email) that may have threats with them.
Web shield: Protects your computer from any threats that you may run into while surfing the web.
P2P shield: Protects your computer from P2P connections (Frostwire) or Peer to Peer Connections like uTorrent,
IM shield: Protects your computer from incoming and outgoing Instant Messaging (Yahoo IM or Live)
Network shield: Protects your network and computer from any unknown incoming or outgoing connections.
Script shield: Protects your system from flaws in things (Javascript, almost all webpages have some sort of script involved in them)
Behavior shield: Watches your computers behavior (task monitor) for any sudden spikes or unnecessary usages (threats usually get caught that way)

All of these i would recommend to be one full time.

Components:
Avast! Firewall: Protects incoming and outgoing connections to your computer with a virtual wall (Firewall)
Safe zone: Shows which pages are safe for browsing and which ones aren't but could also mean that it is an "allowed list" of programs and/or websites.
Antispam: Spam is a major thing that gets annoying, this will prevent spam and virus and threats.

Most programs require a subscription for these 3 things.

Browser protection: Protects your browser (and computer) from incoming and outgoing threats)
Avast! Gadget: Is a display icon for your windows system
Avast! Remote assistance: Remote customer service (via internet) (P2P we talked about)
Browser cleanup: Cleans up your browser (Cookies, cache, things like that history)
Software updater: Updates the software so that way you have the latest protection (usually over a very very secure line)
Secureline: Is the secure line i just talked about to update your software without the potential for threats.

After it is all said and down I would fully recommend Trend Micro over any known anti-virus, most free ones include alot of bugs, and I have ran Trend Micro (all of them paid) for over 5 years, without a single virus on any single computer I have owned.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Avast Real-Time Shields... They are explained here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avast!

Avast Components:
Your assumption is correct, the three components with a question mark are available only in the pro edition.

Software Updater advices when other software updates are available for download. It's explained here: https://blog.avast.com/?s=avast+software+updater

You do not need Remote assistance, or software updater, as for Browser cleanup, depends on how often or effectively you want your web browser cleaned, but CCleaner is better for that task, so you can do without that Avast component if you already have CCleaner or you plan to install it.

SecureLine is explained here: https://blog.avast.com/?s=avast+secureline

If you want other components fully explained, type the component name in the blog.avast.com search bar. .
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


I have to disagree with you on the software update. You always need the software update, since that is what provides the new virus protection databases, otherwise your virus protection wouldn't be doing you much good. It would be the same as not having it in the first place.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Sorry, I understand what you mean, but it's not what you think... Software Updater doesn't update the Antivirus deffinitions. Avast deffinitions update automatically on a daily basis, but the Software Updater only pops up advicing when new updates for other installed softwares are available for download. I'm a long time user of Avast so I know this... the Software Updater is relatively new... it's been part of Avast for maybe a year or two, so the antivirus itself doesn't need it... it is usefull but not indispensable as all applications have their own included updater.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Well i guess we are still learning 😛 sorry about that i must of misinterpreted it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Well, it's easy to misinterpret... the feature could do with a more descriptive name... something like "Third Party Updater" or "Applications Updater" for instance.

Avast Features
http://avast.en.softonic.com/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yea really, i dont know I've been using Trend Micro for years and years, and I never have any problems (also I like how when its running your computer doesn't really feel it like a certain Norton program I know) and I haven't got a virus in probably about 7 years.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote

Yeah, Norton has always been a resource hog... Trend Micro may be OK but I don't think they make a freeware edition do they? Avast is light on resources, a fast scanner, and a freeware edition has always been available.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


No they don't but i am sort of a software crack-a-holic, and one thing i like about it is there is no cracks (fake applications) of this virus protection, which makes me feel really secure, AVG and every other anti-virus paid for are too easy to crack with keygen's, it makes me feel safe knowing that there aren't any keygens out there for it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
One thing I don't get is why people use cracked antivirus instead of freeware editions... I know some people think pro editions are safer than freewares so they crack to go pro for free... but both free or pro editions use the same deffinitions, the differences are mostly enabled firewalls, programmed updates and scans and some unimportant settings, so cracking just to enable stuff that's rarely needed is senseless.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom