Avira
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Avira is a German antivirus software company. Its antivirus applications are based on the AntiVir antivirus engine, first launched in 1988. It was called "H+BEDV Datentechnik GmbH" when it was founded. One of the antivirus software, AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic, is free for personal usage. On the Icon a stylized opened umbrella is shown.
[edit] Applications
AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic is freeware. This application is for personal usage only. Like most antivirus software, it scans disk for viruses and also runs as a background process, checking each opened and closed file. It also performs Internet updates (daily by default) in which it opens a window, with an advertisement suggesting the user to purchase AntiVir PersonalEdition Premium.
AntiVir PersonalEdition Premium costs € 20 per year. It has several improvements over the free version, most notable:
- besides viruses, it also detects adware and spyware;
- its Internet updates are both fully automatic and faster than for the free version, due to the exclusive download server;
- it performs POP3 scan (checks for viruses in incoming email before it is received)
AntiVir Workstation is for business use and costs € 59 for a year. It is similar to AntiVir PersonalEdition Premium, but may also protect computers in a network and P2P networks.
AntiVir Server, AntiVir MailServer and AntiVir ProxyServer protect data, mail and proxy server correspondently. The cost for each of these applications is hundreds to thousands of euros, depending on the number of users (from 10 to 250) and time (1, 3 or 5 years).
AntiVir Mobile runs on PocketPC under Windows CE or on smartphones under Symbian. The price is about $25 for PocketPC and free for smartphones.
[edit] Detection Ability
In August and November of 2006, AV-Comparatives conducted tests on the detection capabilities of many common and popular anti-virus programs, including Symantec's Norton AntiVirus. During the tests, AntiVir's performance ranked second behind AntiVirusKit from G DATA Security for On-Demand Scanning and tied Eset's NOD32 in the Retrospective/ProActive category. According to the Avira website, both Premium and Classic editions use the same scanning engine.
