Free version: Avira optimizes update system

Antivirus software provides an essential layer of protection from a multitude of virus, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, dialer, keylogger and rootkit infections. Traditionally antivirus programs just detected viruses and spyware removers just detected spyware but nowadays the boundary between antivirus and spyware removers is unclear. Most current antiviruses have at least reasonably good detection rates of all forms of malware.

Malware includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers and rootkit threats that perform malicious activities on a computer. With the huge increase in malware, antivirus software cannot keep up with detecting all of it. But using more than one real-time antivirus uses much more system resources, can cause conflicts and even reduce protection. AntiVir is very light on resources and the detection rate of malware is outstanding, better than almost every other antivirus according to tests. AntiVir has a time-limited license. It is renewable.AntiVir has advertisements that appear with every update.

Courtesy:  Gizmo

Painstaking updates will soon be a thing of the past with the free anti-virus solution.Until recently, users of the free Avira AntiVir Personal virus protection program were occasionally faced with delays when performing updates. Everything is set to change from Thursday onwards, after which date users of the free security software will be able to perform updates conveniently and without disruption, even during peak times.

The rapid increase in malware in recent years has been reflected in an equally rapid growth in the virus definition files used in the security solutions from Avira. This is one of the reasons why users of the free Avira AntiVir Personal basic protection program have occasionally had to wait some time before receiving their updates.Avira continues to invest in its internationally popular free version and is now improving its update system.

Avira has responded to the feedback from its users with a much-improved update process: Instead of the current four files, in future the virus database will consist of 32 files. This will reduce the size of the individual updatable files, so that in future less data will be delivered in each update.The new system requires a one-off update measuring about 25 MB.

This will reduce the size of the individual updatable files, so that in future less data will be delivered in each update. Avira also uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which uses numerous servers distributed throughout the Internet to deliver the data more quickly.Users of the commercial antivirus solutions from Avira are not affected by this – they are always serviced by means of a reserved bandwidth and thus receive all updates at any time without hindrance.

Basic protection against viruses, worms and Trojans can be downloaded from www.free-av.com. Avira AntiVir Premium (euro 19.95 per year) and Avira Premium Security Suite (euro 39.95 per year) offer additional security. The Suite has firewall, anti-spam and backup solutions, providing protection for online shopping and Internet banking transactions

Avira changed the update scheme in order to improve update speed and size.
Because of this, update servers are/will be very crowded (download size is about 30 Mb). Please be patient and use the following command to update:

“C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\update.exe” /DM=”0″ “/NOMESSAGEBOX /receivetimeout=180”

For 64 bit systems, the command is:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Avira\AntiVir Desktop\update.exe” /DM=”0″ “/NOMESSAGEBOX /receivetimeout=180”

(copy/paste this entirely in Start -> Run and press Enter).

Sources & Citations: Avira optimizes update system , forum avira  , Raymond.CC Forum