11 replies to this topic

[Kai87]

Is there a documentation for the ad-aware products - Free, Personal and Pro? I'm looking for a detailed description of what each of the programs offers, but I cannot find it.

[CeciliaB]

Hi Kai87,

The description I seen are the followings:
http://www.lavasofts...of-ad-aware-10/ the links of course
http://www.lavasoft....ts/ad_aware.php and then clicking on the different "Learn More" buttons
http://www.lavasoft....product_manuals Manual

Do you have any specific questions about certain features?

[Kai87]

Quite a few actually. I've already looked at all of those links, found answers to some of my question, but I still can't find out some of the things that I'm looking for:

Do they have those features: Anti Dialer, Resident Protection, Parallel scanning, Parallel scanning, Zero-day attacks protection, Web traffic scan, IM scan, Mobile security?

I've got quite a few other questions as well, regarding the existence of other features, and if you can help me find out whether they have it or not I will be quite thankful Let me know if it's okay to ask about the other features ^^;

[CeciliaB]

That was a lot of buzz words. Some of them are not unambiguous.
  
Anti Dialer: Antivirus programs, including Ad-Aware, have detections for such malicious programs too, if they are actively spread.

Resident Protection: It should be the same as Real-time protection, which is included in Ad-Aware.

Parallel scanning: What do you mean by that? It is not a common term.

Zero-day attacks protection: Depends on what you mean by that. Ad-Aware detects malicious files that are common, regardless if they are trying to exploit vulnerabilities or being malicious in any other way.

Web traffic scan: Can mean a lot of different things, but Ad-Aware has that kind of protection in the modules Safe Browsing and Shop & Bank Safely Online, and of course Real-time protection.

IM scan: No specific function for that but should be covered by Safe Browsing, Shop & Bank Safely Online and Real-time protection.

Mobile security: Lavasoft does not have products for mobile phones (if that is what you mean).

You can ask more questions and I will try to answer you.

[Kai87]

Parallel scanning means scanning simultaneously for several different types of attacks.

Zero-day protection is protection against threats that have not yet been registered as such.

<3

1. Rootkit detection & removal
2. Wireless protection
3. Privacy protection
4. Site blocking
5. Heuristic filter - in emails and otherwise
6. Whitelist/Blacklist for emails
7. URL filter
8. Charset filter
9. Image filter
10. Compatible with e-mail applications

More to come (I'll be throwing them at you bit by bit) ^^ <3 Thanks a lot!

[CeciliaB]

1, 5. Ad-Aware contains functions for handling rootkits, pro-active detection by using heuristic, behavior analysis and signatures in one engine. Does that answer your question about parallel scanning, too?

2. It doesn't matter how the computer is connected to internet.

3. What do you mean by that, what do you expect that an antivirus program should do? That is a function in browsers.

4, 7. Shop & Bank Safely Online

6. Whitelist/Blacklist of what? Links? Other types of content?

8. Do you mean that web pages with certain character sets should be blocked?

9. Don't understand.

10. You can enable one or several of Outlook, Outlook Express and "another e-mail program" in the configuration of the E-mail protection. It is also possible to enable Anti-Phishing.

Personally I think it would be better if you explain what features you want instead of using buss words that can mean different things by different persons and companies.

[Kai87]

Whitelisting and backlisting senders of malicious emails?

Do you mean that web pages with certain character sets should be blocked?

Yes. Or emails with certain characters.

Okay, I'll try to be a bit clearer.

1.Does the firewall has a wizard?

2. Is there an option to password protect the program?

3.Is there a parental control?

4. Can we control the network access - activate, deactivate, etc.?

5. Does it support backup and restore of the system?

6. Are there any features that boost up the performance of the computer?

7. Can we access the definition database, so that we can read a bit about a virus?

8. Is there a feature that automatically sets the security/protection to the max from the newest threats?

9. Can the users send reports? I saw that each scan gives back a report, but are they just locally stored on my machine or I can set the program to automatically send the information?

[CeciliaB]

Ad-Aware 10 doesn't have a spam filter.

You cannot configure any web or email protection to disallow certain characters.

1. The functions of the firewall seems to be covered in the manual. I have not used the firewall myself.

2. No

3. No, that would have been mentioned in manual and descriptions.

4. You can change rules in firewall.

5. No, it is an antivirus program and not a backup program.

6. Lavasoft has a product called Registry Tuner for such things.

7. The definition database doesn't contain descriptions. It would be too large if it did. You can find some malware descriptions on http://www.lavasoft....lware_desc/blog

8. Why do you want to have less protection for threats that is a week old than for new ones?

9. Do you mean to send them to an administrator? No

If you are planning to use Ad-Aware in a company, I'm not the right person to answer your questions, since I'm only using Ad-Aware on my personal computer. There might be other solutions for companies, I suggest that you contact Lavasoft or one of their resellers.

Lavasoft has also a product called Ad-Aware Total Security, which has anti-spam, system tuning, parental control, backup and recovery functions: http://www.lavasoft....al_security.php

[Kai87]

Hi, thanks again for your answers!

As for the higher defense against newer threats... well usually the newer the threat is the bigger the chance to come across it. At least I think so...

Is there a port scan detection - finding out what services are active on a particular host? I saw that the Port Rules can let us control this, but will the program tell me "Skype is on this port" for example, or I have to manually find out where skype is active?

Any ideas whether the firewall has a traffic control?

[CeciliaB]

Hi again,

You are welcome

Certainly most malicious files are not around for years, but do you really want to have less protection if you suddenly stumble upon something old?
With Ad-Aware you get high protection both for new and old threats.

I cannot answer any questions about the firewall in Ad-Aware since I'm not using it. But for me "traffic control" is something all firewalls do, they control the traffic in and sometimes out from the computer.

Why don't you install Ad-Aware 10.1 in a computer and find out what you can do?

[Kai87]

I just did that Thanks a lot for the help and the patience!

[CeciliaB]

You are welcome and I hope that you will be satisfied