2012 Antivirus Software Reviews

Avira Internet Security 2012

Avira Internet Security 2012 proves to be an surprisingly competent Internet security suite. It's strong in some areas, weak in others, and a good effort overall.

On the weak side, Avira's antiphishing wasn't as strong as it could be. A few questionable sites slipped through the filter during testing, and rootkit removal was a bit of a problem for Avira as well.

On the strong side, independent testing labs gave many high ranks to Avira's antivirus capabilities. Turns out, as we saw, Avira is a major league contender at catching and blocking real-time virus threats. Avira's firewall also proved to be effective the majority of the time.

The installation was much longer than most at nearly 10 minutes; however, a full set of updates were full downloaded and installed during installation. Strangely, despite the lengthy installation, there's no pre-installation scan, and no post-install prompt for a manual scan.

The bottom with Avira Internet Security 2012 is it's strong on some fronts and weak on others.
Avira Internet Security 2012 performed very well with only a couple of exceptions. All the major testing labs agree: Avira has a strong antivirus engine, decent firewall, and moderate antiphishing:

• VB Bulletin
• AV Comparatives
• Anti-Malware Test Lab
• PC Security Labs
• AV-Test
• ICSA

Avira's real-time antivirus engine is probably the most impressive part of this Internet security software. Testing showed that Avira was able to block and disinfect nearly all of the viruses and malware that we tossed at it.

The firewall, which was easily configurable, correctly blocked suspicious activity to and from the testing computers.

Avira's anti-phishing and web-filtering performed well, in spite of missing a few phishing sites that other software blocked. Avira performed well in uncovering deeply embedded viruses, but some rootkits proved problematic. Avira wasn't always able to detect and eliminate some of the rootkits we used during testing.

In our tests overall, Avira Internet Security 2012's virus and spyware protection was good at stopping infections, but had some difficulty removing the most complex ones.
Resource usage for Avira Internet Security 2012 was good. During a full-system, manual scan, Avira averaged 47% of CPU and about 78% of memory across our range of test PCs.

When sitting idle, Avira used just under 1% CPU, and in normal use there was no noticeable lag.

Also worth note with Avira is that it struck a very good balance of resource usage and performance, repeatedly turning some of the fastest full system scan times.
Like most antivirus software and Internet security suites, there are two levels of the user interface: Basic and Expert.

The balancing act is making the basics easy enough for beginners while making the expert settings powerful enough for the expert.

Since Avira Internet Security 2012 offers both levels, there's plenty to like about the user interface.

On the plus side, interface is very clean and nice looking. Each major section is clearly labeled in the left navigation with each section opening into the main section on the right. Thankfully, software that doesn't fire popups for everything.

Overall, even if some of the expert settings can be a little daunting, Avira strikes a good balance between usability and flexibility.
Avira's technical and customer support is better than every competitor except for VIPRE. Once you've experienced support from either of these companies it changes your perception of what "good" support is.

Why on Earth Avira and VIPRE are able to do tech support so well and everyone else fouls it up is a mystery.

Yes, you will need to enter your email and product license to prove you're a paying customer in order to get their phone number the first time, but other than that, reaching a technician is a piece of cake.

All support from registration to full virus removal is also free. What's the catch? We couldn't find any.

Aside from phone support, their support section of their website is very clean and easy to navigate. You can find most of the answers you need through their searchable knowledgebase, video tutorials, or forum.

There's also a standard index window you can launch from the user interface for quick reference.

All in all, the technical support for Avira Internet Security 2012 is excellent.
Software and virus updates in Avira Antivirus Premium 2012 download and install automatically every two hours. Intervals can be set as low as 15 minutes.

If you want to update manually, it's easy enough to do, but you'll need to go into the 'Expert' section to do it.
Avira's extra features are a bit of a mixed bag.

The Email Protection is actually quite versatile; Gaming Mode is useful, but isn't something everyone needs; and the parental controls really aren't great.

Avira automatically scans POP3 and IMAP email accounts for viruses.

Within the email protection there are a two things worth noting.

First, email found to be dangerous are automatically deleted or sent to quarantine based on your preferences.

Second, you can opt to have Avira replace the email content with text of your choosing like, "Virus detected in this email. Contents deleted." It's a good way to ensure Avira's doing its job, and you can always retrieve the original email contents if needed.
Unfortunately, the parental controls for Avira are poor. You only have the option to select a pre-defined user to "protect," then Avira will block websites it deems inappropriate based on that user (child or young person).

The problem? You have zero control over what these sites are and no options to change or edit these restrictions.

What could make it worse? Anyone, including the child the software is supposed to protect, can disable the parental controls with a single click in the user interface. And, since there's no password protection, the controls can be changed by anyone using the computer.

Given how intelligent the rest of the interface is, how this part can be so bad is baffling.
Avira's gaming mode lets you suppress warning messages from the antivirus software while you're playing games or doing anything else that runs in "fullscreen mode" like watching a movie.

Gaming Mode is easy to use and effective, even if it's a feature not everyone will use.
Avira Internet Security 2012 is software with mixed performance.

On one hand, it turned in some of the most impressive resource usage/scan time performances, has terrific tech support and great email scanning and a great interface.

On the other hand it failed to block phishing sites nearly all competitors caught and also failed to remove some of the rootkits we test with.

Further, it's parental controls are all but useless.

What do we think of it overall?

Overall, it's got a very good antivirus engine and stellar tech support. If you're looking for software to remove a rootkit, Avira probably isn't the best choice. If, however, your starting with a clean system (and you aren't using it for the parental controls) Avira is a good choice.