Bit Defender

[seekermeister]

I received an email from BD with an offer that I can't refuse. The problem is deciding whether to buy just the AV, Internet Security or Total Security, since they are all at the same price. One might think that it would be an easy decision...just buy the most complete package. But, I installed a trial version of Total Security a while back, and didn't like it. It has been too long for me to remember exactly what the problems were, but I got rid of it quickly.

That leaves either the AV or Internet Security, which is not losing anything important to me, since the extra features of TS are not anything that I would use anyway. Since I already have Outpost Security Suite, what ever choice that I made would be for the purpose of making improvements. My primary interest is in the AV, since OSS's Virus Buster engine is never on any AV comparison test. However, an improved firewall would be good also, if it didn't create too many hassles.

I either will use BD AV with the Outpost firewall, or go BD on both, but I do not want to make problems for myself for the sake of security phobia.

The bottom line is whether anyone here is using the BD firewall and tell me just how quirky that it is?

 

[SlasherIT]

Whats the offer (price)? My opinion, don't even pay and go with a free AV, use your hard earned cash on something else.

 

[seekermeister]

At $9.95, it's almost free, and it rates far higher than any freeware program.

 

[SlasherIT]

Meh, your choice, but I'd rather donate the 10 bucks to charity and use free AV then get Bitdefender. Anyways, its your choice.

Slasher

 

[seekermeister]

Good of you to say so.

 

[Nem]

Try the trial first to see, but I'd go for just the AV then use other security software to build solid protection, of course that's just my opinion. but if you do go with with BDIS and not satisfied with it...you could get a free upgrade to the Outpost Security Suite Performance Edition and see what that's about.

More information here -> Get a*free Competitive Upgrade to*Outpost!

EDIT: Just read your whole post my mistake you already have it, guess others could try it though.

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, but I already have that version of OSS. While it is good, it is not as good as BD as far as an AV goes. Even the Outpost firewall has it quirks that I would like to deal with, but I don't want to trade one lot of quirks for another for no good reason.

 

[DBone]

Bit Defender Total Security 2012 test: ‪

 

[A Guy]

The offer, if anyone else is interested:

BitDefender products for home users

3 PCs / 1 Year - Free upgrade to 2012 edition

They ranked #1 in This Test

A Guy

 

[seekermeister]

The offer, if anyone else is interested:

BitDefender products for home users

3 PCs / 1 Year - Free upgrade to 2012 edition

They ranked #1 in This Test

A Guy

I saw that page, but I also saw this one:

2011 Products for Home Users

Either they are planning a price increase, or they can't make up their minds what their normal prices are.

 

[seekermeister]

I've installed BD, and now am beginning to remember some of the reasons that I didn't like it before...it won't install with MBAM installed, and it turns Windows Defender off during the installation. I won't miss Windows Defender, because the only time that I was aware of it was when I had to download updates for it, but I'm not as comfortable with the loss of MBAM. Now that BD is installed, I thought about reinstalling MBAM, and simply turning off the program that I didn't want to use at the time, until a scan could be completed with the other, however BD has no option on it System Tray icon for switching it off. I guess that I could disable it in msconfig and reboot, use MBAM, turn it off, and reboot back to BD, but that is too much of a hassle. Is there a simple way to manage both of these programs?

 

[SlasherIT]

I guess you could try MBAM during Safe Mode, I guess that would work, but it's still not as convenient I guess.

 

[A Guy]

The two suggestions I see are:

To scan with MBAM:

Open BitDefender in Expert Mode, click on the Antivirus module and under the Shield tab, click on the Advanced Settings button. Temporarily disable the Active Virus Control.

For MBAM updates:

Open BitDefender. Click Options and select Expert View. In Expert View, Click on Firewall on the left, then click on Programs. Click on Add Rule and make 2 rules: one for mbam.exe and one for mbamservice.exe

A Guy

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, I will try that, but I'm not running Total Security, just BD AV. The firewall is Outpost.

 

[seekermeister]

Well, I guess that I wasted the cost of buying BD, because I found another quirk of the product...or perhaps I should say a bug. Every time that I tried to encode a video with DVDFab 8, it would crash at ~ 5 minutes into the encode. I tried reinstalling DVDFab8 with an upgraded version...no change. I then changed the target location to the desktop, since I suspected some kind of problem with the controller to my external drive, where I had been encoding to...no change.

Then considering that the only major change that I had made to the system since the last successful use of DVDFab 8 was installing Bit Defender, I switched off everything on it's control panel...no change. I then attempted to disable the AV in services. Even though it shows as disabled, the service continues running...no change. At last, I uninstalled Bit Defender...voila! The problem disappeared.

Unless someone that actually uses Bit Defender know of a solution, I will go back to Agnitum OSS.

EDIT: I forgot to add the screenshot. If you will notice, the core activity on all but one core dropped almost to an idle a short time before the crash each time. It's almost as if BD was intentionally trying to prevent any encoding. However, it did not effect the WinX encoder.

 

[SlasherIT]

Sigh... I think you should report this bug to Bitdefender... they might fix it, maybe not. What a waste of 10 bucks...

 

[seekermeister]

In a way, I did. When I uninstalled it, it popped a browser page with a survey asking the reasons for the uninstall. I suppose that direct contact with support, or filling out a bug report would be better, but I'm not inclined to spend the time on it.

 

[A Guy]

Well, if you get a screen cap of your license, you can get Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.5 Free (For USA and Canada Only)

Get a free Competitive Upgrade to Outpost!

Terms and Conditions

1. You must have an active license for an Internet Security Suite, purchased for personal use. The license should be for one year or longer and have at least three months remaining before expiration. You must be a resident of the United States or Canada.

2. You must provide evidence of this license to Agnitum by completing the web form following the instructions below and submitting it to us.

a. Select the security vendor from whom you purchased this license

b. Attach a screenshot showing the purchase confirmation email or your active account screen from your security vendor’s website

c. Click "Send"

3. You will see confirmation page.

A Guy

 

[SlasherIT]

So... are you going to try and ask for a refund? You should pressure them into doing so... They won't read the survey, am pretty sure, they'll just use it as statistics for a press conference or something like that "BD 2011 has had only 3% users saying it was not good...blablabla".

Slasher

 

[seekermeister]

Well, if you get a screen cap of your license, you can get Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro 7.5 Free (For USA and Canada Only)

Get a*free Competitive Upgrade to*Outpost!

Terms and Conditions

1. You must have an active license for an Internet Security Suite, purchased for personal use. The license should be for one year or longer and have at least three months remaining before expiration. You must be a resident of the United States or Canada.

2. You must provide evidence of this license to Agnitum by completing the web form following the instructions below and submitting it to us.

a. Select the security vendor from whom you purchased this license

b. Attach a screenshot showing the purchase confirmation email or your active account screen from your security vendor’s website

c. Click "Send"

3. You will see confirmation page.

A Guy

Thanks, but I aleady have a lifetime license for it.