As the Virus.gr tests are quite often posted in various forums, I will list them here - even if those tests are still quite biased due flaws in the test methods.
Main critics are usually (
I only list them, they are not all coming from me or reflecting my opinion):
a) Not all products are tested equally:
- some products are trial versions, some others are full versions
- some use best settings, some others use "not default settings" (whatever this means); this may be due the trial versions limitations
b) Samples:
- samples were choosen by using those products: Kaspersky, F-Prot, Nod32, Dr.Web, BitDefender and McAfee; requirement: unique name. This leads to a major flaw toward KAV and products which use many unique names instead of generic names.
- sample source are mainly other VXer: as VXer use mainly KAV to share their samples, the tests and samples are flawed in favour of KAV.
- there is a huge amount of garbage included in the test-set, even if he says he removed "most" of it.
- at least some vendors got from them their whole collection in past, as some vendors were able to determine how much garbage is in it (even if some users in forums say that virus.gr do not sends any sample to av vendors)
c) Miscellanous:
- the Virus.gr site is not a team of people, it is atm 1 person. The tester behind it is a viruscollector (VXer) with very limited programming skills or coding skills in general (which means he can not check for garbage in the test-set, etc.).
The guy seems to have genuine intentions and tries to give his best while doing his tests, but the tests need still improvements and better methods. In any case, the results may be interesting to look at, as they include also some minor AV products which are usually not tested.
I will list here all tests done by Virus.gr and published after November 2007.
June 2008 Test
Older tests can be found on the
Virus.gr website.
