Dr. Web Antivirus Review: Is It Good Software?

The company was founded by Dr. Web, a Russian developer, way back in 1992.

The software offers its users real-time malware detection, behavioral monitoring, plus a bundled firewall.

The software will guarantee you packet layer filtering, real-time monitoring of any applications found on the computer, and the ability to customize what any application is allowed to do online.

The antivirus is fully compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Dr. Web Antivirus Review- Our Verdict

The antivirus will offer sufficient protection against viruses, malware, and zero-day threats. It is sturdy, plus accommodates experts with configurable security. However, it is not as user friendly as it should.

The Pros and Cons

Pros

Low prices in some instances
Highly configurable
Expert level features
Bundled firewall

Cons

Untested b most independent labs
No URL filtering
Awkward interface
Too technical for most users

Let’s take a look at the antivirus in-depth:

Dr. Web Light

This is a free version of the antivirus, which will protect the android from malware, viruses, and ransomware.

The web antivirus will come with a classical scanner. The threats detected during this scanner will be eliminated and moved to the quarantine zone, where it will review detailed info about it.

Setup

The antivirus is not available to users in the form of a trial version; however, it does have a download in the form of a different kind of security suite, which will offer some special features.

The antivirus trial comes in a three-month license that comes available for free and does not ask for credit card information; rather, it will only ask you for your email address. If you choose to keep the details private, you can get a one-month trial version completely free, no information asked.

The software is quite a light size, and comes at 350MB, with an easy and fast set up before you start using the antivirus. After giving you the various choices for free trials, you will then proceed to restart the computer after a full installation.

The antivirus is created in-house through its tech; this will ensure all the components in the antivirus work well together.

The antivirus comes with a couple of technologies to protect its files from interference from malware, including hypervisor components, which helps provide extra protection to the program hosting the antivirus.

Setting up the antivirus involves:

First reboot your computer in safe mode. There are various methods dependent on which computer you are using.
As with most computers, however, you can constantly press the f8 key after the computer restarts. On restarting the computer, you will hear a certain beeping noise, which will be the signal for you to press the said key, after which a menu will appear. Navigate to safe mode using this menu.
You will then have to double click on the randomly named file to open the program and click start. If the download version is the latest, you will not need to get the current version.
Read the antivirus check by Dr. Web scanner prompt after which you can click Ok after being asked to start scan now. You will then allow the setup.exe to load if asked by any of the security programs.
After this, the scan will start automatically; this is a short scan of files currently running in memory, boot sectors, and target folders.
If asked, download the full version of the free trial, ignore, and click X to close the window.
If by any chance it finds an uninfected object, the user will be asked to move all infected files. Detected files will be moved to the c:/Documents and Settings/user profile. Doctor web/quarantine folder if they cannot be cured.
After the scan is done, ensure you check the complete scan to all scans at the local disk and removable media.
Go and uncheck the ‘heuristic analysis’ which can be found under the ‘scanning tab,’ and click, ‘Ok.’ The heuristic analysis option can be found on the top menu, through the settings and change settings options.
You can then start scanning on your software through the main window by clicking on the ‘start scanning’ option. It is a green arrow under the Dr. Web logo, to the right.
In case any viruses, malware or other kind of threats are found, there will be a message displayed to inform you of what has been identified.
You will then click on the ‘move incurable’ option which will come in handy in removing the identified threats. You can get this through selecting all the identified viruses under the ‘choose secure’ option you can then choose ‘cure’ and navigate to the move incurable option. Click select all, then choose secure> cure> move incurable
After removing the infected files, you can then choose to save the report through clicking save report list found on the file under the top menu. Here you can the save the Dr.Web.csv wherever you would like on the computer, after which you can exit the software.
You can the reboot the restart the computer, which will guarantee removal of all infections from the computer.
After restarting the computer, you can choose to post the contents of the log from Dr. Web in your next reply.

Dr. Web Payment Plans

The payment plans for the antivirus are unique.

The way the antivirus works is such that you can pay for different levels of licenses depending on the number of years you pay for.

You can also pay differentially for the number of PCs or Macs from one to five computers, plus you can either choose to include technical support or exclude it. All these factors will play a role in the amount of money you pay for the antivirus.

One-Year License

If you choose to get a one-year license, with one PC or Mac with technical support included, then you get to pay twenty-eight pounds, while without any technical support, you will pay fourteen pounds

If you decide to pay the same for two PC’s with tech support included, you will pay 33 pounds, saving 23 pounds, while if you pay for the same without tech support included you will pay 16.50 pounds, saving 39 pounds.

For three PCs or Macs with tech included you will pay 45 pounds while for the same without any tech support included, you will pay 22.50 pound and save 61.50 pound

For four PCs or Macs, with tech support, you will pay 59 pounds saving 53 pounds, while for the same without any tech support included, then you will pay 29.50 pounds and save 82.50 pounds.

For five PCs or Macs, with tech support included, you will pay 70 pounds saving 70 pounds, while if tech support is not included, then you will pay 35 pounds saving 105 pounds.

Two-Year License

If you are looking to pay for the two-year license, in case of only one PC or Mac with tech support included, you will pay 44.80 pounds and save 11.20 pounds, while if you do not include the support, then you will pay 22.40 pound saving 33.60 pounds.

If you decide to pay for tow PCs or Macs, with tech support included, then you will pay 52.80 pounds, while saving 59.20 pounds. If you decide not to include tech support, then you will pay 26.40 pounds saving 85.60 pounds.

If you decide to pay for three PCs or Mac, with tech support included, then you will pay 72 pounds saving 96 pounds, while if tech support is not included, then you will pay 36 pounds saving 132 pounds.

If you pay for four PCs or Mac with tech support included, then you will pay 94.4 pounds, while if tech support is not included, then you will pay 47.20 pounds saving 176.80 pounds.

For five PCs with tech support included, then you will pay 112 pounds while without tech support included, then you will pay 56 pounds saving 224 pound

Three-Year License

In case you intend to pay for three years, for one PC or Mac with tech support, you will pay 60.76 pounds, saving 23.24 pounds while if you do not opt for tech support, then you will pay 30.38 pounds saving 53.62 pounds

For two PCs or Mac with tech support included, you will pay 71.61 pounds saving 96.39 pounds. If you do not opt for tech support, then you will pay 35.81 pounds while saving 132.19 pounds.

For three PCs or Macs with the tech support, you will pay 97.65 pounds while saving 154.35 pounds, however, if you do not include tech support, then you will pay 48.83 pounds saving 203.17.

For four PCs or Macs, you will pay 128.03 pounds saving 207.97 pounds, while for no tech support, you will pay 64 pounds saving 271.98 pounds.

For five PCs or Macs with tech support, then you will pay 151.90 pounds while saving 268.10 pounds, while if you do not opt for tech support, then you will pay 75.95 pounds while saving 344.05 pounds.

Dr. Web Antivirus Features

The Dr. Web interface is one of the best interfaces due to the simplicity they have used in creating the antivirus. The scanner option you’ll mostly utilize is at the bottom right of the list. You can also trace the custom and full scans.

Dr. Web express scan, however, is not as fast as the name suggests. On a test run, the software took around nine minutes to scan through a system, as opposed to most antiviruses taking four or five minutes.

The software, however, came with great accuracy, the program detected everything thrown at it; however, Dr. Web is more focused on the potentially unwanted program, plus it also highlights the HOSTS file as infected if the program is not on windows default.

The antivirus doesn’t come with a URL filter; however, it is part of the security space suite. Due to the antivirus having no URL filter, it means there is no protection for your device against phishing.

However, the antivirus will still be able to pick up malware through the normal file and download scanner.

The program is also supposed to come with a firewall; however, finding it may prove a challenge. You can find it through browsing the programs and features and click on Dr. Web security space. Navigate to the option to install a firewall. For some reason, it is not part of the system by default; rather, you have to find it.

There are certain cases where windows will not allow explicit identification of a service to run the system process. If a connection attempt with a system device is detected, you will have to be aware of the port used in the connection. However, if the user application will address the port, then you can allow the connection.

The software is also quite different when it comes to access to logs or scan results directly from the Dr. Web interface. Rather, to get to the scan results would be through piecing together details through a text file on the hard drive, the windows event file, and through Dr. Web reports.

Dr. Web comes with some goodies, such as low-level ways to sow that Dr. Web allows or blocks the system. The antivirus will also prevent HOST file edits, and will prevent any access if the disks are low o space, accommodate safe mode changes, plus it will also prevent programs from running windows, or reset executable file associations.

The antivirus will also examine suspicious sites online through analyzing behavior in an isolated environment on doctor webs servers. The number of objects that can be examined is only limited by parameters of the customer’s license.

The antivirus will also work well with virtually all OS systems.

Dr. Web will also analyze Android APK packages. It comes with some type of mechanism, which helps give info on the application activities that involve other programs.

The antivirus also comes with parental control and can determine how dangerous internet sites. Parental supervision will come in handy in restricting and helping prevent your children from accessing any dangerous or leud sites.

The antivirus will reproduce any of the suspicious object’s actions in the virtual environment. You will also get technical support about the malware behavior as well as a map of its network activity.

Object Dr. Web Antivirus Can Analyze

Some of the things that the antivirus will analyze on the computer are:

Windows android executable files
Microsoft Office documents and system files
Acrobat reader files
JAVA executable files
scripts

Is Dr. Web Safe? – Protection

The antivirus full scan will cover both the drives and removable media (such as USB drives) the antivirus will also scan target critical system paths. The antivirus functions in a heuristic and definition based protection.

Random tests can assess an antivirus by checking how they react to any antiviruses that may be introduced to them. However, there are other better tests, such as the AV tests.

AV comparatives will help analyze the real-world protection test have the capability of showing there is as little as 0.5% between detection rates of the top 10 antivirus programs. It will reliably place those in order requires testing hundreds or even thousands of the latest malware and viruses regularly.

The Dr. Web antivirus has not been tested for quite a while, roughly since around 2007. This means that there is no reliable and valid data out there to show Dr. Webs’ abilities. This means that if you are not a non-technical user looking to get the data on the verifiable rates of protection from the antivirus, then you might be in for a disappointment

However, if you are up to self-testing the antivirus then you can get to see the effectiveness of the antivirus first hand. The antivirus is entirely up to its task and compared to its competitors; the antivirus is more transparent on the techniques and tech it uses to develop the antivirus.

The antivirus works quite well when it came to any viruses thrown to it, without any problems. However, the software also raised alerts for software that are harmless. Apart from the capability in protection, the antivirus also comes with another deal.

The Dr. Web antivirus comes with several tools that help compliment the main functions of the antivirus. It comes with data loss prevention utility, which will create duplicates of critical files in case the original gets destroyed. You will have to select these files to ensure you choose the files to be saved in case of any problems to the computer that may affect these important files.

The antivirus also comes with a separate quarantine manager.

The quarantine manager works in such a way that it will store your viruses, malware, or ransomware and give you the option to release, inspect or delete the files.

Parental Control

The antivirus comes with a parental control service.

It comes with many safety options, with configuration settings that can be imported and exported through a drag and drop menu, making it very easy to replicate them on multiple devices in an easy manner.

The antivirus also comes with an advanced settings tab, which helps provide a lot of control over the scanning process to follow.

The way the advanced settings work is such that there is normal for lower-level scans while there is also a paranoid option for more comprehensive checks.

The antivirus will also come with the option to toggle on and off scanning for LAN objects and toolkits.

Ease of Use

Beginners will find the antivirus quite amazing, from the quick installation procedure, which takes as fast as three minutes. Plus, the welcome screen is quite simple to adapt to for beginners, and will also be easy for the whole family to navigate. It is also straightforward and it has everything needed to run a tight ship.

Customer Support

Customer support comes free for all subscribers.

The antivirus will provide various kinds of support services or the antivirus.

The antivirus comes with database and Dr. Web module updates. This will come in handy in ensuring that you keep the antivirus updated, preventing new viruses and malware from affecting the computer or your other devices.

The antivirus also provides unlimited requests for support from the Dr. Web technical support. This can be done by sending the request through mail to the company support site.

Technical support will also come in handy, providing decryption services affected through encryption ransomware. However, this will only be available for premium customers. The service is best for owners of commercial licenses for Dr. Web security space, Dr. Web enterprise security suite.

To contact the technical support, you will have to contact them directly through Dr. Web for the windows program.

For your self-support to run smoothly, you will need to familiarize yourself with these three technical support services, before looking to answer your questions.

Video-through subscribing to the service and installing Dr. Web programs
Installation manual
FAQ for home
FAQ for business

The antivirus will also provide free antivirus laboratory services. You will have to submit a suspicious file for analysis. In case you want, you can also ask for a report on a false positive, or report a malicious URL. You can also get services for virus descriptions.

Contact Details

There are various contacts for the antivirus main site locations:

Dr. Web email: [email protected]

Dr. Web website: https://www.drweb.com

The site also comes with some social profiles from Facebook and Twitter.

Conclusion

The Dr. Web antivirus is a great antivirus, which utilizes multi powerful low-level technologies to keep you safe.

The antivirus is, however, best suited for experts owing to the lack of AV test; it means it will require someone quite conversant with antiviruses and their working to ensure they understand just how effective they are, and where they are.

The antivirus works well for beginners too, and it can be judged as a great antivirus.