Is it free - H+BEDV AVPE ?

[mark]

I have been using for several years the "free for personal use" anti-virus
software program "AntiVir Personal Edition" from H+BEDV, Germany. I like
the program - it is generally less intrusive than the big expensive popular
programs, they keep their virus definition files up to date, and updateable
from their server via a utility that comes with the program.

It is with this update utility that I have a concern. Recently, I performed
an update, and half way through, my system shut down because CPU temperature
reached the threshold I set in the BIOS for overheat protection. (The
system was not damaged) That this happens does not surprise me on a budget
amd duron system, especially when there is some dust on the CPU heat sink.
That it happened when I was doing something that should not be a CPU
intensive task does surprise me. So, doing some checking I see in XP task
manager that the "Internet Update" utility is using maximum CPU resources,
and that CPU is running at 100%. I report this through their bulletin
board, and the focus is directed toward general CPU heat problems. I do
some tests and find that the Internet Update utility thrashes the CPU, as
measured by heat generation, faster than any *normal* CPU intensive program
I can run. In fact, I can only get my CPU to heat faster by running a test
program designed to run AMD cpu at maximum - and then only when I set that
program to run at high priority via task manager.

So, after some discussion over these issues, as far as I am going to get
from the moderators of their bulletin board is that:

a) It is not a "bug" - it is supposed to do that
b) H+BEDV will not tell them why - so they can't tell me

I find from my own tests that the utility does not *need* the CPU resources
it uses to function properly from a user perspective - if the utility is
denied CPU resources it downloads the update just as quickly.
So - what is it doing? Why would it use maximum available CPU resources -
but make *no difference* if it can get practically no CPU resources? Why
don't they want to say why CPU resources are used so heavily? What is going
on?

I do not find a privacy statement on their EULA, program documentation, nor
on free-AV.com site, nor on the H+BEDV.com website. The "main" program does
not access the internet. Of course you have to permit Internet access
through your firewall to the update utility if you are going to use it.
Only when it is "connected/downloading" does CPU get used heavily. None of
the other "Internet Updateable" programs I see use significant CPU resources
when they are downloading.

Any ideas? I would be most happy to find that this program is *safe*.

[mark]

As a further note to this - I have uninstalled AVPE and installed Grisoft.
I have requested a privacy statement on AVPE bulletin board.

Am I just getting paranoid worrying about a *free* program that when
connected to the internet uses up all my free cpu resources even though it
doesn't need to use more than a trickle?

[Jan Schejbal]

Hi!
I am using this program, too. I use WIN98SE and checked the processor
usage by "Systemmonitor" (i am from germany, i don't know the english
name of this program. it comes with windows). At my machine, the usage
while downloading stays under 20 per cent. However, when I started the
update tool, the usage was about 80-90 per cent.
I think it is a malfunction of the program on your machine you don't
have to worry about.
One more question: is there a english version of antiVir?
Jan

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