Discussion on:

Set up avast! Anti-Theft on an Android phone

I use this on my PC and prefer the window version over the other free AVs out there.

I installed this application and it kept rebooting my android phone... the motorola triumph. While in the middle of deciding which 3rd party app to choose for our company's antivirus solution, i decided to check out Avast's help. What a let down. Avast didn't really give a flying $h!7 that it caused my phone to keep rebooting and did not troubleshoot at all stating that this is the only report and it must be your phone causing the issue.

Needless to say, Avast agent Werner Mayr gave me an easy choice not to purchase Avast as our corporate solution base on the lack of willingness to help. I actually congratulated them in becoming the new norton/symantec (you choose which name you prefer).

I now use Look out mobile security.

Pesonally, I just set my phone security to require anyone using it to turn it on with a specific swipe. I could also have required a password. Supposedly that renders the phone useless by any stranger.

Just curious, what stops anyone from sending a text message with any one of these commands? A 4 digit pin is not all that secure lol. And if I enable wipe well???.. Anyone have the trust of this SW to give it the authority to wipe your device? Not me. lol

avast! now has a web portal that interfaces with the mobile application. I first became aware of it as a result of upgrades to the anti-theft component. It turns out that I needed to upgrade the base application first before I could access the web portal functionality.

The portal supports multiple devices. It provides an easy way to send the various commands, an overview of the settings, activity logs and a locator map once the device has been located. Rather than communicating with the device via SMS, the web portal appears to use the Internet. Although I have been able to do some successful tests, SMS still seems to be more reliable. It does mean that avast can now support devices (such as tablets) that do not have SMS capabilities.

I'm currently using the free version of Lookout, which allows me to locate the phone, or make it scream, but to lock and wipe data requires a $ upgrade. It also provides a security service which I don't use because my employer provides a mandatory tool (Junos Pulse) for my "BYOD" phone. The free version also backs up my contacts, but nothing else. Does Avast back up anything?

my son had this on his phone and i was the phone set up to activate it, one day innocently i sent him a text telling him i had stolen his cola from the fridge with a lol suddenly his phone went into melt down and he couldnt access the phone with the pin he had to turn the phone off because of the loud siren. a 450 quid phone rendered useless because of an innocent text message......it should be harder to activate than a normal text...there should be a code attached for it to be of any use......now removed from phone !!!!!

This app works awesome but what happens if the stealer removes the SIM card ?? is there any alternate way to lock the mobile rather sending SMS commands ?????

My Junos Pulse antivirus identified Avast as spyware?

I used this application for my phone
http://market.android.com/details?id=com.mobile.full2.ecatch

This seems like a great feature of a great program but when trying to install and use this feature the phone prompts you to uninstall a Verizon program that it won't let you uninstall. Once again Verizon has gummed up the works with it's useless bloatware. Unless you have a rooted phone you will be unable to install and use the excellent Avast! Anti-theft feature.