Looking for alternative to mcafee

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matthijs
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Looking for alternative to mcafee

Post by matthijs »

Ok, just waisted 2 hours of my life trying to upgrade my existing mcafee security suite (virusscanner/firewall) on my PC (XP sp2). Installing didn't work, so I contacted online chat. After getting an email with instructions and running those tried again. New problem. Again chat online helpdesk. Again email with instructions. this time even longer and complicated. I have to do stuff with the registry, make system recovery backups, etc etc.

So I thought f*** mcafee. I'm not going to do all this.

Now, what are the alternatives? I know from experience that Norton is just as bad with installing/upgrading (helped several family/friends). Seodevhead recommended PC Tools AntiVirus in an older thread.

I just need a good and easy virusscanner. I use that PC only for testing sites in IE. That's it. Occasionally opening a Word document I get from people.

(I just don't understand why these programs are so bad. On my mac, for all my software, upgrades are a matter of clicking one button, waiting 3 seconds and ready. Most often, restart isn't even needed ... )
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JayBird
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Post by JayBird »

NOD32 for a virus scanner
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Jenk
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Post by Jenk »

AVG or AntiVir. Both have free (completely free) versions.
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Post by matthijs »

Ok, thanks. I'll look at those.

In the meantime I found this site http://www.av-comparatives.org/, which seems pretty thorough. G Data AVK, NOD32 and AVG come out pretty good. (the first two a bit better)
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Post by feyd »

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seodevhead
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Post by seodevhead »

feyd posted a good link to a previous thread that has a post I made about AV/Spyware.

Though in the past couple months a lot has changed and my observations are now that:

Spyware Doctor is still king of the Spyware crowd.

ZoneAlarm Security Suite is absolutely fantastic (now uses Kaspersky engines w/ OS Firewall).

Spyware Doctor now has problems with the latest update of ZoneAlarm SS.

Spyware Doctor says latest update fixes the conflict...

ZoneAlarm is trying to push everyone out.

Figure out how to get em both working at the same time (seperate windows accounts I hear works) and you got yourself covered pretty well.

NOD32 is still good... but not even worth your time if you have ZA and Spyware Doctor.... adding another would just cause further conflict.

ZASS is a MUST for anyone I think.
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

Hi seodevhead, thanks for your input. On what do you base your recommendations? Experience working with them, test results? I didn't see Zone Alarm in the test results on http://www.av-comparatives.org/
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

Linux anyone 8O
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Post by toasty2 »

JayBird wrote:NOD32 for a virus scanner
I agree, and use Spybot S&D for anti-spyware.
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TheMoose
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Post by TheMoose »

JayBird wrote:NOD32 for a virus scanner
But...NOD is the bad guys from Command and Conquer! :D

But seriously, NOD32 is where it's at.
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Post by alvinphp »

I have been using AVG (the free version) for a couple years and it works great. It even tells me when to upgrade (all for free).
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

astions wrote:Linux anyone 8O
If you tell me a way of running IE 5 - 7 on Linux (for testing purposes), I'm completely with you. I'd like nothing more then doing a format:C on my pc and throwing out xp, installing Linux.

I bet the first one to write a program which allows IE to run somewhere (on mac/linux) without the windows os, can get very rich. I'd pay $100 for such a program.
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seodevhead
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Post by seodevhead »

matthijs wrote:Hi seodevhead, thanks for your input. On what do you base your recommendations? Experience working with them, test results? I didn't see Zone Alarm in the test results on http://www.av-comparatives.org/
This is based on my own experience with them and subsequent research. I used to run McAfee and Norton for YEARS, and simply assumed that since they never reported viruses or spyware, that they were doing their job. Boy was I wrong.

I kept noticing over the years that my Windows machines would get slower and slower as time went on. I would just chock it up to the fact that it was normal operation for Windows to slow down like that, or it was on account of old hardware, bad registry, etc. While these things do have an effect... I have since learned that in reality, Windows is actually a fairly decent OS once you prevent malware from taking root.

I have had my share of viruses and spyware, even though I classify my self as EXTREMELY ANAL and selective about where I go on the internet. Even to the point where I will pretty much shy away from most major community-driven (I think there is another term I'm forgetting at the moment) websites like MySpace (never go here), FlickR, YouTube, etc. With the exception of MySpace (probably virus heaven), I will agree that it is a bit overboard, but thats just how careful I have become since seeing how clean a system can stay by not picking up malware. I also do not allow any HTML or attachments in my emails unless you have been specifically whitelisted by me. All emails are converted to ASCII only.

I've been victim to some nasty viruses throughout the years, regardless of my fanatical carefulness. I guess it could just be bad luck, but I am assuming that's the price you now pay for running Windows. You can take all the preventative measures possible, and you will never be safe, this much I have learned.

Most of the serious viruses I have had were Trojan in nature, be it PWstealers (password), full out keyloggers and backdoors. To me, these are the worst, because they tend not to make much fuss with the system, but open up your world to others. I have also had Windows Media Player buffer overrun viruses. I was on one of the most popular video sharing websites (before everything was converted to flash like youtube) and played a video embedded in the page and got the virus. It almost crippled my machine. I ended up having to flatten and rebuild. I've also had a Dialer that would attempt to dial out to 'pay-for' phone numbers non-stop, but luckily I had no phone line connected.

I want to make it really clear here that, of all these viruses I've had, NOT ONE was picked up with Norton AntiVirus. Not one was picked up with AdAware (used to be the most popular). Not one was picked up with AVG, and not one was picked up with McAfee. All but one were picked up by Spyware Doctor, and the dialer was picked up by Spybot S&D (why I recommend still using this as well). One was detected by ZASS as well as Spyware Doctor, but that was after I had gotten rid of Norton, so I can't compare that instance to Norton.

I used to make it standard practice to run Norton first before all my other scanners, just to see if Norton would indeed not pickup anything that may later be found in other scanners. The results were pretty pathetic. It didn't take long for me to realize how incompetent Norton was compared to the more niche-specific scanners out there like Spyware Doctor. Not to mention Norton was a hog on just about everything, and for what?

What drives me nuts is when I have gotten a virus and later go out to dinner with a friend or colleague and tell them I had picked up a virus from somewhere earlier that day. And they laugh at me and tell me, "man... you must be going to some bad sites or porn... I've never had a single virus in my life". And when I ask them what AV/Spyware software they use (I can guess it right 99% of the time)... the answer is always the same...

"I use Norton. It has worked really really well. I haven't had any viruses, my system comes up clean every scan."


I politely nod my head but on the inside I am telling myself how ignorant and clueless my friend is about malware. And then a couple months down the line they tell me about how their OS won't boot up anymore and how they think it is bad memory or hard drive, all while I'm laughing inside saying, "shoulda gotten SD and ZASS".
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Jenk
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Post by Jenk »

matthijs wrote:
astions wrote:Linux anyone 8O
If you tell me a way of running IE 5 - 7 on Linux (for testing purposes), I'm completely with you. I'd like nothing more then doing a format:C on my pc and throwing out xp, installing Linux.

I bet the first one to write a program which allows IE to run somewhere (on mac/linux) without the windows os, can get very rich. I'd pay $100 for such a program.
http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page (IE7 is beta)

or VMWare; which now has a completely free version.
Last edited by Jenk on Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
matthijs
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Post by matthijs »

seodevhead, thanks for your interesting elaboration. It does make me wonder though: I've been running mcafee for a few years now and never had a virus. I did pick up some spyware or suspect stuff though, with other programs.

It's interesting, because at one side I think that if you're a bit careful with surfing and emailing, you're pretty safe. As mcafee hase never found a virus for me I always assumed a virusscanner is not really needed. As long as you don't visit dubious sites, open emails or download stuff. I just had it to be sure.

But your post does make me wonder. Do you always run multiple programs side by side? I'll try a few and see what the results are. Although I still find it hard to judge those results. Because if a virusscanner doesn't find something, well as you said you still don't know for sure if your systems clean. And if it does find "suspicious" stuff, it's always the question of how bad it really is. Certainly spyware programs scream alarm for each single cookie on your system. I think that's a bit over the top as well.
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