Alternatives to McAfee / Norton

  • Thread starter Thread starter Debris
  • Start date Start date
D

Debris

Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning realization
that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy cr*p,
there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows this, and
(c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.

So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.

Thanks, D
 
Per Debris:
So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I've been through Symantec and PC-Cillen.

Dumped Symantec for reasons I don't recall.

Dumped PC-Cillen two years ago and went over to the freebie version of Avast.

No complaints - and the UI is much, much better.

Don't have the expertise to judge it technically, but would observe that I have
a 13-year-old pounding on this box a couple of hours every day and doesn't
appear to have picked up any malware in the process.
 
I am currently using the FREE AOL Active Virus Shield which uses the
Kaspersky engine and gets it's automatic updates from the Kaspersky server.
I dumped Norton Internet Security 2007 and actually got my money back from
Symantec
Get the AOL /Kaspersky product here http://daol.aol.com/safetycenter/virus
 
Per Frankster:
The new Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 Suite is very good.
Click to expand...

Something to look for when evaluating it: what does it do when the PC gets a
trojan that sends out invitations to outside computers to access it?

The version I had popped an interruptive warning every time one of those outside
computers tried to reach out and touch my PC.

Trend's product, of course, blocked the attempt but the interruptive warning
took focus on the screen. Try getting any work done - or doing *anything* for
that matter - when those notifications are popping two or three times per
second..... -)

If the notification didn't take focus (i.e. didn't interrupt whatever the user
was doing) it would be no problem. As it is, something that is basically a
"Warning" situation effectively makes the PC unusable until one unplugs the
internet connection.
 
Debris said:
Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning
realization that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy
cr*p, there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows
this, and (c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.
Click to expand...

Not quite true... Norton AntiVirus is just as bad as McCrappy, but Norton
Personal Firewall (NOT Norton Internet Security) is one of the best due to
its ease of configuring. All firewalls do what they are supposed to, the
difference is how much trouble you're going to encounter configuring it.

For your AV, get NOD32. Don't even waste your time with the rest.
So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender
looks good, what about AVG? Thanks.
Click to expand...

BitDefender is kinda "OK" -- AVG is complete shite!
 
Debris said:
Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning
realization that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy cr*p,
there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows this,
and
(c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.

So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.

Thanks, D
Click to expand...
The usual recommendations are Kaspersky or NOD32.
I have used McAfee, Norton, AVG, and PC-Cillin in the past. I curently use
NOD32, and it works quite well.

AVG and PC-Cillin are OK. McAfee and Norton are not.

Jim
 
Jim said:
The usual recommendations are Kaspersky or NOD32.
I have used McAfee, Norton, AVG, and PC-Cillin in the past. I curently
use NOD32, and it works quite well.

AVG and PC-Cillin are OK. McAfee and Norton are not.

Jim
Click to expand...
Kaspersky is good too. It's right behind NOD32.
 
Debris said:
Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning
realization that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy cr*p,
there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows this,
and
(c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.

So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.

Thanks, D
Click to expand...

NOD32 and Kaspersky.
 
Hey, thanks to everyone for the tips. Going to do some more research and
I'll let you know what I decide.

My original post was going to be a question about a problem I've been having
with McAfee, but @$!@% it, I've already wasted an evening on it and I'm
tired of dealing with it.

Thanks, D
 
I posted awhile back incase anybody needs a good anti virus and as i
said before AVG is the best in my opinion wether u get it free like
some people or pay for it or whatever but it saves me over and over
again. You can get it free on Kazaa and all the other peer to peer
things or by torrents if you know how to use those.

noname69


TheGuyWithoutAName 517022


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Debris said:
Hey, thanks to everyone for the tips. Going to do some more research and
I'll let you know what I decide.

My original post was going to be a question about a problem I've been having
with McAfee, but @$!@% it, I've already wasted an evening on it and I'm
tired of dealing with it.

Thanks, D
Click to expand...

Check out this site, it has step by step instructions for configuring
NOD32 with screen shots:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=37509

Chas.
 
Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning realization
that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy cr*p,
there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows this, and
(c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.

So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.

Thanks, D
Click to expand...


Well, for me Nod32, excellent detection/heuristics and light on resources too.
Also there is a new version (2.70.16) just out, trial it for yourself and
decide.

Good luck.

#
T.
 
I posted awhile back incase anybody needs a good anti virus and as i
said before AVG is the best in my opinion wether u get it free like
some people or pay for it or whatever but it saves me over and over
again. You can get it free on Kazaa and all the other peer to peer
things or by torrents if you know how to use those.

noname69


TheGuyWithoutAName 517022
Click to expand...

I would hide my name too if I recommended AVG to someone.
 
Debris said:
Hello,

To make a long, painful story short, I have come to the stunning
realization that:

(a) McAfee is a piece of @$!%! bloatware (direct experience -- holy cr*p,
there are twelve! programs running in the background!),
(b) per some quick Internet research, everyone else already knows this,
and (c) per that same research, Norton is just as bad.

So, looking for some alternatives. Free or pay is OK. BitDefender looks
good, what about AVG? Thanks.

Thanks, D
Click to expand...

No-one ever mentions G Data's AntiVirusKit (AVK)
http://www.gdata.de/gdc/us_start
Overall detection performance seems to be as good as, if not slightly better
than, Avira. It actually detects more windows viruses in tests, and is
reputed to be the fastest at countering new threats, but it's worth reading
the full report. It uses both Kaspersky and BitDefender engines.
http://www.gdata.de/filemanager/filedownload/phpBTK94A/OutbreakShield.final ENG.pdf
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_08.php
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report11.pdf

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any personal experience of G Data.
My Trend subscription expires in a couple of months.
 
Falcon said:
No-one ever mentions G Data's AntiVirusKit (AVK)
http://www.gdata.de/gdc/us_start
Overall detection performance seems to be as good as, if not slightly
better than, Avira. It actually detects more windows viruses in tests,
and is reputed to be the fastest at countering new threats, but it's
worth reading the full report. It uses both Kaspersky and BitDefender
engines.
http://www.gdata.de/filemanager/filedownload/phpBTK94A/OutbreakShield.final ENG.pdf
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse_2006_08.php
http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report11.pdf
I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any personal experience of G Data.
My Trend subscription expires in a couple of months.
Click to expand...

Addendum: Accourding to av-comparatives.org, a new version of AVK will be
using Kaspersky and Avast engines from 2007.
 
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