Symantec vs McAfee

[Wesley Vogel]

I got a virus, a bad one, when I was running McAfee. I do not remember the
name of the virus, but what I do remember was that I couldn't even access
the internet. I had to pay McAfee extra $$$ for a fix, above what I had
already paid for my subscription. I had to have a friend download the fix
for me, load it on a floppy and bring it over to my place.

I should add that the virus was in an E-mail attachment from what I thought
was a friend. Well, the friend hadn't sent the E-mail, their virus infected
machine did. When I called them on the phone to inquire about things, their
machine was in the shop getting cleaned out. This must have been seven to
ten years ago, don't remember for sure.

Since McAfee charged me extra to fix something that their software should
have taken care of in the first, I take every opportunity that I can to bad
mouth them.

I'd like to think that my word of mouth advertising has cost McAfee several
times over what it cost me, dollar wise.

the lone MAC

LOL There always seems to be *one* of those, huh?

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Leythos]

I would be tempted to find out if some of the users were turning AVG off to
ensure that they would definitely get the files..

None of them turned it off, they would not know how. The file came
through without any problems.

One of them was a flood trojan if I remember correctly, broadcasting a
storm of traffic which shutdown their Linksys router for the entire
house. Watching the traffic at the switch made it easy (we had a couple
managed switches there) to find the offending connection.

AVG is an anti-virus program, not a malware remover per se.. a regularly
updated SpywareBlaster takes care of most malware.. the combination is cheap
and effective..

I'm well aware of what AVG is and can do, thanks,.

 

[Leythos]

I got a virus, a bad one, when I was running McAfee. I do not remember the
name of the virus, but what I do remember was that I couldn't even access
the internet. I had to pay McAfee extra $$$ for a fix, above what I had
already paid for my subscription. I had to have a friend download the fix
for me, load it on a floppy and bring it over to my place.

I should add that the virus was in an E-mail attachment from what I thought
was a friend. Well, the friend hadn't sent the E-mail, their virus infected
machine did. When I called them on the phone to inquire about things, their
machine was in the shop getting cleaned out. This must have been seven to
ten years ago, don't remember for sure.

Since McAfee charged me extra to fix something that their software should
have taken care of in the first, I take every opportunity that I can to bad
mouth them.

I'd like to think that my word of mouth advertising has cost McAfee several
times over what it cost me, dollar wise.


LOL There always seems to be *one* of those, huh?

I never install McCrappy either, not after seeing how things work in the
Sororities we do work for. While many people don't like Symantec, and
don't know the difference between Corporate and the residential NIS, I
love the corporate versions and have only had one 4 hour period where a
new virus was not detected and we saw it reach email - no infected
machines though.

 

[Mike Hall, MS-MVP]

Corporate versions are not exactly readily available thru CompUSA, BestBuy
or Office Depot, and with respect to Symantec, not that I consider that they
are due for any, if they can make a decent corporate version, then maybe
they should use funds received to improve the abysmal home version..

Many of the people coming to these newsgroups do not have recourse to
trained and experienced system admins, corporate firewalls, AV, routers
etc.. they do not even get decent support from the vendors..

Rather than spend good money on a crappy product, I advise that they use
AVG.. it is a good deal, works well, and I use it on all of the home network
here.. I would not recommend it if I felt that the product was flawed, and
so far, I have gotten no evidence from my own use or the use of many others
that it is a flawed product..

If activity on one of the machines on the network brought the entire system
down, I would be looking to interrogate the operator of the machine..

 

[Leythos]

Many of the people coming to these newsgroups do not have recourse to
trained and experienced system admins, corporate firewalls, AV, routers
etc.. they do not even get decent support from the vendors..

I completely agree with you, most don't know about the Corp versions and
most would not pay for the min of 10 licenses either. But, I wanted to
make sure that people understood that Corp AV 10.0/1 is much different
than Norton/Symantec personal/residential.

Rather than spend good money on a crappy product, I advise that they use
AVG.. it is a good deal, works well, and I use it on all of the home network
here.. I would not recommend it if I felt that the product was flawed, and
so far, I have gotten no evidence from my own use or the use of many others
that it is a flawed product..

Don't get me wrong, until I had see it running in the different
sororities I had also believed it was a great free product, even used it
on a couple of my own test machines, but not any more.

In the cases I've seen where a machine has been compromised while
running AVG, the same type of things don't compromise Symantec (even
personal) protected machines.

If activity on one of the machines on the network brought the entire system
down, I would be looking to interrogate the operator of the machine..

Heck, before we got involved they had more than a dozen machines
compromised with a SMTP Enabled virus that almost got them disconnected
by their ISP - they were given 4 hours to get it cleaned up. AVG cleaned
those machines, three years ago.

My experience has been that AVG 7 is not as good as AVG 6, at least the
detections have not been. I'm not really saying it has anything to do
with the version, but something sure has changed in the last 18 months,
and AVG has gone down-hill as a result.

Get a set of clients that are part of a frat/sorority, even if you
provide the support for free for your own learning experience, and
you'll see a lot more than what we see here. I was really amazed at what
they get exposed too and what they try and get away with

 

[Jonny]

Just be sure McAfee is stripped clean from your PC before you switch AVs. I
have no idea what is better than what. Am using NAV2004 and Trend
Antispyware.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

My new computer came with a free trial of McAfee that I am trying for 3
months. My old computer used Symantec Norton.
Eventually I will have to make a decision about which antivirus program to
use in my new computer.
So let me ask, which one of the antivirus programs gets along better with
Windows XP and which one is supported better by Microsoft and Windows XP?
Which one computer users are having better experiences with?
Thanks in advance.

Thanks to advice in various newsgroups, supplemented by a bit
of review-reading, I switched from both the above to ZoneAlarm.
You might do well by looking into it.

 

[Guest]

My new computer came with a free trial of McAfee that I am trying for 3
months. My old computer used Symantec Norton.
Eventually I will have to make a decision about which antivirus program to
use in my new computer.
So let me ask, which one of the antivirus programs gets along better with
Windows XP and which one is supported better by Microsoft and Windows XP?
Which one computer users are having better experiences with?
Thanks in advance.

Greetings,

To the best of my knowledge, each Windows OS from Win 98 on came with it's own AV/Privacy programs under IE Tools. You must remember to reset them in order to receive cookies, etc, after loading your AV/FW program. The factory AV is a great help during times of re-downloading, large downloads, and error correction to an outside program.

I've used just about most of the mainstream AV/FW programs and have
arrived at my preferred set-up for minimal download time, and other
features. I use CA Associates ETrust for my AV/FW. CA is not without fault,
especially when encountering a re-download error or delay in downloading upon
subscription renewal. I use Norton 2003 utilities (for my Win98SE - I don't
much care for ME or XP) in place of the factory OS's diagnostics,
specifically Fast & Safe Clean-up, One Button Check-Up (a combination of most
other common diagnostic programs), Norton Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, Speed
Disk, and a subsection of Speed Disk that organizes registry files called
Norton Optimization Wizard. Everytime that NDD is run, a registry image is
recorded, as well as other programs that wipe files (I use Tolvanen's
Eraser), compare files & registries, etc.

For online use, I downloaded a program called RamDefragXT, which operates in
3 modes, silent mode included. If you find your online session slowing up,
you can run Norton Fast & Safe Clean-Up, then follow with RamDefrag (silent).
RanDefrag may slow or stop your online work for approx. 5 to 10 seconds, but
the resulting increase in online function is well worth it for me.

Spyware detection is now becoming an incentive to add to AV/FW, or other
Registry, Pop-up programs. Yes, practically everything that i paid for from
1990 to 1995 is now practically free.

There is no law that says one cannot use one or more AV/FW programs to keep
checks and balances on another program.

I would use prudence when using the 3-month trial of MCAfee. If they are
anything like around the turn of the century, errors are not uncommon &
downloads can be painfully inaccurate & slow.

Good Luck choosing the system that works for you.

Peace,
gj

 

[Guest]

My new computer came with a free trial of McAfee that I am trying for 3
months. My old computer used Symantec Norton.
Eventually I will have to make a decision about which antivirus program to
use in my new computer.
So let me ask, which one of the antivirus programs gets along better with
Windows XP and which one is supported better by Microsoft and Windows XP?
Which one computer users are having better experiences with?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Gene K]

The best rated internet protection suite suite by most is Zone Alarm
Internet Security Suite ($49.95)
:http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/zass/whatsNew.jsp?lid=home_whats_new
.. Before spending money, try free stuff such as the free AVG or Avast
Anti-Virus programs and the free Comodo firewall.


--
GeneK

My new computer came with a free trial of McAfee that I am trying for 3
months. My old computer used Symantec Norton.
Eventually I will have to make a decision about which antivirus program to
use in my new computer.
So let me ask, which one of the antivirus programs gets along better with
Windows XP and which one is supported better by Microsoft and Windows XP?
Which one computer users are having better experiences with?
Thanks in advance.

Greetings,

To the best of my knowledge, each Windows OS from Win 98 on came with it's
own AV/Privacy programs under IE Tools. You must remember to reset them in
order to receive cookies, etc, after loading your AV/FW program. The
factory AV is a great help during times of re-downloading, large
downloads, and error correction to an outside program.

I've used just about most of the mainstream AV/FW programs and have
arrived at my preferred set-up for minimal download time, and other
features. I use CA Associates ETrust for my AV/FW. CA is not without fault,
especially when encountering a re-download error or delay in downloading
upon
subscription renewal. I use Norton 2003 utilities (for my Win98SE - I don't
much care for ME or XP) in place of the factory OS's diagnostics,
specifically Fast & Safe Clean-up, One Button Check-Up (a combination of
most
other common diagnostic programs), Norton Disk Doctor, WinDoctor, Speed
Disk, and a subsection of Speed Disk that organizes registry files called
Norton Optimization Wizard. Everytime that NDD is run, a registry image is
recorded, as well as other programs that wipe files (I use Tolvanen's
Eraser), compare files & registries, etc.

For online use, I downloaded a program called RamDefragXT, which operates in
3 modes, silent mode included. If you find your online session slowing up,
you can run Norton Fast & Safe Clean-Up, then follow with RamDefrag
(silent).
RanDefrag may slow or stop your online work for approx. 5 to 10 seconds, but
the resulting increase in online function is well worth it for me.

Spyware detection is now becoming an incentive to add to AV/FW, or other
Registry, Pop-up programs. Yes, practically everything that i paid for from
1990 to 1995 is now practically free.

There is no law that says one cannot use one or more AV/FW programs to keep
checks and balances on another program.

I would use prudence when using the 3-month trial of MCAfee. If they are
anything like around the turn of the century, errors are not uncommon &
downloads can be painfully inaccurate & slow.

Good Luck choosing the system that works for you.

Peace,
gj

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

No, this isn't at all correct. *No* version of Windows has ever come with an
Anti-Virus or Privacy program. The only security software in any version of
Windows is the Windows Firewall, and that's only in Windows XP.

There is no law that says one cannot use one or more AV/FW programs
to keep checks and balances on another program.

It has nothing to do with laws, but it is never a good idea to run two
software firewalls. You achieve no extra protection, you incur the extra
overhead of running two firewalls, and you run the risk (probably small, but
not zero) of conflicts between them.

See http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/firewall.mspx which
includes the following:

"Q. Should I use both the built-in firewall and a software firewall from a
different company on my Windows XP computer?

"A. No. Running multiple software firewalls is unnecessary for typical home
computers, home networking, and small-business networking scenarios. Using
two firewalls on the same connection could cause issues with connectivity to
the Internet or other unexpected behavior. One firewall, whether it is the
Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall or a different software firewall,
can provide substantial protection for your computer."

Also note that if you update your third-party firewall to a new version, the
update routine will probably turn it off first. If the Windows firewall
isn't running, you will temporarily be left with no running firewall, which
is very dangerous. So turn on the Windows firewall temporarily before doing
maintenance on your third-party firewall.

The Windows firewall monitors incoming traffic only. Almost any third-party
firewall will also monitor outbound traffic, stopping rogue programs trying
to call home, and is a better choice.

Regarding two Anti-virus programs, it is similarly a very bad idea to run
two or more simultaneously. They are likely to interfere with each other. It
is, however OK to do a standalone virus scan with a second anti-virus
program, and it is possible that it could pick up something the first one
missed.