antivirus software--the best?
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Posted on Apr 19, 2004 03:37 pm
fortymile
Member Since: Jan 18, 2003
i went out and bought mcafee security suite today. last month my non-music computer caught a virus and every .exe file was erased in a botched quarantine operation (my advice: avoid AVG free antivirus software. it's supposed to be good, it always catches stuff, but apparently it can't always quarantine). anyway, it was partly my fault this happened. i shouldn't have been trying to quarantine all that stuff. if i had checked out what the files were and seen that many were programs that were currently installed and running, i probably would have gone online to search for a removal tool.
my question is: is norton or mcafee better, and why?
i went with mcafee for a few reasons: the rumor was that it was less of a resource hog. norton seemed to have more stuff in its package: norton ghost and goback for instance. but the rumor was that norton begins charging you for virus updates after one free year of service. that's just so totally lame that i had to go with mcafee. also i heard norton used some kind of activation code and thus could only be installed a few times. and the only free tech support was for original installs--after you upgrade once youre on your own.
i thought i'd check here to see if anyone has anything to say. it's not too late to return it.
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Apr 19, 2004 04:19 pm Until I was told about AVG many months ago, I had been an avid Norton user for years. Norton does charge for updates after a year, but the rub is this...within that year you can almost be garaunteed that a new version of the application will come out, and Norton is VERY good about taking care of their existing customers with substantial rebates for upgrading. I have often ended up getting the newer version of System Works and/or anti-virus applications for free after the rebates, paying only 37 cents to mail the rebate in.
Norton IS a resource hog, but not for the reasons you state. Symantec does bundle their programs with a pile of things like GoBack, Ghost, Clean Sweep and other things of that nature, but you do not have to install them, I never did. Also, Norton offers the user very complete control over what runs in the boot and what doesn't. It does not HAVE to be a resource hog...but people who just go through the install wizard clicking "next" and not paying any attention to what they are clicking, yes, it will install at the defaults and everything will run in the boot. Thats not Norton fault, that a lazy person installing and not paying attention.
For every AV program out there you will find somebody with a horror story about it. You had a virus get past AVG, I have intentionally got viruses past Norton and MacAfee both. I have had one person install Norton and it trashed their boot sector and they had to reimage, I know someone that installed MacAfee and they had error messages while booting until they got sick of it and reinstalled Windows. My neighbor had a virus get past AVG. At my workplace we have had viruses get past Norton Corporate Edition, then the quarantine wouldn't work, and in other cases it quarantined them, but wouldn't let them be deleted...
It's a crap shoot. Every kind of car can get into an accident, usually because of the driver, not the car. Every guitar string brand will break due to a burr on the bridge, nut or pick, not because the string was bad. Every AV program will have viruses get past it, often time due to the user not updating definitions or not running regular scans and the viruses propogates the whole time...
Hate the game, not the player...
All told, after years of teching, network and server administration and computer support I stand by AVG. Failing that you have one other option...
Go Linux.
Apr 19, 2004 05:27 pm nice post, db. just watch out though, because while researching norton and mcafee today i ran across a reviewer who said his AVG simply "did not know how to quarantine." that's exactly what happened to me: i told it to quarantine a whole huge batch of files--several hundred, apparently (i had just woken up and wasnt thinking straight) and upon restart, only 12 were in the quarantine folder. *shrug* perhaps the quarantine folder is limited to a certain size.
otherwise, AVG is great. it's worked for me for years and i've seen it catch and repair many bugs. but just keep the quarantine issue in mind, and try not to do it unless you absolutely have to. cause to me this was a shocking failure.
granted, i should not have quarantined so many files in the first place.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Apr 19, 2004 05:58 pm Why on earth were you quarentene (it's late) so many files?! :|
jues.
Apr 19, 2004 06:27 pm forty, thats exactly my point, I have also read reviewers that say the exact opposite and rank AVG among the best. Just cuz someone is labelled "a reviewer" does not make their opinion golden...it means that is their experience. Which is no more or less valuable then anyone elses...he just gets published...
That reviewers opinion is just that, his opinion...research more, you will find other reviewers with other opinions...
Apr 19, 2004 07:33 pm i know, man, but it happened, is my point. to me!
jues, it was sort of an experiment. AVG told me i could restore the quarantined files, and i trusted it. i knew the computer wouldnt work if crucial files were Q'd. but i didn't check to see which files were infected before i recklessly told it to do its work, so blind was my trust. almost immediately i noticed they were mostly .exe files. thats when i said uh-oh. but i still figured i'd be able to reverse it.
alas, no.
i'm not defending my action. i was stupid. however, it is worth noting that the quarantine failed.
Apr 19, 2004 07:47 pm Thats a fair assessment, you relate well with that particular reviewer because you have been affected by what the said, very fair. Also, I have seen AVG quarentine properly, though never that many files, so I can't speak for that, and have seen Norton fail in quarantine...it's all subjective I guess.
Apr 21, 2004 03:03 am yeah, it all depends. anyway, i need to reinstall windows.
i went to the store to buy xp--this computer belongs to my family, and my parents didn't save the windows 98 reinstall disc. i told the guy 'alright, look, i have to wipe the slate. will this upgrade package do me or do i need the clean install version for machines that dont have windows installed?"
he told me the upgrade would check to verify that i am a liscenced user, then would issue a series of prompts and allow me to do whatever i wanted, including a clean install, formatting the drive and even changing it to ntfs or whatever the alternative to fat32 is. but...it didn't. instead it gave me one option: installing to the same partition where the current OS is installed (my computer is apparently unpartitioned.) it recommended against doing this, as it might cause conflicts. at no point did it give me the option to erase everything and start anew, which is what i want.
so it looks like my only option with what i bought is to do a regular upgrade, thus keeping all these old programs and junk files, and possibly some of the ones that were damaged by the virus but can't be removed.
does anyone know a trick? or do i have to go back and hope they will do an exchange for the clean install package? which for some reason i think is very unlikely with something like windows. i am thinking i need to create a new partition and install there, then just...i dunno, manually erase the remainder of the drive?
final goal: 1. security in knowing that anything which might be lurking and still infected is nuked. 2. clearing out all this garbage and starting fresh with no files.
Apr 23, 2004 02:22 pm done.
Apr 23, 2004 02:27 pm I am not sure about XP, but many of the Windows upgrades have a work-around. You can format your harddrive, then, put in the Windows CD (even an upgrade) and start the install, when it gets to the part where it checks for an existing Windows install, it won't find one, but, you can put in your 98 CD (if you have one or can get one from a friend) and put it in the CDrom, tell it to look there, it sees that you have a copy and will proceed to install it as a fresh copy.
That said, I don't recall if XP does that or not...as I have a full version...and Professional, not Home edition. Home has some weirdities. I thought they were pretty close, but as it turns out they have some pretty big differences.
Apr 23, 2004 08:56 pm no, i meant the task is complete. and that process is what did the trick.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Apr 23, 2004 09:36 pm Home is XP lite. :)
Apr 24, 2004 05:19 am Yeah, I knew it meant you were done, but I don't recall reading the previous post, had a comment to make so I made it, even though I knew it was too late...
Apr 25, 2004 02:30 am thanks, db.
i can only imagine what i'm missing by not going with xp pro, but oh well. i'm NOT a pro. in fact, i stay at home quite a lot.
maybe i need XP Home Pro.
Apr 26, 2004 06:48 pm here's a baffling prologue to the install (in case anyone has ever seen anything like this before):
my mouse works only about 3 times out of 10. at bootup. i'll start XP and 30 percent of the time, i can actually use the mouse. the other 70 percent of the time, i have to shutdown and reboot because it's dead frozen.
the XP support team has tried helping, but it's basically just amounted to a lot of diagnostic testing through tweaking--the rationale for which is totally opaque to me. perhaps if i knew along what lines to be thinking, i could get my head around this problem. but they've not stooped to offering me any theories.
the mice are fine. it's something in the OS, i'd wager. reinstall? part of me says 'why bother.'
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Apr 29, 2004 09:52 pm Is your mouse a USB unit? My USB Trackball has a fit and resets itself once in awhile and I have to go in and reprogram it. So I am wondering if it has something to do with the USB drivers.
Apr 30, 2004 02:31 am its not, no. i have another one here that can be either usb or whatever the old fashioned mouse socket is. but i havent tried it as usb cause i'm told it wont work with a pc (according to the manual). anyway, both mice experience the same periodic failure. it's something in the OS or drivers. it is--far--beyond my knowledge to diagnose. it was beyond the knowledge of two seperate microsoft support guys.
this computer is destined to be a bit crippled for the rest of its days. good thing its not the music computer.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 09, 2004 08:51 pm I've heard a 2 story drop will do wonders for most crippled Pc's!
