McAfee Security

I have been using AVG free on my laptop for sometime now and have had no issues with it. I have joined o2 for broadband which comes with McAfee Security. Is this better to have on my laptop or should I not install McAfee Security and stick with AVG?

Thanks.

Personally I've always found the more mainstream security products to be bloated and problematic - so I avoid them.

These days, Microsoft Security Essentials does just fine.

Given the choice of purely AVG vs McAfee - I'd go with AVG.

I use McAfee on two machines and it usually works fine. The updates need a re-boot about once a month (usually to update the Security Center (sic) software) but the definition updates come through about once a day and can be applied in the background. I hear that support is poor if anything goes wrong though, so I'd look at the alternatives. I got it free too with my Dells.

Stick with AVG if you're happy with it.

Both AVG and McAfee is pants.

I agree with Apprentice: stick with AVG - but I would scan with Malwarebytes at least once a week

I've used AVG for the last 3 years and had no issues with viruses at all.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

I've used AVG for the last 3 years and had no issues with viruses at all.

I had to clean a machine that had AVG and some other Free AV s/ware on it non of it detected the infections, but Eset smart security plus a couple of scans from one or two other security utils for root kits ect , result machine has been clean since , another Free AV to avoid is AVAST

Valid point, but I don't get issues with viruses with or without using antivirus products because I don't download them...

There is more to an AV product than detection rates. AVG is not the most efficienct and easy to use program out there. It is somewhat clunky and drains performance a bit.

I've been led to believe that more than one concurrently running AV product is not a good idea.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Both AVG and McAfee is pants.

Agreed.

If you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c12nz/Click_... aprox 9 minutes into the video, you will learn that both AVG and Mcafee fail the financial malware test for Zeus.

I use Kaspersky which passed the test thankfully and just as well as I do buy quite a lot of stuff online and also do online banking.

Ooh BBC Click, I hope you don't believe everything they say on there

Quite surprising for McAfee - while their product is carp, I expected their detection rates to be fairly reasonable. I would have no hesitation doing online banking on computers without any antivirus software, providing they are my own. If I don't go installing dodgy software, there is absolutely no reason why there should be anything malicious on the PC.

Kaspersky has got too bloated for my liking unfortunately, ever since they got in bed with the retail sector like PC world and started to pay more attention advertising than developing.

In reply to a post by broadband66:

I've been led to believe that more than one concurrently running AV product is not a good idea.

Indeed it is not - but don't tell Titus

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Ooh BBC Click, I hope you don't believe everything they say on there

It was an independent test

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Kaspersky has got too bloated for my liking unfortunately, ever since they got in bed with the retail sector like PC world and started to pay more attention advertising than developing.

No problems with bloating on my PC

Further info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9...

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

..... If I don't go installing dodgy software, there is absolutely no reason why there should be anything malicious on the PC.

There is every reason to believe otherwise! The days are long gone when malware had to be actively downloaded and activated by the user.
"Passive infections" are nothing new; "drivebys" were one of the chief means of hijacking dialup connections in the 90's. Remember the various worms of a decade or so ago? No downloads involved there.... Not even a need to visit a dodgy site..... Just being connected was enough to get burned!

In reply to a post by CurlyWhirly:

... I use Kaspersky which passed the test thankfully....

KIS's "Anti Banner" feature also means that a fair bit of recent malware is blackholed without the AV even seeing it.

I was thinking more the other way round, things are more secure than they were 10 years ago. I am not sure Microsoft would accept your point that putting a fully patched Windows 7 machine on the internet will result in it getting infected because it has no Antivirus product- because 99.9% of the time it wont. The chance of this happening is probably less than an antimalware program missing an infection caused by a clumsy user downloading all sorts of rubbish.

I think we'll have to disagree on this one - Virus infections (generally) don't just magically push themselves onto the system, ones that do are brand new exploits and usually get patched in no time at all, and highly unlikely to occur.

If they are new enough to circumvent unknown weakness in the OS then there is a good chance they won't be detected by an AV product, either because they are so new, or they are a bespoke attack on someone.

If this was the case then as I go about my business on the web my AV product would pop up now and then saying it's blocked malicious software, fact is, it never has...

You have to admit that this incorrect assumption that you must have security software on your PC otherwise when you do online banking your information will get hacked is just nonsense - and as usual the media continue to portray this story and technically incompetent people continue to believe it.

Edited by Pipexer (Mon 06-Feb-12 18:20:37)

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

Remember the various worms of a decade or so ago? No downloads involved there.... Not even a need to visit a dodgy site..... Just being connected was enough to get burned!

I remember the MS blaster worm !

I didn't bother to keep my PC updated with security updates and I got stung with the PC closing down after 60 secs of going online !

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

In reply to a post by CurlyWhirly:

... I use Kaspersky which passed the test thankfully....

KIS's "Anti Banner" feature also means that a fair bit of recent malware is blackholed without the AV even seeing it.

Yeah I am more than pleased with Kaspersky and I will probably renew my licence for the third time when it expires in august.

I would say that what you have said is supported by the fact that I have never had anything on my home PCs caught by the virus scanner. The people who I help that have had something have been downloading all sorts of rubbish that I wouldn't go near because I would consider them to be a risk.

But then I never had viruses on XP either. Last time I think I had a virus was back in the days of boot floppies and viruses being spread in the boot sector.

Was CWS and the Transponder gang etc really that far back?

There have been many perfectly innocent sites infected via exploits (Google Ads was a major player as well as Java exploits) over the last year or so. IIRC, the NYT and several major financial sites were victims not so long ago. Facebook, myspace etc and many of the popular sites such as genealogy, popular forums etc are always prime targets for purveyors of malware. In many instances, these exploits are patched after the event so cannot be avoided.
However, a decent AV/firewall solution will analyse behaviours and advise of/block anything suspicious. The downside of this of course is that false positives can occasionally occur but better a false positive than an infected machine.

I use a members only list which currently contains over 150,000 currently confirmed compromised domains and that doesn't include the ubiquitous live but non updated "Wordpress" clutch.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/300-000-Websites-Fall... also weren't included.

Not educating users in the ways of the web, or worse still, badly educating them re security precautions etc is simply assisting the criminals, spammers and scammers in who knows what their aims are.