Advice On 2015 Anti Virus McAfee LiveSafe Or Avast

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We are getting 2 new computers at the shop and my P.C. person again asked me which anti virus i wanted. I think the computer comes with McAfee Live safe for a trial of 30 days or should i use Avast or another one. I asked this a while back about my wifes law office p.c.'s and she went with Avast.. Problem is Anti Virus programs change pretty fast. If anyone really knows about this give me some pros and cons on some of them.
I want to try and keep snoopers out of my p.c. and to protect it against viruses as best i could.
 
OfficeMax has Macafee Antivirus for $9.99 for one user, one year.
Three users, $19.99...

You can get either physical media or download versions...

http://www.officedepot.com/mb/skupage.do?skuid=621268

Be careful when you install, go "custom install",
leave out what you don't need..
For example, I don't use e-mail, so e-mail scanner gets unchecked...
 
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What kind of stuff do you use the computers for? Personally, I haven't used an anti virus program aside from the stock windows defender for years and have never gotten a virus. Or you could just use a linux distro and not worry; the ui is easy and if all you need to run is internet and word processing it may not be a bad choice. Just my 2 cents
 
Depending on your useage maybe a install of Linux would be useful to you.

Ubuntus a pretty popular OS for first time Linux users. Its a good system its updated regularly (its completely free) and virtually virus free.

Statistically there are very few (if any) viruses for Ubuntu. Its main advantage is the Super User is locked by default. You can use the computer virtually any way you please without running the risk of damaging it due to viruses. Even if there was a virus you would still need to know the Super User password to give it the ability to run. Make it a general rule to update the PC each morning (takes less then 3 mins). Then never enter the password again (shouldn't be required anyways).

Not trying to oversell it but its really as simple as installing it and setting the Firewall to block all (internet will still work perfectly fine).

Windows is a good system, but it can be unforgiving when it comes to drive by downloads and day zero exploits.

No antivirus will block all Malware, Viruses, and Trojans. Sooner or later you will encounter something that will make its say threw the system virtually unchecked.

Not to say Ubuntu is the most secure system in history just something like 1.13% of all computers in the world run Ubuntu. Compared to roughly 90% of computers that run Windows.

If your a bad guy it simply doesn't pay off to attack theses types of Operating Systems since you have a considerably larger pool of potention targets with Windows users.

Most popular programs for Windows will work on Linux (be it a Linux version). So its not like you need to change all the programs around.
 
Take a look at this: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm for some free (as in beer) options and this: http://www.pcantivirusreviews.com/Comparison/ and this: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp for some of their paid counterparts.

Be sure to completely uninstall McAfee if you choose to go with a different option. Be careful not to get a false sense of security with an antivirus program; they are easily defeated for even a novice hacker so, for example, be careful and try to limit web surfing on work PCs as it's easy to get a "backdoor" to your PC installed by innocently visiting a web site that's been compromised by a hacker!

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Ed
 
If you have xfinity as your provider they provide Norton 360 free. You just have to google for the free download.

I have used it at least 7 years and had no issues. However I run mid to upper Thinkpads that seem immune to the typical Windows saga's I hear about.
 
mcafee is the worst paid one out there.. they give it away free if you have time warner cable internet.. and its straight junk.

I tried running it on 2 computers and it gave both massive issues.
One started taking 4min to boot(with ssd)
and another kept killing firefox.
also copying files from flash drive that should take 30s.. was taking 8-9min.

ESET NOD32 is my goto choice, or Kaspersky for Free after rebate deals.
 
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I would not recommend Linux/Ubuntu unless you have someone who knows it well. I have been using it for 10 years....but...in those years it has needed to be reinstalled several times (at least) I have always had relatively new computers.

I am computer literate but when it gets hung up, I take it to my son who is a computer engineer and he fixes it. Installing prograns is always an adventure. And I have had to take it back to him when it did not work out well.

He has been running Linux in some form for 20 years.

Good luck installing simple things like scanners and printers.

The benefits are obvious though....zero viruses.
 
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Four months ago, I picked Avira over Avast because two review sites rated it better. Plus Avira keeps the computer werb-surfing fast, much like ESET NOD32 (subscription version). Avira drains the least resources of any free Antivirus out there today. .
 
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avast does not seem to catch a lot i just had a virus something called task host or something like that and something else i don't remember what it was that my computer guy got rid of.
 
I'm making assumptions here... It sounds like you're in a really small shop... Microsoft Security Essentials (for Win 7 or I believe Windows Defender for Win 8/8.1) is free for home & micro-business (10 or fewer computers) and it doesn't bog down your computer and is nearly as good as any other AV.

I have MSE at home and on all of my family members computers (at least the close family that uses me as tech-support). I recently got the sales pitch on Webroot Endpoint Protection (for work)... I was impressed, I'll be demoing that very very soon (my companies AV subscription is up for renewal in about 6 weeks). The big selling feature of Webroot is that basically everything runs in a sandbox so if a virus hits it is contained within that sandbox and it's a quick easy process to restore to a pre-virus state.

More important than what brand of free or paid antivirus is non-traditional virus prevention including a malware blocking hosts file (search MVPS Hosts), and a Crypto-locker prevention kit, then regularly rotated backups (detached, off-site preferable) so you can quickly restore after a virus (or fire or hardware failure or disgruntled employee or...)
 
Originally Posted By: linksep
I'm making assumptions here... It sounds like you're in a really small shop... Microsoft Security Essentials (for Win 7 or I believe Windows Defender for Win 8/8.1) is free for home & micro-business (10 or fewer computers) and it doesn't bog down your computer and is nearly as good as any other AV.

I have MSE at home and on all of my family members computers (at least the close family that uses me as tech-support). I recently got the sales pitch on Webroot Endpoint Protection (for work)... I was impressed, I'll be demoing that very very soon (my companies AV subscription is up for renewal in about 6 weeks). The big selling feature of Webroot is that basically everything runs in a sandbox so if a virus hits it is contained within that sandbox and it's a quick easy process to restore to a pre-virus state.

More important than what brand of free or paid antivirus is non-traditional virus prevention including a malware blocking hosts file (search MVPS Hosts), and a Crypto-locker prevention kit, then regularly rotated backups (detached, off-site preferable) so you can quickly restore after a virus (or fire or hardware failure or disgruntled employee or...)


MSE USED to be a decent program. It is now borderline useless. Even Microsoft doesn't recommend it as a sole source of protection anymore.
 
Windows Defender for 8+ machines seems to be current still. I use Defender on my home machines, and it downloads updates pretty much daily for it.
 
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