McAfee Virusscan ver 8.0 (2004)

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97tbird

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I need some anti-virus advice:
My brother in law gave me a free unused copy of a McAfee VirusScan Version 8.0 (2004).

I know it's the previous version, but currently my home PC has no real anti virus program on it at all (The Norton that came with the PC expired yrs ago, and I never renewed it).
I run SpyBot and Adaware, and use FireFox 5.0.1(?) almost 90% of the time, with Windows XP sp-1.

Should I install the MacAfee?
is this a good program?

most of all, can this be worse than nothing? meaning: would it slow down the PC and screw things up? (I'm running win XP on 608 mb RAM with AMD Athlon (1.53 GHz) on a Compaq Presario.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated, especially from you guys who've been using McAfee version 8.0 or similar.
Thanks!
 
Antivirus is pretty much a must today. If you surf the web and use email, you're at high risk. ABC's network was just shut down yesterday because they got hit with a worm virus. And today my wife's company's network was disabled. She works for one of the largest companys in the US.

Even though this is a 2004 program, you should still be able to get the latest virus definitions for the next 12 months free. Some older MacAfee was buggy on some computers but you should be safe with 2004. As a safety, I'd backup your harddrive first. Good luck!
 
I have had good luck running 7.0 and 8.0 in the corporate environment. Use it, update it, enjoy it. It's a solid program that stays out of the way...
 
One more vote to go for it. I use it in the engineering lab I support and at home. I've had good luck. With the version I have, you don't have to pay for a subscription, so that's another benefit. The most important thing you can do is set it to automatically update at every boot (it'll only do it once a day, though).
 
Back up? Why bother. Back up only your personal files, its not worth backing up anything that you can easily download/reinstall.

Check out AVG Free Anti-Virus at grisoft.com

Michael
 
I've had it with all the major AV companies. The last Mcafee I worked with had major problems. Both Mcafee and Norton's security bundles verge on spyware. They take over your computer, slow it down, give you pop-ups and aren't easily disabled.

I now run only Clam-win AV, available for FREE at sourceforge.net(it's open source too.) It only has three buttons, settings, update and scan. It doesn't require you to use any other software and it doesn't interfere with your normal operations.

-T
 
Sorry for your troubles but it seems that all the big players will have issues from time to time. Given that, they usually have the resources to fix issues rapidly. I've been using Symantec Enterprise at work and home for about 3 years without any issues.

For a firewall, we use Sonicwall (hardware) at work and I use free Zone Alarm at home and love it. It works unobtrusively in the background and works flawlessly with my VPN and VoIP phone. The paid version just bundles more into the program (like popup, antivirus, spyware, etc.) that I already have or can get free. Zone Alarm basic would still be a good firewall even if it wasn’t free
smile.gif
 
I wouldn't use McAfee or Norton if you gave it to me for free. Bah!!! Ughh!!!! Ptui gag gag.

I am vociferous in my dislike for those programs. But, as with all softwares, the many variances among machines can cause problems on one machine while another will revel in a particular program.

Some foul disgusting creature got my e-mail address from eBay and sends me an e-mail containing a Phishing Trojan now and then.

My liver quivers with wanton delight when, the moment that e-mail enters my machine, Nod32 jumps from its light snoozing and displays a prominent warning telling of the threat. With one click the program is sent to the bowells of Hades while leaving the headers so I can use www.spamcop.com to notify the ISP of the sender what one of their users sent me.

Yep. On my machine that Nod32 does an excellent job of defending me from hostile code. Another delightful feature are the constant updates to the signature file. Those folks at Nod32 seem to never take a day off in ensuring their product is ready to tackle the newest threats.

And...... I wasn't paid a thing for this glowing endorsement.
 
One of many reasons I shun McAffee.... along with my own experiences when using it in the past:

"McAfee antivirus has a detection rule that is just as stupid. Every single file compressed with UPX is flagged as a virus. That includes HijackThis. Every single time Merijn updates HijackThis, his inbox is flooded with emails about a virus being found in the program.

What is the problem with these people at McAfee? A wildcard match for any file compressed with UPX is not an acceptable substitute for properly written detection rules."

In other words..... rather than specify specific actual threats McAfee uses a "wild card" search that wastes computing time, your time, and gives false positives. That is a sign of laziness and/or understaffing.

I don't know what the yearly fee is for updating anti-viral signatures but I don't believe you're getting whatcha' pay for with McAfee.

Didya' know the McAfee dude retired as a multi-millionaire? He sold his program years ago to a corporate entity. Just as Symantec's stuff suffered after Peter Norton departed, McAfee apparently slid downhill after the originator left. Geeee... kinda' like Adam and Eve after getting kicked outta' the garden. Sin entered the world and non-repentance escalated.

Huh???? How in the heck did all that lead up to an apple in a garden??? Eeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!

Well, there's gotta' be an apt analogy in there somewhere. I guess.
 
AVG ALL THE WAY!!!

Have had issues with both Norton and (especially) McAfee. right now, and has been, AVG, and Sygate personal. No issues for over a year now.
 
had been on norton, the whole antivirus and network firewall security thing. Have to say that while it was effective, it was complicated and annoying at times with their firewall. Had many problems with other pc in the room communicating and sharing dsl internet connection.

I have since bought a netgear firewalled router, model FR144P, for $80. The same price basically of norton for a 1-year use. I've since gotten rid of norton, and only run spybot, adaware, and spywareblaster (the free stuff) to do checks periodiocally. I'm always clean, and do plenty of downloading of files, mp3, and mpegs. A firewalled router is the way to go, unless of course you're downloading everything under the sun and use outlook to download email. Then you should probably have a antivirus to scan incoming files.

I also use the norton on the other pc to scan mine from time to time, and that comes up clean.
The "antivirus" thing is overrated. You get a virus by downloading and executing/opening files. If you download with common sense, then you don't really need it. When I get an attachment from someone I don't know, it gets deleted. If you want to be curious, then it'll cost you $30+ for the antivirus software to be safe. My $30 goes towards corona. You need a firewall to protect you from hackers and spyware. The firewall makes you invisible to the world so they don't know you're there until you contact them.
 
I did some "unscientific" testing of antivirus products about a year or so ago. I created a CD with 75 infected files. These files range from older obscure viruses to a couple that were prevalent at the time. I was able to get them from a combination of emails (borrowed from customers when I was on site to clean up a virus problem), hacker CD's (which any good network engineer has to study and understand) and a couple of infected Word files from old IT jobs.

I ghosted a clean Windows 2000 image onto an IBM Intellistation, then loaded an antivirus product onto it (this made sure the installation was clean and the antivirus product was the only one on there). Each product had a free trial version that was downloaded and installed. I then scanned the CD to see how well each one did in detecting viruses. After each scan I ghosted the machine again for a clean image for the next candidate. The results were:

AVG-detected 59 out of the 75.
Norton-detected 73 out of 75.
Trend Micro-detected 73 out of 75.
Sophos-detected 68 out of 75.
Nod32-detected 72 out of 75.
FProt-detected 70 out of 75.
Panda-detected 75 out of 75.
Kaspersky-detected 75 out of 75.
Avast-detected 71 out of 75.

The only 2 that were able to find 100% of the infected files on the disk were Panda and Kaspersky. I especially like Kaspersky because of the small footprint and low resource use. I liked it so well I now have it on every PC I own (all 8) including both servers.

Keep in mind these results were slightly over a year ago and the products may have changed since then. There is a lot more to an antivirus product than simply scanning a CD, however I felt it was a good indicator of a products overall performance.
 
quote:
Originally posted by denver1:
Hey guys you need to use Linux and then you wont have any virus problems
Click to expand...
lol.gif

we have linux on an sgi at work,
just ate iteself for unknown reason yesterday and had to reload whole system. Not that big a deal since the data is backed up with raid I think, just inconvenience.
 
Just an FYI; Macfee is having SERIOUS issues right now. I have their personal firewall and they just released a new build/new version of it and it has so many friggin issues that I've been dealing with I'm about to fly out to their headquarters and go postal. EVERYONE that got the update has had issues; the biggest being you have to disable the firewall to get internet access! How's that for irony! Up untill last Monday when the update came through, Mcafee was FLAWLESS for me. The antivirus is still flawless for me and 10000000000000000 times better than when i had Norton, but as of now, I wouldn't touch Mcafee with a 10 foot pole. Least I have a router and the Windows Firewall to fall back on (which has about as much security as falling off the Empire state bulding into the asphalt below).
mad.gif
I'm trying to get a refund for the firewall; if they do, is Zone Alarm the best? Is the free version any good, or do you have to pay to play?
 
http://www.nod32.com/

The important thing is to catch actual "in the wild" viruses.

Nod32 also uses a heuristic approach to detect the newest viri that haven't been around long enough to have had a "signature" created for it yet.

Of the various anti-viral offerings I have tried Nod32 has the most frequent signature updates.

Not saying that Nod32 is the bestest but, for my purposes, well.... I just paid $27 for a year's worth of updates and feel it was a good value and money well-spent... a feeling I did not receive with Norton or McAffee or PC-Cillin or those other couple offerings that were gobbled up by other firms over the years.

Of course, if one has the time, a Web search seeking out reviews of the various offerings is a good idea. Best to visit several different messgae boards related to security, anti-virus stuff, etc.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php

Wilders has some pros posting there. Click around to visit the non-forum parts of the site.
 
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