Tech: Norton or McAfee?

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 05 Apr 03 - 05:04 AM

I'm happy enough with Norton, I just make sure to disconnect it when I'm playing games. MacAfee did my computer more harm than any virus ever did.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 11:50 PM

Over the years I've found McAfee had enough problems that I gave up trying to use it. I've been happy with Norton. I tried the free Zone Alarm firewall but it was a nuisance--I couldn't send any email over about a sentence long without turning it off. No good there. I use the Norton firewall, and while it isn't perfect, it is much better than Zone Alarm lite. I've heard good things about the Zone Alarm Pro or whatever they call the $50 program.

To see a ranking of all of these programs, I recommend you visit Tucows.com. At their opening screen you can select your systen then search, or you can go to the search line on the first page. Enter "anti virus" and you'll come up with 73 programs to choose from. The more cows, the better. I always use them if I have to go looking for downloads. They handle retail software, shareware and freeware, all mixed together and ranked against each other. Sometimes you'll find that the free one is better, or after comparing, decide that maybe spending a few bucks is worth it.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 11:26 PM

I use and like McAfee (used to use Norton - and thought they were "gods" but bailed...and don't recall why)

However, today's McAfee has a VERY ANNOYING proclivity to keep attempting to "phone-home" every time the machine is boot. I'm more than decent in my understanding of PC's but I CANNOT rip this trait out of the reg-edit....I will perhaps ditch McAfee soon...unless it can be remedied.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

One must ALWAYS keep their protection updated....but you don't need automatitrons to do it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 11:07 PM

We got McAfee for our Windows 95 machine. Something went wrong with the installation and we were never sure it was working and could not uninstall it and start over.

Now we use Norton on our XP machine and it is flawless. It has nailed the Klez virus close to ten times plus some others. Updates are painless and always go smoothly.

For us it's Norton si, McAfee no.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 09:02 PM

AVG free edition is great!...it just did an automatic update yesterday, and gets VERY good reviews....I have used it for almost 3 years now as my only antivirus...(well, the old Norton is still there, but has not been updated)

http://www.grisoft.com/

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 10:51 AM

I've been working with PCs for 20+ years and one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was one of the first. What should I buy? Whatever everyone else is buying.

Products from smaller companies can earn the highest marks in tests and be superior in many ways, but support and timely upgrades can be a show-stopping problem in the long run.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 10:21 AM

There's nothing wrong with using OS X. Just remember that the only reason it doesn't get viruses is that no one cares enough to send the very worst.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: mooman
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 07:54 AM

As systems manager (in my spare time and amongst my "proper" duties) of a fair-sized system of networked PCs in an association I have experience with most of the programmes mentioned. We have settled on the corporate version of Computer Associates e-Trust as being the best solution and, for home applications, I think I would second Gurney's suggestion of the e-Trust EZ version (a light version of the commercial application) as being excellent value for money (about $25 last time I looked) and very effective.

Of course I avoid all of these problems at home using a Mac running OS 10.2 (ducks and runs for cover!).

moo

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: nutty
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 06:04 AM

Don't forget that you also need a firewall   ....... I use Zone Alarm (which is free) and have always been very happy with it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Al
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 12:50 AM

Some notes about norton. First, don't install a new version over an old version. Unsinstall the old version first. Second, install using a clean boot. For instructions on how to do a clean boot, visit the symantec web site and search the support page. Al

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 12:36 AM

My experiences with McAfee and Norton parallel every one else's. Norton doesn't get in the way. McAfee does. What more can you say.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Apr 03 - 12:15 AM

You could try eTrust, @ $20. It is fast and easy and it caught a worm I had that Norton couldnt find. (Mutated, I think) It used to be called InoculateIt and that would work in parallel with Norton, but I don't know if it still does.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 04:36 PM

Microsoft Knowledge Base article 49500 lists about 25 "independent vendors" of AV software products. They make no recommendations, and don't say that they all make "Windows Certified" products, but it does give you a place to look if you're not satisfied with what you have.

That article has a link to "Certified" AV products to work with Mickey'$ Server systems.

There are a w!h!o!l!e! b!u!n!c!h! of freeware, shareware, open source, etc AV programs around as well. Some of them appear to be pretty good; but without a vendor to take the heat if it screws up, you have to do your own evaluations.

Fortunately, there are some official (and some unofficial) organizations that keep an eye on the threats, so that it doesn't take "vast commercial resources" to keep up with the most common nastys.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 03:46 PM

Should add- AVG has a professional edition which they charge for.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 03:43 PM

The technician who fixed by problem with McAfee recommends a free anti-virus program- AVG Anti-virus. Go to Google and about the third entry, one will find the link to the program and from there it can be downloaded. He says it updates regularly.
This technician has a degree in computers and is studying networks at this time, so he is not an ignoramus.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Beccy
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 03:42 PM

I had a similar problem with McAfee to GUEST, Q's problem. I did get a refund, but it took a lot of work to get it.

I have switched to Norton and love it. It hasn't crashed me once(unlike McAfee) and it's been worth its weight in gold. It caught 4 viruses that unwitting friends sent to me by email.

Beccy

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 03:41 PM

There is not a lot of difference between the two, - or any of the several other good programs. No program can protect you against all possible threats, simply because the new threats have to be "discovered" before they can be whipped. Both McAfee and Norton have respectable - if not pure - records with respect to quick response and good defenses.

McAfee has had some recent problems. When ZD reviewed AV software a few months ago, they refused to allow their stuff to be included. The latest review gives their newest version (McAfee Home Edition 7.0) good ratings, however. The latest review (4/22 issue PC Mag) gives Norton (NAV 2003) the "Editors Choice" for home users, but rates most of those reviewed as at least "acceptable." The biggest difference they found between current Nortan and McAfee seemed to be in support (McAfee charges for almost all, Norton only charges for "most"(?).) and in user interface (which depends on what you like).

Personally, I stopped using McAfee because every visit to their home site fills the screen with popups, and I found I was spending more time cleaning their gratuitous cookies than I was cleaning up virus trash. (Their program did stop all attacks, so the only need to visit the site was to confirm that I didn't need more cleanup.)

Other contenders - PC-cillin 2003 and Panda AV Titanium both got respectable ratings on AV features, but Panda lost lots of points on ease of scheduling and depth of scan, while PC-cillin probably went down a little because of the higher cost of contract extensions.

Sophos apparently didn't have an "update" home-user product for this review, so it wasn't fully rated - but performance results from previous reviews when it was compared to equally old(er) products shows it favorably. Their corporate AV scored well, and if your boss buys the newest corp package, they say they'll give every employee a free copy of their home product.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 03:34 PM

This has been gone over before in other threads, but some of the posts are old and perhaps out of date.
I started with McAfee and subscribed to their servicing. After one of their upgrades, the updates wouldn't load. I spent one whole afternoon talking to one of their technicians (in India) and we thought we corrected the problem. Came the next update, and the same problem. More talkly-talk with a differenthe Indian (these technicians seem fairly sharp and they speak good English) technician- he had the transcript of the previous "consultation"). Again, failure after a week.

I called a local service technician, and he took out the McAfee and installed Norton. I have had NO trouble since. Norton updates quietly in the background while other programs are running. Updates come almost every day, and a full check of all my programs is carried out weekly. I have had several virused emails which the program identified and isolated.
Even though the McAfee was removed, it had stuck its fingers into all sorts of things. I found one file that was still there and deleted it. When starting up, I had to punch a key to finish loading (my attention called to a McAfee program that was not there. My clock and scheduled tasks (defrag, etc.) were disrupted. A second visit by a technician last week was needed to (hopefully) remove the last traces of their system.

Oh, yes, I asked McAfee for a refund on unused contract time. Nothing ever came back to me except for renewal terms!

The technician I have here has another virus protection system that he recommends- I will ask him to call me with its name and post later. today.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 02:54 PM

The ad blocker on Norton Internet Security has an annoying habit of blocking any graphic in the top left hand corner of a page.

Apart from that its great.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Bernard
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 01:51 PM

I've never had any trouble with Norton - use it at home, and use Corporate edition on the server and PCs at work. Maybe I've just been lucky... but, in my experience, everything Symantec sells does exactly what it claims to do.

I'd heard a few nasty rumours about McAfee doing strange things, but nothing definite... just rumours.

Norton and McAfee are the market leaders, so I don't really see how either could cause major problems, as they've both been at it a long time. Maybe it was a dodgy installation - Norton won't allow the 'Liveupdate' function to work unless you are using a properly registered version, which often means the virus definitions are out of date and useless.

Subject: RE: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 01:47 PM

the most complaints are about norton....it tends to like to affect connectivity issues...

Subject: Tech: Norton or McAfee?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 03 Apr 03 - 01:39 PM

DimFox here..I thought my computer had anti-virus protection. Well, I'm getting off lucky, it's only got a mild case of computer-sniffles. At any rate, I'd appreciate any opinions, pro or con, as to what to get. My teenage cyber-shaman said he'd heard some complaints about one of the two brands mentioned above, but he couldn't remember which one. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance, Hollowfox at work.