McAfee verses AVG Free

[R. McCarty]

Just finished helping a customer who was determined to keep the
free/trial-ware version of McAfee on their PC till it expired. I tried
my best to get them off McAfee. Today I installed AVG, it began a
full system scan and after only 6,000 scanned files had already found
and removed over 17 different viruses and trojans.

Just some insight for any current or possible McAfee customers.

 

[David B.]

Old news, Mcafee is just as useless as Norton.

 

[PA Bear]

And how many of them were System Restore files?

 

[VanguardLH]

in message

Just finished helping a customer who was determined to keep the
free/trial-ware version of McAfee on their PC till it expired. I
tried
my best to get them off McAfee. Today I installed AVG, it began a
full system scan and after only 6,000 scanned files had already
found
and removed over 17 different viruses and trojans.

Just some insight for any current or possible McAfee customers.

McAfee has been going downhill over the last year regarding its
coverage of pests. Visit www.av-comparatives.org to see some
on-demand scanning results. AVG's detection was higher than McAfee's.
Then review the older comparatives to see how they compared in
previous testing. You'll see AVG has improved while McAfee has
degraded.

AVG is an extreme lightweight on resources when compared to VirusScan.
AVG also has less impact on the responsiveness of the host than for
VirusScan (whether a user notices the impact of VirusScan depends on
what tasks they perform, like word processing versus video editing or
copying 1 file versus copying thousands of files at a time).

 

[R. McCarty]

None, Zero, Zip - Nada. The worst part is that McAfee AV was
up to date with definitions and program patches. I've seen other
situations where maybe 1 or 2 items go undetected by a formerly
installed AV, but this one was a surprise. I usually see more Trojan
infections go undetected - but this machine had both Trojan and
Viral infections.

 

[John]

Just finished helping a customer who was determined to keep the
free/trial-ware version of McAfee on their PC till it expired. I tried
my best to get them off McAfee. Today I installed AVG, it began a
full system scan and after only 6,000 scanned files had already found
and removed over 17 different viruses and trojans.

Just some insight for any current or possible McAfee customers.

Good luck when the time comes to try and uninstall McAfee.

John.

 

[PA Bear]

How long had VirusScan remained on the machine after the free-trial expired?

 

[PA Bear]

John wrote:

Good luck when the time comes to try and uninstall McAfee.

cf.
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner=McAfee&type=TS&ia=1

 

[R. McCarty]

It expired on Tuesday. Can't image how that many threats got on
the machine in that period of time. Plus I had added Windows
Defender, AdAware & SpyBot. The owner claimed that the 3
tools where kept up to date and run periodically.

Last time I actually worked on the PC was back in October.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

I like AVG and will probably never use McAfee or Norton since they
have proved over many years to be unnecessary resource hogs..
However you post is lacking.
To add value so others can use it to make a valid purchase decision
more information is needed such as:
Exactly what viruses and Trojans were found and where were they
located.
Version of Norton and version of last updates.
Version of AVG used and version of last update.

 

[R. McCarty]

I don't have direct access to the AVG log, but next time I'm called
about the machine I'll see if I can get the customer to send it to me.
To my knowledge Norton products where never used on this PC.
I don't remember the exact McAfee version but it was a recent one
as it had the McAfee Security Center as part of it's setup.( Separate
entry in Add/Remove Programs ).

 

[philo]

I don't have direct access to the AVG log, but next time I'm called
about the machine I'll see if I can get the customer to send it to me.
To my knowledge Norton products where never used on this PC.
I don't remember the exact McAfee version but it was a recent one
as it had the McAfee Security Center as part of it's setup.( Separate
entry in Add/Remove Programs ).

I've repaired many infected machines by using AVG.

The infected machines had updated versions of Norton or McAfee

One machine that had Norton on it found about 6 virii after about a six hour
scan.

AVG found literally hundreds of missed virii within an hour or so

 

[Phisherman]

Just finished helping a customer who was determined to keep the
free/trial-ware version of McAfee on their PC till it expired. I tried
my best to get them off McAfee. Today I installed AVG, it began a
full system scan and after only 6,000 scanned files had already found
and removed over 17 different viruses and trojans.

Just some insight for any current or possible McAfee customers.

If the user has several viruses, then they are not practicing safe
computing and no anti-virus will be 100% effective. I suspect they
are visiting the "wrong" Internet sites and need to alter their
practices. Personally, I prefer any of the free anti-virus
applications because they are just as good as the paid versions and
there is never any nagging for your credit card. Some applications
can bog down a system, so you have to watch for that too.

 

[RA]

Good luck when the time comes to try and uninstall McAfee.

John.

I didn't have any problems uninstalling McAfee from my new laptop in
November. I did have an issue a few years ago getting it off of a desktop. I
don't know if they made it ieasier or I wised up.

 

[PA Bear]

So the machine was unprotected for 1, possibly 2 days. Depending on the
user's habits, that's certainly more than enough time for the machine to get
so infected. (A single SmitFraud infection could bring along friends like
Vundo and SDBot, all three of them known for dropping scores of files on a
machine.)

Defender: Unless the user updated manually every day, this app's only
auto-updated twice a week. (And I've seen posts in WU newsgroup this week
which suggest that the WU servers haven't been successfully pushing out
Defender updates since last weekend.) Furthermore, we all know that
Defender's not at the top of the anti-spyware application heap. That said,
it's probably best to have this free protection anyway.

Ad-Aware: Only Ad-Aware Pro's Ad-Watch provides real-time protection (and
user must choose to enable it).

Spybot: Of Spybots 2 Residents, SDHelper, if enabled, provides some
real-time protection but certainly not enough; Tea Timer is not enabled by
default (nor would I recommend enabling it for the average user). If the
user keeps Spybot updated but neglects to Immunize after updating, Spybot's
pretty worthless.

I'd recommend adding BOClean and SpywareBlaster to the homemade security
suite. Keep the latter updated and all of it's protections enabled.

Security FAQ & Checklist
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/8463

 

[PA Bear]

philo wrote:

I've repaired many infected machines by using AVG.

The infected machines had updated versions of Norton or McAfee

One machine that had Norton on it found about 6 virii after about a six
hour
scan.

AVG found literally hundreds of missed virii within an hour or so

AVG Anti-Virus (free or Pro?) or AVG Anti-Spyware?

How many were located in System Volume Information (System Restore) folder?

How many re-appeared in less than 24 hours?

 

[PA Bear]

RA wrote:

I didn't have any problems uninstalling McAfee from my new laptop in
November. I did have an issue a few years ago getting it off of a desktop.
I
don't know if they made it ieasier or I wised up.

Download/run this removal tool, then check the log it generates! =>
http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=107083&lc=4105&partner=McAfee&type=TS&ia=1

 

[philo]

philo wrote:


AVG Anti-Virus (free or Pro?) or AVG Anti-Spyware?

How many were located in System Volume Information (System Restore) folder?

How many re-appeared in less than 24 hours?

Since the systems were usually pretty well corrupted I turned off system
restore...
emptied internet cache and deleted all cookies etc.

Anyway all the machines I've repaired stayed working with no further
infection.

I used AVG free anti-virus

FWIW: Even though AVG anti-virus is very good...I don't know how good their
anti-spyware is. I use Spybot search and destroy...also use Ccleaner

 

[philo]

If the user has several viruses, then they are not practicing safe
computing and no anti-virus will be 100% effective. I suspect they
are visiting the "wrong" Internet sites and need to alter their
practices. Personally, I prefer any of the free anti-virus
applications because they are just as good as the paid versions and
there is never any nagging for your credit card. Some applications
can bog down a system, so you have to watch for that too.

I am amazed how many people who use computers are totally clueless...

The best anti-virus defense is really good old common sense!

 

[R. McCarty]

I don't follow your reasoning. When a AntiVirus program expires it
generally doesn't stop the background scanning operations just does
not download any updated definitions. I guess my point is that only
newly discovered infectors between Tuesday and Thursday would
have put the PC at risk. I'm assuming the last updated definitions are
still used by the scanning engine.
Anyway it ( PC ) belongs to a teenager and I noticed most all the
common apps for that age user were installed.
I'm still skeptical of both Norton and McAfee and wasn't promoting
AVG free just illustrating how different products have differing levels
of effectiveness. I use ( & recommend ) NOD32 but don't put 100%
faith in it finding or protecting against 100% of what's out there. I use
a number of on-line scans from various vendors to double-check the
resident AV on my machine.