Serious opinion needed

[shakey]

I run Avast as my virus protection program and have never caught any virus.
A couple I know run McAfee free from Comcast and gets into virus problems
occasionally.

My question is do you think it is because they are doing stupid things
online or the difference in protection from our programs?
Considering changing them to Avast but they are leery.

Mel

 

[Unknown]

They are doing stupid things. I use no antivirus programs at all and never
get a virus.

 

[Leonard Grey]

How should we determine why someone whom we know nothing about gets
viruses on their computer? Guess? Seance? Magic mushrooms?

 

[shakey]

I was hoping to tap your great knowledge of the capabilities of the above
mentioned programs.
Mel

 

[Jim]

I run Avast as my virus protection program and have never caught any virus.
A couple I know run McAfee free from Comcast and gets into virus problems
occasionally.

My question is do you think it is because they are doing stupid things
online or the difference in protection from our programs?
Considering changing them to Avast but they are leery.

Mel

If you ( or somebody ) is worried about their a/v , Google for and use
the EICAR test . ( It`s a non-virus virus test ) .

 

[Leonard Grey]

Why would you expect to find knowledge about McAfee and Avast in
newsgroups for IE 6 and Windows XP?

 

[silkunicorn]

Why would you expect to find knowledge about McAfee and Avast in
newsgroups for IE 6 and Windows XP?

I would suggest you highly recommend them to use Avast instead of
McAfee. Personally, I don't trust McAfee that much. And also are you
sure it's the virus problem and not spywares/malwares? They probably
should install an anti-spyware program like Ad-Aware as well.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

I wouldn't trust depending on McAfee Security Center (free or paid) on my
worst enemy's computer! [I take that back: BoaterDave can use it.]

 

[shakey]

Why would you expect to find knowledge about McAfee and Avast in
newsgroups for IE 6 and Windows XP?

I would suggest you highly recommend them to use Avast instead of
McAfee. Personally, I don't trust McAfee that much. And also are you
sure it's the virus problem and not spywares/malwares? They probably
should install an anti-spyware program like Ad-Aware as well.


I installed Ad-Aware and it plus a restore was what cleaned their machine
up. Thanks for your input.
Mel

 

[EtherStreams]

If I may add something. I do not beleive that one anti-virus is better than
another. I think that different AV programs offer different facettes. Here is
a little situation to ponder. I ran Norton Systemworks\AV and Firewall for a
couple of years. I even paid out to continiue my subscription. I decided I
wanted to upgrade my Norton to a newer version. Before un-installing I ran a
deep scan with Norton (freshly updated). No viruses. I install the new
version, update it and run a deep scan. 5 trojans are found. These trojans
have been sitting on my computer for 2 years, the older version of Norton
(2006 with continued subscription) could not see them, yet the new version
could. A bit of a head scratcher, no?

 

[Twayne]

They are doing stupid things. I use no antivirus programs at all and
never get a virus.

Which makes anything you say irrelevent to the OP's question.

 

[Twayne]

If I may add something. I do not beleive that one anti-virus is
better than another. I think that different AV programs offer
different facettes. Here is a little situation to ponder. I ran
Norton Systemworks\AV and Firewall for a couple of years. I even paid
out to continiue my subscription. I decided I wanted to upgrade my
Norton to a newer version. Before un-installing I ran a deep scan
with Norton (freshly updated). No viruses. I install the new version,
update it and run a deep scan. 5 trojans are found. These trojans
have been sitting on my computer for 2 years, the older version of
Norton (2006 with continued subscription) could not see them, yet the
new version could. A bit of a head scratcher, no?

No. By your own admission they were "Trojans", not a virus. Anti-Virus
software excels at, weel, VIRUSes. Use spyware & other malware
detectors for serious screening of other than viruses. AV may or may not
find them; depending on that to be enough protection is not wise. Use
the proper scanning programs and get them all.

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

I run Avast as my virus protection program and have never caught any
virus. A couple I know run McAfee free from Comcast and gets into
virus problems occasionally.

According to several reviews, McAfee used to be very good AV ware but
it's slipped substantially in the last year or so.
In addition, a Comcast version is very likely to be only a subset of
the real program too. In some cases, like at Yahoo I discovered, their
AV-ware is bastardized to allow in things THEY don't want called
viruses, such as GAIN and whatever other name it goes by; I've forgotten
now.

My question is do you think it is because they are doing stupid things
online or the difference in protection from our programs?
Considering changing them to Avast but they are leery.

"Stupid things" is a little rough. If they're getting fewer viruses
than you are, it could be anything from "they asked for it" to
bastardized AV-ware and all things in between. Avast, F-Secure, etc are
all decent AV programs and I'd choose them over freebie stuff like
Comcast would provide. I freely admit I despise Comcast for their
spammer and zombie history.
In this case, and accompanied by an arsenal of at least three other
malware detectors you'll see recommended all over this group, plus a
firewall should offer a good protection status.
I'd say you simply exercise a little more sensible surfing and e-mail
address exposure than they do, OR, it's just the luck of the draw; who
knows? If I were you I'd probably give them the recommendation but not
push it if they aren't so inclined. Don't make enemies over it.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Bennett Marco]

Which makes anything you say irrelevent to the OP's question.

Besides, from all appearances he spends all of his time here (when not
watching soap operas and "Judge..." programs, so the likelihood of
catching anything nasty is minimal.

 

[Leythos]

I run Avast as my virus protection program and have never caught any virus.
A couple I know run McAfee free from Comcast and gets into virus problems
occasionally.

My question is do you think it is because they are doing stupid things
online or the difference in protection from our programs?
Considering changing them to Avast but they are leery.

Your question makes an assumption:

1) That the protection programs fail

The fact that a person can secure the computer without antivirus
software means that it has to be something other than failure of the
antimalware programs.

In every case of compromise, it's been a social engineered compromise
that I've run across. While people have been given information for more
than a decade, they don't consider it important and do stupid things.

If someone is actually being impacted by malware "A couple times" then
it means that they have not learned anything and will most likely get
compromised again, no matter how good the protection.

 

[shakey]

Let me thank ALL that replied, I appreciate those who gave useful opinions
on the subject and tolerate those who only pick on posters without making
any sense.
I believe it is a combination of software and surfing habits based on what I
see here.
Thank you
Mel