McAfee Anti-virus - is it working?

[Paul D.Smith]

All,

My father has installed McAfee Anti-virus. Question is, how do I tell it is
working? For example, with Norton Anti-Virus, I see a little icon when I
download e-mail indicating that the Norton has intercepted the e-mail for
checking. Is there a similar feature on McAfee?

It's not that my father is not particularly good at installations or
anything - but lets just say his idea of "installed" and mine differ
slightly ;-).

Cheers,
Paul DS.

 

[Me]

On my machine it only gives info if it finds or suspects something - don't
know if there's an option to change that.

 

[Chris Forecast]

My father has installed McAfee Anti-virus. Question is, how do I tell it
is working?

Try something like this:

http://www.netmonitor.org/tools/avtest.php

Chris

 

[Vanguard]

All,

My father has installed McAfee Anti-virus. Question is, how do I tell it
is
working? For example, with Norton Anti-Virus, I see a little icon when I
download e-mail indicating that the Norton has intercepted the e-mail for
checking. Is there a similar feature on McAfee?

It's not that my father is not particularly good at installations or
anything - but lets just say his idea of "installed" and mine differ
slightly ;-).

Cheers,
Paul DS.

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

It has the virus *signatures* in the test file without subjecting you to the
hazards of actually testing your AV scanner against a real virus. Because
only the signatures are provided within the test file, all the functionality
of the virus will not be checked by your anti-virus product but then it
should provide sufficient evidence that your AV product is indeed working.

 

[Roger Wilco]

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

It has the virus *signatures* in the test file without subjecting you to the
hazards of actually testing your AV scanner against a real virus.

The AV vendors that have agreed to use this test file will have their program react "as if" it was a virus being detected.
It could be by adding a "definition" for it to their set, or by other (shady) means.

Because

only the signatures are provided within the test file, all the functionality
of the virus will not be checked by your anti-virus product

Wasn't a virus to begin with...it is a test string (also a com file with no non-ascii set bytes).

but then it

should provide sufficient evidence that your AV product is indeed working.

That's the purpose it was designed for I've heard.

Mostly it shows the user what to expect from the scanner's alert, and is a fairly good indicator that the AV is at least
capable of detecting EICAR as it is currently configured.