The ups and downs of McAfee

[Me]

Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how difficult they
have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can tell so far,
IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to note that
using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on the site for manual
updates, 4350 was available.

I decided to try and find out why - and was exhilerated to discover I could
actually go on line with live chat support. So I went to Customer Services -
and asked why autoupdate was out of date. I was referred to Technical
Support. Technical Support spent several minutes dodging the issue, and
after saying "John in two or three days the update will be released and
after downloading the update , your issue would get resolved "

They then suggested I should contact Customer Services!

It's pretty obvious that McAfee are moving away from offering manual
updates, so I'm now in the market for alternatives.

I started anti-virus life with Dr Solomon, and moved to McAfee when they
bought them out. My picture (inspite of the rabid anti McAfeeists in this
group) is that the product did it's job - and in particular was reported as
good at stopping Trojans as well as viruses.

So - where do i go now? I want a solid anti-virus that is as good with
Trojans. Quite willing to pay.

 

[null]

Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how difficult they
have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can tell so far,
IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to note that
using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on the site for manual
updates, 4350 was available.

Have you tried:

ftp://ftp.nai.com/pub/antivirus/datfiles/4.x/

I decided to try and find out why - and was exhilerated to discover I could
actually go on line with live chat support. So I went to Customer Services -
and asked why autoupdate was out of date. I was referred to Technical
Support. Technical Support spent several minutes dodging the issue, and
after saying "John in two or three days the update will be released and
after downloading the update , your issue would get resolved "

They then suggested I should contact Customer Services!

It's pretty obvious that McAfee are moving away from offering manual
updates, so I'm now in the market for alternatives.

I started anti-virus life with Dr Solomon, and moved to McAfee when they
bought them out. My picture (inspite of the rabid anti McAfeeists in this
group) is that the product did it's job - and in particular was reported as
good at stopping Trojans as well as viruses.

So - where do i go now? I want a solid anti-virus that is as good with
Trojans. Quite willing to pay.

You can't go wrong with KAV or F-Secure (which uses the KAV scan
engine).


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Sam]

Sometime on, or about Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:27:00 +0100, Me scribbled:

Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how difficult they
have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can tell so far,
IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to note that
using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on the site for manual
updates, 4350 was available.

I just pressed the update button in my version 8 and it updated to 4350.
They must have to set something on their site so the software will
recognize the update, and they may not have done that yet, when you tried.

Sam

 

[Me]

Sometime on, or about Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:27:00 +0100, Me scribbled:


I just pressed the update button in my version 8 and it updated to 4350.
They must have to set something on their site so the software will
recognize the update, and they may not have done that yet, when you tried.

Sam

Well, autoupdate just cut in and updated to 4350 - only 12 hrs or so later
than when I saw it as an available manual update - I guess McAfee think that
time drift is OK.

 

[Me]

Have you tried:

ftp://ftp.nai.com/pub/antivirus/datfiles/4.x/


You can't go wrong with KAV or F-Secure (which uses the KAV scan
engine).


Art
http://www.epix.net/~artnpeg

Thanks null/Art - will try the download from that site, and look at your
suggestions

 

[Goober]

They then suggested I should contact Customer Services!

It's pretty obvious that McAfee are moving away from offering manual
updates, so I'm now in the market for alternatives.

Try f-prot for DOS. Totally manual definitions update when YOU say so.
It works well and it's free.

 

[David H. Lipman]

Are you using a Proxy server to access the web ?

Dave



| | > Sometime on, or about Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:27:00 +0100, Me scribbled:
| >
| > > Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how difficult
| they
| > > have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can tell so
| far,
| > > IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to note that
| > > using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on the site for
| manual
| > > updates, 4350 was available.
| >
| > I just pressed the update button in my version 8 and it updated to 4350.
| > They must have to set something on their site so the software will
| > recognize the update, and they may not have done that yet, when you tried.
| >
| > Sam
|
| Well, autoupdate just cut in and updated to 4350 - only 12 hrs or so later
| than when I saw it as an available manual update - I guess McAfee think that
| time drift is OK.
|
|

 

[The Prophecy]

Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how
difficult they have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far
as I can tell so far, IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a
little perturbed to note that using autoupdate, I was "updated" to
DAT 4349, whilst on the site for manual updates, 4350 was available.

I decided to try and find out why - and was exhilerated to discover I
could actually go on line with live chat support. So I went to
Customer Services - and asked why autoupdate was out of date. I was
referred to Technical Support. Technical Support spent several
minutes dodging the issue, and after saying "John in two or three
days the update will be released and after downloading the update ,
your issue would get resolved "

They then suggested I should contact Customer Services!

It's pretty obvious that McAfee are moving away from offering manual
updates, so I'm now in the market for alternatives.

I started anti-virus life with Dr Solomon, and moved to McAfee when
they bought them out. My picture (inspite of the rabid anti
McAfeeists in this group) is that the product did it's job - and in
particular was reported as good at stopping Trojans as well as
viruses.

So - where do i go now? I want a solid anti-virus that is as good with
Trojans. Quite willing to pay.

Go with Norton Antivirus 2004. No Live Update problems, Excellent Tech
Support/Customer Service. No False virus reports (from what i have heard
from reasonably reliable sources, McAfee is notorious for this. If anybody
thinks otherwise, then please say so). Does a very good job of detecting and
removing viruses. I am using it myself and have not had any problems.

 

[David H. Lipman]

Symantec has excellent tech support ? Where have you been ? Their support sucks !
And your so-called "...reliable sources..." they are not. McAfee is NOT notorious for
having update problems. As for LiveUpdate problems...
Please go to the following News Groups... symantec.customerservice.general and
symantec.support.winnt.nortonantivirus.general

Dave




| Go with Norton Antivirus 2004. No Live Update problems, Excellent Tech
| Support/Customer Service. No False virus reports (from what i have heard
| from reasonably reliable sources, McAfee is notorious for this. If anybody
| thinks otherwise, then please say so). Does a very good job of detecting and
| removing viruses. I am using it myself and have not had any problems.
|
|

 

[The Prophecy]

I said McAfee was notorious for False virus reports, not live update
problems. And I should have been more specific when I said "excellent
support". By that I meant online at their site. I did not include newsgroups
(again should have specified) because i have never gone to Symantec
newsgroups for tech support.

 

[David H. Lipman]

McAfee is not known for "...False virus reports..." either. As for their online support, if
you call a response in 24hrs good -- that's interesting.

Dave



| I said McAfee was notorious for False virus reports, not live update
| problems. And I should have been more specific when I said "excellent
| support". By that I meant online at their site. I did not include newsgroups
| (again should have specified) because i have never gone to Symantec
| newsgroups for tech support.
|
| David H. Lipman wrote:
| > Symantec has excellent tech support ? Where have you been ? Their
| > support sucks ! And your so-called "...reliable sources..." they are
| > not. McAfee is NOT notorious for having update problems. As for
| > LiveUpdate problems...
| > Please go to the following News Groups...
| > symantec.customerservice.general and
| > symantec.support.winnt.nortonantivirus.general
| >
| > Dave
| >
| >
| >
| >
| > | >> Go with Norton Antivirus 2004. No Live Update problems, Excellent
| >> Tech Support/Customer Service. No False virus reports (from what i
| >> have heard from reasonably reliable sources, McAfee is notorious for
| >> this. If anybody thinks otherwise, then please say so). Does a very
| >> good job of detecting and removing viruses. I am using it myself and
| >> have not had any problems.
|
|
|

 

[Tim R.]

Go with Norton Antivirus 2004. No Live Update problems, Excellent Tech
Support/Customer Service.

Bwahahahahahahahahahhahahahhaaha ........................
Yup, that's a good one there fella

 

[Me]

Are you using a Proxy server to access the web ?

Dave

No

 

[Me]

Are you using a Proxy server to access the web ?

Dave

I should also say that when I was online to the "help" desk I was told that
4349 WAS the latest DAT file, even though 4350 was visible and available
manually.

 

[David H. Lipman]

The latter DATs could have been in the process of being uploaded, Thus, was not totally
available.

Dave




| David H. Lipman wrote:
| > Are you using a Proxy server to access the web ?
| >
| > Dave
| >
| >
| >
| > | >> | >>> Sometime on, or about Thu, 8 Apr 2004 17:27:00 +0100, Me scribbled:
| >>>
| >>>> Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how
| >>>> difficult
| >> they
| >>>> have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can
| >>>> tell so
| >> far,
| >>>> IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to
| >>>> note that using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on
| >>>> the site for
| >> manual
| >>>> updates, 4350 was available.
| >>>
| >>> I just pressed the update button in my version 8 and it updated to
| >>> 4350. They must have to set something on their site so the software
| >>> will recognize the update, and they may not have done that yet,
| >>> when you tried.
| >>>
| >>> Sam
| >>
| >> Well, autoupdate just cut in and updated to 4350 - only 12 hrs or so
| >> later than when I saw it as an available manual update - I guess
| >> McAfee think that time drift is OK.
|
| I should also say that when I was online to the "help" desk I was told that
| 4349 WAS the latest DAT file, even though 4350 was visible and available
| manually.
|
|

 

[Nevans]

Having bought v8 a while back, and being concerned about how difficult they
have made it to manually update DAT files (and as far as I can tell so far,
IMPOSSIBLE to update engine files) I was a little perturbed to note that
using autoupdate, I was "updated" to DAT 4349, whilst on the site for manual
updates, 4350 was available.

It is possible that the 4350 DAT file was not yet available on the
server at the time even though the site for manual updates listed it.
Here is part of the Avert notification email for the 4350 release on
April 8th. It states that it can take up to an hour for the DAT file to
be available worldwide:

"AVERT Dat Release Notification: 4350 Dat Files Release

The 4350 dat files have been released early due to an incorrect
identification in the 4349 dat files.

The 4349 dat files are incorrectly identifying some Visual Basic script
files as being the VBS/PSYME trojan.

The 4350 dat files have been posted to the initial NAI servers as of
08:04 PST, on 04/08/2004. Please allow up to an hour from this posting
time for the dat files to be available on all download servers
worldwide."

Nevans