Should I start being suspicious of this anti virus software?
I own Mcafee anti virus software and I had it since September. I downloaded items but Mcafee never detects a virus so I thought it was strange since every download I ever made was safe. Another reason is that their site adviser says certain website is green when it should be red. It also do that with downloads too. And recently my computer is randomly freezing up, shutting down,and a while ago it was slow, so I took a virus scan but it said there wasn’t any harm.So is this software right?
August 10th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
McAfee is one of the worst anti-virus programs you can get. You should uninstall it and get something like AVG and then run a scan. You could also install SpySweeper, which gets rid of malicious cookies from the internet.
August 10th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Norton is still the best. Whichever you use, be sure to update it often.
August 10th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I don’t recommend McAfee or Norton.
Check out ESET. Nod32 has always been one of the stronger anti-virus programs.
August 10th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
kasperski is the best.50 a year.worth it too. but for free is avg8.5…i use that one and its good,kasperski is way better,very thorough.
August 10th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I believe a mix of the leading products (Avira, Avast, Nod32, Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Malwarebytes, AdAware, SpuBot) are good solutions whether you buy them or get the FREE versions. The core engines of these products take care of viruses, adware or spyware or malware exceptionally well. You just have to pick which ones do what…
Personally, I would recommend Avira which is also FREE: Avira Antivir Personal: http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html
Avira’s Antivir has a detection rate of over 99%, includes “root-kit” protection, and uses less system resources. Avast detection rate is around 97.8% and includes “root-kit” protection. Avast Anti-Virus is good if people suggest that, Avira is just slightly better. You could try AVG, but AVG’s detection rate is less than 85% for Script Malware and General Malware, and does NOT include “root-kit” protection in the FREE version…
Here’s a good report (Feb 2009) on many of the top AV (anti-virus) products.
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_report21.pdf
Avira came out as one of the top AV products in the testing. AVG was not nearly as high mainly due to AVG NOT detecting a lot of Script Malware and General Malware problems in the tests, plus, slower scan speeds and a higher number of “false positives”.
ALSO, make sure you have the right mix of product(s) so you have BOTH
anti-virus AND anti-spy/ad/malware software running on your computer.
A good free mix could be Avira and Malwarebytes, with McAfee Site Advisor (FREE) installed as well.
Avira Antivir Personal: http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html
Malwarebytes – http://download.cnet.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html
Or, a good BUY mix could be Kaspersky and AdAware (or Malwarebytes), with McAfee Site Advisor.
Kaspersky: http://download.cnet.com/Kaspersky-Internet-Security/3000-2239_4-10012072.html
Ad-Aware – http://download.cnet.com/Ad-Aware-Anniversary-Edition/3000-8022_4-10045910.html
Hopefully, you get my main points of core features AND the mix of solutions. You just have to get those 2 things right and you’re covered!