Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute support

I've had McAfee for 6 years and today I got a virus that couldn't be cleaned, deleted or quarantined and had to call support at $4 per minute, they sent me links that didn't work to their site, had me start in safe mode and delete the files in safe, which I didn't know how to do. While in safe mode, I ran virus scan and then was able to delete the virus.
Anyone have a better alternative than Mcafee? I'm not sure what I've been paying for. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

This has been discussed before and many different opinions. Mcafee and Symantec are the two biggest in anti-virus sales and between those two companies alone, never mind the other alternatives, you will get lots of opinions on which one is better. Much like some people only love Chevy's and other's Ford. Maybe someone here is knowledgeable regarding tech support policies of the different companies.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

AVG. How does free sound?

Norton is alright, but it costs money and it can be a huge resource hog, and bog your system down. I have also tried Avast! which is free like AVG, but I didn't quite like it as much.

AVG has caught everything for me on my two computers, has updates frequently, is completely free, and doesn't use a whole lot of resources.

Of course, opinions will vary though.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

AVG

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

Mcafee IMO is more trouble than its worth. Their Firewall crashed my computer at least once daily (XP OS). Once I took the Mcafee Firewall off, my computer hasn't crashed since. Their virus scanner also doesn't seem to be particularly effective IMO.

Question on AVG: why is it free? Is it as good as paying Anti-virus software?

I notice that their is a paying AVG edition, what does this offer more than the free version of AVG offers?

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

i just use safe computeing i dont use a scanner, but i do use a firewall .guess how many virus ive had. one and that was cause i was being dum

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

f-prot, but it's hard to come by

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

I use xp firewall and was surprised to find out that actual support is soooooooo expensive , that's $240 an hour, actually if anyone here on the cpf can do similar for much less I wouldn't mind even paying someone here if the situation arose , all I had to do was start in safe mode, which I must admit I'm not used to doing safe starts, I just use my computer to bring information to me, like how to collect flahslights, rent movies, etc.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

[ QUOTE ]
357 said:
Question on AVG: why is it free? Is it as good as paying Anti-virus software?

I notice that their is a paying AVG edition, what does this offer more than the free version of AVG offers?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am using the free AVG version on my personal PC's, and at work am running the pay version. The free AVG is version 6 and the commercial version is 7.x. Version 6 (free) is supposed to only be licensed to 1 PC per owner, and doesn't have an automatic update scheduler, but regular updates are posted and the software is updated with the click of a button. Version 7.x has automatic update downloading plus some other enhancements. The network version also has an admin utility for reporting scan results, definition file versions, infection reports, etc to a net administrator's PC . It also can have a server schedule regular update downloads to a folder on the LAN so the workstations can update from the LAN folder rather than each station accessing the internet for updates.

Generally speaking, if it's for your own PC and you can remember to click on the update button every week or two, the free version works fine, and is still better than either McAfee or Norton. I've used both of those products in the past also, and simply cannot recommend them over the AVG free version.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

The free version can be set up for automatic updates, in the update manager in the avg control centre. I have it set to update at 1.30am if database is older then 3 days.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

i feel your pain.

i had to call HP about a scanner problem...1 month out of warranty.

i was charged $45 for the call, which lasted for about 15 mins.

slightly off topic (but on the topic of customer service), but i have also had great cust service.
first was from American Standard. the dish sprayer broke, so i called them...and they sent a new one pronto, no questions asked.

the second was a company called Zenith bath products. one of my bath mirror hinges broke. it was non-standard, and since it came with the house we bought in 2002, i had no info on it. found them on the web...sent an e-mail...less than a week later, i had a bag with 8 new hinges--enough to replace all hinges.

i WILL give my busines to these companies.

Bob

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

[ QUOTE ]
turbodog said:
f-prot, but it's hard to come by

[/ QUOTE ]

Not all that hard to get. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif They do have "pay for" anti-virus software that have nice gui's. This is the free one that you have to run in DOS. If your comfortable in DOS, this is a very good one to have if you run into a computer that won't boot up because of a virus. This is because you do not boot up into the operating system to run it. .....

Free F-Prot for DOS

From F-Prot:

System requirements: IBM PC compatible computer. Version 3.x requires DOS 3.3 or better, and at least an 80386 computer with 4MB of memory. F-Prot Antivirus for DOS will run under Windows 3.x, Windows 95, 98, or UNIX, LINUX or Macintosh workstation running a DOS or Windows emulator. (see also F-Prot Antivirus for Linux.). F-Prot Antivirus for DOS will work on most network systems.

Free AVG Very well regarded.

Free Anti-Vir Not well known, but does a nice job too.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

The problem with ALL virus scanners is that they only provide detection for viruses that the scanner knows about. Many people update their virus definitino file once a week or when they think about it. I check for new definitions every 15 minutes. I check so frequently for a good reason.

When a new virus is released it will spread slowly for the first few hours and then spread across the globe in the next few hours. A virus released on a friday evening will have all weekend to spread, and you end up with a secondary outbreak on monday morning.

I've seen McAfee and Symantec wait up to 24 hours to release a new virus definition once they have a viable definition. It takes them some time to test the definitions, so this can be excused. The point is that with the best of the scanners you still have a window of hours or days during which time you are vulnerable.

If you are not checking at least daily, you should.

When you detect a virus that can not be cleaned, check out http://vil.nai.com/vil/default.asp . That link will let you check specific viruses to see exactly what is needed to fix it.

I've used McAfee for years too. I don't call the premium tech support. The McAfee web site has instructions for making a bootable floppy and how to clean viruses that can not be cleaned while the OS is running.

Of course, the best way to avoid viruses is to configure your software to be secure. That's not a trivial task. Most "firewall" software fails because the user is not educated about why they should answer yes or no to the various queries that pop up.

I could go on and on about this, but I charge $1.66 a minute to provide such support.

Daniel (yes, a computer geek)

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

Daniel,

I'm not sure if you have said this or not, but what Anti-virus software do you use?

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

Aaron,

I use a combination, but read my mail on a linux system, so I'm not normal.

I use McAfee at my mail gateway(linux), along with custom scripts that stop incoming executables and strange formats. I have Mcafee or Symantec on my Windows boxes to detect HTML based attacks.

My custom scripts have found several viruses before McAfee or Symantec put out the definition files.

In an ideal world I'd use a different virus scanner on my gateway than what I use on my desktops. That way whichever comes up with a new definition file first will do the job. In reality, I got McAfee free with some systems, and Symantec with others. The 5 user license for the Unix version of Mcafee was cheap and, with a few tweaks, works well.


Daniel

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

FYI: AVG will end support for the free 6.0 version at the end of this year. http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_index.php
-spica

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

ACG on the PCs. I have Virex on this as part of my .Mac subscription (To detect PC virusses so I don't spread them) but don't use it.

Be careful with Norton and McAfee. I work for MSN -- the internet people -- doing phone tech support (*FREE* for subscribers. Ok part of their monthly cost but still...) and Norton and McAfee are notorious for overstepping their boundaries. McAfee virus scan (Not firewall) likes to block the MSN installer program from communicating with the internet and Norton internet security is equally notorious for shutting down your windows network stack. Turning the programs off isn't good enough, that only puts them into a reduced mode -- much like TCS on a Mercedes. You actually have to remove the program and BAM! Problems solved.

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

*** Edited because I was grumpy when I wrote it. No offense meant ***

Missing from Saaby's post is that you need to turn your virus scanner back on as soon as you are finished installing MSN. Same with your firewall. Don't forget to check your system VERY carefully, as you will have spent 30 minutes to 5 hours connected to the net with your security disabled. SANS (a security group) recently reported that an unpatched XP system without a firewall connected to the net will be probed within an hour and compromised within 3 hours.

You should also be aware that installing MSN will remove/disable any other network that you happen to have. You can not retreat to a previous network setup, so make sure you have all the information needed to recreate things.


*** There. That's better ***

Daniel

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

Avast! automatically updates when there is an internet connection. It has internet mail protection... real-time scanner... p2p scanner...outlook scanner and is totally free. The new version....version 4.5 will be out in a bit... Version 4.5 will have Network Shield to protect against worms and the such... All totally free.

http://www.avast.com

Re: Had Mcafee for 6 years and pay $4 a minute sup

Avast! I load this on most of the computers I service (pro bono to family and fellow geezers) along with the "Holy Trinity"; Pop-up Stopper HE, Spybot S&D and Ad-aware.

Also load Everest Home Edition to check what's on thier machines.