Is McAfee AV ok?

we get virus scan plus for free from work, but everytime I have tried to install it, it grinds my computers to a halt.

 

Since you tried this free one, where did you get the key? I did not receive one, and suppose that the download will register itself without a key from me. Is that true?

Best,
Jerry

 

we download it through with our local government IT site. Problem is, it a version back from where they are now.

but I do have a current license for the current suite Jer. It just doesnt do well for me. Of course you know what is currently behind the question mark.

 

Thanks, Jeff. I don't need a license, and just got it because it is free. I have a friend that has used it, but I think that the trial will automatically register when installed.

I wonder if you are going to end up with AVG IS?
No one has reported on it, and that might be right down your line. A straight line of course.

Best,
Jerry

 

After having a lot of bias against McAfee bloatware, I finally installed it on my laptop from the free download for Comcast users. I think its not quite the latest version and I can't say its lean and mean (it has close to 15 processes and I've seen cpu spikes), but so far I am happy with it and don't want to pay for a commercial product.

 

If you are knowledgeable internet user i.e. you dont open email attachments no matter who they come from, you dont install random ActiveX objects, and you dont install fake codecs, that only leaves malicious HTMLs, which ANYONE can chance upon and no amount of browser patching an fix this since the vulnerabilities are in 3rd party activex objects like Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Widgets, NCTAudio, Quicktime, flash etc. If you want the best protection for this area, nothing comes close to NIS/NAV 2008 (not 07). All other products can be easily bypassed with obfuscation, polymorphic shell code, etc.

 

Worked great the first day then started having problems with pages loading very slow. Was using sometimes 99% CPU so went back to my normal AV & FW now all is normal. Well have tried two of the top ones and had problems but strange enough no trouble with free stuff. My system must just be picky.

 

sounds like you were having a compatability problem, not an av problem.

 

Yea that's what I was thinking. Could be this Asus MB. Years ago had a Asus board that had trouble with and was reason had to move to Avast then. After all this time I figured any conflicts would be worked out. Course could also be some other program or game I use. No problem will just wait and try something else later. Tried Avira free a few months ago but got a lot of FPs and trouble with updating. Liked Kaspersky but then had problems with chkdsk.

 

I don't understand those with slow downs...I have such low resources on such a humble machine and have no slow downs.

 

Tried to tell you, they have their work cut out for the singular user. Great product for the corporate enviroment.

 

The only version of McAfee I personally have seen slow down a computer was 4.0,3 I haven't had it do it on a computer since. I am running Virusscan + now and it runs so light I can't tell it is running, It doesn't even slow down my games such and Halo.

 

What about Firefox + NoScript (controlling all plug-ins)?

 

I can vouch for that. I just put it on yesterday. Really nice!

 

Since I service pc's for a living I see just the opposite. Old versions of McAfee are pigs just like NAV 04-06 with anywhere from 12-15 running processes depending on the version. The newer versions ( 2007-2008 ) of McAfee VS+ seem to run ok on fast pc's w/ Vista.

 

EliteKiller, I guess you didn't read my post very well. What I said was that the older version 4.0.3 slowed down my computer and that I was now running Virusscan+ which didn't. And I owned two computer shops for at least two decades and have probably seen more copies of mcafee than you will in the next ten years.

bigc

 

suite 2007 does not slow the computer down.

still has a slow-ass splash screen though. lol

 

I had no trouble deciphering your previous post. However you do realize that there are several versions between v4.0.3 and the current versions of VS/VS+, right? Have you been using v4.0.3 for 7+ years? If you've truly seen more copies of McAfee than I have, for you to claim that the ~8 yr. old v4.0.3 is the only bloated version of McAfee certainly raises some doubts.

 

McAfee is an OK AV IMO with decent detection rates. I have seen and used McAfee version 6 (NAI VirusScan), 7.0, 8.0 (which I absolutely hated), 9.0 (bloated), 10.0 (still bloated) and now 11, which is definitely a good improvement over previous versions. It works well enough.

 

Yes, that would be one of my few complaints. Good grief is that suppose to be for effect or does it really take that long to come alive so to speak.

Ellitekiller,
Everyones circumstances are different I guess...but you sure must not have read my post #35 or chose to ignore it.

 

I suppose it's no different than you ignoring Firecat's last post. Typical brand loyalty makes us blind even when there is an obvious problem.

 

Brand Loyalty my ISP offers it to me for free. I thought I would not like it and it would be gone by now.

Having experienced the exact same things Firecat said. Actually have found this most recent version to be satisfactory.

Well, I guess this has gone about as far as it can without turning ugly.

Goodbye

 

Everyone remember that each computer seems to have a personality of its own - and that software can act differently on each.

It seems like I solved my BSOD problem with AntiVir's Suite. It had a compatibility problem with System Safety Monitor. I put ThreatFire on instead. Anyway, after reading this thread, I will feel more comfortable having McAfee as a free option.

 

For me it was not the AV slowing down IE page loading I believe was the FW. Comcast has the McAfee IS and the when FW is set to stealth pages began loading really slow. But if I set standard and turned back on XP FW in order to pass ShieldsUp all ports then all was OK. I just believe that the standard settings in FW should be enough. If it's not a problem to leave XP FW on then maybe I could give it another go since it's free. For now am using Avast Home and PCTools FW V3 final and all is working ok and passes ShieldsUp. I had no other problems with Comcast McAfee IS.

 

IMO, if it slows you down don't use it. If it doesn't slow you down use it, if you are getting it for free.