Bad antivirus software

well put it this way on my next door neighbour's new laptop he has mcafaee internet secuirty 2005 it uses like 12 processes and uses quite alot of ram but doesnt slow down his laptop because its brand new.
intel core duo 1.8
1gb of ram
etc
etc

but i never used to notice f-secure being bloated till my pc got older then it really slowed down the startup time.
i remember when i got this pc and it would boot up in like 30 seconds and programs would isntall so fast even with f-secure 2005 on it.
but as it gets older you need lighter protection.
lodore

 

Like bigc73542, I have tested many of the "boutique" antivirus programs over the years, my latest was Nod32, but I find for dependability and stability in performance and protection, I would rather run Norton or Mcafee, my personal preference is Mcafee.

 

lodore - When I received my new Dell and set it up, the FIRST thing I did was uninstall the Norton Security Suite that was pre installed. I did this before it realized it was on, and had a chance to spread its tenticles into my system too far. With the exception of a few stray files that I eventually found and deleted, I had no problem uninstalling it. Probably if you run it and register it and let it do its thing, it will need a uninstall tool from Symantec.

 

We tend to exaggerate, or even joke about it, that's all. Maybe i was one of those.

For me, the choice goes to a free one. It does what the paid ones do, and probably is as light or lighter. It's a personal choice, maybe related to my education: two choices, one free, the other paid; ceteris paribus (everything else equal), i go for free. It's an attempt to make a rational choice.

And if i were to choose a paid AV for a company (if i had one for instance ), i'd go for Avast!, since they provide me the same for free at home.
Maybe i'd think differently, but as of now, that's how i think i would choose.

 

I have used Norton, McAfee, and Antivir on different machines. Norton and McAfee were preloaded software on my machines. I replaced both Norton and McAfee with Antivir on two machines. There are probably "remnants" of those programs still on within the Windows system, but I have never had an issue running the AV programs. There have been no problems with any AV programs (only the slowdown on my Windows 98 PC). I can see that Norton and McAfee do tend to be larger in size and requires more RAM than other comparable AV programs. These two software "giants" tend to have widespread use because most new PC users buy systems with them preinstalled. Are they bad? I don't personally think so since they perform their function adequately. Do they take up a lot of hard drive space? Probably so. Being a programmer myself, I don't like inefficient programming and I wonder about the sizes of those programs when I look at the box description at the computer store. Norton box descriptions seem spartan to me, but I guess they are geared to someone who knows little about PC protection. Since software code varies between one program to the next, the properties and function aspects will also vary. As long as you don't get a major system catastrophe with using a particular program that should have worked to prevent it, then I don't think that any program is bad.

 

What do most of you think of the AV Comparatives tests?

http://www.av-comparatives.org/


The latest (Nov. 2006) pro-active tests show Norton and McAfee behind the top Avira in updating their signatures and definitions to cover the latest trojans and dialer/keyloggers.

However, in the last full test:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Norton was right up there with Avira, Kaspersky and NOD32.

As a Norton user in the past, I also thought that it was too ram intensive.
Every time I thought I found all the Norton exe and dll files, another one suddenly appeared. I think the program multiplies itself through single fission!
Right now, I'm using a free version of Antivir and deciding whether I should use it or go back to Avast with its many shields and e-mail scanner.

Whenever I go to a friend's house to reformat their hard drive (usually Dell computers) and clean all those bloated tools off, I always find some version of McAfee. Most of these casual users NEVER bother to pay for an upgrade, and most don't know there are good free AV programs available. Certainly a free AV program like Avira, Avast, or Bitdefender is better than nothing. I don't include AVG because:

1) they consistently score low on malware testing
2) Every few months or so there's a major problem with a false positive.
Several months ago, they had a Winlogon false positive that blocked users from booting up. I think the program quaraninted or deleted the Winlogon.exe file.

That leads to several more questions:

1) When these programs find suspicious files, do they analyze the file or quarantine it immediately without even checking a version number (if it's a MS file) or its authenticity?

2) How many programs can clean the registry and the OS directory by looking for all the strings and dll/exe files associated with a virus? Whenever I check Symantec to do research on a trojan, they always have a list of strings and files it adds. Does Norton or any AV program clean all this out or do you have to do it manually by editing the registry (or downloading an extra tool)?

 

Are you running Antivir Premium or Classic?

Right now, I have the free version running (Classic) and the two services (avguard.exe and avgnt.exe) are using 32 mg of ram and 6 mg of virtual memory, respectively.

Can others report how much McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky or NOD32 are using? I seem to recall that Avast used quite a bit more.

 

Have you ever used a program like Regseeker or Reglite to check your registry for leftover keys and strings by doing a search for "Mcafee" or one of the many dll names or exe files it loads?

 

A good read on comparative testing.
http://www.mcafee.com/common/media/vil/pdf/imuttik_VB_conf_2001.pdf

 

The Advertising Po;icy Of Anti-Virus Software Companies (We Are Better Than They) Is just Marketing Buff, nothing else, how else would they get the public to stand up and take notice! As stated in an earlier post, they are all good, just some do more than others, and for an average day to day surfer the average is fine. Now for instance, if you dive into unknown territory,say for instance sites that allow you to download illegal software, then you are just asking for trouble, They are all over the place, likewise with file sharing, that too is laden with Nasties that could do untold damage to your computer and often does. This is where the More forceful AV's are used, but to be honest, if people didnt do this illegal ****, there would be no need for it would there! But they always will do,and so forth. As you can see, its not what you do, its what you shouldnt do is where the danger lies. So its not a question of some are bad, they arnt bad, they just do what they should do,and nothing more.

 

GES/POR.........No offense, but you are wrong. McAfee does offer 30 day free trial software.

http://us.mcafee.com/root/downloads.asp?id=freeTrials

 

IRQ chats, AIM, Google talk, Yahoo's messenger program, etc. all open ports that can cause problems.

How many casual users will click on some link in an e-mail sent by a well meaning friend, and suddenly find adware programs loaded on their computer.
A friend of mine follows the stock market and loaded one or two of these programs he found on a financial site. Sure enough, it opened some ports and when I checked his task manager, there were several malware exe files running.
Even your "safe" blogs and entertainment sites unknowingly carry ads that link to very questionable sites. Just check Siteadvisor for a few sites and see what some of these sites link to.

As a favor to a friend, I was going to install a DSL modem for an elderly woman. When I arrived and booted up her computer, the bootup was very, very slow. With only 128 mg ram total, she had downloaded some strange cursor, loaded a huge wallpaper file on startup, and a few unnecessary programs. I don't even think there was any updated security program.
I told her that it would be pointless for her to run DSL with so little ram, and unless she was willing to get the necessary security programs and more ram, a DSL line will cause more woes. I think she was relying on her AOL dialup connection for internet safety.

That day I realized that most computer users are just like that woman. They haven't a clue about a registry or even know how to configure their firewall. They're certainly not closing unnecessary services and open ports by using a "services.msc" command and disabling them.

Since most computer users basically surf the net and answer e-mails, they only know what they read about AV programs. I've loaded some of the basic freeware on some computers as a favor - Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, Spyware Blaster, A-squared, etc. When I speak to the individual owners from time to time and ask if they've checked whether the programs are updating, I hear the usual silence on the other end and I know the answer. Try telling them to invest in Spy Sweeper or Prevx1 in addition to an excellent AV program AND renew the license every year!

I have a strange feeling that many consumers buy their computer with pre-loaded software and don't even realize that the preinstalled McAfee AV subscription is only for 90 days. Most don't even realize how important it is to update when the program expires.

We haven't even begun to talk about homes and small businesses with networks and multiple users or those that use torrent programs.

As far as I'm concerned, all you have to do is read this forum, Castle Cops,
look at all the Hijackthis logs, or scan the forums of the AV and Firewall vendors to see how strong a safety program is needed.

 

Well, sounds very exciting, I'm in it!

 

McAffe is worse than Norton to remove completely. It came on this machine. I sent back four machines to Dell because they promised me no AV installed and then kept sending machines with either Norton or McAfee - the two most difficult to remove. But after the fourth machine, and a delay of over a month, I kept the last machine which had McAfee. I would have preferred Norton for removal. McAfee, after using the removal tool, then a registry cleaner, still had an UNBELIEVABLE amount of crap in the registry. I spent two hours hand picking the registry to remove all of it. Two months later, the Dell Decrapifier came out and it removes all the garbage that Dell puts on machines including Norton and McAfee.

 

When i got my dell laptop the first thing i did was format and reinstall windows myself lol. I find that much better than trying to pick up the leftovers after uninstalling a heap of software.

 

I can see your point and that situation it's s**k.
First thing to do when u buy a laptop/pc is to install everything from zero.
I never buy a pc with a preinstaled os and i don't think i'll ever do.

 

They do what you tell them to do. Or should. Most AVs are set up by default extremely badly. I think the authors should be tarred and feathered for how most set up the AV by default (and the new F-Prot is one of the worst I was surprised to learn). aVira is the best I've seen for a beautiful default setup. I only had to change one thing. That is almost unheard of as usually I have to change all settings to get them decent.

As for what any AV does with a file that is suspicious that depends on how the user configures the settings. aVira by default ASKS the user what to do. Magnificient. That is how all AVs should be configured. aVira also by default places a copy of the file in quarantine and has a quarantine. Again, beautiful and how all should handle it. I don't see how the mentioned AVG FP with winlogon could have been a problem if the AV was set to ask the user what to do. No one would delete winlogon if asked first! Some AVs don't even have a quarantine which is inexcusable. aVira has the best out of box settings I have seen of all the AV I have used and tested. aVira is outstanding and its free. It uses 4500K memory. I think that is the smallest memory usage of any AV I have ever used. Peak memory usage totals 42400K which I assume occurs only when it is updating or during a full scan.

 

I can verify what Mele20 told. Surfing internet, Avira Antivir Classic rarely go above 5MB and when one leaves the machine idle from those read and write operations the consumption drops to maybe 1.7 MB or less.
Then when one goes to eicar.org and tests it, the guard alert gets the consumption to 17 MB temporarily.

So it is light, very light. Thanks to the basic on-access protection, no fancy shields running. Some are willing to put up with the added memory consumption for the more advanced features. But many antiviruses consume much memory without any more resident protection than Avira has.

 

Hello,
On my machines, AVG (a total of 4 processes) uses less than 3,000K.
Mrk

 

Free or paid?

 

yup thats the thing to do
but sometimes people get laptop or pc with recovery partision instead which means they have no windows cd to install windows from fresh.
my nextdoor neighbour had this problem.
the Dell Decrapifier is very useful lol
might have to put it on my usb pen if i have to help someone with a dell laptop or pc again.
lodore

 

I bought Toshiba and had a choice. No crap inside. Went freeware, Avast! Just that it comes with a recovery cd, which only allows me to re-format. That one thing bothers me. Otherwise, next time i buy a laptop, Toshiba.

If we talk about "i'm a safe surfer", "the casual user needs only this and that", and so on, i ask again: why pay? Let the corporations buy them. They surely need top AV, but not only that, also overall policies and security, which is where Symantec offers a great deal more imo. Not for home users.

 

thats why if i could afford it i would get an alienware laptop so i dont have any crap installed.
and the recovery is in the form of a image on a dvd and norton ghost rescure cd.
or you can get the window cd if yoiu want.
lodore

 

ot mode on,
yes but as sais you dont get a windows cd with it and only a crappy recovery cd which is the situation im in with my desktop pc atm=D
lodore

 

Good post.

Most people who slam an AV usually have had a bad experience with it on their machine. The next user may have nothing but good to say about it. I have historically had problems with McA fighting with other apps, but that can happen. Doesn't mean the AV is bad.

I know a friend who swears by McAfee and will have nothing else on his pc. He has never been infected with a virus. My employer uses SAV on the networks I work on daily, (200+ pc's) and we have never had a virus outbreak. It runs fine on pc's running 98, NT, 2K, and XP, and I have run it with as little as 64 MB RAM, and P166. A lot has to do with what ELSE is on your pc.

Having said that, I resell NOD32 and F-PROT. Why? Because it installs/uninstalls quickly/cleanly, has low overhead for maximum versatility on pc's with varying capability, they are both coded compactly, and most importantly, they both catch viruses very well.

There are users on this forum who constantly bitch about an AV simply because it didn't sit well on their specific machine. 99 times out of 100, this is caused by incompatibilities with installed programs/drivers.

The posters who continue to go on and on about the 'worthlessness' of the AV then (almost always) appear to be foolish to a majority of other people (most with much more experience with a greater number of pc's) who have had no issues with it at all--particularly when installed on an otherwise 'clean' box.

You should always treat "DIDDLEMY Antivirus S*CKS!" threads with skepticism.

It's all a matter of the features/capabilities that are most important to you, because virtually all AV's have something going for them.