Anti-virus, Anti-spyware software can really screw up

[TomK2]

Well, I just spent 3 hours with Mcafee online tech support. My privacy software was rating me as a child each time I signed on, and my filter setting kept getting reset to the most restrictive no matter what I did. Rather that uninstall and reinstall right from the start, I contacted tech support and followed their directions. After two hours I ended up with completely nonfunctional anti-virus, anti-spyware, and privacy software that would not uninstall or re-install. Another half hour with tech support to use backdoors to the rigistry files to erase the mess, and another half hour to re-install the software. seems to be working now. If I didn't have 6 months left on the subscription I would have just switched to Norton.

They had no explanation why it worked for 6 months, then went wacky. Bet it was one of their automatic updates.

 

[Melody]

Geesh!!
I have norton, and have never had any probs. (knock on wood)
I also have a program called Go Back.
If I do something that messes my computer up, I click on the go back and it will re-configure my computer to the last setting that I want. I can go back hours, days, or weeks. Only drawback is, anything that I may have been working on is lost. So you have to be careful. but it really is a great program!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Melody, do you have a Gateway?

 

[Melody]

Dell refurb

 

[Jchillin]

I can't imagine what went wrong Tom(!?). That is so abnormal it's hard to express the proper concern. I assume you run XP and the tech supp folks were as dumbfounded as you about the problem?

 

[William]

This is why all the cool people use Norton.


Only Communists use McAfee

 

[TomK2]

I can't imagine what went wrong Tom(!?). That is so abnormal it's hard to express the proper concern. I assume you run XP and the tech supp folks were as dumbfounded as you about the problem?

Mcafee tech support said there was a problem with the "permissions" that the mcafee software had. The solution they walked me through produced a total failure of the software. All they would say was that "there are many reasons" for the problem. Seems to be back to normal now.

edit: oh yeah. Using xp home.

 

[Kasakato]

I use every Anti-????? program I can get. This is because they come free when I but softwear . Building your own computer is a lot better but sometimes hard for people. This is because you can make changes to it. I set up a "RAID" which keeps an exact copy of what evers on hard drive one, on hard drive two.

 

[William]

Raid 1 duplicates the drive, but if a malicious program affects the main drive, it effects the clone drive to.

 

[Kasakato]

I also have a Anti-????? check before it copies.

 

[draX]

I've also been through every antivirus program ever...Nortons, mcafee, avg, pandasoft, antivir, sophos etc. Am now using NOD32, and I love it. Hogs a bit more resources than antivir, but it's clean and effective. Anyone else use it?

 

[deli_conker]

I currently don't use anything on my system. I've spent so much time learning about how they work that I feel pretty confident in taking care of them. I do have to be observant in the latest trends in how they're written and code execution, but learning all that makes it easier to deal with them.

I'm sure that sounds crazy to some, but it works for me and I've been virus free for all 6 months that I dropped the protection. Just understanding the OS makes a big difference (not a cursory understanding, but actually being able to write your own tweaks).

When I did use Anti Virus, I used Norton Corporate. Way better than the home version...

 

[Guest]

I use norton corporate. I got it free from Penn State when I became a student there. Have been using it ever since without no problems with it or viruses ever. I use Sygate Personal Firewall too. No problems with it either.

 

[BillyZ]

I've always been a fan of norton, when Purchased my laptop a little over a year ago it came with Mcafee. I can't STAND that thing. It disables itself at least twice each time while I'm using the computer. Constantly pops up little "reminders" that it's "doing what its supposed to be" (thats nice.. now go away!) with no option to turn the messages off... and at least once or twice a month, it downloads an update that requires me to reboot, and disables the antivirus until I reboot... I feel like I'm a slave to the antivrus program. as soon as the free subscription is up I'm heading out and picking up a copy of Norton.... if not sooner!

 

[TomK2]

I couldn't agree more. Mcafee has turned out to be annoying and too much work to keep it straight.

 

[flipz]

I have always been a Norton person. My fiance's laptop came with 1 year free of Mcafee so she used it. After 7 months her comp was having all sorts of problems. I ran all the anti-spyware stuff, made sure Mcafee was all updated, etc etc and could never get the problems fixed.

I installed Norton, it detected 3 infected files, cleaned them, and the comp was all fixed. I'll never use Mcafee again... even if it is free.

Although I did go about 4 years without any anti-virus at all without ever catching anything. But I get free Norton from my university now so I just use it. heh

 

[deli_conker]

I wouldn't use the home version of norton. Has some of the same issues that macafee has with the messages and the like. There's nothing like lining up a shot with your railgun on the current leader when everything suddenly minimizes so that the anti-virus program can tell you that there is an update available for download.

I'll pass on the AV software. A good understanding of user permissions, firewall use, javascript, and common sense are all I need.