Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: SunKing on April 09, 2007, 01:38:51 PM

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: SunKing on April 09, 2007, 01:38:51 PM

Is the free McAfee Security Center that comes w/ Comcast account a good choice? Where does it rank with the big names in being a resource hog? Which product should a gamer look at?

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Eagler on April 09, 2007, 01:50:10 PM

If it is anything like Norton Security it is bloatware.
Look at the number of process it requires to run and watch your cpu usage.
Norton had mine going from 0 to 10% all the time with way too many process tied up.
I dropped it and spent the $30 on NOD32.
Way better and much lighter than norton ever was.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 09, 2007, 06:13:34 PM

Agreed. McAfee's retail product is awful. Thing is some vendors have multiple product lines, so you have to be careful to match what is being reviewed/tested against what you're looking to buy. In McAfee's case theres 3 primaries, a retail product, a small business product, and an enterprise product. The first two suck, the 3rd rocks but the only way for an individual user to get it is not legal.

Nod32 definitely rules the retail product space.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Fulmar on April 09, 2007, 06:43:05 PM

My security center runs free for me (well extra $ for electricity).  I use an old IBM Aptiva that runs a linux firewall as my main internet security.  And for anti-virus I use Avast (its free and works pretty good, while not being a resource hog).

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 09, 2007, 08:41:04 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Fulmar
that runs a linux firewall as my main internet security.  And for anti-virus I use Avast (its free and works pretty good, while not being a resource hog).

FYI Avast rates quite poorly, especially the free version. What sort of modem/or router do you use?

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Fulmar on April 09, 2007, 10:44:57 PM

IPCop

http://www.ipcop.org

I'll take a look into nod32

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Speed55 on April 09, 2007, 11:18:17 PM

I installed Kapersky on my new comp.  It seems to be doing what it's supposed to. 28 processes total running right now, with windows xpsp2, and aim running.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 10, 2007, 01:13:44 AM

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php

and

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

Please make sure you read the reports thoroughly, score cards don't tell the whole story.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Fulmar on April 10, 2007, 03:12:49 PM

Good to know.  I'll take a look at some other products.  I've used Avast basically because it was free and I use it on my computer, my g/f's, her parents, and my parents computer.  No problems with those computers for the last year.

In retrospect I've only had one serious virus infection of my own and that was the sasser virus.  I've tried to fix other peoples computer with massive spyware infections before (they had no anti-spy software) and no matter what program you use, stuff still gets by and a good ole format is the real trick.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Reschke on April 11, 2007, 04:09:26 PM

In my experience any ISP provided "security suite" is a waste of time. I use Charter and they offer FSecure as their security suite package. I tried it and my PC went from 27 processes running to over 60 process running and then to top it off I still got a monster of a virus that required me to trash the HD completely and get a brand new one just to reinstall everything. Now I use NOD32 and like the others mentioning it here I only have about 30-35 processes running and it seems to work flawlessly.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: SunKing on April 12, 2007, 09:48:04 AM

Thanks for the info people. I'll be trying the NOD32 30 day trial.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Brooke on April 13, 2007, 07:55:43 PM

I've been using the free version of Avast and like it.  I got fed up with McAfee and Norton, which were just horrible resource hogs.  Avast seems to catch things, work well, and it doesn't seem to have a bad impact upon performance.

I tried Avast because of recommendations from this AH message board.  Thanks, folks!

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: DREDIOCK on April 17, 2007, 04:15:15 PM

Quote

Originally posted by SunKing
Thanks for the info people. I'll be trying the NOD32 30 day trial.

Im on the 30 day trial. Think I have like 10 days left or something like that.
So far so good.

Like with any of them its not foolproof or absolute
AVG microscanner picked up a couple of things Nod32 didnt spot.
But Nod 32 picked up somet hings that AVG didnt either.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 17, 2007, 05:23:00 PM

Quote

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Like with any of them its not foolproof or absolute
AVG microscanner picked up a couple of things Nod32 didnt spot.
But Nod 32 picked up somet hings that AVG didnt either.

AVG is known to bring up full positives (it is one of the reasons it gets rated poorly).

I'd trust what NOD32 says.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: ozrocker on April 18, 2007, 08:58:13 PM

Mcafee sux. Better is Avast(http://www.Avast.com). It is free
                                                          Oz

Title: WEB ATTACKERS GET BETTER AT HIDING
Post by: TequilaChaser on April 18, 2007, 10:42:17 PM

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6177424.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6177424.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnn)

just some other things us regular PC / Internet Users should be aware of. I make it a  scheduled chore to check all 5 computers in our home weekly with an Indepth Analysis scann ( NOD32 ) on each one


but thes toolkit type worms can go undetected , even for the best anti-virus/mal/spam/grayware programs.........

I am and have been skeptical of all the javascript websites out there ever since I learned that attackers could code in viruses into  it......

alot of website builders grab javascript coding and use it without realizing what they might have grabbed......without even knowing it could already  have something BAD embedded in  to it......be very weary.....


now in the ZDNet report above , it says these viruses are showing up in Flash as well.......

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Enduro on April 19, 2007, 02:49:12 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Vulcan
FYI Avast rates quite poorly, especially the free version. What sort of modem/or router do you use?

I'd love to see links to these reviews.  


nevermind...I just noticed your other post.  Thanks!  


I've been using Avast for a while now with no problems.  It's even prevented a couple problem P2P files.  I'm not selling Avast or claiming it's perfect, but I'd love to see who is rating Avast poorly.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: DREDIOCK on April 22, 2007, 08:01:31 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Vulcan
AVG is known to bring up full positives (it is one of the reasons it gets rated poorly).

I'd trust what NOD32 says.

Curious.

Where are you getting this rating at?
I havent been able to find anyplace that supports your claim

Actually according to http://www.av-comparatives.org/
most recent review (Nov 06)
It rates AVG as having  "VERY FEW"  false positives as opposed to Nod32 "Few" rating

Overall test reports I've seen show it to not be the VERY VERY best.
Its far from the worst.

certainly not "poor"

I suspect your information may be out dated

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: AApache on April 25, 2007, 08:05:42 AM

Go Norton bro or Verizon offes a great internet suite ith bundle for spam ,spyware,antivirus and pop up blocker for 5 dollars.Only comes with my Fios connection though.Good lord Fios is fast:O

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: DREDIOCK on April 25, 2007, 04:41:39 PM

I've been waiting for Fios in my area. It sems to be making a circle around my town.
that is. every town around my town exept my town seems ot have it

which package did ya get?

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: MrRiplEy[H] on April 25, 2007, 04:52:16 PM

Norton is ineffective bloatware - stay away from it if you can.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 25, 2007, 04:56:17 PM

Quote

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Curious.

Where are you getting this rating at?
I havent been able to find anyplace that supports your claim

Actually according to http://www.av-comparatives.org/
most recent review (Nov 06)
It rates AVG as having  "VERY FEW"  false positives as opposed to Nod32 "Few" rating

Overall test reports I've seen show it to not be the VERY VERY best.
Its far from the worst.

certainly not "poor"

I suspect your information may be out dated

Look at the older tests, AVG's performance is all over the show from test to test.

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: DREDIOCK on April 25, 2007, 08:02:13 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Vulcan
Look at the older tests, AVG's performance is all over the show from test to test.

Exactly my point.

Im not all that interested in older tests as they are outdated. Just as the older software is outdated.
After all. If I were to use it I would use the most recent verion. Not the older ones
It would only stand ot reason that a software company might make improvements
More recent tests show drastic improvements
Older tests are just that. Older

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: SNO on April 25, 2007, 08:50:34 PM

Quote

Originally posted by DREDIOCK

Older tests are just that. Older

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    I resemble that remark!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Is McAfee Security Center /w Comcast "good enough"
Post by: Vulcan on April 25, 2007, 10:44:00 PM

Quote

Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Exactly my point.

Im not all that interested in older tests as they are outdated. Just as the older software is outdated.
After all. If I were to use it I would use the most recent verion. Not the older ones
It would only stand ot reason that a software company might make improvements
More recent tests show drastic improvements
Older tests are just that. Older

But if you spent enough time keeping an eye on the various products you'd know that one test does not give you a complete picture. A lot of products vary in their performance, some even get tweak to specifically give better test results. AVGs performance has not historically been stable or good. If it got 3 good results in a row in both types then I'd say yeah its good now.

It fails the retrospective test from Nov 2006 - and does poorly historically (new retrospective test is due shortly). All the current test shows is that they've got their signature file up to date.

Whereas a product like NOD32 does well without much variation in performance. AV is not like buying a snapshot product, it is a dynamic product. The vendors ability to keep up to date and to deal with unknown threats is important. AVG does not do well at this.