How good is McAfee?

[W1GUH]

That email attack that I outlined in another thread finally prompted me to get a condom for my computer. McAfee was one of Windows' recommendations so I download that and it's been running now maybe a month. So far, all full scans have reported "No Problems Detected". I once got a notice that an attack had been detected, but later scans didn't show up anything.

Question:

If McAfee is reporting no problems detected, can I believe it? Do they have a background of being on top of this? I know it has a good reputation and that updates are very frequent (at times daily), so I'm feeling pretty safe.

But....just want to ask around about this before I relax completely.

Thanks!

[KC2UGV]

You're email account was most likely brute-forced. McAfee wouldn't have caught anything.

That being said, toss it, and use AVG. Or, switch to Linux/Mac OS.

[W1GUH]

Usual Cory reply -- "What you've got is shit. What I have is golden." Get over yourself. Yea, following your advice is an infinite time sink, it's all obscure stuff with no support. Get lost. Or lose the attitude.

The second sentence contains no usable information for me.

Why you're on ignore here.

[KC2UGV]

Usual Cory reply -- "What you've got is shit. What I have is golden." Get over yourself. Yea, following your advice is an infinite time sink, it's all obscure stuff with no support. Get lost. Or lose the attitude.

The second sentence contains no usable information for me.

Why you're on ignore here.

You ask for an opinion: McAfee is shite. So is Norton. Dump them, and get Grisoft's AVG or even Avast! Both work very well.

Or, use MacOS or Linux.

I gave you multiple options, and explained why your antivirus didn't really detect anything: There was nothing to detect, since your email account was likely brute-forced, and wasn't due to a trojan of any sort.

But, if you want to ignore advice from an IT pro, feel free. I don't care, just offering my nickel's worth of free advice.

[KG4CGC]

McAfee and Norton have never been useful to me in over 12 years. It was always garbage software sold at a premium that was never more than a placebo. That is my opinion based on my personal experience.
Brute Force hacking of your email account means that it was compromised at the email provider's servers and that they simply ran all the passwords in the world until something worked. There is no anti-virus to fix that.

[ad4mg]

That email attack that I outlined in another thread finally prompted me to get a condom for my computer. McAfee was one of Windows' recommendations so I download that and it's been running now maybe a month. So far, all full scans have reported "No Problems Detected". I once got a notice that an attack had been detected, but later scans didn't show up anything.

Question:

If McAfee is reporting no problems detected, can I believe it? Do they have a background of being on top of this? I know it has a good reputation and that updates are very frequent (at times daily), so I'm feeling pretty safe.

But....just want to ask around about this before I relax completely.

Thanks!

McAfee is no worse or better than most any other AV suite, they are all quite effective. However, Norton and McAfee are pretty bloated, and gobble up considerable amounts of system resources. I personally prefer Avast!, it's free, fast, and effective, and seems to have a lighter footprint than the big boys do. AVG is as bloated as Norton and McAfee these days, and I no longer recommend it.

Follow up your AV protection with a weekly scan using Malwarebytes. Also free, scans are not automatic, but it is very good at rooting out malware and the like, stuff not usually detected by AV software.

[KC2UGV]

McAfee and Norton have never been useful to me in over 12 years. It was always garbage software sold at a premium that was never more than a placebo. That is my opinion based on my personal experience.
Brute Force hacking of your email account means that it was compromised at the email provider's servers and that they simply ran all the passwords in the world until something worked. There is no anti-virus to fix that.

Watch out, he'll put you on ignore for that :lol:

[WØTKX]

I am not a fan of McAffe and Norton for another reason. They are "targets of opportunity".

Because so many systems come with their stuff installed in a "bundle", many people use them.
Ne'er do wells learn how to infect and highjack the more popular AV products. Simple.

I'm a pretty staunch Windows user, and have been all along.
Other OS's are fine, but Winders Works for "ME". :lol:

That being said, AVG "free" worked for me for a long time. I recommend it for most folks.
Use Panda "free" on my laptop, main system... G-Data AV paid. Uses less resources,
AVG bogs the PowerSDR FlexRadio software down too much.

Kaspersky and G-Data are not free, but are near the top of all reviews.

I was recently "hacked" by an email trick, and it managed to spam everyone on my address list.
Something odd out there, specifically for Yahoo accounts. Yahoo helped me, and fast.

Not found with any of the usual methods, as these hackers spoofed a Yahoo mail server for a bit.

[KJ3N]

Usual Cory reply -- "What you've got is shit. What I have is golden." Get over yourself. Yea, following your advice is an infinite time sink, it's all obscure stuff with no support. Get lost. Or lose the attitude.

The second sentence contains no usable information for me.

Why you're on ignore here.

Ignore him at your own peril, then. He's right. No anti-virus software would have detected what happened to your email account. The same thing happened to my wife and I can tell you that her system is pretty bullet-proof. I make sure of it.

I'll also join the chorus of McAfee and Norton haters. Bloated pieces of shit. Case in point:

My wife spent a couple of years occasionally working from home, before she retired in 2006. In order to do that, Verizon insisted that Norton was installed on her home machine. If it wasn't, the system would not allow her access to their network. With Norton installed the machine took 20 minutes (or more) from power on before it was usable in any fashion. This went on for over 3 years.

The day she retired, I ripped Norton off and installed AVG. Boot time went from 20 minutes plus to around 8 minutes (she has more crap running on startup than I care to see, but it's her machine). I changed nothing else.

I'm not anything close to a real IT professional, but I know shit software when I see it.

[kf0rt]

McAfee is bloatware, but I've never had much of a problem with it. It's forced on us @ work.

Ran it for eons at home with no problems until Comcast switched from free McAfee to free Norton. Wasn't going to do Norton, so switched to free AVG there. I like AVG better than McAfee -- smaller footprint and not as intrusive.

[n2ize]

Usual Cory reply -- "What you've got is shit. What I have is golden." Get over yourself. Yea, following your advice is an infinite time sink, it's all obscure stuff with no support. Get lost. Or lose the attitude.

Installing AVG is easy. It should not be a major time sink. It runs on your Windows system. Using a Mac is a cinch. No infinite time sink there. Linux ? Most people install it and have it up and running in an evening. And the support base is the world wide community instead of a private enterprise. Couldn't ask for more support. than that. Obscure ? I am tempted to switch to a more obscure OS as Linux is getting too commonplace these days :)



The second sentence contains no usable information for me.

Why you're on ignore here.

Cool off man. You are jumping the gun. He wasn't telling you to dump your windows system for Linux. He suggested you use AVG as your anti-virus software. AVG runs on your Windows system Many consider it far superior to McCaffe. So why not try something that is recommended by experts who work in the profession. Corey is also correct that Linux and Mac systems generally don;t have the security headaches that are so prevalent and continual on windows so, it is also a valid suggestion. But if you want to use Windows for everything then you might consider the first option he gave and give AVG a shot. Incidentally, I know of no security software that would have detected or prevented the email issues you described. Perhaps these are not the kind of answers you like to hear but they are valid nonetheless. All you can do is harden up your Windows system using the best security software anhd techniques that are available or, switch to a more secure OS.