Should I purchase McAfee/Norton

Just purchased a brand new desktop running Win 7 64 Home. I had a friend purchase an identical machine. I need to pick an antivirus app for BOTH of us to use, subject to the following considerations:

1. I have a mild CS/tech support background know enough to keep a Win XP machine fairly secure. For example, I know (or at least, I think I know) that I should keep my hosts file locked except when one of my security programs needs to update a whitelist/blacklist.

2. My friend is clueless about computers and I would prefer for us to be both running the same software in order to simplify my inevitable service as a "tech support friend".

Based primarily on #2, I think I should just get one of the "market leader" suites, i.e. either Norton or McAfee. This seems the safest option due to my limited expertise and my friend's non-existent expertise.

Thoughts? I know these apps are notorious for being bloatware, but will they really degrade the gaming performance on a Core i5/3.3ghz/6meg cache machine with 8 gigs of RAM and a SSD dedicated as a system-level cache ("Smart Response Technology")?

On a related note, are these apps LESS secure than some of the other well-known (but not market-leading) security suites?

Thanks in advance for all feedback.

 

I would think most MG'ers would vote against them.
Plenty of FREE programs that do an equal, or better, job.

Check out:
Anti-Virus at http://majorgeeks.com/downloads29.html
Lots of good Free, and $$$$, programs listed.

For example:
Avast! Free Edition - [2011-09-07 | Freeware | 56.2 MB | Win 2000/03/08/XP/Vista/7 | 678402 | 4.75 ]

The first line might help you narrow down your choices, especially the last figure which is by MG member voters, out of a possible 5.0

Don't forget to also visit:
Firewalls at http://majorgeeks.com/downloads34.html

and
Security at http://majorgeeks.com/downloads16.html

Hope this helps.

Bazza

PS: Scroll back through the Software Forum, (where you are) day by day, to see similar topics, and replies/recommendations/problems. :-D

Baz

 

Like mentioned above I would go a different around with programs. Paying for a program isn't going to give you more protection.You could pay 50 bucks and still go to sites that infect you our download the wrong thing. Like mentioned above I used Avast and SuperAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes. All free and working fine. If these dont work then try the how to protect yourself link above and try something else out

 

So what is the likelihood that a leading free antivirus that gets updated twice a week could be hit with an infection that completely evades detection even after updating the antivirus to a version that would have prevented the infection if installed in time? (this assumes i'm never introducing foreign drives or usb sticks to my home network and never put my own usb stick in a foreign computer, even one that is IT-managed).

I update daily on my main computer and regularly on my side computers and avoid bad sites and networks and use the, but tend not to trust the security software and sometimes suspect an undetected infection. I don't understand how security software can have any effect if a system is hit with any zero-or-recent-enough-day attack at all.. won't such a system be forced to happily report a clean bill of health regardless of any subsequent attempts to detect anything using an antivirus platform that's on the same computer that is being scanned?

 

I think you just answered your own question.
Why pay big money when a zero day could get through anyway?

MSE and Comodo firewall with Defense+ (HIPS) is my preference, there are very few popup windows with Comodo Defense+ these days.
Or, the full Comodo Internet Security package (free) will also give you an AV and sandbox but that might be too much for your friend to work with.

 

I use the free Avira, Get a pop-up when it auto updates. There is a few workarounds to remove the pop up. Why bother on one click to close it. Win 7 is more advanced than my XP that I use Zonelabs free firewall and think not a need for a firewall with Win7.

CCleaner has saved me quite a few times. Along with Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware.

What will ding you is when when a program you use, per-say. Java. Comes up with a new version. Not an up-date of the version. Important to remove the older version before installing the new version. Ppl that try to install malware will use older versions to hack into it. And why the came out with a new version to prevent this. If you didn't un-install, you could be dinged without knowing it.

As others said, Why pay for a program when other free programs do just the same. I'm shure you have looked here in this sight.

-> http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=20

 

I'm a happy user of avast! Free. It updates at least daily, often more than once per day.

I believe some of the anti-virus programs go beyond stopping of specific viruses identified in the virus definition updates that are downloaded to the anti-virus program during updates. In other words, in addition to those specific viruses identified in the virus "definition", they also look for any suspicious program that gets downloaded to a computer and automatically move that program to the "sandbox" before running it. avast! has an AutoSandbox feature; I have it enabled on my system and I"ve seen avast! alert me that it's going to run something I downloaded in the sandbox.

 

Another vote for Avast Free! Updates twice daily AFAIK as I turn off the PC at night. Should you have any questions about this software, their support forum is excellent . http://forum.avast.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=1630jtuir0qk58o0tt2vb2v9i6&board=2.0

 

I use comodo and it could be a little too advanced for your average user "out the box"

I However have NEVER paid for a copy of A-V or a firewall (I have donated to worthy developers though) and can say i have had VERY few issues if any.

If you want all the extra little bells and whistles and a soloution in one pack then by all means buy, but you wont be any worse off with the free software mentioned.

 

Thanks still for the replies. Sorry to keep bumping with more questions but this is a topic that has me curious.

Is there such a thing as an IDPS systems geared to home/home-office environments? And if so what are the weakest specs you could reasonably run it on? I'd consider investing in a second (hopefully cheaper) box just to run security software if it could make a difference.

(Btw regarding the frequency of updates, what I meant was not that my AV software doesn't push updates often enough, but rather that I have multiple computers, but don't necessarily connect all of them to a network on a given day, or even turn some of them on. Thus some of the computers don't get updated every day and I have been assuming that poses a vulnerability to every other machine on the network.)

 

Heck, I'm running W7 and Avast for the last 2 years and haven't been hit once. I go far and wide on the interweb too and I haven't been hit yet nor in the last 9 years either with other OS's. I think the most important software to stop this crap is you and your clicking habits, no need for paid stuff but if you want to, it's not going to be hurt.

 

Wow, you like your security gear!

If you're serious about using a low-spec box, AND are interested in some serious education, setup/configuration, I might recommend a cheapy machine with multiple NICs running a lightweight Linux distro. It is possible to configure such a machine as a firewall, as well as install an IPS like Snort. WIth a Linux distro like slackware, or DSL, it would not take much in the way of hardware. It would however, take a fair amount of manual-reading.

 

Hit the nail on the head there...

 

no need for us, we are using the free version and will move on, some times we should run without none security software.

 

You must be careful what site you visit , i used

http://www.avira.com/en/avira-free-antivirus

and now i use

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

more important thing is where you navigate than what is the best antivirus programme !! :cool

 

This is something I would consider, and perhaps that learning curve wouldn't be too steep, since I learned to program (if you could call it that!) in a UNIX environment. Can you recommend any self-education resources to prime me for learning the necessary stuff on this topic? Preferably, but not necessarily, free ones.

 

Well on such a machine, you would need to know how to enable IP forwarding to allow data to pass from the upstream (modem/internet) side to the downstream (local network) side.

As for configuring the firewall, there is LOTS of information available. With a quick look, these seemed to be some of the better sources of information:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/IPCHAINS-HOWTO.html
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialIptablesNetworkGateway.html

 

I give another vote to Avast, I have been using it for a long time now, it is unintrusive and has not let me down yet (touches wood :-D)