Is McAfee as bad as Norton?

**Martoch** · April 28th, 2005, 03:09 PM

Hey guys!

Well I've got my business under way and I find that every user either has Norton or McAfee installed. Most of us are aware that Norton is a resource hog, is slow, misses viruses, etc...but how is McAfee? I've removed Norton from a few machines and the speed difference is immediate! Some of my neighbors are asking me what I think of McAfee, but I've personally never tried it.

So...how does McAfee stand up to Norton? Better/Worse? Are AVG and Avast better than McAfee as well, or just Norton?

Thanks!
Mike

xelnanga · April 28th, 2005, 03:12 PM

I personally think AVG is the best anti-virus program...

+ if u want some security on ur comp i prefer zonealarm, because its the best!

mazdarx7-64 · April 28th, 2005, 03:14 PM

I prefer mcafee over norton any day of the week. But I use AVAST at home and on clients that have no AV, or don't want to pay for one.

EDIT:: If someone really wanted to pay for AV, i'd suggest mcafee or pc-cillian by trend micro.

gigahertz205 · April 28th, 2005, 03:17 PM

i like PC-cillin.. it probably updates everyday and it nevered missed a single virus in my comp.

[/EDIT] i tried to use pc-cillin with norton and pc-cillin with mcafee. i believe pc-cillin with mcafee was better. it was obiously faster at catching viruses then norton.. and norton live update thing used up all my cpu so i couldn't do anything. [/EDIT]

**Martoch** · April 28th, 2005, 03:22 PM

Let me rephrase what I'm asking, I obviously must have asked the wrong questions.
[repeating self]
Is McAfee as bad as Norton?
Are AVG and Avast better than McAfee as well, or just Norton?
[/repeating self]

I already know that AVG and Avast are better than Norton, but what I don't know is how they stand up to McAfee.

Should I recommend that my clients running McAfee keep using it or ditch it and get Avast or AVG?

How did Zone Alarm and PC-cillin get tossed in here?

Since they're here, I've noticed that ZA tends to conflict with Avast...it actually pops up after being installed recommending that settings be changed.
I haven't used PC-cillin in quite some time, so I can't comment on it any more.

I'm curious, how do people know for sure that a certain AV program never misses any? Is that because it has actually detected at least one?
Hmm...I found 6 trojans on a "virus free" system 2 nights ago.

Feel free to continue talking about what YOU want to talk about.

bombledmonk · April 28th, 2005, 03:42 PM

I have found McAfee Retail to be crap as far as bogging down a machine. Though the corporate version that our school gives us does an A+ job without hogging resources.

I'd recommend Avast first and AVG second, but it's more of a personal preference. I find no reason for people to put the bloated stuff from Norton and McAffee stuff on their computer when there is stuff that will do just as good of a job for little or no money.

mazdarx7-64 · April 28th, 2005, 03:42 PM

Mcafee is better than norton, IMO.

If someone already paid for Mcafee I would not ditch it untill they have to pay for it again. Then switch to AVAST. I'd say that mcafee is on par or maybe slightly better that AVAST, but not worth the cost involved, IMO.

I tossed in pc-cillin because if I was going to pay for AV I'd get pc-cillin.

meese · April 28th, 2005, 03:50 PM

I used to use McAfee at home on a few pc's. I thought it did a good job. McAfee is also what is used at my shop. Its built into my SonicWall. I use the client and server products. Again they seem to do a good job.

I've since switched to PcCillin at home. I think their product is more user friendly than McAfee. Not that this mattered in my case. But when I work on someone elses PC and they want antivirus, I suggest PcCillin to them.

bombledmonk · April 28th, 2005, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazdarx7-64

If someone already paid for Mcafee I would not ditch it untill they have to pay for it again. Then switch to AVAST. I'd say that mcafee is on par or maybe slightly better that AVAST, but not worth the cost involved, IMO.
=

Yup^^

MTAtech · April 28th, 2005, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mazdarx7-64

I prefer mcafee over norton any day of the week.

Get the Enterprise version.

Not that I'm advocating doing this but some universities post the "grant number" needed to download the product from McAfee's website. A simple Google will find the number.