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Anti-Virus Product Evaluation

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by everyoneall 1 view

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Hi,

We're in process of evaluating between McAfee and Norton anti-virus products.

Appreciate anyone's advise on any professional review on these 2 products pls.

Thks.

8 replies

by fred07

Hi, At my shop I only install Norton AV as I have had to many of the other AV's miss viruses and that is why they are in my shop.
I also like the one buy for a full year option of Norton with the 2 week notification of "Your time is running out" message.
I do also run Zone Alarm Pro for a firewall and SpywareNuker for adware, maleware, trojans, worms and such.
Hope this helps.

by joseph moore

I stared using Mcafee v 4.0 (maybe even 3.something) back in 1998 at one company. It was the first anti-virus I had worked with, and it was good. The default setup scaned executible files (.EXE, .COM) and a few other file types (.DOC, .XLS). I didn't like that each client had to be set up to update its own DAT virus definition files, but that was how it worked. Ok fine. I downloaded the DATs to a central server in the office, shared out the folder, and configured the clients to pull from this location, as opposed to Network Associates site.
And it worked fine.
I started using the 4.5 engine upgrade in 2000 (at a new company), and this would fix the occasional McAfee crash "feature". You see, McAfee was (and still is), very touchy on whenit updated its DAT files. If one of the main files (scan.dat, names.dat, internet.dat, and a couple others I am forgetting) did not uncompress and install properly, then McAfee's real time file protection service (MCSHIELD) would crash and stay crashed!
Really annoying.
The engine upgrade slowed that one down very much. From what I saw, after the 4.5 engine, that did not happen very often (and thank the stars for that!).
But there still wasn't centralized DAT updating, plus the default scantype was still on a selected group of files. Yes, the file list had grown, but it still wasn't everything.
Plus, I did not like the notification feature of it. NetShield (McAfee for NT/2K/XP) would send centralized alerts; ViruScan (95/98/ME version) would not.

by joseph moore

Yet, even at my current employer, we were still using McAfee 4.5 up until a year ago.
That was when we picked up Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition 7.5
Everything is different now. You see, we were hit with an outbreak of the Elkern virus (which is dropped by the Klez virus). McAfee could not handle the Elkern outbreak! McAfee crashed on my file server under the strain of cleaning Elkern-infected files. It was a crazy 2 days,let me tell you.
Anyway, since McAfee did not scan .TMP files by default, Elkern got in the building and started running like crazy! McAfee also, as I said, kept crashing.
So, after a couple days of virus hell (the worst virus storm I have ever seen), we decided to switch.
And that is when we picked up the Symantec version.

I LOVE the Symantec version. It is much better than McAfee. The default scan type is to scan EVERYTHING. Also, the load it puts on for this scanning is not detectable. For McAfee, I would turn it off during a large file transfer. I don't have to with Symantec.
I have not had Symantec crash once on me. We have not had any major outbreaks since we picked up Symantec, and the few virii that have popped up were all stopped. Notifications were sent out to the proper people.
Plus, the microDEFs are all centrally managed and updated by default. Once a client is "managed" they check with the Symantec server for DEF updates.

by joseph moore

Plus, Symantec has a MMC snap-in that can be distributed to anyone. I have a custom snap-in with all my other Windows features (DHCP, WINS, IIS, DNS, etc), and I am happy I could add the Symantec one to it.
I now have Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition v8.0 and am still happy.
You can PUSH the client onto remote workstations from the server! No going to the workstation to install the client. Just push it!
There is even a web distribution for the client!
I am very happy with Symantec. Itis much better than McAfee.

by blockheadnash

hello--I purchased norton internet securities 2003&uninstalled nortonsystem works2002. I love all the new protection.It has a demo video to browse before purchase.To test it, I replaced hard drive & run this pc with no updates.It passed.It gives youisp server addresses & email addresses of parties trying to enter your pc.It backs up virus emails.After 2 attempts, it automatically sends it to symantec-they give it to cybercrime-they give it to f.b.i.-who gives it to your local police dept.It also has a firewall that is compatiable with winxp firewall.A HAPPY customer.Also has intrusion detector & visual tracker

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