FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

Then it's a good thing I don't have any McAfee products on my computer.

McAfee and Norton both suck giant donkey balls. That being said, this will put some money in my pocket from all the repair calls I'll get.

earl_k: FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

THIS.

Is it rude to point and laugh?

/I'm doing it anyways...

McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

the glitch appears to be caused when older VirusScan engines install DAT 5664

We're still trying to determine [...] whether people have found any reliable fixes.


Use a newer VirusScan engine?

I've got McAfee on my laptop.


Ok. Now that you IT people have finished laughing at me, tell me do I need to be worried, uninstall etc?

/srsly

redmond24: I've got McAfee on my laptop.


Ok. Now that you IT people have finished laughing at me, tell me do I need to be worried, uninstall etc?

/srsly

It sounds like it would not be a bad idea to disable it and install Avast or AVG quickly. (Not an IT guy but I did this several years ago and couldn't be happier to be rid of McAfee and Norton's both.)

yogaFLAME: McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

Didn't AVG do something like this last year?
I'm not certain which anti-virus it was, but AVG comes to mind. There was definitely a Fark thread about it.

I'd like to also chime in with a hearty McAffee and Norton suck.

Using Microsoft's new security essentials on Win 7.

earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

So very this. Unfortunately, places like entire government departments often get bulk purchase deals and government PCs run it. It's what sustains them, much like Norton.

/uses free avira at home
//eTrust at work

I feel sorry for lower-level IT guys that have to deal with this shiat because their boss decided to be a dumbfark and install McAfee.

Well, that's a big farking OOPS to do, especially on a holiday weekend.

/work uses McAfee

As a non-networked user, I'm not running winvnc.exe, a remote desktop control process. Therefore, this problem would not appear to affect me or other non-networked users.

As a result, I can continue to blissfully use my free Mcafee antivirus without concern.

And my productivity remains unchanged-- steady at 0.

even the McAfee-associated McScript.exe were being identified as a trojan

FAIL.

redmond24: I've got McAfee on my laptop.


Ok. Now that you IT people have finished laughing at me, tell me do I need to be worried, uninstall etc?

/srsly

If you remove your system32 folder you'll be OK. Run Windows Optimizer^TM just to be safe.

*smug mac owner giggles*

real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

Keep giggling.

"Expensive paperweight"...

Does the article author not understand that you can reinstall the operating system? It's not like McRappee somehow caused the guys laptop to overheat and spew magic smoke all over the room.

For that, you would need to install IE 8 - at the very least.

earl_k:
If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

Literally

AVG anti-virus/spyware FTW

Thats why when people come to me with computer question (I don't know why, everything I know is self taught/read from a google search) I say.. DON'T USE MCAFEE OR NORTON
my friends will love me moar after I link them this for proof I was right!
/revels in the shortlived glory

yogaFLAME: McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

This. I've been using Comodo instead. Good stuff.

Hobodeluxe: I'd like to also chime in with a hearty McAffee and Norton suck.

Using Microsoft's new security essentials on Win 7.

Did you actually just say that Norton sucks, and then go on to say you're using MS security essentials?

God, I love FARK threads.

earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I have a dozen servers and about 250 workstations running enterprise for about 12 years without so much as a hick up or problem in that time. I think the key there is that it is the Enterprise version. We also keep it up to date engine and path wise, so that may help lessen the problems as well.

We looked at Kapersky last year when the University was thinking about moving to Symantec enterprise, but it was way too expensive for our small school. Nod 32 was a close second, but they re-negotiated a new contract with Mcafee, so we stayed with them. It is hard to switch from something that comes to us free, and has been trouble free.

They must have a new DEV team now. These mistakes are getting more frequent.

I've been using AVG and Comodo for years, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/Well, off to the gym!
//26 more minutes!

Did Avast fall out of favour?
That's what I'm running in preference of AVG ever since they went to that new version that does all the web-site scanning and other stuff I didn't need.

I'd be willing to give Comodo a try next time I need to install something.

Btw - anyone have any preferences for firewall software? I'm not a fan of Zone Alarm and honestly can't think of anything else out there that's free.

Procedural Texture: yogaFLAME: McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

Didn't AVG do something like this last year?
I'm not certain which anti-virus it was, but AVG comes to mind. There was definitely a Fark thread about it.


It was AVG last year or earlier this year that did it. Core Windows shell32.dll = BAD one day.

Read about it and immediately switched home PCs to Avast. Only thing Avast did recently was go "Newsleecher is a TROJAN", but that was fixed within a day.

Work is Trend Micro. If you're using McAfee in an IT field, you're retarded.

People are still using McAffe? I've been Avasting the scurvy virii for a while now.

AVG FTW!

Procedural Texture: yogaFLAME: McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

Didn't AVG do something like this last year?
I'm not certain which anti-virus it was, but AVG comes to mind. There was definitely a Fark thread about it.

AVG did this to my laptop two years ago. Fark AVG.

hate me all you want, i use norton internet security and my computer is fast and fine.

then again, i just use it for masturbation purposes and to write my stupid emo poems and stories and for fark.

so nothing heavy or intense thats too corrupting.

earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

Actually I find ePolicy Orchestrator to be a fairly nice product, and certainly one of a very few products of it's caliber. Outside of the Patch 1 fiasco a couple weeks ago (doesn't look like this is going to affect me, we're not on older engines) I can't remember the last time we had an issue with a McAfee dat/patch/etc.

F-Secure Client Security V8

I admin our setup at work and always recommend it to friends.

As the manager of a 2000 seat enterprise I live in fear of this sort of thing happening.

greyseal: Hobodeluxe: I'd like to also chime in with a hearty McAffee and Norton suck.

Using Microsoft's new security essentials on Win 7.

Did you actually just say that Norton sucks, and then go on to say you're using MS security essentials?

God, I love FARK threads.

I hear the MSE has been getting good press to be honest.. so there you go[Citation needed]

real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.

I am just going to say this:

Webroot FTW.

Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

Ed Finnerty

THIS

Love the NOD32. Sits there doing its job, rarely disturbing me. Never nags me about not having other products in their family. Just does the job that I pay it to do.

I must have missed the memo when they made winvnc.exe a core Windows file.

yogaFLAME: AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

Yep. They were decent enough a few years ago. Since this big upgrade to 8.x it has become intrusive, their reminders are intrusive, and in the case my home machine, I had to uninstall it when it attacked MS Outlook for some reason. If I wanted Norton, I'd go buy Norton.

TheWizard: Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

If McAfee were a woman, she would be a short, obese, hairy troll that followed you around and stayed righ at your side. She would be counting the change in your pockets and bu,ping your elbow as you tried to type. She would remind you how many salories were in eveery snack you ate, and insist that you wipe twiee when you went number two. She would keep you from meeting new women, and fart in bed while you slept at 3 AM. She would charge you for these services, and remind you to pay her on a regular basis.

vudukungfu: TheWizard: Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

If McAfee were a woman, she would be a short, obese, hairy troll that followed you around and stayed righ at your side. She would be counting the change in your pockets and bu,ping your elbow as you tried to type. She would remind you how many salories were in eveery snack you ate, and insist that you wipe twiee when you went number two. She would keep you from meeting new women, and fart in bed while you slept at 3 AM. She would charge you for these services, and remind you to pay her on a regular basis.

You only wipe your ass once? Personally I keep wiping until it's clean.

earl_k: .

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I've been telling the VP of our department this for years.
All 5 of them. One at a time.
We have a new one this week. Maybe he will listen.

TUO3MTA3: You only wipe your ass once? Personally I keep wiping until it's clean.

McAfee would tell you to reload the roll and start over.
It's locked on my PC at work, and when I'm typing along at 70 wpm, and teh screen is still blank, because McScript is making sure I'm not wrting code for a bug in outlook, I have to say to the IT department, take this bloatware off of my machine, pleae, each and every day. I have 8 years of emails asking them to take it off my machine.
When the system goes down, I'm glad I awan't the guy who made sure it was safe.

TheWizard: Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

Much like the feeling regarding priests you might encounter at a former choirboy's convention.

Caeldan: Did Avast fall out of favour?

I love my avast - as soon as I turn off the sounds for it.
I had the pleasure of uninstalling Trend Micro Security Crap when I got my new PC recently.

/VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED!

McAfee Enterprise Edition is good. Very good, in fact. I've got plenty of clients running it. Combined with ePolicy Orchestrator, it makes management very slick and hands-off.

Any other version of McAfee, though, is bad, bad, bad.

TheWizard: Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

Have you ever see what it does to computers after awhile? I'm speaking mostly of the pre-installed crap you get from an OEM computer. Like all of my friends/family bring me asking why nothing works.

Seriously, there's like 50 different McAfee programs running doing different things, eating memory like crazy. Norton is the same.

Look, just run a scan when the user isn't on the computer, kill any viruses, update daily, and do it all quietly. When you're not running a scan- go into some low-memory mode, ok?

For the work environment, I've always suggested Kaspersky. Of course, I've had to disable the user from interfering with the scans and such; due to the older hardware that they were using, they often canceled or disabled the daily scans and updates (which I scheduled to occur during their lunch break, yet they wanted to fark around on Myspace and such. That one, and all other social networking sites were blocked soon after), and it got so bad that when I ran each computer on a full scan after hours, I discovered shiatloads of viruses on our comptroller's computer, along with his large collection of kiddie pr0n. He lost his job, and my department got an increase of budget to upgrade all the hardware in the company.

For the home user, Avast or AVG.

I still like Avast myself.

My mom's computer came with Symantec/Norton pre-installed. One day, she called to say that her computer wouldn't connect to the internet anymore. It took me a while to finally figure out that when the trial subscription expires, it takes the internet connection with it EVEN AFTER IT IS UNINSTALLED. I had to use another computer to download software to remove the spoil-sport.

By the way, if anybody wants MS Security Essentials, you can't get it from Microsoft anymore, but you can get it HERE.

/now using Avast
//and ZoneAlarm (free) without the toolbar/spyware

Comcast gives McAfee away for free to its customers. This should be fun.

Alleyoop: It took me a while to finally figure out that when the trial subscription expires, it takes the internet connection with it EVEN AFTER IT IS UNINSTALLED. I had to use another computer to download software to remove the spoil-sport.

I'm actually going to be heading to a relative's house to do a 'nuke it from orbit' on her HD. After all the bloatware from Dell being installed and her son installing about 50 internet toolbars that "speed up your connection", her computer was running at the speed of snail.

Installing Win7 this afternoon.

I love Norman
www.norman.com. Yes there is a free demo.

Caeldan: Did Avast fall out of favour?
That's what I'm running in preference of AVG ever since they went to that new version that does all the web-site scanning and other stuff I didn't need.

Turning off a checkbox or two during the install process being WAY too complicated for you, of course.

My desktop has McAfee. I'm wondering if I should wait a few days before switching it on again.

Maddogjew: McAfee and Norton both suck giant donkey balls. That being said, this will put some money in my pocket from all the repair calls I'll get.

Marketing tip: You should be saying "McAfee and Norton are great! I recommend that everyone use it."

Why, oh, why is McAfee loved so much by big companies? I think it eats 100 megs of RAM on my work laptop.

Big fan of NOD 32 here; especially the way it updates several times a day vs what the others do.

If McAfee were a woman, she would be a short, obese, hairy troll that followed you around and stayed righ at your side. She would be counting the change in your pockets and bu,ping your elbow as you tried to type. She would remind you how many salories were in eveery snack you ate, and insist that you wipe twiee when you went number two. She would keep you from meeting new women, and fart in bed while you slept at 3 AM. She would charge you for these services, and remind you to pay her on a regular basis.

Mom?

earl_k: IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I came for this. That it was first makes me quite happy indeed.

I am afraid to mention this since no one has condemned it yet, but what about Trend Micro? I have been running it for two years and have not had any troubles. Is that bad, should I not be doing that?

As I read this, I hope my former co-workers are enjoying their 4th of July weekend. Too bad there is nobody in Canada anymore to help you through this eh? Don't worry, you can be there in 3 hours to fix any major problems.

My school's wireless network requires you to install McAfee in order to connect. Hope my laptop is not about to get farked...

If you're still using Norton or McAfee you deserve what's coming to you.

Do people like Avast and AVG just because they're free, or what?

I got an enterprise version of McAfee with a free subscription to updates and it's caught all viruses that have tried to infect my computers over the last 6 years without fail or any issue.

On the other hand, Norton has always pissed me off with its level of molestation in my normal computer usage, and the fact that it works its way into every nook and cranny of my pc system. It's like a damn borg.

the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

have never run any of that crap in 5 years and still clean as the driven snow. i've never even heard of any Linux users being infected with anything, and 50% of the web servers around the world run Linux, and they havent' been infected with anything, other than passing along infections to windows machines.


Infections are a windows thing because windows was never designed right in the first place.

i work for Comcast and we offer McAfee as a free download...glad i'm off for the weekend

snuff3r: earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

So very this. Unfortunately, places like entire government departments often get bulk purchase deals and government PCs run it. It's what sustains them, much like Norton.

/uses free avira at home
//eTrust at work

fellow Avira user

Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

That's because nobody writes malware for linux. Because nobody uses linux.

Your local auto mechanic rarely if ever sees a Chinese Haima come in for repairs, but that isn't because they are built solid as a rock.

RoxtarRyan: Alleyoop: It took me a while to finally figure out that when the trial subscription expires, it takes the internet connection with it EVEN AFTER IT IS UNINSTALLED. I had to use another computer to download software to remove the spoil-sport.

I'm actually going to be heading to a relative's house to do a 'nuke it from orbit' on her HD. After all the bloatware from Dell being installed and her son installing about 50 internet toolbars that "speed up your connection", her computer was running at the speed of snail.

Installing Win7 this afternoon.

been running Win7 x64 for a couple of months now...not too bad so far. i have to run Ableton in XP compatibility mode to get my VSTs to work. other than that, not bad.

Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

have never run any of that crap in 5 years and still clean as the driven snow. i've never even heard of any Linux users being infected with anything, and 50% of the web servers around the world run Linux, and they havent' been infected with anything, other than passing along infections to windows machines.


Infections are a windows thing because windows was never designed right in the first place.

ah yes, more bullshiat from the peanut gallery.

if Linux is sooooooo goddamned great why does every Linux user I've ever spoken with recommend a virus scanner? I have 12 different flavors sitting on a disk right next to me...I've installed them all at one oint or another and every one has also installed a virus scanner. Explain that shiat.

I would rather have a virus than McAfee or Norton's.

The average user does not need anti-virus and firewall software. Just don't be a knob and click on stupid ad banners and suspicious e-mails.


/have never had anti-virus/firewall
//have never had a virus or problem.

Toy_Cop: The average user does not need anti-virus and firewall software. Just don't be a knob and click on stupid ad banners and suspicious e-mails.


/have never had anti-virus/firewall
//have never had a virus or problem.

This, but make that the above average user.

The average user is a dumbass.

X15: The average user is a dumbass.

Yes they are. They keep me well supplied with Scotch and Kind. I love them so much!

Another Comodo / Avira fanboy chiming in and feeling smug.

X15: Toy_Cop: The average user does not need anti-virus and firewall software. Just don't be a knob and click on stupid ad banners and suspicious e-mails.


/have never had anti-virus/firewall
//have never had a virus or problem.

This, but make that the above average user.

The average user is a dumbass.

agreed, thanks for FTFM. :D

DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.

My BSD laptop just burned your school to the ground, while both your laptops were inside.

pxlboy: been running Win7 x64 for a couple of months now...not too bad so far.

Agreed. I've been running it myself since the beta release (now the RC obviously), and feel it is more than stable enough for her to use. Of course, I told her that though it is free now, it will expire next year. She was cool with it, since she'll be buying a new computer before then anyways.

scalpod: DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.

My BSD laptop just burned your school to the ground, while both your laptops were inside.

You sure the Mac didn't burn the school down by running at nice 198 degrees?

Gotta love all the wannabe sysadmins with their McAfee hate.

I have 80 servers and hundreds of workstations running McAfee, and have done so for many years. In that time, I've had pretty much zero grief from doing so. No outbreaks of anything, no shutdowns. I would have preferred it to have remained a pure AV product instead of adding crap like port blocking, but it's been a quality product for well over a decade.

All you Johnny-come-lately's forget that back in the day, McAfee was far and away the best choice (out of a very small pool), and license renewal fees are a lot smaller than the cost of replacing a perfectly acceptable application with the fad of the month.

If my machines are adversely affected by this, then I may look at switching to something else. But if, as I expect, all continues to go well, then I won't be given a budget for replacing it. And things will continue to chug along just fine.

I got rid of McAfee on my PC, but I just noticed that my husband's laptop has it, so I uninstalled it.

I run Spyware Doctor on my PC, but I see a lot of suggestions in the thread for AVG. Is AVG better?

Funny, this little McAfee glitch will probably let Best Buy sell a few computer to noobs.

An older neighbor brought over her laptop last week to my brother to fix. "it has a virus, can it be fixed or should I just by a new one ? " she asked.

Backed up files & clean install and free antivirus - Good as new.

Glad she didn't try going to Best Buy on her own, I'd hate to think how much it would have cost Her.

These tools corp office is right by my apt here in Plano, TX never install their crap on your PC ever!!!!

Procedural Texture: yogaFLAME: McAfee was on my shiatlist looooong ago. AVG seems to be endeavoring to get on there, too, as of late.

Didn't AVG do something like this last year?
I'm not certain which anti-virus it was, but AVG comes to mind. There was definitely a Fark thread about it.

All of them eventually fark up. I still run Norton, but because it's free. 2009 is above and beyond the best they have had in a long time.

The corporate AV though misses all sorts of things though.

scalpod: DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.

My BSD laptop just burned your school to the ground, while both your laptops were inside.

THIS

\FreeBSD rules

RoxtarRyan: For the work environment, I've always suggested Kaspersky. Of course, I've had to disable the user from interfering with the scans and such; due to the older hardware that they were using, they often canceled or disabled the daily scans and updates (which I scheduled to occur during their lunch break, yet they wanted to fark around on Myspace and such. That one, and all other social networking sites were blocked soon after), and it got so bad that when I ran each computer on a full scan after hours, I discovered shiatloads of viruses on our comptroller's computer, along with his large collection of kiddie pr0n. He lost his job, and my department got an increase of budget to upgrade all the hardware in the company.

For the home user, Avast or AVG.

We have some rather old equipment, some computers are even still running W2k, but I haven't had this problem with Kaspersky. I disabled all user interaction. Even the icon itself is gone. Also, I have it email me whenever it detects viruses. Which isn't that often, even though nothing is blocked. Maybe once every six months.

BUT, recently we've had a problem with Kaspersky. Every so often, it decides to block all HTTP traffic for some reason. Sometimes reboot helps, but sometimes not. It's really quite annoying.

finnished: We have some rather old equipment, some computers are even still running W2k, but I haven't had this problem with Kaspersky.

The programs the office used (SAP and a couple others) were pretty CPU intensive.

spleef420: ah yes, more bullshiat from the peanut gallery.

Does it really count as a "gallery" if it's just... well... him?

I'm not going to call that one crazy bum singing showtunes a quartet no matter how many voices he hears in his head.

If you are an IT admin and you are not testing new DATs or Engines prior to updating production boxes McDonalds may be hiring....

Comparing the home/commercial version of any AV to the enterprise version is apples and dumptrucks....

ePolicy Orchestrator FTW period.

vudukungfu: TheWizard: Looks like there is a lot of group-hate in here for McAfee.

If McAfee were a woman, she would be a short, obese, hairy troll that followed you around and stayed righ at your side. She would be counting the change in your pockets and bu,ping your elbow as you tried to type. She would remind you how many salories were in eveery snack you ate, and insist that you wipe twiee when you went number two. She would keep you from meeting new women, and fart in bed while you slept at 3 AM. She would charge you for these services, and remind you to pay her on a regular basis.

Looks like you need to to either move your elbow or uninstall McAfee.

I can't speak for McAfee's corporate version, but in my tech support days (this being the last couple of years) I ran into a myriad of instances where McAfee would block someone's internet connection for no apparent reason. By and large, the only way to fix it was to completely uninstall the thing, because just disabling the firewall or even exiting the software wouldn't do the trick. Same goes for Norton and Trend Micro.

I've been using NOD32 for about 5 years now and have never had a problem with it.

RoxtarRyan:
The programs the office used (SAP and a couple others) were pretty CPU intensive.

One of customers uses SAP, a big multinational corporation. So they have the supplier portal set up, where you go check purchase orders and what not.

Don't know about SAP itself, but the portal is horrible. Or maybe they're running it on an underpowered server. But still, when you check a checkbox, it shouldn't require reloading of the entire page. Yet it does.

Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

And the beauty of Windows is that it actually has useful programs. :)

/i kid
//But seriously, GIMP as a photoshop alternative?

Benjimin_Dover: Looks like you need to to either move your elbow or uninstall McAfee.

Can't uninstall it.
I don'r have admin rights.
Our network did get a virus last month w/ Mc Afee on it, too.
You would think that when you have a virus slip through, and one employee who have been playing with computers for almost 4 decades telling you that the app is worthless, you might listen.
Or you could say, nah, let's see what happens. How bad could it get?
Me, I'm already looking for other employment, but that's because of other pisspoor choices of applications upper management has insisted on.
/Don't get me started with Oracle CRMs.

finnished: Don't know about SAP itself

Consider yourself blessed.

Worst part about that job, is that they had us IT guys who worked there (employed by the company), and the company also had a contract with HP for IT support. It was a constant battle between the two of us when it came to things like "who the fark screwed with the Exchange server at 3am on a Saturday" (the logs showing it was HP doing "upgrades" and "performance checks".

Fark, I'm glad I'm not there anymore.

Benevolent Misanthrope: earl_k: FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

THIS.

My company just rolled out McAfee world wide. So I am not getting a kick out of these replies.

/not part of that decision making process

WALMART.saves: Caeldan: Did Avast fall out of favour?

I love my avast - as soon as I turn off the sounds for it.
I had the pleasure of uninstalling Trend Micro Security Crap when I got my new PC recently.

/VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED!

Yes, this. Because having one's PC connected to large speakers turned up to 11 + early AM + "database updated" message = hilarity.

Except not.

/other than that DERP, never had any issues with Avast

Pichu0102: Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

And the beauty of Windows is that it actually has useful programs. :)

/i kid
//But seriously, GIMP as a photoshop alternative?

Meh, it works good enough for me.

finnished: RoxtarRyan:
The programs the office used (SAP and a couple others) were pretty CPU intensive.

One of customers uses SAP, a big multinational corporation. So they have the supplier portal set up, where you go check purchase orders and what not.

Don't know about SAP itself, but the portal is horrible. Or maybe they're running it on an underpowered server. But still, when you check a checkbox, it shouldn't require reloading of the entire page. Yet it does.

SAP is awful. We've been using it lately in our office and its rediciously fickle as well as freezing easily.

The most annoying thing is that the user settings will change overnight for no reason.

Tuesday - User B can run every report and User C can't access form settings.
Wednesday - User B can't even access the report list and User C can access management level tasks without a problem.

and no one had been changing any setting at all.

I had mcafee for ages on a laptop that was mainly used for writing, web surfing and that sort of thing. Nothing that required an upgrade. It seemed to run slower everyday. That's when I realized that mcafee had slowly upgraded itself to be using about 60% of the processing power and even more memory. Uninstalled that and put avast on the machine and it was like a whole new computer.
I still have a hard time believing people are willing to shell out the money for mcafee when it's incredibly inferior to most of the free options available.
/Nobody ever leaves mcafee without becoming bitter.

After AVG 7.5 AVG sucks. It turned into crap just like the others.
I've tried most free antiviruses and they all have problems. One shows a popup banner randomly, another requires yearly registration, the rest are slow.

Only "safe" one to use is clamwin. And that is if you don't mind manually checking each file you download (that you are not sure if safe) or manual scan of hard drive each week. But the updates never bother you, and it uses very little resources. I'm mostly using ubuntu now, so I rarely worry about antivirus products, only when I'm fixing other peoples computers.

/no one uses linux therefor no one writes viruses for it. LOL.
//I assume being the only successful virus for 10 million ubuntu machines is not worth anything? Instead of competing with everyone else for windows.

Mcafee is a virus in and of itself.

If you've put it on your computer then you deserve what you get.

As a Tier 1 tech support rep that works for a major ISP that uses a McAfee based "free" AV solution for its' customers, I'm definitely not getting a kick out of this. At all.
/dread going to work today
//Yes, ma'am. You are going to need to reload your OS.

From TFA:
Files belonging to Microsoft Internet Explorer, drivers for Compaq computers, and even the McAfee-associated McScript.exe were being identified...

Well, in McAfee's defense, it's pretty much half the reason a computer might have a virus anyway. ;)

THIS

For home I also like Comodo.
Also fond of the Comodo firewall.

kevin_c7500: If you are an IT admin and you are not testing new DATs or Engines prior to updating production boxes McDonalds may be hiring....

Comparing the home/commercial version of any AV to the enterprise version is apples and dumptrucks....

ePolicy Orchestrator FTW period.

Pretty much this. Backin the day sometimes you'd have to shovel DATs out quickly because something like Sasser or CodeRed was coming. At that point you stuck that DAT out on the server and hoped that the DAT update was the lesser of two evils.

For regular updates though, you test first.

McAfee Total Protection is also fairly decent for smaller business with not much in the way of IT infrastructure. Idiot proof for the most part.

I've heard that Norton 2009 is much better with resource usage than previous versions? Can anyone back this up, or is this bullpucky?

(I'll stick with Avast since I don't like to pay for updates, bt I'm thoroughly curious.)

Avast on the computers here, Threatfire firewall on the Vista box, Comodo firewall on the laptop, Zonealarm on the XP box. All run great- much better than under either Norton or McAfee.

I had Norton as my firewall/security suite, and think I got it all off. Any way to tell for sure?

/Killed McAfee after it deleted my Fonts folder during a scan
//Killed Norton when it was taking 350MB of my 512MB RAM

Sword and Shield: I had Norton as my firewall/security suite, and think I got it all off. Any way to tell for sure?

Download the SymNRT tool from Symantec. It will pull all the listed Norton products off of a computer.

nabbyfan: I've heard that Norton 2009 is much better with resource usage than previous versions? Can anyone back this up, or is this bullpucky?

(I'll stick with Avast since I don't like to pay for updates, bt I'm thoroughly curious.)

Norton 2009 is great. I'm running Internet Security and both firewall and anti-virus us using a combined total of 12MB.
Way better than the older versions.

vudukungfu: earl_k: .

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I've been telling the VP of our department this for years.
All 5 of them. One at a time.
We have a new one this week. Maybe he will listen.

Since you believe a VP might listen to you, I have a banking opportunity for you that involves eleventy billion dollars stuck in a Nigerian bank. In payment for your help, you will receive 10% of the amount.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

That's because nobody writes malware for linux. Because nobody uses linux.

The majority of servers are linux and unix. The majority of servers compromised by break-ins and virues are Windows. By your logic, the Linux/unix systems should experience most of the break-ins. They aren't because it's hard. The crackers target Windows because it is easy, not because it is popular.

SpaceBison: Pichu0102: Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

And the beauty of Windows is that it actually has useful programs. :)

/i kid
//But seriously, GIMP as a photoshop alternative?

Meh, it works good enough for me.

Gimp works well but it has the most gawd-awful user interface ever created.

I'm a huge fan of open source. I use it every day both at home and on the job, but one place open source is failing badly is in GUI design.

Monday is going to be a riot.

natgab: Funny, this little McAfee glitch will probably let Best Buy sell a few computer to noobs.

An older neighbor brought over her laptop last week to my brother to fix. "it has a virus, can it be fixed or should I just by a new one ? " she asked.

Backed up files & clean install and free antivirus - Good as new.

Glad she didn't try going to Best Buy on her own, I'd hate to think how much it would have cost Her.

Sell me the infected one.

I don't use an anti-virus.

The university I went when I went to college gave away McAfee free to its students. The company I worked for a few years ago used McAfee as its standard antivirus.

It should be interesting at both places.

OgreMagi: I'm a huge fan of open source. I use it every day both at home and on the job, but one place open source is failing badly is in GUI design.

So fix it.

/you can, you know.

Evilmogwai: finnished: RoxtarRyan:
The programs the office used (SAP and a couple others) were pretty CPU intensive.

One of customers uses SAP, a big multinational corporation. So they have the supplier portal set up, where you go check purchase orders and what not.

Don't know about SAP itself, but the portal is horrible. Or maybe they're running it on an underpowered server. But still, when you check a checkbox, it shouldn't require reloading of the entire page. Yet it does.

SAP is awful. We've been using it lately in our office and its rediciously fickle as well as freezing easily.

The most annoying thing is that the user settings will change overnight for no reason.

Tuesday - User B can run every report and User C can't access form settings.
Wednesday - User B can't even access the report list and User C can access management level tasks without a problem.

and no one had been changing any setting at all.

When the Telco where I worked migrated to SAP, the Engineering department swore that the moniker stood for "Stop All Productivity". Eight years later it's still slower than its predecessor.

Elvis Da King: When the Telco where I worked migrated to SAP, the Engineering department swore that the moniker stood for "Stop All Productivity". Eight years later it's still slower than its predecessor.

Why do people keep buying SAP? I haven't had a good word about it from any user or software engineer.

WALMART.saves: Caeldan: Did Avast fall out of favour?

I love my avast - as soon as I turn off the sounds for it.
I had the pleasure of uninstalling Trend Micro Security Crap when I got my new PC recently.

/VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED!

I love avast, loved it so much, I introduced it to all my friend's computers as well. As for sounds, I usually kill those bells and whistles as soon as any program is installed. All I want to hear is the sound of my music.

From what I can recall, this isn't the first time McAfee's anti-virus software has corrupted people's PCs.

I thought about using McAfee's AV a long while back but I changed my mind when as part of the installation procedure it required the removal of other software, namely Zonealarm's firewall. Something isn't right about an AV program requiring me to not run a firewall of my choosing.

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: OgreMagi: I'm a huge fan of open source. I use it every day both at home and on the job, but one place open source is failing badly is in GUI design.

So fix it.

/you can, you know.

As long as your own time has little to no value to you of course.

earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

Not all IT admins have final say.
Some of these decisions are forced down by the corporate CTO, who is a moron pencil-pusher with an MBA and no IT experience.

earl_k: If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

back when i was in college the university forced you to have McAfee runing on your computer if you lived in the dorms or wanted to use wifi on campus. It was the first thing i deleted after graduation.

xria: As long as your own time has little to no value to you of course.

Internet douchebags sure say that a lot, but let's look at it economically:

You have
A: the amount at which you value your time
B: the time it will take you to change what you don't like about GIMP
C: the price of the alternative - the Photoshop version of your choosing
D: the factoral value of knowledge learned (where 1.0 means you've learned nothing)

If ((A * B)/D) <= C then it's worth it. If not, then go with C.

C starts at $700 + tax, so even if you value your time at a completely unrealistic $100/hr and learn nothing new from the experience, you've got at least seven hours where it's completely worth it to alter GIMP's source code.

/or you can just pirate PS, whichever.

downstairs: Seriously, there's like 50 different McAfee programs running doing different things, eating memory like crazy. Norton is the same.

By slowing/crashing systems, many virus scanners are viruses in themselves. In the cases of McAfee and Norton, you pay to get screwed.

Avast!+Malwarebytes=happy computer

dervish16108: I've been using AVG and Comodo for years, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

Hrm... I also use AVG (paid) and Comodo (free) -- they work quite well together. Occasionally, however, AVG will identify a Comodo update as a virus (typically a trojan) and quarantine it. Eventually though the update goes through once AVG updates it as a false positive.

real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

Browsing the Web is about the only thing there is to do when using a Mac.

snuff3r: So very this. Unfortunately, places like entire government departments often get bulk purchase deals and government PCs run it. It's what sustains them, much like Norton.

This several times over. I wanted to use NOD but no, the contract said we could use Trend OfficeScan or FProt. OfficeScan is around 1.00/year per client. FProt is almost free.

Contrary to what people thing we have no choice. Everything is done by contract. Replacement parts...all contract. Newegg has a drive for 40.00, our contract has it for 55.00 and it will take months to arrive. I used to buy out of pocket and expense it all as gas until they froze travel.

The bad thing about contracts is that there is a lot of bait and switch. Some items are super cheap but everything else is very expensive. We have some toners that we have to buy that are going for MORE than MSRP.

scalpod: DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.

My BSD laptop just burned your school to the ground, while both your laptops were inside.

Why would one BSD laptop kill another one?

/pfsense box ftw

pureobscure: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

Browsing the Web is about the only thing there is to do when using a Mac.

Sure, unless you want to use a word processor, a photomanipulation program, a music program, watch video, burn dvds, cds, or, really, anything a PC user does - but without the headaches.

pureobscure: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

Browsing the Web is about the only thing there is to do when using a Mac.

You made him sad.



(Sorry everyone. Be happy I obscured what I did.)

Blink FTW

Cuphat: I don't use an anti-virus.

Me Either. I just pull out before I get to deep into the site.

zedster: Why would one BSD laptop kill another one?

I killed a BSD laptop, just to watch it die.

wejash: redmond24: I've got McAfee on my laptop.


Ok. Now that you IT people have finished laughing at me, tell me do I need to be worried, uninstall etc?

/srsly

It sounds like it would not be a bad idea to disable it and install Avast or AVG quickly. (Not an IT guy but I did this several years ago and couldn't be happier to be rid of McAfee and Norton's both.)

I remember AVG's crowning moment; it failed to detect a virus on my machine. Real useful program that.

I still have one computer running AVG but I'm thinking about changing it out, I didn't like it since the upgrade but I'm lazy. I just put Avira on my laptop, cause I wanted to try something instead of Avast, I really like it so far.

This is my internet contribution.

I'm using Antivirus2009, so it won't affect me.

Oops. Mcafee, Norton, and yes, AVG all use the same definitions. Trifecta of suck.

We use Sophos Anti-Virus at the university I attend/work for. World-wide license for anyone affiliated with the university. I may bend the license a bit to let friends and family use it, but oh well. :)

It works pretty well, is trivial to install, and seems to catch just about everything (the network I maintain has really stupid users on occasion).

It uses the university update server, so there's no authentication or whatnot for updates. If one is interested, drop me an email (email in profile).

farkeruk: Why do people keep buying SAP? I haven't had a good word about it from any user or software engineer.

I've developed a couple of theories about this:

1) SAP runs those commercials which show "smart" business people acting like it's a no-brainer switching to SAP and of course CEOs and CIOs want everyone to think they're smart.

... or ...

2) SAP must secretly offer CEOs and CIOs free weekly blowjobs for life if they'll switch over to SAP.


Personally, I'd like to think it's (2), but something tells me it's probably (1). Corporate bigwigs who make these asinine decisions to go with these one-product-runs-all ERP applications think their decision will be a feather in their cap, when in fact they are just begging for trouble. The people who actually do the work in their companies usually wind up hating the ERP applications and in the end they're miserable and productivity suffers... and this is only if they can actually get the stuff to work!

ERP applications like SAP are crap. They promise you the world and tell you that they "know your business" and then when you pay the consultants to come in and set it up for you, they start telling you how you're going to have to change the way you do things in order for their product to work. In other words, the companies that design these products don't know your business... they just tell you how you need to change to conform to their vision of how you should do business. It's snake oil, and the CIO who falls for this or allows this crap to be implemented on his watch should be blacklisted forever and never be allowed to work as a CIO again.

ERP products suck. If you want software that works the way you need it to, hire some analysts and programmers and write the damned software yourself. Those ERP vendors who claim they know your business are LYING to you. They know that once you start down their path, you will be in so deep by the time you realize you're being screwed that you'll have no choice but to follow through. The "success stories" that ERP vendors tout? There aren't that many, especially in the long run. And the employees who get subjected to the changes imposed by the adoption of ERP products -- they wind up hating upper management and IT for forcing this crap on them.

Seriously.

Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

have never run any of that crap in 5 years and still clean as the driven snow. i've never even heard of any Linux users being infected with anything, and 50% of the web servers around the world run Linux, and they havent' been infected with anything, other than passing along infections to windows machines.


Infections are a windows thing because windows was never designed right in the first place.

Actually, I still keep the Linux version of AVG around. If you dual boot, it can really be a life saver to scan your Windows partition from the safety your Linux platform - especially if you get a nasty rootkit installed somehow, and your Win platform won't boot.
Also, even if you never use Windows yourself, if you share files on P2P networks, it's considerate to scan them before you share them with potential Windows users. So Linux AV software does have it's practical uses. I at least like to have it available.

Anyone who says Linux servers are immune to any kind of infection is a liar and should not be trusted, nor should any advice they hock be heeded.

I submit two pieces of evidence found within 10 seconds of a google search:

servers infected with a DoS program (new window)

servers infected via rootkit (new window)

Antivirus programs, both free and not free, are available for computers running any type of OS. Better to take advantage of them, than to take a fool's chance on the "security through obscurity" route.

Huh. The major, international company I just got laid off from was running Mcafee. I wonder if they're farked now.

My mother runs Norton. I can't knock it into her head that YES I advised she install Norton on her machine (ten years ago! When it was a Win95 box!), but today, Norton's stuff is on the shiatlist.

Oh god, I can't imagine the bullshiat I'm gonna get from McAfee users at work tomorrow.


God damn I hate tech support.

CLEARLY I'm evil: Oh god, I can't imagine the bullshiat I'm gonna get from McAfee users at work tomorrow.


God damn I hate tech support.

Call in sick. We don't use it but I'm sure some of my users will call me asking for help. It's always fun to say "hey, for a fee" as they hang up. I think I'm going to make Monday a travel day.

In the job I had before my current one they insisted on running Norton. I made a plea for a different virus scanner for our department and the idiot manager chose McAfee instead of my recommended virus scanner (AVG at the time). I quit a day later.

Hooray for Linux (Fedora 10 to be exact)

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: OgreMagi: I'm a huge fan of open source. I use it every day both at home and on the job, but one place open source is failing badly is in GUI design.

So fix it.

/you can, you know.

No I can't. This is an error in thinking in the open source world. Not just anyone can design a GUI. A well designed GUI is a specialized skill and the people who are good at it have special training. GIMP's GUI was designed by someone who lacks that training and it shows.

they all kind of suck.

'Sup Geeks,

Typin' this on a Dell laptop runnin' on Windows Vista browsin' on Internet Explorer 'n protected by McAfee Security Center.

Runs fast. Runs great. Feels good.

Ed Finnerty: kb.eset.com

THIS!
Except version 4 came out awhile ago, you need to upgrade...

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: xria: As long as your own time has little to no value to you of course.

Internet douchebags sure say that a lot, but let's look at it economically:

You have
A: the amount at which you value your time
B: the time it will take you to change what you don't like about GIMP
C: the price of the alternative - the Photoshop version of your choosing
D: the factoral value of knowledge learned (where 1.0 means you've learned nothing)

If ((A * B)/D) <= C then it's worth it. If not, then go with C.

C starts at $700 + tax, so even if you value your time at a completely unrealistic $100/hr and learn nothing new from the experience, you've got at least seven hours where it's completely worth it to alter GIMP's source code.

/or you can just pirate PS, whichever.

Ok, let's be realistic here. Anyone short of a CS master/PHD is likely to need to look up stuff in order to even START fiddling with GIMP's code. Before I fark with ANYTHING in there, I'm going to have to actually know what everything there does in general at least, and that would take days at best, probably closer to months. That's assuming whoever made that particular monstrosity was kind enough to comment liberally, something that I've noticed the open-source world tends to be bad at. Without comments, it will DEFINITELY be months, and some sections are likely to elude me permanently. And this is with a BS degree in computer science, so I'm already ahead of the curve on the 'average user'.

Given all that, assuming ANYTHING past the initial skim of the code can be done in 7 hours is hogwash, unless you are a professional coder to begin with. At which point, $100/hr for my time is a LOW estimate.

And all of that assumes I already have the tools installed and ready to go to crack open the source code, which on this machine I don't. I'd have to track that down as well (probably a good 30 minutes) and install it (another 30 from most code suites I've seen). Hour gone already.

Months of my time for literally no return other than the good feeling and a bit of experience that likely will be useless to me next week. Yeah, that's a great investment of my time.

Oh wait, that's pretty much been my general experience with everything Linux. Tons of fiddling, searching for answers, and general tomfoolery, a lack of useful, well-designed programs, and just a poor experience overall. I guess that's why the average user doesn't like Linux... you get what you pay for, and free shiat usually IS shiat.

sexy-fetus: I had mcafee for ages on a laptop that was mainly used for writing, web surfing and that sort of thing. Nothing that required an upgrade. It seemed to run slower everyday. That's when I realized that mcafee had slowly upgraded itself to be using about 60% of the processing power and even more memory. Uninstalled that and put avast on the machine and it was like a whole new computer.
I still have a hard time believing people are willing to shell out the money for mcafee when it's incredibly inferior to most of the free options available.
/Nobody ever leaves mcafee without becoming bitter.

This, this, and this. Oh yea, this too.
McAfee used to (10-11 years ago) be a decent product. Then they took on the MS method of programming. "Don't worry about efficiency. The user will just upgrade their machine to compensate"

earl_k

FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I would love to hear what you (or any other of the people agreeing with you in this thread) think are better alternatives for a large enterprise.

I don't particularly like it, but I haven't found better either.

DjangoStonereaver: real shaman: *smug mac owner giggles*

My Ubuntu laptop just stole your Mac's lunchmoney.


djangostonereaver@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get maclunchmoney
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: The package maclunchmoney is too sexy for you, is too sexy for a shirt, is too sexy it hurts.
djangostonereaver@ubuntu:~$

Toy_Cop: The average user does not need anti-virus and firewall software. Just don't be a knob and click on stupid ad banners and suspicious e-mails.


/have never had anti-virus/firewall
//have never had a virus or problem.

Without AV software how do you know you have never had a virus?

I'm glad I ditched mcafee last week, my valuable porn collection may have been in danger

earl_k: FTFA:

IT admins across the globe are letting out a collective groan after servers and PCs running McAfee VirusScan were brought down when the anti-virus program attack their core system files.

If you are an IT admin and you're running McAfee you are a dipshiat.

I'm an IT admin and I'm running McAfee.

/not my call, though; that's all decided by our security team at the home office
//feel free to call them dipshiats.

xellas84: Given all that, assuming ANYTHING past the initial skim of the code can be done in 7 hours is hogwash, unless you are a professional coder to begin with. At which point, $100/hr for my time is a LOW estimate.

You have a fairly inflated sense of what coders make.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: Linux_Yes: the beauty of Linux is that you don't need antivirus/antispyware/adware.

That's because nobody writes malware for linux. Because nobody uses linux.

Your local auto mechanic rarely if ever sees a Chinese Haima come in for repairs, but that isn't because they are built solid as a rock.

/dev/null

All you dip shiats praising AVG can kiss my wrinkled geek ass. I'm one of those lowly field techs for a school district with over 4000 PCs. Damn AVG quit updating and threw up a nag screen that would have done any rogue program, proud...THREE DAMN MONTHS BEFORE OUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRED!!! We just HAD to upgrade to 8.5 or be "UNPROTECTED". Scared the crap out of all our users and generated a ton of help desk calls. Of course the damn thing always keeps hitting on our key logger even after we add it to exclusions. Oh yeah and now it doesn't want to play nice with Corel painter classic used by the art dept instead of MS paint along with Photoshop. Refuses to let it run... says it's a trojan. OF course when we did renew the license and tried to use the network component to update about 40% of the updates failed and had to be done manually. That means the whole 2 field techs in our district, me and one other guy had to run around doing it.

As far as I'm concerned that bloated POS ranks right in there with Norton and McCrappy. They and their fan bois can all blow me

Rabid Gerbil: All you dip shiats praising AVG can kiss my wrinkled geek ass. I'm one of those lowly field techs for a school district with over 4000 PCs. Damn AVG quit updating and threw up a nag screen that would have done any rogue program, proud...THREE DAMN MONTHS BEFORE OUR SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRED!!! We just HAD to upgrade to 8.5 or be "UNPROTECTED". Scared the crap out of all our users and generated a ton of help desk calls. Of course the damn thing always keeps hitting on our key logger even after we add it to exclusions. Oh yeah and now it doesn't want to play nice with Corel painter classic used by the art dept instead of MS paint along with Photoshop. Refuses to let it run... says it's a trojan. OF course when we did renew the license and tried to use the network component to update about 40% of the updates failed and had to be done manually. That means the whole 2 field techs in our district, me and one other guy had to run around doing it.

As far as I'm concerned that bloated POS ranks right in there with Norton and McCrappy. They and their fan bois can all blow me

AVG used to be the best. I stopped using it when their quality started to match McAfee and friends. I now use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.