McCaffee blues or am I crazy

[gunsmith]

I bought my new computer in january and at the same time I bought a mcaffee disk with virus  and firewall etc
I got an email saying my tim is up!?
I think there was mccaffee already in the pc too.

Did I install it wrong and am goin off the one I got with the pc or is this the amount of time usual-4 months?

[cosine]

My family has bought two new computers within the last year, and each one of them already comes with a 3-4 month trial version of anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed. After a couple of months, you gotta pony up the money to continue recieiving updates and using the software.

[41 Redhawk]

Check with your ISP before you spend some cash. Some of them bundle AV products with their service. Comcast provides a subscription to the McAfee suite when you use their Internet service.

[Brad Johnson]

Three words - "Free Trial Version"

Even if your ISP bundles in virus and malware protection, I'd still get a standalone product for your PC. It's cheap insurance. I have a subscription for both products. I don't look at them as options, they are absolutely essential. Even though I backup regularly, If my machine goes down it will take a lot more than my $100/yr subscription fees to fix the problem. And that's not including the lost productivity.

Brad

[garrettwc]

I've been using the free version of AVG anti-virus for some time. Works great and updates weekly. I like it much better than McAfee or Nortons.

AVG Anti Virus Free Edition

[Brian Williams]

I am using AVG Free also.
I had both Norton's and Mcafee's installed and with the newest version and ran both of them and then installed AVG and It found at least 5 different virii

[roo_ster]

Thumbs up for:

AVG antivirus

Sygate Firewall

Lavasoft Ad-aware antispyware

Spybot Search & Destroy antispyware

Spywareblaster antispyware

MS antispyware


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All downloadable for free by individuals and most with various levels of automation WRT updates & scans.

They have kept my wife's laptop happy these last 12 months.

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My personal box at home is a linux box, so it does not need nearly the admin and care & feeding of a Windows box.

[crt360]

I'll throw in another vote for AVG.  It's better than any Norton or Mcafee stuff I ever had.

I also use AntiVir on one system.  It works well, but the updates are more frequent and usually much larger.

[Sindawe]

Yep, you're crazy. : neener :  

Another vote for AVG here as well.  I run the paid product on all my boxes, and install the free version on freinds and family PCs  I tried McCaffe, but the firewall kept getting in the way of Remote Assistance and did not monitor outbound connections.  Kerio firewall (Now Sunbelt) fixed THAT.

[gunsmith]

well i got the avg now i gotta figure out how to use it, i wish i had  kids so i could figure these things out.

[brimic]

AVG for me too.

I won't allow any of the system hogging, impossible to uninstall Norton Or Mcafree products near my computer- they are probably as bad as many of the viruses they try to protect you from.

[garrettwc]

well i got the avg now i gotta figure out how to use it, i wish i had  kids so i could figure these things out.

It's pretty straight forward. Use the default settings when you do the install. You can choose auto-update or manual. I chose manual for mine. An icon runs in your system tray when it's colored in your up to date. When it goes gray, about once a week you click the icon and it opens up the system manager. Any items highlighted in red need to be updated. You click on them, the software logs on to the internet and lists the updates. You click on them and it downloads and installs them automatically.

This keeps my hard drive safe and automatically scans my incoming email.

[gunsmith]

Does it have a firewall?...I have a wireless modem and wouldn't want my credit purchase's and my checking my online bank account to get to some hacker

[garrettwc]

AVG is virus protection only. For the best firewall (also free) I use Zone Alarm.

Zone Alarm