Symantec Norton, Trend, McAfee, F-Secure and NOD32 miss what the freebies catch

[masternoel123]

Use ESET period

[Starwarsgalaxy1]

I...actually have several things to say against this, but I have a character limit, so I'll keep things brief. Well, first of all, free antivirus provide very basic protection as opposed to a paid subscription to an antivirus which provides comprehensive protection. What you're doing here cannot be used as a verified claim, because VirusTotal cannot be used to test antivirus. The algorithm of detection varies greatly from products and this tool is not a desktop version...

[har777333]

AVAST BEST

[har777333]

ESET SMART SECURITY BEST

[har777333]

avg best

[damonadamjewett]

Why would anyone want to use free security software there is a reason its free you have to pay if you want good protection

[Marco76821]

I recommend you should show the details of the virus file used for the testing.

So, we could understand deeper to the insufficiency of those named brands. Cheers

[Nathaniel12345678910]

Did CA cought it

[dkw12002]

The problem I recently had with McAfee is that it slowed down my computer and would actually freeze up on internet pages so I had to keep rebooting. As soon as I uninstalled the McAfee files, instantly my computer ran much faster. I installed Norton on a computer a few years ago and was not happy with it but when I tried to uninstall it, it deleted an important Windows file and my computer never worked the same after that. Now I just do what you do which is to use the free stuff.

[cbiltcliffe]

@dkw12002

I don't use the free stuff, either. I haven't personally run antivirus software since 2003. I certainly don't recommend that for anybody else, but I've never, ever been infected with a virus, unless I intentionally infected a virtual machine for a behavioural analysis of the malware.

Instead, I watch what I click on, don't use the most common software for most applications, keep my software patched, and analyze with virustotal anything I download.

For me, A/V is a waste of CPU.

[belmarfilms]

I use clamwin and clamav, those are not the same, but use the same database... go figure. Anyway, it detected crap that AVG didn't

[Timaptimean]

Just buy multi-licenses antivirus and shared with friends.

[Timaptimean]

really? free? what's the catch? maybe permission to spy on you?

[NeoGen89]

I think the biggest reason those *cough* "high-end" anti-viruses is because they don't have a community that keeps track of new viruses or other threats. Most freebies do or they at least tap in to one. Like a Hijack This! forum. Another reason is there obvious greed for money. Finding a fix for a virus to them is like finding a cheap medicine for cancer, patent and hide the recipe and sell for a ridiculous price. Maybe throw in some toxic waste cause you need to git rid of it somehow.

[nielagahanemo]

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 is better than version 3

[TutorialThis]

the piratebay works too xD

[goodman854]

BTW no offense but listen to this commercial they pronounce it mac a fee maybe its just cause of location or because people are use to it that way they gave in? view commercial at youtube /watch?v=FYtHir39uyg

[milxekim]

You can't always use Virustotal or Jotti as a benchmark for what each AV detects. For example, I have had Avira, kaspersky, NOD32, Dr.web, Avast, etc detect test samples on my computer locally but, when I uploaded them to VT or Jotti they were not detected by the same AV that I had installed.

[cbiltcliffe]

Depends on the date of the definitions file. Sometimes the definitions file is a day or two old on virustotal, so it's not going to detect the newest stuff.

If you check the dates on these scanners, though, you'll see Symantec had newer definitions than Avast and AVG, but still missed it when the two free ones caught it.

Not acceptable.

[goodman854]

Maaa Cafe E? Mac A Fee

[cbiltcliffe]

What?

I assume you're complaining about my pronunciation.

McAfee employees pronounce it like I do. It's only the idiots at Best Buy that say Mac-eh-FEE!

You'll notice it's not spelled "MacAfee".

[goodman854]

Hey hey I'm not trying to rage. Just Since its shown as McAfee I don't personally see Ma Cafe E. But to be honest you could be right since my computer pronounces it the same way you do. I just haven't heard that before. We don't have a best buy were I live BTW, but i get your jiff. AND yes I aggre with you Free Anti virus do as good a job or better 90% of the time. I've encountered this as well. I use Avast and Malwarebytes.

[nightpwner]

lol. Interesting video, the comments on your pronunciation of McAfee are pretty funny too. So which free antivirus programs do you suggest then? Do you agree with what manfocused suggested?

[chimeracreator]

I've heard mixed reviews of Avast and I use AVG for personal use, but I can understand why sometimes the big names miss files that smaller ones catch. There are two factors at work here.

1. A false positive is often worse than a false negative, and companies like Symantec know that the fastest way to lose corporate clients is to have their software bring a network down.

2. This software is tested against the big names more than the small ones. This is why Ad Aware isn't very good anymore.

[cbiltcliffe]

Symantec Corporate A/V has relatively recently had false positives that have rendered Windows unbootable. Didn't seem to faze their corporate customers too much.

McAfee claims to keep you safe from hackers, but recently had a XSS problem on their website that exposed their customers to identity theft.

Trend has also had false positives.

AVG's had plenty.

Haven't heard of a false positive with Avast, although a Google search shows up a couple.

[benny125874]

Hmmmmmmm So.... can you Try again to scan it ( the virus thingy) again with the newest data bases cuz im using kaspersky and i believe something is wrong... so yeah can you retry and if its the same results well im going with avast... but Mr. Avast does NOT have a firewall... Thats what i am afraid... but it has everything else...

[manfocused]

Outpost Firewall is an EXCELLENT Firewall and it's free (Google it to see what ppl are saying about it). You can use Avast with Outpost Firewall. I have Avast, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Super Anti-Spyware and Outpost Firewall installed on my computer. They're all free products and they all work EXCELLENT at keeping your computer protected.

[manfocused]

Oh, I also have KeyScrambler (another free product) installed on my computer. It keeps you protected from keyloggers when visiting sites that require you to enter a user ID and a password.

[skillerz05]

DriveSentry ftw :D

[cbiltcliffe]

Haven't looked at that one, before.

I'll have to take a look at it.

[cbiltcliffe]

That's what I recommend to people, too. I don't run any, myself, for a number of reasons, but I don't recommend that to anybody else.

I'm a reseller of Avast products, too, because I've found them so reliable.

[Agent349]

Avast! got both free and paid !!!!