Security software

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Currently i use mcaffee anti virus and so far there has been no problems. Now i know in Jan 2012, it will be up for renewal, and i was also going to put it on my neighbours 2nd laptop that hes bought, as i have the 3 pc licence set up. But i was speaking to a mate of mine and he said microsoft security essientials would actually do the job ad that its pretty good???.

I know mcaffee slows my machine dow a bit, but its quad core 64 bit and 4 gig ram , so at times i dont notice it etc. Just wondering whether to switch???

Whats your opinions??

Ed

 

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Personally I would not move to security essentials as its a huge security hole AFAIK. yes it does AV and all that but especially when windows 8 comes out it will be installed as default, so if I wrote viruses (viri) security essentials would be the top of my list to write the viri around, think of all those lazy pc owners who will just roll with it because it saves them having to pay money and think about their av product.

At least if you go for a 3rd party product then you may have a better chance of avoiding infection. That being said I'm not a mcafee or norton fan much either, avg or comodo have always served their purpose for me but then I dont go cruising looking for trouble!

 

Security Essentials does a pretty good job, a virus writer can chose to code around any major vendor. AV seems a requirement to a modern OS to me, especially when Windows costs £100+, why would I want to pay again ?

Also many AV vendors have restrictive installs or licensing, moving to a free AV that doesn't care whether its installed on a server or a client has great benefits. So for me Ms has got something right for once by providing free AV.

 

I see where your coming from Dales and thanks for the heads up. Think ill go with Dmarsh on this one, and put it on his computer, and maybe mine.

I suppose any antivirus free or paid for will never be 100% secure, as the virus writers are one step ahead, and if the AV software doesnt know what to look for then it cant stop it?? Or am i being naive here, i know they look for certain sginatures???

Ed

 

I see your point dmarsh and I do agree with it should be a default part of an OS, but microsoft and security.......

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on essentials but I would still trust a 3rd party app built for that a microsoft afterthought.

I'll spin up a vm later and check it out again, it has been a little while since I've played with it.

 

Comodo Internet Security(Free for home use) Application Whitelisting & Sandboxing

 

Does it install on Windows Server 2008 R2 ?

 

Its not a supported install by the looks of their website but a quick google is a bit hit and miss but most say it installs perfectly well.

 

I'll give it a whirl on R2 later got a couple of spare vm's then I'll report back!

Edit:
Just installed it on a 2k8 R2 DC without any problems at all.

 

Someone I work with is a security guru (does ethical hacking in to government stuff, secures hospitals, banks etc.) and he said that MS Security Essentials is pretty good and he would recommend using it if he didn't have access to anything else. Knowing his setup at home, I trust in what he says.

 

No offence, but the term 'security' can cover more than one connotation and yours is currently placing all eggs in a single basket. It is often brandished on the internet by those who have little to no understanding of the subject.

Microsoft deploys Forefront Endpoint Protection as our internal antivirus product for ~100k employees and apart from the US Govt, we experience the highest number of ddos, hacking attacks and phishing attempts out there. It has worked so far.

Anyway, knowledge comes from testing. If Security Essentials doesn't work for you, renew your previous contract. Always use what works best for you.

 

None taken! I still think that it would a huge advantage to ne'er-do-well's to know that by default windows 8 ships with security essentials and who in all honesty is going to pay or be bothered to go with an alternative when there is one already in the box! The same as it is for IE or adobe reader its a known angle for a target machine.

I'm not saying that its no good just saying that it provides a baseline if you like to work around. I must admit that when I installed it last night on a vDC it seemed to work pretty well and did not impact on the performance of the DC.

But as its also touted that small businesses can use it I wonder how long on average a support case is picked up if one needs to be created. Going through the options you can do it on the forums or via email help. Would be interesting just to see how long it takes to speak with someone regarding a case, which for a small business could be extremely time critical and you dont appear to be able to purchase support packages for it or maybe you can? Although I guess if you wanted that then you'd need Forefront.

I guess in short it seems like a nice product and seems to work very well from the playing about I've done with it so far, so I'm not critising it for that but as its going to have a massive uptake in the next OS release its going to be a prime target.

@Shinigami I thought you worked for microsoft so I'm not surprised that its your deployed AV of choice.