The common versions of McAfee are almost worse than no protection at all. If you have no protection, you hopefully don't do dangerous things thinking you have protection. If you think you have protection you may act more recklessly. I regularly see clients who use McAfee products who end up infested with all sorts of nasty stuff that it should have prevented. Norton Anti-virus does a reasonably good job of protecting a computer as long as it is a recent version but running the whole Norton security suite causes problems for a lot of people with slower computers. I recommend AVG which costs noticably less even if you choose the paid version rather than the free version. (The free version does anti-virus and some anti-spyware. The paid version adds various other bits and pieces depending on how much you pay.)
As far as I know, Webroot spysweeper doesn't even claim to be an anti-virus program. It is an anti-spyware program. That's not to say it isn't good, but it isn't a replacement for your current anti-virus program. There are a number of types of malware and you can't neglect to watch for all of them.
For non-virus malware, I recommend that you get Malwarebytes Anti-malware in addition to Spybot. Spybot is good, but it can't remove some of the things that the Malwarebytes program handles. There's no need to wait until you can afford to buy something. Go to malwarebytes.org and get the free version soon. The paid version will run resident rather than having to be run manually so you might want to pay for it at some point but in the meantime the free version works nicely.
Note that price is not at all an indication of quality where anti-malware programs are concerned. Many of the best of them are free for individuals (not necessarily businesses or organizations). When Mr. McAfee owned the products that still bear his name they were free for individuals too and they worked well. He sold them to a company that did away with the free versions and started turning out junk for profit. Greed for profit is not necessarily a motive that produces the best protective software.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-06-07 11:00 pm (UTC)As far as I know, Webroot spysweeper doesn't even claim to be an anti-virus program. It is an anti-spyware program. That's not to say it isn't good, but it isn't a replacement for your current anti-virus program. There are a number of types of malware and you can't neglect to watch for all of them.
For non-virus malware, I recommend that you get Malwarebytes Anti-malware in addition to Spybot. Spybot is good, but it can't remove some of the things that the Malwarebytes program handles. There's no need to wait until you can afford to buy something. Go to malwarebytes.org and get the free version soon. The paid version will run resident rather than having to be run manually so you might want to pay for it at some point but in the meantime the free version works nicely.
Note that price is not at all an indication of quality where anti-malware programs are concerned. Many of the best of them are free for individuals (not necessarily businesses or organizations). When Mr. McAfee owned the products that still bear his name they were free for individuals too and they worked well. He sold them to a company that did away with the free versions and started turning out junk for profit. Greed for profit is not necessarily a motive that produces the best protective software.