the antivirus ripoff game

[mark3274]

well It's time to play this game again. We had mcafee and dropped them because of a renewal fee that was more than the program is worth. So we went with trend Micro and had no problems but renewal time and yup they wanted 49.99.
They must think we are crazy... So I called mcafee and said hey I was your customer once and went with Trend micro you can win us back if you offer a decent price and they did.. 23.99 for security suite 2007 with 5.00 to ship.

Now If I only trusted Panda more I could have got a security suite 2007 from them for 14.99. Next year when we have to play this game again Panda it will be they are the low price winner.

I know some people use a free program And if you know of one that you have had great luke with write about it. This renewal game each year is dumb but I will not pay 49.99 to renew my license for anyone they are crazy lol.
What is sad is some of these programs are selling for 69.99 in the stores Don't pay that price whatever you do.

[D34dm4n]

there is a woman i work with whose bought trend micro last night, now i've never heard of trend micro so im guessing its either new, or old as hell. but i like norton, i dont know prices for renewals but norton has always seemed more user-friendly over mcafee, but no one i know that has mcafee likes it. i know that we sell trend micro programs for like 40 bucks so i dont know where you are paying 69.99 for it.

[two4trippn]

I use AVG from Grisoft and its been fully effective on 100's of systems the past few years. Its available at http://free.grisoft.com (http://free.grisoft.com/doc1) The major advantages to me are the fact its not resource hogging and its simple to use. It also uses less than 30mb of hard drive space.

[sukie]

I have a Mac

[mark3274]

there is a woman i work with whose bought trend micro last night, now i've never heard of trend micro so im guessing its either new, or old as hell. but i like norton, i dont know prices for renewals but norton has always seemed more user-friendly over mcafee, but no one i know that has mcafee likes it. i know that we sell trend micro programs for like 40 bucks so i dont know where you are paying 69.99 for it.

list price Ive seen for it. It's interesting you sell it for 40 but they want a renewal of 49.99 a ripoff imo. Trend Micro is actually a new kid on the block norton is the old software thats been around forever. Panda is new and cheap but If they exist next year we might use them.

[Woody]

Quoted for Truth. :niterider


I use AVG from Grisoft and its been fully effective on 100's of systems the past few years. Its available at http://free.grisoft.com (http://free.grisoft.com/doc1) The major advantages to me are the fact its not resource hogging and its simple to use. It also uses less than 30mb of hard drive space.

[D34dm4n]

if trend micro has seperate programs then the one i saw was 40, when i go in tomorrow i can check prices

[gilchristfan]

I use AVG from Grisoft and its been fully effective on 100's of systems the past few years. Its available at http://free.grisoft.com (http://free.grisoft.com/doc1) The major advantages to me are the fact its not resource hogging and its simple to use. It also uses less than 30mb of hard drive space.

Same here. I have MacFee @ work but I have it turned off. Waiting 30 minutes for your comp. to boot so it can load everything pretty much sucks.

I haven't had a virus on it for years anyways.

[Denverbillsfan]

I have Norton and I believe the renewal fee is only 25.00.

[LVBillsfan]

there is a woman i work with whose bought trend micro last night, now i've never heard of trend micro so im guessing its either new, or old as hell. but i like norton, i dont know prices for renewals but norton has always seemed more user-friendly over mcafee, but no one i know that has mcafee likes it. i know that we sell trend micro programs for like 40 bucks so i dont know where you are paying 69.99 for it.

I have used trend micro for 2 years now. They just recently updated their software for Vista so I just downloaded it onto my new notebook. I like it, but there is a renewal fee, unfortunately. I got rid of norton years ago, there was so much spyware and other nasty things that I found it worthless, and McAfee, wasn't that great either.

[averageguy]

Why pay the renewal fee? Every year these anti virus programs are free after mail in rebate. all you are paying for is NY tax and a stamp or 2 to mail in the rebates. I have gotten Trend Micro, Norton, Panda, and Ca all for free in the past few years.

[35Pete]

Jesus. Line em' up, shoot em down.

You guys go with that cheap crap. You may THINK that you don't have malware because a.) your freeware says you don't, b.) your PC is acting "fine".

Bwhahahahahahaha!!!!

Hmm. Spyware, keystroke loggers, worms, phishing progams, pharming programs, trojan horses, hackers...All stuff that you MAY NEVER EVER KNOW IS THERE.

Did you know that a hacker could have your hard drives mapped to his computer the same as if they were all like his "C:" drive? You'd never know.

My sister had cheap crap anti-virus. I bought her Norton Internet Security 2006, installed it, and found 31 different malicious programs on her PC. The Crapware freebie anti-virus said all was fine. Why? Two reason: 1.) Little or no real-time definition updates, and 2.) no proactive defenses against brand new undefined viruses.

I spent $60 on Norton Confidental, $90 on a Netgear Hardware Firewall, and $80 on the DAMN BEST anti-virus/SW firewall/anti-malware program you can buy, Kaspersky Internet Security.

I KNOW my machine is clean. Are you sure that yours is?

[35Pete]

I have used trend micro for 2 years now. They just recently updated their software for Vista so I just downloaded it onto my new notebook. I like it, but there is a renewal fee, unfortunately. I got rid of norton years ago, there was so much spyware and other nasty things that I found it worthless, and McAfee, wasn't that great either.

Norton was notorious for that. But Symantec really got it's act together and Norton Internet Security is now an excellent defense against crap.

well It's time to play this game again. We had mcafee and dropped them because of a renewal fee that was more than the program is worth. So we went with trend Micro and had no problems but renewal time and yup they wanted 49.99.
They must think we are crazy... So I called mcafee and said hey I was your customer once and went with Trend micro you can win us back if you offer a decent price and they did.. 23.99 for security suite 2007 with 5.00 to ship.

Now If I only trusted Panda more I could have got a security suite 2007 from them for 14.99. Next year when we have to play this game again Panda it will be they are the low price winner.

I know some people use a free program And if you know of one that you have had great luke with write about it. This renewal game each year is dumb but I will not pay 49.99 to renew my license for anyone they are crazy lol.
What is sad is some of these programs are selling for 69.99 in the stores Don't pay that price whatever you do.


I'm serious. You guys get what you pay for. Hell, I'm a libertarian and am FANATICAL about my privacy and others. But hacking your PCs if I was a scumbag would be easier than shooting fish in a barrel. You'd NEVER get into mine unless you were a real damn good pro, and were patient enough to try. But then again I cycle my public IP so you'd have to find me again. LOL Good luck.

Ooohh. Once you did get past the Hardware firewall then how are you going to find my private IP before you even get to the other layers of security? All private IPs start with 192.xxx.xxx.xxx. I cycle those nine digits too. Only my PC and my router know the combination. One of 64,000,000+ possibilities (private IP masks are a Class-A "like" mask and are base-255). Changing daily too.

Paranoid am I? Perhaps. But my life is on my PC and it's no ones damn business. Hell, I can deal with a virus. It's the other malware that freaks me out.

Don't go cheap on this stuff.

[35Pete]

Some good stuff.

If you are not PC saavy. That is, you don't know WTF you are doing, then get Norton Internet Security 2007 instead. You need to know how to configure firewalls to use Kaspersky or it will drive you nuts.

http://usa.kaspersky.com/products/internet-security.php

Hardware Firewalls are necessary but NOT sufficient. Great for discouraging multiple entry attempts and DOS.

http://www.netgear.com/Products/VPNandSSL/WiredVPNFirewallRouters/FVS114.aspx

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y241/35Pete/KIS-Comparison425.gif

[Bsmith26]

I've been using Kaspersky AV 6.0 for a while now and the one thing i like about it over the other programs is it's up to date daily.

[35Pete]

I've been using Kaspersky AV 6.0 for a while now and the one thing i like about it over the other programs is it's up to date daily.

The firewall is outstanding. The Internet security package is a software firewall, anti-virus, anti-hacker, anti-spyware all rolled into one.

But it has intelligent learning built into the anti-hacker. It can "sense" when someone is trying to hack and block it. But if you don't know how firewalls work you won't set it up and the pop-ups for permission to send and recieve will drive you nuts.

You can turn this feature off if you don't know how (or until you read the manual) and it is still the best on the market.

[35Pete]

I have a Mac

What would really make Mac's nice is if third parties actually wrote software applications that you could install on them. LOL

[35Pete]

Same here. I have MacFee @ work but I have it turned off. Waiting 30 minutes for your comp. to boot so it can load everything pretty much sucks.

I haven't had a virus on it for years anyways.

Repair, then defrag your registry!

My PC has multiple layers on boot-up and I'll bet $100 I boot up faster than most people without any protection.

Playing with fire Gil. PCs need daily maintenance just like cars need tuneups and oil changes. It's not the anit-virus' fault. Just that literally 99/100 people don't know how to maintain their PCs to keep them as fast as when they bought them.

This pic is from a registry scan that I did two minutes ago. Last scan was last night. Already 4 errors in the Windows registry in ONE day! I'll bet you and the other 98 users have hundreds. That's why you boot so slow.

29.99 and you can download online. It's push-button. Run the scan, let it repair, then run the defrag. Then reboot.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y241/35Pete/reg_boost2.jpg

[Woody]

Yes, it is clean and I'll continue to use my cheap-crap software...muahahahha. :niterider


I KNOW my machine is clean. Are you sure that yours is?

[Guy Incognito]

Jesus. Line em' up, shoot em down.

You guys go with that cheap crap. You may THINK that you don't have malware because a.) your freeware says you don't, b.) your PC is acting "fine".

Bwhahahahahahaha!!!!

Hmm. Spyware, keystroke loggers, worms, phishing progams, pharming programs, trojan horses, hackers...All stuff that you MAY NEVER EVER KNOW IS THERE.

Did you know that a hacker could have your hard drives mapped to his computer the same as if they were all like his "C:" drive? You'd never know.

My sister had cheap crap anti-virus. I bought her Norton Internet Security 2006, installed it, and found 31 different malicious programs on her PC. The Crapware freebie anti-virus said all was fine. Why? Two reason: 1.) Little or no real-time definition updates, and 2.) no proactive defenses against brand new undefined viruses.

I spent $60 on Norton Confidental, $90 on a Netgear Hardware Firewall, and $80 on the DAMN BEST anti-virus/SW firewall/anti-malware program you can buy, Kaspersky Internet Security.

I KNOW my machine is clean. Are you sure that yours is?

I know what you're saying Pete, but for the average computer user, you don't need all this. If you have some real valuable information on your computer or your livelihood depends on your computer like you said, then I can understand.

For the average user, if you keep your computer up to date with the security updates, you watch where you surf; you watch what you download, and then all you need is the freeware security software. They'll do just fine. You don't need to spend a fortune.

[35Pete]

I know what you're saying Pete, but for the average computer user, you don't need all this. If you have some real valuable information on your computer or your livelihood depends on your computer like you said, then I can understand.

For the average user, if you keep your computer up to date with the security updates, you watch where you surf; you watch what you download, and then all you need is the freeware security software. They'll do just fine. You don't need to spend a fortune.

I know what you are saying Guy and you make some valid points. Last year I let my subscription expire and was not getting updates. Two things happened. 1, Identity theft. Cost me thousands in legal fees to correct, and 2, some of the viruses so badly messed up my operating system that my software was basically ruined. Coincidentally a week later my old PC died anyways so I built this one. That's why I have a cyber minefield around my PC. I knew better but got lazy, and probably complacent too.

But anyone can fork out $60 for Norton Internet Security. And your odds of crap like that happening plummet to 1:100. For my system I want it 1:100000.

Actually stopped cycling IP's. I reassign my private IP randomly so I figure that's good enough.

[gilchristfan]

Repair, then defrag your registry!

My PC has multiple layers on boot-up and I'll bet $100 I boot up faster than most people without any protection.

Playing with fire Gil. PCs need daily maintenance just like cars need tuneups and oil changes. It's not the anit-virus' fault. Just that literally 99/100 people don't know how to maintain their PCs to keep them as fast as when they bought them.

This pic is from a registry scan that I did two minutes ago. Last scan was last night. Already 4 errors in the Windows registry in ONE day! I'll bet you and the other 98 users have hundreds. That's why you boot so slow.

29.99 and you can download online. It's push-button. Run the scan, let it repair, then run the defrag. Then reboot.

Actually, I just need more RAM. Or a new system, but I'm too cheap. But I run Registry Mechanic once a week or so and rarely have more than 1/2 dozen items on it. Those are usually old software or documetns that have been indexed into the registry When I compact it, it never compacts more than 1% so its not that either.

Anyways, it doesn't really boot up too slow any more. McAfee will start about 5 or 6 programs in its "security suite".
Alot of problems I've found with alot of freeware utilities is that automatic updaters have become so popular.

Windows has one;
McAfee has several;
Registry Mechanic has one;
Mozilla has one;
SBC has one;
Spyware Doctor has one;
Real Networks has one that never goes away;

And all of these programs want to start in boot up.

I boot up in selective mode now and turn most of that junk off. I can always turn it on when I need it. I have a friend with a relatively new system, and they were running so slow.

When I looked at their Task Manager, they probably had a dozen automatic updaters running. That'll slow down most systems, I'd guess.

As to taking chances, I run a virus scan once a week or so, use Windows firewall and Outlook and my web based email have virus checkers on them.

I haven't had any problems.

[35Pete]

Registry Mechanic is a good piece of SW.

Gil. I just downloaded the trial version of System Mechanic 7. It's free for 30 days and let me tell you. It SMOKES Norton SystemWorks.

No loss to you. Try downloading it for 30 days. If you want to keep it then you just buy the licence key. I really like it.

Finding RAM is easy. Get the serial number of your machine and go to the manufacturers website. Type in that number and RAM will show up as an purchasable add-on. Write down the Model # of the RAM then go to priceshopper.com and do a price compare.

I'd get 2 GB. It'll make your machine scream.

But really, get the trial version of System Mechanic 7. Here is a screen shot of a maintenance run I just did.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y241/35Pete/sys_mech.jpg

This kills me. Kaspersky didn't find 2 pieces of spyware!! System Mechanic 7 did.

I'm gonna send this to Kaspersky and ask "what gives".

Registry Booster didn't find the 178 problems with the Registry. Incredible. I'm gonna send this to Registry Booster too.

Ohh. the 2 fragmented hard drives? I have 6 and defraged 4 last night using Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premier. Best defragger-hard drive maintainer there is. Just installed it yesterday. It defrags on the fly without slowing down your machine.

That one is a freebee trial offer too. I recommmend it.

[35Pete]

I've read a lot about System Mechanic and they've had some serious issues with it in the past. But most of the major PC review sites (i.e. PCWorld.com, ect..) have said that they have worked out the bugs and that it is a flagship piece of SW now.

Sort of like Norton's bad rap that it still carries from the days when it's anti-virus began to suck. They've improved the hell out of it but the bad rep still follows. Symantec makes good tools IMO.

[gilchristfan]

Registry Mechanic is a good piece of SW.

Gil. I just downloaded the trial version of System Mechanic 7. It's free for 30 days and let me tell you. It SMOKES Norton SystemWorks.

No loss to you. Try downloading it for 30 days. If you want to keep it then you just buy the licence key. I really like it.

Finding RAM is easy. Get the serial number of your machine and go to the manufacturers website. Type in that number and RAM will show up as an purchasable add-on. Write down the Model # of the RAM then go to priceshopper.com and do a price compare.

I'd get 2 GB. It'll make your machine scream.

But really, get the trial version of System Mechanic 7. Here is a screen shot of a maintenance run I just did.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y241/35Pete/sys_mech.jpg

This kills me. Kaspersky didn't find 2 pieces of spyware!! System Mechanic 7 did.

I'm gonna send this to Kaspersky and ask "what gives".

Registry Booster didn't find the 178 problems with the Registry. Incredible. I'm gonna send this to Registry Booster too.

Ohh. the 2 fragmented hard drives? I have 6 and defraged 4 last night using Diskeeper 2007 Pro Premier. Best defragger-hard drive maintainer there is. Just installed it yesterday. It defrags on the fly without slowing down your machine.

That one is a freebee trial offer too. I recommmend it.

Thanks for jinxing me you bastard!!!

My HD went down at about 9:35 CDT. It wasn't a virus or software problem though, you could smell the electrical burn and see the burn mark in one of the wafers on the HD circuit board.

Most of the important stuff's been back up on flash drives, so I didn't lose everything, but I have a bunch of programs to reload, and I lost 2 bankruptcies I was just finishing up.

Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

PS. I used SM several years ago, and my subscription just ran out on the free trial. (I downloaded it at home.) Its pretty good. The old version was really thorough with junk files, maybe too thorough, because you could lose important data if you weren't careful. Maybe that was the problem people had with the old version.

[35Pete]

Gil.

NOT TRIVIAL.

Smoking the device meant overcurrent. Overcurrent means a short circuit and a fast transient. That means EMP (electromagnetic pulse).

It's possible that your power supply is damaged now, or any or all devices connected to it are damaged. Sorry to give you the bad news but that is a very real possibility.

Get a cheap multimeter and test the supply first. Then plug in the uP, and memory only into the mobo and see if the fans turn on. If not, then one of the three that I mentioned (or more) is fried too.

[gilchristfan]

Gil.

NOT TRIVIAL.

Smoking the device meant overcurrent. Overcurrent means a short circuit and a fast transient. That means EMP (electromagnetic pulse).

It's possible that your power supply is damaged now, or any or all devices connected to it are damaged. Sorry to give you the bad news but that is a very real possibility.

Get a cheap multimeter and test the supply first. Then plug in the uP, and memory only into the mobo and see if the fans turn on. If not, then one of the three that I mentioned (or more) is fried too.

I know. That's why I didn't plug in another hard drive to the old system. We had an older tower set up and I'm using that now.

That's why I changed the surge protector too, it might be a bad one. After it happened, the BIOS was reading some of the add ons, like the DVD player, but not the hard drive. (It wasn't reading master or slave, but I can't remember how it was configured. )

I didn't want to take the chance that the whole rig was bad, and blow another HD so I'm not using anything from that.

[35Pete]

I know. That's why I didn't plug in another hard drive to the old system. We had an older tower set up and I'm using that now.

That's why I changed the surge protector too, it might be a bad one. After it happened, the BIOS was reading some of the add ons, like the DVD player, but not the hard drive. (It wasn't reading master or slave, but I can't remember how it was configured. )

I didn't want to take the chance that the whole rig was bad, and blow another HD so I'm not using anything from that.

When I put this rig together I bought a defective Seagate 250 GB SATA drive that smoked when I plugged it in. Big white arc and flames!

Turns out that EMP fried:

An IDE controller
My mobo
My DVD-RAM
My other HD
My Creative X-Fi Sound Card.

Seagate, after 5 months, finally sent me a check for $820 for all the damage. I had to go out and get all new stuff. Initially out of my own pocket. I was amazed that Seagate didn't fight it. I each company (Seagate, ASUS, Creative, and Samsung) the blown hardware and they all sent me an email and a letter mail certifying the cause. Then sent that to Seagate with the blown drive. So 5 months was pretty quick if you ask me.

Unbelievably the BFG supply survived. Being an electrical engineer I took it to work and tested the crap out of it. Great overcurrent protection!

[gilchristfan]

That's the first time I've ever had one fry like that. I've had them corrupted before, but not smoke out.

Its only about a year old, so it might still be under warranty.

I have to reconfigure Outlook tomorrow, I don't know if I lost all of my emails used with it.

[35Pete]

That's the first time I've ever had one fry like that. I've had them corrupted before, but not smoke out.

Its only about a year old, so it might still be under warranty.

I have to reconfigure Outlook tomorrow, I don't know if I lost all of my emails used with it.

Do a search under X:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\*.pst

include all subdirectories.


These are your email files. Back them up to disk and reload them once you reconfig Outlook.
You may know how to do this but now others do.

[Guy Incognito]

I've read a lot about System Mechanic and they've had some serious issues with it in the past. But most of the major PC review sites (i.e. PCWorld.com, ect..) have said that they have worked out the bugs and that it is a flagship piece of SW now.

Sort of like Norton's bad rap that it still carries from the days when it's anti-virus began to suck. They've improved the hell out of it but the bad rep still follows. Symantec makes good tools IMO.

Have you ever tried TuneUp Utilities? I have. I like it. It's not free, though, but you can try it free for 30 days.

http://www.tune-up.com/

If and when you download it, you don't have to give them an email address. Just ignore it. You can download it without it.

[two4trippn]

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y241/35Pete/KIS-Comparison425.gif

Stay far far away from the CA Internet Security Suite. It's a pinless handgrenade.