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Date:	Mon, 9 Feb 2004 12:11:05 PST8
From:	"J. R. Fox" <jr_fox@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Re: McAfee VirusScan 3.0 for DOS, Win and OS/2

Content Type: text/plain

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Jeffrey Race wrote:

> This unregistered package has come to the top of my to-do pile (pending
> since 1997). I can boot this machine to DOS, Win3.11, Win98 and OS/2.
> Is this worth installing?

I rather doubt it. That sounds like an ancient version to me. I bought their
retail CD's for several years, pretty much up to the time they dropped support
(DAT virus signature updates or any new program engines) for OS/2, a year
or more ago. Out of inertia, and due to a very low need for AV in OS/2, it
remains the AV program I have installed there. The *former* advantages this
product had over the other _commercial_ AV packages included the multi-
platform CD's (no need to buy multiple licenses), virus signature updates that
were free indefinitely (although at certain points you needed an engine update
to use them without crashes, or having the product become worthless), and the
fact that for the last three years of the product's life, McAfee did not bother
requiring payment for engine update downloads.

However, the last engine release for OS/2 that I know of -- unless big corporate
customers got access to something totally unpublicized -- was 4160, about a year
ago. Since then, the 4240 and 4260 engines were released for Win-32, and they
were major updates. Being out of date in AV technology seems to be a serious
deficiency, insofar as the value of the program is concerned. Another thing to
consider is that McAfee seems to be significantly inferior to the Norton / Symantec
AV product, their biggest competitor in the commercial arena. I can't speak to
Norton AV for OS/2, which I believe was also discontinued a while back, but on
the Win-32 platforms (where you *really* need AV), McAfee routinely *failed*
to identify a number of viruses I often saw on other peoples' systems, such as
"Klez" and "Magistr", while Norton would routinely catch them.

> What has happened to this firm since then?

They're still a major player . . . just forget about anything for OS/2, or the other
platforms you mentioned.

> Cost of updates? Value vs free alternatives? (Please name.)

No recent experience with prices. Norman for OS/2 is current, but reportedly
clashes with certain things you are apt to be running. I don't know who else
may still support OS/2 -- maybe SOPHOS or Panda ?

> I just installed the free AVG(grisoft.com) on my daughter's Win98
> machine and it worked fine, so I'd appreciate some more datapoints.

I hope this one turns out to be good, but my concern is that -- even if another
product happens to have a decent scanner engine and user interface -- it may not
be possible for organizations much smaller than McAfee or Symantec to have
the necessary resources enabling them to keep on top of new, sudden, or emerging
threats. Particularly if they don't have the revenue stream these companies have.
And if you can't field the latest detection signatures for these things, it all becomes
pretty worthless.

Jordan

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