Before we get down to deciding which anti-virus is better, a little bit of history.....
1981 - The First Virus In The Wild
The first virus in the wild was spread on Apple II floppy disks (which contained the operating system) and reputed to have spread from Texas A&M University. The virus was named Elk Cloner and displayed a little rhyme on the screen:
It will get on all your disks
It will infiltrate your chips
Yes it's Cloner!
It will stick to you like glue
It will modify ram too
Send in the Cloner!
The common story on the origin of virus is that two brothers from Pakistan (Now why am I not surprised!) analysed the boot sector of a floppy disk and developed a method of infecting it with a virus dubbed ''Brain'' (the origin is generally accepted but not absolutely). Because it spread widely on the popular MS-DOS PC system this is typically called the first computer virus; even though it was predated by the Apple II virus.
Coming back to choosing which of the two: Norton or McAfee is better?
Norton :
(I like to play with fonts! don't you just love those cute stars above and below Norton!!)
Norton Antivirus (NAV) can seek out and stomp worms harder than the cruellest kid (ok..bad analogy)
The latest version has a simple interface and provides some additional protection against e-mail and script-based nasties. If you're new to the antivirus game, purchase NAV 2002 ASAP. But if you already have Norton AntiVirus 2001, pass on this upgrade, unless you're migrating to XP (Which sucks big time and I will take it apart in another review), and pay $20 for another year's worth of virus definitions.
(Note: All prices are in Australian Dollars)
In previous versions, the main program window contained eight lines of text that described every detail of the program's functions--whether the autoprotect feature was on and when your last virus update took place, for example. Norton AntiVirus 2002 trades in all this text for a panel of self-explanatory indicators that clue you in to what's going on with your system (think car dashboard...good analogy!). For example, a green indicator displays the time of your last scan.
You don't have to configure NAV 2002 much at all--a fact that beginners will appreciate. NAV still automatically scans e-mail attachments, but you can no longer select which e-mail accounts it scans; it scans all of them or none. Also, NAV 2002 has made it tougher to schedule a virus scan for a later time and date: the scheduling feature has lost its prominent position on the first screen of NAV and sits at the bottom of the scanning page instead, the poor thing!
And NAV 2002 has some new tricks up its sleeve: it still sniffs out viruses in incoming e-mail attachments (as NAV 2001 did), and now it checks outgoing attachments, too, so you can rest assured that you're not infecting others. Since some of the most noxious worms, such as SirCam, replicate via e-mail without the sender's knowledge, this improvement is particularly appreciated.
The new Script Blocking feature promises to block script-based viruses, such as the I Love You bug, before they do damage, even if Symantec hasn't identified them yet. Want to scan a specific file on your PC? No problem: 2002 integrates with Windows Explorer so that when you right-click any file, one of the options in the pop-up menu lets you scan for viruses.
Despite these improvements, NAV still doesn't keep you informed as it scans. You get a nice summary after NAV has worked its magic, but during the process, NAV doesn't tell you how many files it's scanning or how much time it will take, unlike its major competitor, McAfee VirusScan.
NAV 2002 automatically repairs an infected file (or, if it can't, quarantines the file), and alerts you only after it's both found and fixed the problem. This may sound like a minor point, but for beginners, it's reassuring to know that the software has already taken care of the job.
Version 2002 still lacks one significant feature: unlike McAfee VirusScan, NAV 2002 doesn't sniff out viruses packed in ZIP files downloaded from the Internet.
Like its ancestors, NAV 2002 relies on the excellent LiveUpdate, which checks the Symantec site for updated virus definitions every four hours (assuming you're online), so, unless you catch a virus seconds after it hits the Web, NAV is probably already up-to-date and ready to repel the most recent viruses. Norton AntiVirus automatically downloads available virus definition updates and installs them in the background.
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McAfee Virus Scan
(Yep, been playing with the stars again!)
VirusScan's antivirus software now comes bundled with a basic personal firewall to make your machine invisible to hackers. That way, if the worst does occur, it'll block a Trojan horse's signals and keep it from taking control of the PC. No other standalone antivirus package includes this additional protection. McAfee's firewall is good but doesn't offer anything you can't get free from ZoneAlarm (https://zonealarm.com/) or Tiny Personal Firewall (https://tinysoftware.com/pwall.php)
VirusScan guards against all kinds of intruders, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and--on the Web-- ActiveX Controls or Java applets, which can execute malicious commands without your knowledge. When it detects an anomaly, VirusScan pops up an alert and gives you a chance to either delete or fix the infected file or quarantine it in a lockbox where it can't make mischief. Unfortunately, you have to drop what you're doing to handle the intrusion.
The HAWK feature (for Hostile Activity Watch Kernel) monitors Outlook (the Typhoid Mary of computer virus carriers : I?m getting better at analogies!!) for suspicious behaviour, then warns you when, for instance, an e-mail message is about to be sent to more than 40 recipients. It's a clever way to detect and stop mass-mailing worms such as I Love You and SirCam. VirusScan also protects your PC against nasties that might sneak onto your desktop from your Palm or Windows CE handheld during synchronization. Still, VirusScan lags behind Norton AntiVirus in some key areas, such as monitoring active scripts for Visual Basic or JavaScript for possible mischief.
At $75, McAfee's VirusScan is a bargain for a complete antivirus package. However, its performance is so-so with real-world viruses. But if you really want a firewall alongside your antivirus program, spend $90 for Norton and install a free firewall such as ZoneAlarm.
So, I would personally use Norton, but would also prefer to use the cheaper pirated versions!!!
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