McAfee SiteAdvisor alerting on Tools area of Videohelp

[brassplyer]

Anyone know why McAfee is warning about the tools area? Had any problems there?

[Baldrick]

Can't they show exactly what they are warning for?

Several free tools might be adware or false positives. I use www.virustotal.com for all files I upload. Some receives 1-2 virus warnings but it's 99% false positives. Like latest MPC-HC, https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/9091395fd12424b5f2f08294fd600ec328e968d6300745f4510...1b8b/analysis/

[Baldrick]

Found http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/downloads/www.videohelp.com/tools

But all are green....

[sanlyn]

Anyone know why McAfee is warning about the tools area? Had any problems there?

I really don't understand how crapware like McAfee stays in business. The last time I tried it about 4 years ago, it wanted to quarantine VirtualDub (Your system has been attacked!!!!!!!!!!). I last saw it about 2 months ago when I removed it from yet another customer's PC who was getting two sets of messages every time she booted up: the first messages were from a rootkit trojan that gives fake virus warning messages, kidnaps and controls the system's browser, and throws up several ad icons onto the desktop for stuff like System Fixer, Registry Healer, and PC Speedup. The next message the customer sees was McAfee telling her that McAfee is protecting her system and that McAfee's startup scan found no problems. It took 5 minutes to get rid of McAfee. It took 3 hours with Malwarebytes and TDSSKiller to get rid of the rootkit and another 200 infected files and registry entries, and to run Microsoft's utility for repairing her system's Winsock layer.

But, hey, I'm not complaining. I figure that problems caused by McAfee bring me about a dozen new paying customers each year.

[Baldrick]

One user said it contains viruses 2009, http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/msgpage/www.videohelp.com/tools

Maybe it did back then when I had vbulletin and openx exploits.

[sanlyn]

McAfee is able ti make a valid call. Now and then. But I've seen it fail or mislead on too many occasions.

[fritzi93]

I really don't understand how crapware like McAfee stays in business.

By making deals whereby it's bundled with something else?

Comcast keeps telling me in Xfinity emails that they offer it free for their customers. Gee, thanks. I haven't touched McAfee for probably ten years now. So long now that I forget exactly why I swore it off. And I get the distinct impression from the tone of comments made whenever the subject of McAfee comes up, that it's still crap.

Then there are things I have to update occasionally, like Adobe Flash player. You have to be careful to deselect McAfee each time. Dammit, cut that out, Adobe!

[jman98]

Anyone know why McAfee is warning about the tools area? Had any problems there?

A better question is - Why are YOU using McAfee at all???

You're approaching 600 posts here. I don't claim to know you or in particular remember what you have said around here in the past (on the plus side that means you're not on my radar for idiocy), but I would presume that you're well past the typical home ignorant user stage. I work in IT for a living and nobody I have ever worked with in IT departments uses products like McAfee at home. McAfee's intended audience is for the technically challenged. I remember a few years ago trying to help a senior citizen I know with an issue where some product like McAfee was so strict he could not even connect to his online stock broker's website. I was never able to fix the issue. Neither was the guy who usually worked on his PC problems. Honestly, most of these all in one commercial programs cause more problems for their users than they actually prevent.

A home user needs the following -
Some kind of firewall (the current firewall in Windows 7 is good enough for almost everybody and probably Win 8 is OK too, but I'm unsure of older versions of Windows)
An anti-virus program
Some kind of anti-malware product like Spybot

All of those are available in free versions that are probably better than what you paid for McAfee. Do note that even the trusted commercial products ALL, yes EVERY ONE OF THEM, sometimes generate false positives about "dangers" that don't exist.

[brassplyer]

Anyone know why McAfee is warning about the tools area? Had any problems there?

A better question is - Why are YOU using McAfee at all???

Using McAfee Siteadvisor (per the thread title), not McAfee AV. I use MSE, Malwarebytes and Superantispyware for prevention/removal purposes. Comodo firewall.

I wasn't discounting the possibility that there might be a problem with the tools section of Videohelp. I don't claim to be hip to the in's and out's of how McAfee SA works. I've used McAfee SA before and it's never alerted on any part of Videohelp and it's only alerting on that one area. My attendance here has been sparse of late, something might have changed.

That's why I'm asking.

I work in IT for a living and nobody I have ever worked with in IT departments uses products like McAfee at home.

I don't work in IT. I do know that people who do that kind of thing tend to have attitudes like "the computer guy" from the old SNL skit - i.e. anyone who doesn't is congenitally pathetic. Does that shoe fit you? Have to wonder with phrases like "not on my radar for idiocy" in your lexicon. Am I supposed to give a **** if I'm on your radar for anything? These types often phrase their answers antagonistically - you know like presuming what you should and shouldn't know. They also often don't actually answer the question that was asked. Like the way you haven't, rather dismissing it and replacing it with an antagonistic horseshit question.

All of those are available in free versions that are probably better than what you paid for McAfee

McAfee SA is free and your grammatical jumble aside you mean that after that rant of yours you don't *know* whether they're better than McAfee?

[sanlyn]

Almost all free av and site advisor utils are repackaged older versions of current retail products. They're obsolete as soon as they're downloaded. The only reliable retail issues of av products with 'net advisory that I've seen or used for the past couple of years are from ESET and Kapersky. There might be others, but that's my experience. Times change and software changes. AVG used to be good stuff a few years back; then they got taken over and whoever became the new honcho made garbage out of it, probably worse than what happened to Symantec. You just have to keep shopping around.

I don't know that "idiot" or some such terms make good reading. I was in IT myself for 38 years; I encountered a great many people (including techs) who didn't know what the hell they were doing, but saying so openly didn't solve any problems or improve the local atmosphere. That aside: from years of fixing PC's I can advise that anything with McAfee or Computer Associates on it is a waste of time and resources. I've removed them from so many troublesome and virus-infested machines, I lost count a long time ago. I should also mention that if you're running two active av programs at the same time, your system must be begging for air. But anyone can use whatever protection they want.None of the available solutions are perfect; some are just better than others.

[brassplyer]

I was in IT myself for 38 years; I encountered a great many people (including techs) who didn't know what the hell they were doing

I hope you don't mind if I laugh a little at this. I'm sure you're right but another "computer guy" trait I've noticed is that they often seem convinced that they and they alone have the answer, everyone else on the planet has their head up their wazoo. What's really funny is when you see two or more of these types get into a flame war on a forum.

I should also mention that if you're running two active av programs at the same time, your system must be begging for air.

McAfee Siteadvisor isn't AV, it's attached to the browser and it gives a heads up when a site supposedly has problems. From the language they use it seems it's based on some manner of testing of the site. The only active AV I use is MSE. I use Malwarebytes as a backup for periodic scanning since it will on occasion catch something MSE missed which as I understand it is what Malwarebytes is known for. SuperAntispyware seems to do a good job of cleaning up adware that the other two don't seem to care about and on occasion has caught a trojan, but I use it on a manual scan basis.

[sanlyn]

Man, if I knew all the answers I wouldn't be looking up this PC tech stuff up on the internet or manuals three times a day or more, or every time a customer calls with a computer problem. On any subject you'll always come across a person or source that knows more than the next guy. One thing I notice is that some people never get beyond the BestBuy or CNET knowledge level. MSE? Good luck. Try stopping a rootkit with it. If, as you say, you have to use two other apps to scan all the stuff that MSE misses, you're in for a surprise.

BTW, if you get the current FBI Ransom scam, don't bother with the instructions for getting into Safe Mode. None of them work.

[brassplyer]

Try stopping a rootkit with it. IF,a s you say, you have to use two other apps to scan all the stuff that MSE misses, you're in for a surprise.

It doesn't happen all the time but it has. It's my understanding that NO single AV is 100% bulletproof. Neither MBAM or MSE seem to care about adware.

I used to use Bitdefender but too many things seemed to be tripping over it so I ditched it.

What AV do you recommend?

[aedipuss]

site advisor type software is like rose colored glasses for the general public. gives them a sense of false security, as there is way too much time between scans of a website and that leads to false positives and negatives.

[sanlyn]

You just try different stuff (obviously you avoid anything that has a bad rep all over the place) but I've turned to ESET and Kaspersky exclusively for the past two years. I use Malwarebytes to try to get into customer's machines (I've never needed it on mine). Every couple of years or so, the names of the top dogs change for some reason. And you never can tell: I tried helping a customer with a Vista machine that ESET refused to install with. Downloaded Kaspersky and it worked OK. But I've had the reverse happen as well.
And you're correct. There are no sure cures.

[brassplyer]

I hope you don't mind if I laugh a little at this. I'm sure you're right but another "computer guy" trait I've noticed is that they often seem convinced that they and they alone have the answer, everyone else on the planet has their head up their wazoo.

In fact, I have a brother who tends to be like this. I mentioned my PSU on a Facebook post and he jumped in "correcting" me that it was called a power supply. Yes, that's a common term for it but of course it gets called a PSU in a lot of places - such as various forums, even the Wikipedia article uses the term PSU which I pointed out to him but he dug in his heels and asserted that none of these sources were valid, it's called a power supply, period.

He isn't even a computer tech, he just likes to pretend he is.

~facepalm~

[sanlyn]

LOL! I met a great many such "techs". I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how the hell they screwed up a PC and figuring out how to fix it (if possible). I've also met techs who really knew their business -- and they're usually the first ones to readily confess that there's a lot they don't know.

[aedipuss]

a lot of the current "drive-by" malware installs aren't caught by anything as they change daily and the av companies are always playing catchup. you don't know you're infected until it's too late and system restore, task manager, and your av software have been disabled plus it's installed a proxy that intercepts and redirects all web traffic. a typical consumer might not even recognize he's owned.

[sanlyn]

Very true. The bad guys come in seemingly countless versions, and the drive-by's are real pests. I had one customer who used to run system restore from 8 months ago, then wonder why everything was a mess. I have little trust in site advisors anyway. It's better to have something that recognizes malware on its way in rather than rely on outdated site lists. Since two weeks ago I had 4 cases of the FBI Ransom scam and "Internet Security Pro", which all 4 owners said simply popped up from nowhere while they were on the web. All 4 required different workarounds, and one just yesterday took 7 hours to clean out. So much for TrendNet and Norton, which not only didn't stop this junk but allowed one of them to install a rootkit that took forever to clean up including rebuilding the master boot record.

Much easier to get simple problems like a dead PSU -- uh, 'scuse me, power supply(!). Once you have the right part, you can fix it in 20 minutes.

[aedipuss]

if you haven't tried it the mbar beta anti-rootkit is pretty good. i've been using it instead of gmer.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/mbar/

[sanlyn]

Say, will give mbar a try (on one of my test PCs, of course, not my customer's!). Combofix has worked OK, but not for 64-bit Windows. In any case, be prepared to reinstall if needed. By the time you get that far into de-lousing a PC, it's last resort anyway.