I’m dumping Mcafee even though it’s free thru my ISP. I have a guest box that I usually don’t fool with (pronounced–don’t update it’s protection definitions until I need to). I updated Mcafee in February with no problems. I tried to update it about 3 weeks ago with a new DAT as well as on-line, and it wouldn’t update. CSR said there was a new build that free-version ISP customers had to install, and that’s the reason it wouldn’t update. So I uninstalled Mcafee, and tried to reinstall the new Mcafee version, which wouldn’t install. Mcafee CSR said the reason I couldn’t install the newer version of Mcafee was that I was already running an anti-virus which was Spybot S&D (on-demand only) & I had to uninstall SB 1st. (**&^%%&(((&^%(). In any event, I went ahead and uninstalled SB and the new version of McAfee still wouldn’t install. A simple AV definitions update procedure turned into a complete hassle. I’m finally dumping Mcafee from my last computer as, even though it’s free, it’s just too much of a PIA (memory hog/constant 'net access attempts to the Mcafee servers/uninformed CSRs, etc)… When I ran AntiVir a couple of years ago as a trial, I didn’t like it, and when I uninstalled it, it’s uninstaller corrupted XP to the point where I had to restore from an image. AVG 8 free supposedly sux, from what I’ve read (sort of like an AV version of the FX-Google anti-phishing BS of which I’m not convinced is more for tracking than anti-phishing. I’m running KAV 7 right now and like the way you can update it’s definitions from file DL. Of all the AVs that I’ve used, KAVs system of daily/weekly/or comprehensive update definition DLs is the best & easiest. [left]… I was just wondering if you could update the CAVS definitions from file DL, as I’m running AVG 7.5-free on my 2 off-line boxes & since AVG 8 free supposedly has a bunch of problems, I’m either going to upgrade them all to KAV (including the guest boxes)—since the KAV 3 paks are so reasonably priced, or to CAVS if you can DL CAVS definitions from file, so I can update them all w/o having to go on-line with each box. thx
G’day,
CAVS2 BETA only supports online updating. The soon-ish CAVS3 BETA (due end July) update method is not yet known.
Having said that, Comodo have released a central management tool for Windows Server LANs. It can download updates for the firewall to a central point and then distribute them to the connected PCs. They have said they are going to produce a version that will be suitable for workgroups based LANs, and I can’t imagine them sticking to centralised updates for the firewall and just online updates for the AV when running the centralised management.
Hope this helps,
Ewen 
Thx. I’ve always used a separate FW & AV & AS and not a “” internet suite. I’m not necessarily against using a combined suite if all the FWs were as good as CPF (at least to this point it seems to keep a tight leash on CMF & BoClean as every now & then and for some unknown reason BoClean & CMF lose their “Do not auto-update” status, and, as far as I know, CPF yells at me when this happens… However there is NWiH that I would every run a combined Mcafee AV/FW together. Mcafee just tries to “call home” too much not to have it on a short leash from a non-Mcafee FW. Of all the AVs that I’ve tried, the only one that didn’t cry for 'net access when you had it’s auto-update feature turned off was NOD32. KAV even gets “grouchy” when it’s not updated every couple of days or so, & not just the notifications part. Just like your car/truck, you can tell when your PC seems out-of-tune. When I sense this, it usually just need a KAV update, and things go back to normal.