McAfee VirusScan: DAT & SuperDAT downloads are free for only a year?

[gard]

Hi,

My apologies if this is not the correct forum for this question. Mods, please lock if I'm off base.

I read somewhere that VirusScan comes with up to a year of updates and after that you have to pay a subscription. What exactly does this mean?

McAfee used to have 3 kinds of things to download from their site:
(1) new virus definitions, called DAT files
(2) new scan engine updates + new virus definitions, called SuperDAT files
(3) whole new VirusScan upgrade, such as from 7.0 to 7.1 etc.,

DAT and SuperDAT downloads used to be free for as long as you used the product, but you had a limited time to get a free upgrade of the 3rd kind (like 30 days from purchase or something).

What does their new pricing scheme mean? Do you now have to pay a subscription after the first year to get DAT and SuperDAT files?

Thanks,
gard

 

[Vexx]

I think it just refers to using the auto-update feature in Virus Scan to update your virus definitions. They still have the downloads for all of the DATs and Super-DATs on their site, which are free. So, you can keep manually updating your virus definitions and scanning engine for free.

 

[CotswoldCS]

Yep, updates are available free from the internet here

Subscription is just for automatic updates