McAfee Error - Help required.

[Quinny90210]

My McAfee today decided to tell me thats it had errors on it.

They were:
*The detection signiature is over 30 days old
*McAfee Virus scan is not installed
And there were 2 others, which it seems to have fixed.

I know I can fix the Virus scan by reinstalling it, thats no problem, but what can I do about the Detection Signiature? And is it a big problem?

Because it seems as if it hasn't been working for a while. I am getting ads on my computer, which I am trying to find the source of now, but is there anything I can do to test if its working, short of actually putting a virus on the computer, which there is no chance im going to do.

Ps. Im not a very smart computer person, so please be as direct as you can.

 

[kmkeshav]

The error sounds like your Antivirus software is not updated. McAfee releases updates almost every day and they are called DATs. These DATs have information about new threats and will help the Antivirus software to detect and destroy new viruses. The outdated Antivirus software will not be able to detect new viruses. Normally, all the Antivirus software will be able to autoupdate with the latest DAT. This is automatic. The only requirement is that your computer should be connected to the Internet and you have set your autoupdate settings accordingly. For example you will be able to set your Antivirus software to look for the DAT updates when ever your start your computer (This is the best setting for my computer atleast!). I would prefer this setting rather than setting the Antivirus software to update at a specific time. Your computer may be offline at the scheduled time. You would find these settings if you carefully look at each option in the Antivirus software.

By the way what McAfee antivirus software you have installed?

-Keshav / Enterprise IT Consultant