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fixit565
Former Member
Message 1 of 13

How to check DAT version?

Hi,

Been using Mcafees for many years with no problems at all but last saturday it went all wonky: buttons not working, scans not working, firewalls and active scanner shutting down, errors, and it just mysteriously disappearing all together.

I have reinstalled this product myself 4x and even had a rep do remote assistance reinistall. Then I took it to a shop and had a tech check machine (nothing wrong they say, no viruses/trojans etc) and reinstall it. Seems to be working this time around for most part, however, I need to know if my product is up to date. I go to manual updates in the UI and it says I am up to date but it has not actually downloaded anything in 2 days: usually I get a download update every day at the very least in the past.

I go to "About" button and it does not actually list DAT anywhere on it, this is what I see:

Mcafee SecurityCenter

Version: 12.0

Build: 12.0.637

Affld: 0-1636

Last update: 22/08/2012

Mcafee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware

Version: 16.0

Build: 16.0.473

Last update: 22/08/2012

Engine version: 1259.0

Engine creation date: 18/08/2012

I could list more but that has to do with firewall and such.

Read many threads stating there should be a DAT listing but I don't see it. I even checked in various Mcafee folders and there is no DAT listing anywhere.

Basically I don't think that Total Protection is even updating. Nothing has downloaded as an update since reinstalled in the shop which makes me extremely worried. Getting pretty tired of reinstalling this software!

edit. Using Mcafees Total Protection 2012

Message was edited by: fixit565 on 24/08/12 9:40:27 CDT AM

Message was edited by: fixit565 on 24/08/12 9:53:19 CDT AM
12 Replies
hopeless1
Former Member
Message 2 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

did you see something like Virus Scan in "about" .. I'm using McAfee antiVirus plus 2012 and mine keeps the dat number in McAfee Virus scan

Message was edited by: hopeless1 on 8/24/12 1:24:59 PM GMT-05:00

Message was edited by: hopeless1 on 8/24/12 1:26:59 PM GMT-05:00
Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 3 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

Try running MVT. It will, among other things, check you have the latest version of everything.

Bobcat
Former Member
Message 4 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

You can test your anti-virus this way:  Go to http://eicar.org/86-0-Intended-use.html scroll down near the end and find the 68 byte string shown in the box.  Use your mouse to select then copy that string.  Open Notepad and paste the string into Notepad.  Save the file to your hard drive as eicar.txt, and McAfee should flag it as a virus.

Message was edited by: Bobcat on 8/24/12 3:31:59 PM EDT
Peacekeeper
Message 5 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

You have the new 2012 version which I thought only available from the Au server. It does not show DAT version as it uses a new detection method. What changes is the engine version . This we asked about as users have been told check your DATs.

If it detects eicar it is fine.

fixit565
Former Member
Message 6 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

Mcafee agent that did re-install put this version on my computer and then my tech did as well. So far this engine version has not changed since the 22nd. /shrug.

Anyways using Bobcat's test: it detected and quarantined which means it's working I suppose.

I will keep an eye on it and see what happens over the next week.

Thanks for response.

Message was edited by: fixit565 on 24/08/12 7:19:18 CDT PM

Message was edited by: fixit565 on 24/08/12 7:20:03 CDT PM
sphinx01
Contributor
Message 7 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

To check DAT open REGEDIT from Command Line and naviagate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\VirusScan\InstallSettings\Substitute value is set under DATVER latest DAT is 6814, however only I only see this on one machine so currently being rolled out is my guess.

Or depending in product latest DAT can be found under C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan\DAT

However it seems you are not affected by recent DAT changes, so no need to worry if test files are being detected access scan is working.

However if you are worried that you are pulling no updates, you can on your own accord delete the DAT Folder found under C:\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan\DAT and then  update, latest DAT will then be installed.

on 24/08/12 20:41:27 CDT
fixit565
Former Member
Message 8 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

c;\Program Files\McAfee\VirusScan\DAT does not exist on my machine. Not sure about that regedit thing, look into that later. Possibly due to this 'new' version I have that does not actually list the DAT on the About screen now which lead to my confusion comparing to other topics similiar to this.

Regardless, shortly after my last comment: Mcafee updated and the engine changed from 1259.0 to 1264.0 which is good to see.

edit. under the impression some sorta bad update happened last saturday which has caused me no end of stress for the past week. I am not a computer expert by any stretch and all this made me a bit worried. All I desire is to be secure, if you can understand. Again, thanks for replies.

Message was edited by: fixit565 on 24/08/12 8:56:05 CDT PM
sphinx01
Contributor
Message 9 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

When you open the About section you don't seem to see DAT version...I'm sorry i'm not familiar with the specific product version.

However you can do your own investigative work and navigate through the McAfee root within Program Files you will come across a folder containing DAT.

If as you said you done a reinstall which I assume was by downloading from the website, therefore most recent DAT is provided at the time.

fixit565
Former Member
Message 10 of 13

Re: How to check DAT version?

Searched extensively, there is no folder or anything pertaining to DAT anywhere I can see. I have this En-Au version that is apparently 'new' and perhaps they renamed it or something? I dunno.

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