McAfee from Comcast

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Access Denied, Sep 10, 2005.

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  1. Access Denied

    Access Denied Registered Member

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    I got an email about that free McAfee products from Comcast and decided to test it out. I have not ran anything from McAfee in years and I have a totally different opinion of them now. This new version, 10 I think it is, is a very light load on the system. Other than an ugly icon in the tray, I give it a 9/10 for a suite.
     
  2. Graystoke

    Graystoke Registered Member

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    I'm also using McAfee VS 10 and Personal Firewall Plus 7 that Comcast offers free to their customers. I'm very happy with both so far. I was a little leary of the firewall at first, but I'm feeling better about it now. Both run very light on my PC. As for the big M icon, I don't think it's that ugly. :) I could name a few other AV icons that are worse. ;) :D
     
  3. RAV

    RAV Registered Member

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    The Comcast/Mcafee firewall and AV are pretty decent, but DON'T install the Privacy Service. This caused me to go back to Zone Alarm Security Suite 6 since I need some of those features.
     
  4. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    I agree Privacy Service is a bomb. I tried all three on my family machine. The AV and the Firewall are just fine. The Privacy Service :p A big pain and not that good for the headache :p :p :p . I off loaded that one.

    I was very impressed with the Firewall. ;)
     
  5. Graystoke

    Graystoke Registered Member

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    I never tried the Privacy Service. I read a lot of bad things about it in the Comcast forum. Lots of people having problems with it. Mainly losing internet connection. I don't have a need for it anyway.

    Since installing VS 10, I've stopped switching AV's every three or four days. :eek: Nice to be settled in with one for a change. :D :D
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2005
  6. rawr

    rawr Registered Member

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    How do you guys like McAfee's Personal Firewall? I am still deciding whether I want to download it through my Comcast subscription or stick with the firewall I currently have (Filseclab's). Thanks in advance.. :D
     
  7. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    Never lost my connection, but all the things it required just seemed to stiffle the "always on" experience that I enjoy. Bottom line the trade off was to great. :p
     
  8. Access Denied

    Access Denied Registered Member

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    No problems with the privacy suite so far. Other than loss of connection what did you guys have problems with? Thanks.
     
  9. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    I got to think real hard as it has been several weeks now.

    I recall that it seemed difficult to set up. Maybe it was just me but I wanted to only have Admin rights. Instead of the whole family could not figure out how to do that. Then there was this occassional need to relog in thing. No it seem to be more constant. Some of this seem to be a duplication of regular Windows log in proceedure. Just another thing to do to get on the net. :p

    I think what finally did it in with me was this: "Someone has been tampering with your settings do something, (I can not remember now, should have written it down in my PC Log Book), but it said if that did not work uninstall and reinstall Privacy Service. o_O You are kidding right! What every that something was it did not work. I uninstalled it but did not reinstall it. My daughter had been on the PC. My daughter is PC newbie. She would not know how to open the thing up much less tamper with settings. She only knows a couple of sites and is content to only go to those. My connection was fine but Privacy Service was no longer functioning. It was offering no "protection". Like I said it was way more trouble then it was worth for me. Constantly needed some sort of attention.

    I do have this in my PC Log book that I installed it on July 22. And I noted, "Logging feature is nice other then that I see little use in the program."
     
  10. Access Denied

    Access Denied Registered Member

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    OH, I am an only user of my pc. I guess that would be why its a problem for some. I never thought of that. Thanks for your reply. ;)
     
  11. mercurie

    mercurie A Friendly Creature

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    You are very welcome. I do think the Firewall and AV are excellent Comcast subsription benefits. And like you it had been a long time since I had run McAfee too. ;)
     
  12. Graystoke

    Graystoke Registered Member

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    I wasn't too sure about it at first. I was a Zone Alarm user, and was used to the way ZA ran things. When I first started using McAfee's firewall, I was a little worried about application settings. All apps pertaining to McAfee, Internet Express, and Win32 services, are given full access. I was assured by the people at the McAfee forum and McAfee tech support, that this is the way McAfee's firewall works, and that I am secure. I have all other apps set to outbound access only. I don't know how other people feel about allowing an app to have full access, which is described by McAfee firewall as, It is possible for this application to send and receive date with any computer, but it seems McAfee firewall users seem to be ok with it.

    I tested it at GRC.com, PC Flank, and Sygate. It passes all the tests. It loads faster than ZA on my PC. Connections speeds seem to be faster than with ZA. I should mention that I was running ZA 6 free. So far I'm pretty happy with it.
     
  13. RAV

    RAV Registered Member

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    I loaded the Comcast Mcafee software on two home machines after uninstalling Zone Alarm Security Suite 6. No problems with the AV or firewall although I didn't like the Security Center interface of McAfee which seemed more like a way to get you to use their products rather than grade your security. The privacy service was just plain awful- users have to log in with individual passwords and the filtering software just doesn't work. For example, I couldn't go to this forum or even many news pages for "inappropriate content" even at the older teenager setting.

    My second computer crashed terribly upon installing the privacy service and became very unstable. I ended up dumping the whole free package and went back to Zone Alarm Security Suite 6, which seems to work great on both of my machines. I wanted to save the subscription fees, but the free price was just to expensive on my home machines.
     
  14. Access Denied

    Access Denied Registered Member

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    I just had to reload an image with Acronis because I could not remove the blasted thing. Not a single app of the 3 would uninstall correctly. Thank goodness I made an image prior to installing the thing.
     
  15. JRCATES

    JRCATES Registered Member

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    LOL...yeah, it does kinda seem that way. Not that big a deal though, really.

    Wow, glad I have't had those kind of problems. Other than a problem uninstalling the "trial" version of Privacy Service (which came pre-installed on my machine and that I was able to correct), I haven't had any problems with it. I'm able to access this and every other web-site with no probs. I do actually think it's kinda nice that the Privacy Service REQUIRES a password before a user can gain access, though....I feel pretty secure and confident that noone can just fire up my PC when I'm away from it and start going to town doing stuff I'm unaware of and that they shouldn't be doing.....
     
  16. Graystoke

    Graystoke Registered Member

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    Hi JRCATES. Are you running McAfee VS 10 and Firewall Plus 7? If so, how long have you been using the firewall, and what are your thoughts on it. I just wanted to get some other users opinion on it.
     
  17. JRCATES

    JRCATES Registered Member

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    Hi Graystoke,

    I'm running VS 9.1 and PFP 6.1, and so far so good. I've been running both for a little over 6 months now, and I am happy with both. Personally, I like the firewall because it QUIETLY does it's job. There aren't a lot of annoying pop-ups notifying and asking me about everything.....BUT....it does provide a lot of detailed info as to what it is doing and has blocked. For example, I can "view" the history as to the number of blocked inbound events, the date and time they occured, and the Source IP addresses of attempts that were blocked as well. I can trace and even report the event (to HackerWatch) if I choose to. It's passed all leak tests I have thrown at it, and does what it's supposed to without alerting me to every little thing. Some people seem to like to be notified with constant pop-ups every so often to feel secure that their firewall is doing it's job, but I'd rather it just do it's job and allow me to surf without repeatedly asking me to answer with a mouse click, if ya know what I mean.... ;)
     
  18. Graystoke

    Graystoke Registered Member

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    Hi JRCATES.

    PFP 6 sounds pretty much the same as PFP 7. As I said in one of my previous posts here, I wasn't too sure about it at first, after using ZA for so long. But the first thing I notice after installing PFP, was that it loaded faster than ZA, and every day connections to web sites were faster. Like you, I put it through all the firewall tests, and it passed with no problems. I really like it. I've been using VS10 and PFP 7 for about a month now and I'm very happy with both.

    Thank you for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time. :)


    Graystoke.
     
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