is mcafee any good i can get free from comcast?

hi all i can get this free from comcast as long as i stay a member is it any good. i tried comodo new CIS and all it did was make my computer BSOD and i don't like this so am sick of trying. no name companys free stuff and beings mcafee is paid with my subscription to comcast its not free ware lol. just is it any good if so i use.

 

A few points:

McAfee (Virusscan Plus or bigger) will protect you from a lot.

McAfee (and directly or indirectly) collects a lot of information about you, and shares that with other companies and organizations. Mostly hidden. A good reason not to install that, but then, other (security and other) companies also collect information about you.

McAfee can be a resource hog.

McAfee has terrible (technical) support.

They have an auto-renewal policy. (subscription)

Pick your poison.

 

I've used a free version of McAfee (there is one offered by AOL) and I was not impressed. The GUI is not easy to navigate, the program is slow to update and scan, and I've worked on systems infected with spyware that McAfee did not block and cannot find during scans. If you want a free setup I recommend trying AVG 8, PC Tools Firewall and PC Tools Threatfire. If you decide to try McAfee you could add Threatfire to it - that should help as long as they get along.

 

ok will keep this in mind i here comcast is suppose to get the 2009 mcafee soon. right now i think it's the 2008 security suet. i don't think its like aol one not posative though.

 

My wife and I are both running McAfee IS on our laptops, Vista SP1 and 2G RAM. It didn't stop the rogue antivirus 2008 from hitting my wife's laptop. I'm not sure that a couple of months ago any AV would stop it.

We installed SuperAntiSpyware free and got rid of it, and we now run SAS and Sandboxie on both our laptops. No problems since.

As for McAfee alone, it always scores high on the various tests. I put my faith in Sandboxie though to keep things out. If you keep your browser protected in Sandboxie, I'm not sure anything else is needed. McAfee is a good second line of defense.

 

ok will go a head any maybe give it a try as right now am just using windows firewall on windows xp pro and avast. along with SAS and MBAM.

 

Only thing I have noticed about it is that it will slow your system down quite a bit depending on your hardware, but even on a new PC it makes an impact. I haven't had opportunity to really test it's effectiveness, so I won't comment there, just that it does tend to bog a system down, this I have seen on multiple PCs.

In my opinion there are better free AV alternatives. Firewalls are more difficult, but Windows Firewall will keep the inbound in check well enough. The rest depends on your needs...

 

just tried it and discused with it went back to avast. what other good firewalls that are free out there?

 

I am not up much on firewalls lately, so someone else can suggest a few. I bought a router several years ago, and dumped the software firewalls after that. All I worry about is inbound. If I don't use the router then I just use Windows Firewall.

From my experience, firewalls are pretty much a try it and see type thing as well. Some work well on your PC, and others don't.

 

i have a router do i need a firewall someone told me i still did. i have windows firewall and it is on.

 

If you have a router then you don't need Win Firewall. Inbound is covered. Whether you need a software firewall or not depends on you, and whether or not you want to try to catch any outbound traffic. I'm not concerned with that, so i don't use one. Others are, and do however. It's up to you, your usage of the machine and safety, and whether or not you interested in trying to control outbound traffic.

 

well outbound really docent concern me as what i have on my computer is all lagit and what i d-load i scan for viruses. so really nothing rouge can get on here. also my router brand is a EBR-2310 d-link with NAT/SPI firewall. I tried comodo internet security and it crashed my computer so no more there will not go there again.

 

jrviejo what is a good free firewall besides comodo i had no luck with the security suet and wish to stay clear from them. someone told me pc tools firewall. but in your opinion what is a good free one to run along side free version of avast AV. and mcafee is sucky

 

Hello cruser921;

If you find that you really want to use a software firewall and you're not comfortable with the one built into Windows, I have found find several firewalls that work just fine with Avast. I really like the (free) Zone Alarm and the (free) PC Tools version 5. Both are lightweight enough for me and are configurable without being overly complicated. Another option is the free version from Online Armor. By any standard, getting away from that McAfee crap and installing Avast was a great first step to a more secure PC.

If you are using Internet Explorer, you might want to consider installing SandboxIE or VMWare and run in a virtual environment. Some people will tell you that running IE in a virtual environment eliminates the need for a software firewall. My feeling is that if it doesn't slow you down noticeably, then use the firewall for added control.

 

is PC Tools version 5 really good i seen that and book marked its web page if it is good i get that I use firefox with noscript and add block plus

 

There are also older versions if ZA here as well, if anyone is interested:

http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=zalarm

 

As to the original post.

I have used this for almost 2 years on PC 2 without issues including slow downs. I think it does use resources. I also had it on an old Compaq XP machine with 256 RAM that did not work well.

I think for free service it is good and capable protection for average user.

 

Yes, I have to revise my earlier comments and say that on new hardware, McAfee is doing fine, I just installed Total Protection 2009 again to check it out. There are no slowdowns. However, on older, less modern machines, I have seen some pretty big slowdowns. I have McAfee on my work laptop and it slows down Outlook loading and functioning somewhat, as well as startup. Same on my older PC. But it's a nice suite on this triple core here, and with 4 gigs ram I don't care bout memory usage at all. It is doing well.