McAfee Internet Security Suite

September 18, 2006 05:29
Mediocre
1.0/5
Buyer beware! I made the mistake of buying the full suite last year. I even renewed most of the expensive software this year. BUT McAfee won't stop harassing me with pop-ups at start-up and beyond asking me to "confirm" that I don't want to renew. It's been two-months of system slowing harassment, and I'm preparing my first letter to the Better Business Bureau. Shame, I liked it before this...

- HerrGeothe

August 13, 2006 09:17
Terrible
0.5/5
I thought I was doing a normal update. There was no warning from Mcafee that this would be a version update. I was then informed that it was incompatible with Zone Alarm and Adaware products installed on my pc. I was also billed 39.95 for this "privilege". I was never warned of this before the automatic update.
A word of warning, there is a big list of incompatible software (check their web page)and the policy of sneaking this update stinks.
I have used Mcafee for years at home and work but will not use them any longer.

- franko5555

April 24, 2007 09:14

4.0/5
Installation was pretty easy! Once CD installs software there is a couple of download periods and a couple of restarts!
Note!After install is completed shut down
the PC then restart the computer to make sure files are initiated properly.
I had no problems on the internet and my
Ham Radio DSP and Logging Apps ran normally!
install took about an hour at 768k DSL!
I dont know about all the bad reviews on this site? My boot up time was about the same as mt 2006 version which had only AntiVirus and Firewall..

- imc18

February 26, 2007 09:44
Terrible
0.5/5
Unfortunately I had such a negative experience with this product I was compelled to write a review, or at least rant about it.

I have a year-old Dell E310 XP MCE and nothing all that unusual installed on it. Plenty of memory; no spyware.

I was prompted by a McAfee pop-up to download their Internet Security Suite upgrade. I did so, and almost instantly my internet access was shut down. The ISS interface is a labyrinth of menus and whether I set to defaults, or customized, I still could not get consistent internet access. Prompted a Winsock error and a repeating Windows Installer popup on each reboot. No McAfee support. And as others have said, it's very difficult to shut the thing down fully.

I managed to get intermittent internet access back up and after several stop-and-starts with Dell Live Chat (thank you warranty) finally permanently deleted this thing and fixed most of the bugs. I lost Word Perfect for good (no big loss); fixed the Windows Installer Roxio pop-up problem with a patch from the Roxio site. But, it was the *absolute worst* experience I have ever had with software. I am looking for a new solution and will abandon the last 2 years of my prepaid subscription -- I just wish they could give me back my wasted weekend. I don't think I will be using anything by McAfee in the future.

- hollerhither

January 20, 2007 07:15
Terrible
0.5/5
Firstly, I have been a loyal user of McAfee ISS for the last 2.5 yrs and have found the ease of use and intuitiveness of it's products most pleasant. Unfortunately, this morning during a routine update led me to update from the 06 version to their 07 one. This was a mistake. A costly mistake for McAfee for it turned their once strong performing product to that comparable to Norton NAV - which is probably one of the worst AV ISS out there. I sum up my unpleasant experience as follows:

Pros: Lots of new features.

Cons: A lot more features that essentially sucks up all your system resources, spawning a host of system processes (mine went from 31 with the 06 version to 42 with the 07), unintuitive navigation, poor explanation of various settings and essentially slowed down several ordinary tasks & operations: web surfing, online gaming, email, downloads etc...

Basically, this version is too smart for it's own good and forces a lot of unnecessary things down your throat. And whatever settings you had previously were not imported so you have to reset everything all over again.

I chatted online with their technical support which tried to pawn me off to customer support. I insisted that this was a technical issue. We went through a series of steps that essentially did not do anything to alleviate the leviathan that is the 07 version. He kept insisting how this is the best version and the best available product out there.

I told him if all I needed was a simple cell phone to make calls why would I want to pay $3-400 more for a phone that has a built in camera that takes both pictures & video, touch screen, web surfing etc... It's that simple, all I needed was an Internet Security that works like the 06 but I was "forced" to upgrade to 07.

- myuan

October 30, 2006 02:12
Terrible
0.5/5
Not only does this software tie up way too many resources, it is impossible to exit the progam. Once you install it, the only way to shut it down is to uninstall it.

- willybobos

October 4, 2006 11:09
Terrible
0.5/5
I recently had to install McAfee SecurityCenter when I purchased a new version of Virus Scan Plus, after my old version expired.

I wasn't thrilled to have to purchase a new version of the product instead of an annual subscription for virus definitions because McAfee no longer supports the old product. Nor was I thrilled that when I tried to purchase the product, the Web site tried to bundle the product with other products I did not want.

After trying to uninstall the old Virus Scan and Security Center, I downloaded and tried to install Virus Scan Plus, but the software would not install. After navigating a maze of Web pages to locate a phone number for technical support to try to get a live person, I realized I had to pay for phone support. So I tried using the free Chat support.

Three chats and four hours later, Security Center would still not uninstall and allow me to install the new software. After each chat, I had to reboot and start a new chat, which took several minutes to try to locate the link on McAfee's Web site. Then when I reconnected with a new Chat support person, they could not locate the transcript of the chat using the Chat session number I gave them, so I had to reexplain everything and they often took me through many of the same steps I had already performed. Free chat was to no avail.

The result was a half day of lost productivity. My time is worth $100 an hour, so that was $400 of lost billable time. I got so desperate I actually called the pay phone technical support, but terminated the session when I realized that, at $3 an hour, I could easily be paying over $100 (I had to reexplain everything yet again and the call was going no where), just to install a piece of software I just purchased from McAfee!

I had to have my computer consultant come out and fix the problem for over $100. Apparently, McAfee really wreaks havoc with your registry when you are trying to install this product. In total, I'm out $500.

To add insult to injury, McAfee had the nerve to send me an email promotion for a Registry Cleaning product - apparently mine is not an isolated problem.

I also send two complaint emails to customer support about my experience. They did not reply to either one.

I will never purchase McAfee products again.

- KingZog

February 10, 2007 06:57
Good
1.5/5
I got loaded with Spyware/Adware, and wasn't completely sure I didn't have a virus. When I tried to run the virus scan in safe mode and found that I could not.. I asked for help from support. They said their product will NOT run in safe mode (some Windows processes do not function as normal safe mode.) Most products recommend that if you have a virus, you run the anti-virus in safe mode (check any virus on Symantec's website for Removal instructions).
Also, I repeatedly set the Program Permissions to Outbound-Access only, yet every time I check they are back to Full Access (like Internet Explorer). I can re-set them as many times as I want, but they will always go back to Full Access (inbound/outbound).

- patchqueen67

February 8, 2007 08:52
Terrible
0.5/5
I have just installed the new version and got only as far as trying to exit the program before my review became somewhat moot.

McAfee has chosen to let you "disable" Security Center modules, but not to exit all of their program(s) entirely. It cost me $20 of their paid support line to find this out.

Of major concern to me is having a program which will not allow exiting. Sure, you can go into Task Mgr or "Run" another system command, but why? And to get charged to find this out undoubtedly left a bad taste.

Ocassionally, when cleaning or defragmenting a hard drive, or installing new software, running diagnostic software, etc. it is best when all open applications - whether "resting"/active or harmless/potentially interfering software should (or MUST) be exited competely.

So my review is brief, I will look no further into the product, because I perceive this as a design flaw of great consequence theoretically and great inconvenience in practice.

Look elsewhere for a security product(s), I am.

- johnqz

February 5, 2007 10:43
Mediocre
1.0/5
After at least 30 tries I have finally threw in the towel. I could never get the virus scan software to install. It failed no matter what I did (or what the geeks told me to do). For the month I ran my computer without the virus protection I had to reinstall the entire security center twice because after downloading updates components were missing. The interface in terrible, is not user friendly and is way too complicated.

I loved 2006, what happened?

- vaviaca