McAfee Firewall

I installed this product when I realised that my DSL connection had to a number of trojan horses on my system and a slew of hacker attacks. I downloaded a 'free' 30-days trial version and installed this. I had a tough time having it installed properly to work with my DSL....and THEN the nightmares began.

A few days into the trial, annoying pop-up windows start appearing every so often asking if you'd want to purchase it! (Why the hell do you call it a "30-day" evaluation??). It irritated me so much that I decided to uninstall the program. And I did the "mistake" of using the Windows 'Add/Remove Program" to install this. That screwed up my Network and Dial up connections, got all kinds of winsock error. I'm still stuck and now I'm told I'll have to uninstall and re-install the network drivers.

Just don't buy (or even try) this product!!


Don't use software you don't understand   July 16, 2002
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I have purchased and used McAfee Firewall without any problems at all. I can install it, I can uninstall it, it hasn't caused any problems with any of the programs either I or my husband run (including, but not limited to, an HP scanner, digital camera, printer, nomad jukebox, MS office, chemdraw, adobe photoshop, illustrator, acrobat, etc.). I can access our email information through Arizona State University's IMAP system, a notoriously difficult task, as well as the library and other services available to graduate students, without a hitch. Bottom line is, you have to be able to configure options if you want to use McAfee. If you want something to install and not worry about, Norton is a better option; on the other hand, that means you usually can't configure their products for special use situations, such as school servers. McAfee is a great program because it allows the user to determine what it does and does not do. It allows the user to decide what should acess which inforamtion, and when. Of cousre, that means you need to know what it is saying when you get a notice, and you need to know how to configure it. If you want to be able to determine how much information goes to who, this is the program you want. If you want a blanket protection you don't have to mess around with ever, this is *not* for you. My only complaint is that I wish it were *more* technical in the information it presents in the alerts; I have to bend over backwards to find the technical details I want.


Impossible to Uninstall!   January 17, 2002
I must agree with everyone else. I got this program with Mcafee Office 2000. It is impossible to Uninstall this program properly. There is no Uninstall_cpd file at all. If I remove it through Windows control panel, it screws up my network connection and I must reinstall Windows to get it back. I am about to go through this again for the last time. I am throwing the whole Office Suite in the trash!


Buyer beware!   December 3, 2001
 15 out of 19 found this review helpful

My wife bought this program because she wanted to protect our computer from Hacker attacks since we added a cable modem, which, along with its high-speed access, has an "always on" two-way link to the Internet that makes our computer vulnerable to such attacks. And on that front, it appears to have done its job. At least, we don't seem to have had any hacker attacks. But that's where the benefits end and the nightmares begin. You see, my wife also wanted to access her office Outlook e-mail from home, and it would not work on our computer. Her Techie at work told her it was probably the Firewall, and said she should turn it off. Turning off all filtering did not do the trick, so we tried to uninstall the application. No dice. The incorrectly named "Help" file said there should be a file labeled "uninstall CPD" in the program folder. No such file could be found. Their online support said their should be an uninstall Firewall option under the start menu, but it was not there. On top of that, the Help file warned that we should not use Windows' Remove Programs feature to uninstall because it could damage our system! Ultimately what we have then is a program that was designed to protect our system that has instead gummed up the works, and prevented our computer from doing something very basic and important, like reading office email at home! What's worse, because there is no uninstall function, and remove programs doesn't work (I ultimately tried it, fingers crossed), I feel like my computer has been taken hostage by McAfee! On top of all that, their customer service is a joke. In addition to the laughable help file, their web page is extremely confusing (just try and find the answer to my uninstall program problem, or even how to email Tech support!) AND you have to pay a fee for phone support, EVEN THOUGH IT'S THEIR OWN PRODUCT's FAULT!!

As you can see, I am frustrated. The irony in all of this is that McAfee sells another program called McAfee Uninstaller. I laughed a gloomy laugh when I saw that on their web site. Could it be that this program is designed to FORCE you to buy their other program to get rid of it?

Who knows, maybe tech support will finally get back to me with a solution, or maybe I will have reinstalled Windows by then, I don't know.

Bottom line: AVOID THIS PRODUCT.