Amazon.com: McAfee Family Protection 2010 3-User: Software

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3.4 out of 5 stars (84 customer reviews)

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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars McAfee Family Protection, As Reviewed By A Computer Security Professional, November 23, 2009

R. McAdams (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: McAfee Family Protection 2010 3-User (CD-ROM)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a Minor in Computer Security and Digital Forensics. I feel qualified to speak about this product as a professional in the field. I am not an "expert" in the field, because I am not working for Norton or McAfee or any of the other security focused companies. But I have direct and professional experience with these products, and many more like them, and with security software in general.

[The computer this software was installed and tested with is an ASUS laptop running Windows Home XP SP3, with a dual 1.87GHz core Intel Processor, and 2GB of RAM, the PC Tools Free Firewall installed and running, and no other security software installed or running. It was tested using wireless and wired internet connections.]

For those of you who do not care for lengthy reviews, here is your executive summary:

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PROS:
-Fairly easy setup
-Works fairly well as intended
-Configurable
-Flexible
-Reliable

CONS:
-It doesn't work with Google Chrome, and was not tested with any browsers other than: Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari for Windows. So, it may not work with other browsers (like Opera) either.
-Instant messenger [basic level] blocking is limited to: AOL, MSN, Yahoo & ICQ. Skype and many others are not listed.
-Video/webcams not blockable in the general settings (you may block the programs they use to run their applications, but I haven't found any way to block or control the devices themselves)
-Reports and monitoring are limited in scope and function

SHOULD BE NOTED:
-Not a full security suite (doesn't cover firewall or virus duties -- I mention this, because I know some people can be confused about the various security products out there. This software is designed to keep your children safe FROM the CONTENT of the internet, and also to allow you (the parent) to monitor their behavior (somewhat) and to set time limits for their use of the computer.)
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Okay, for everyone else, read on.

So, what is the purpose of this security software? The goal of the software is to allow parents to set greater restrictions in place on what their kids may do and see on the internet, how often they access the internet, what programs they may use. The software is not a virus scanner or blocker, it is not a firewall, and it is not a computer security adviser. It is basically a computer nanny. It should also be noted that SOME of the functions being offered in this software, are available in later versions of Windows for free. Windows Vista and 7 both include parental controls which include website: monitoring and blocking (both by pre-defined lists Microsoft maintains based on content and age level, and also by your own black and white lists, and your own keywords you want allowed or blocked.), computer use time (this is for the whole computer (by account) -- not the internet in specific), and which programs may be run. Macintosh also has similar controls built into their most modern operating systems. So, if all you are looking for are those functions, and you have Windows Vista or 7, or OS X+, then you are all set. You don't need to buy this, and you can stop reading. If you want more, then this software offers more, so read on.

What you get:
1.) WEB BLOCKING
a.) by category [adult, drugs, gambling, etc.]
b.) by specific white-lists and black-lists [automatically handles sub-domains]
c.) by specific keywords and phrases [you may also just check a box for "profanity" instead of having to type out every "dirty" word you can think of, and you may also just check a box for "sexually suggestive" as well]
d.) It also has a special filter just for youtube videos of: allowing all videos, blocking all videos, or only blocking videos with inappropriate content. (of course, they don't say how "inappropriate" is determined or tracked, so I guess you just have to take their word for it [I am assuming they will look at user ratings, and keywords in the title and description of the video])

*Note: after 2 weeks of testing, I can tell you some of the categories are a bit over eager in their rankings. You are going to either need to uncheck some of the categories for your older kids, or specifically allow a lot of harmless websites. Better to have too many false positives than too many missed positives, though.

2.) INSTANT MESSAGING
a.) block specific programs [AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo]
-note: Skype and many others are not listed. However, you can remedy this in the "program blocking" function, as more are listed there (although still not Skype), and you may also add specific programs that way.
b.) set the software to record conversations (obviously it will never record anything, if all instant messaging is blocked)

3.) TIME LIMITS
a.) schedule internet usage allowed times (this function is almost identical to the function Windows uses for its parental controls, the only difference is this is for internet time, whereas Windows is for computer time). It is a grid of Monday-Sunday metered out by half hours. You simply click the grid to change times from green to red, or click and drag to do it faster. [make sure you set your proper time zone though!]
b.) cumulative internet time limit. This is one is handy, and probably worth the price of the software all by itself. For each account you setup with the software, you may specify a total internet time limit per day. [the admin account can override the day's limit with a password, as needed]. So, with the time limits function in place, you can allow the child to be online after school from say 3PM through 8PM, but if you only want them online a total of 3 hours, then you can set the total time limit to 3 hours. So, it doesn't matter when in that time block the child logs in (or out), the total time limit will keep track of their daily time, and will shut off their internet connection when the limit is reached. This can be a great encourager to get homework done FIRST (which needs internet connection anyway) and play LATER.

*Note: the accounts for the software are kept synchronized across all of the computers you install it on. So, if your daughter has a 3 hour total daily time limit on the internet, she cannot get around it by using up 3 hours on the main, family computer, and then spending an additional 3 on her personal computer, or a computer in another part of the house. The accounts are the same on all of the computers you install the software on, which was smart thinking on McAfee's part. So, if she uses 2 hours and 30 minutes on one computer, she will only have 30 minutes left for the day on all of the rest of the computers too.

4.) E-MAIL BLOCKING
a.) approve e-mail accounts [local only, I.E. Thunderbird or Exchange, or Outlook, or Eudora, not web-based!] So, if you have setup a local e-mail account for your child, you may set their approved sending e-mail address here (blocking all others in the process). This function also allows you to block web-based e-mail websites with a check box. This is, of course, needed if you are going to try to control the child's e-mail usage. However, note that this particular level of control is meaningless if you have given your child a phone with text messaging, or they have access to computers at school which can get to web-based e-mail websites. So, be forewarned about that.
b.) approve e-mail contacts. This allows you to setup a list of approved contacts your child may send and received messages to and from. [again, local e-mail only] Also note, the blocking function the software uses for e-mail coming in from unapproved accounts doesn't save it for later approval, it just deletes it. So, be forewarned about that, too.

5.) SOCIAL NETWORKING
-note, this is an interesting little function, and I think it has value. But you need to know how it works! It DOESN'T prevent the child from POSTING the information, it just flags such postings, and alerts you to it. So, that means you can't be asleep at the switch, trusting the program to do the heavy lifting, you have to configure the log alerts correctly, and then check and read the logs!
a.) Allows you (the admin) to set street addresses (yours by default, but you can add in more if you want), home phone, cell phone, and school name as things that need to be flagged for the logs. It also has check boxes to flag any profane or sexual material a child account is posting. If you add more, things to watch, you can choose from an entry type of "phone number" or "address/place name" and then enter in the text you want flagged if it comes up. This would be especially helfpul if you know the addresses or names of popular hang out spots, or illegal/dangerous gathering places.

6.) PROGRAM BLOCKING
a.) Allows blocking of Instant Messengers
- you may block the whole list, or enter into the list and check/un-check specific programs such as: AOL, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Trillian, Yahoo, Paltalk, iChat, Adium
b.) Allows blocking of Peer-to-peer filesharing
- you may block the whole list, or enter into the list and check/un-check specific programs such as: BearShare, Kazaa, Morpheus, GNUtella, EDonkey, BitTorrent, FastTrack
c.) Allows blocking of Media Players
- you may block the whole list, or enter into the list and check/un-check specific programs such as: Windows Media Player, Real Media Player,... Read more ›

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only for the youngest of browsers., November 14, 2009

THATCH "RST" (OHIO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: McAfee Family Protection 2010 3-User (CD-ROM)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

I would only recommend this for the youngest of computer users for one simple reason-- there is no option to say "block other browsers". Any person who has normal rights on a computer can install a browser like Google Chrome for which this product does absolutely no blocking! Zero! And as you know... every time you go to Google, it suggests that you install Google Chrome... and sooner or later it's probably going to happen.

One way to solve that problem would be to have a feature in the software to "block all browsers except those McAfee can manage" just as it manages lists of bad websites and other content.

Another way around this would be to create separate login accounts on the computer and create one for the "suspect browser" without rights to install software... but in the day and age of iTunes, kids knowing more about computers than adults, not allowing any installs is also fairly unrealistic.

That gaping hole aside, the rest of the program is fairly secure for installation & management of internet usage for the machine... it offers various blocking on email accounts, web mail accounts (all or nothing blocked on that), as well as IM blocking & big brother logging, etc.

This program had a lot of thought put into it, but as soon as I realized I could open Google Chrome and browse any XXX site available, my trust in this product went through the floor.

Sure, you can manually block alternate browsers by blocking the EXE file like blocking "chrome.exe" but there are all kinds of browsers out there these days... Until McAfee can get a handle on what browsers can access the internet by using some type of allowed firewall list, I can only recommend this for the youngest of browsers who don't even know what a browser is yet, or would have no idea how to click click click until another browser installs.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tech Support & Product Both Have Serious Problems, October 25, 2009

David A. Bielby "Ev Xpistw" (Normal, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: McAfee Family Protection 2010 3-User (CD-ROM)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

I was pretty excited about this product. However, after installing it and testing it, I cannot recommend the product. Warning: If you play online games with your computer, and you set this product to allow games, it seems to randomly cut off internet access to games even so. To remove the product, there are no instructions. You must contact technical support and spend about 20 minutes wading through the tedious effort to find out what steps are necessary to remove this software (and still retain use of your license). Once the software instructions are in hand, it's pretty easy. If McAfee can resolve the problems I see in this review, this might be a very good product. Until then, it remains a 1 star in my mind.

There are two other problems I see with this product. The two problems in a nutshell are: Tech Support & Product Effectiveness.

Tech Support Process requires interaction with a software program that didn't work correctly on my computer, effectively blocking me from tech support. I have never seen anything that bad before. It's horrible.

Second, I was able to bypass the filter on my first try. This is because what McAfee doesn't say is that it only works with certain browsers. IF you install a different browser than the top two or three, you can do anything on the internet you want. Google (no small company) offers a free browser called [...]. It's faster than Firefox or Explorer in my experience and easier to navigate...so I've been using it for about a year. And my kids use it too. BUT McAfee doesn't filter if you surf through [...]! So a free download and this product is completely useless.

I spent 2 hours fiddling with this product to install it. Here's what happened in a nutshell.

I downloaded the product (no cd comes in the cd sized box). When I clicked on the link to install it, a msg came up that said something like 'you have changes to software that require a restart before you proceed'. So I restarted.

Then the download was gone. I could not find it after the restart. So I had to go back to McAfee to re download the never installed program! BUT, McAfee won't let the same computer download it again unless you go through the painfully slow process of chatting with a technician (who is in India). So I did that. 30 minutes later, and after answering a lot of what I considered invasive questions, I was told to log back in to my account and another download would be authorized. So I did that. And the second download worked. This was now about 60 to 70 minutes after I started (with hold times and all in there). The technician required I remove my AVG Free Edition to install Family Protection (the product never suggested or required this in my instructions). So I did that. Then I installed Family Protection and it seemed to work just fine. I created users and then opened my browser. I had selected block functions for a lot of sites, including porn.

To test the product I opened my browser and pulled up images on [...]. I then punched no restrictions to my search and it let me do that. It did not filter a search for free porn. So I closed the browser and opened a different browser. That browser was filtered correctly. A third browser was filtered correctly. Without giving away the exact names, this product only filters some browsers. A browser offered for free on the internet by one of the largest software companies in the world is completely unfiltered by this product. So, I recommend that it not be used to protect your family. All your kids need to do is use the browser this software doesn't filter through and they have unrestricted access.

Before I wrote this review I tried to contact their technical support again. This time I was required to use the virtual technician to 'solve my problem'. So I did that. I downloaded and ran the virtual technician. It came back and said that everything was working just fine. Then I tried to go on to chat with a technician to let them know my problem with this product. But the 'award winning tech support' (their boast on the site) informed me that I could not chat with a technician because their software could not find virtual technician installed on my computer. And I was required to use their automated virtual technician before I could chat with a technician in person again. So, I am unable to solve this problem.

Bottom line: I have a headache after dealing with these guys and I cannot recommend this product above a 1 star.
Sorry guys.

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