Customer Reviews

McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 - 3 User [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

McAfee have recently introduced AUTOMATIC RENEWAL. It sounds harmless enough, but what that means is, without telling you first, or informing you via email, you are 'opted-in' to this new service, which debits your bank account for cover renewal well in advance.

Basically, they take money from your account without your permission or consent, using your card details they have on record. Not only that, but you can't cancel the automatic renewal service from your online McAfee account; no, you have to contact Customer Services to get it taken off.

There are many people out there who's bank account will be tipped into an overdraft situation with this little McAfee trick, and the banks will then charge people for going overdrawn with their accounts, and all because McAfee think it's fine to take money from peoples accounts without permission, and opting them into something that should legally be agreed to first.

Bottom line - McAfee gives great protection with it's software, but this latest stunt proves that they can act just as badly and dishonestly as the people online they are trying to protect you from. Shame on you, McAfee

This is a great product but only if you have Windows Vista. I installed it on a computer with XP and one with Vista. It slowed the computer with XP down a bit, but somehow the computer with Vista ran much faster. It has great features, it has most protection plus it can clean old or unnecessary files from your computer to free space. It advises you of any changes to your computer. It can even manage a network if you have one. Things that I don't like about this product is the firewall, and sometimes you have to restart your computer for updates to take effect. It also scans a little slow. But out of all programs I have used like Norton, CA, Trend Micro, and Spyware Doctor, I like this one the most. There are also free programs that provide good security like Avast, AVG, Bitdefender Free, and Cyberdefender, all of these can be downloaded from their own website or download.com. Overall I would recommend this product.

McAfee Internet Security Suite 2008 - 3 User [Newest Version]I bought this program expecting a simple install. The program ran for 30 day then started to tell me my virus definition file was older that 30 days and needed to be updated. i was under the impression that i was protected all this time but i was not. i went to update the file and found that the program did not register itself at Mcafee and their was no 1 year account open under my name . i contacted mcafee and they insisted that i use a 30 trial version instead of just registering my program that i had.
After reinstalling the program i went to see if it had registered at the mcafee site and again it had not.I was still lacking the necessary definition to protect my computer ,while the program was telling me i was protected.Not so.I ask them to activate my 1 year subscription and they refused unless i scanned the box and sent them the number on the bottom. I had already sent them that number and that program number was valid and had never been activated,yet they insisted i scan the box . i was on the phone telling them i have no scanner and a scanner wasnt part of the system requirements when i bought this program. They knew the number was good and never had been activated but refused to register the new product. I told them that the program was suppose to register itself.
.They still refused. I believe they are shipping cds that are not complete and require you to down load and provide info because they simple want to move the old disk. The cds are suppose to register them self . Beware , just because the program says you are protected ,it may not be so. you wont know for 30 days when its gives you the action required message and then you too will have to face the mcafee road block division. i would recommend steering clear of this even though its priced well .You wont be sure of the protection level. It appear that the only thing that works automatically is the auto removal of money from your bank account when it renews itself without telling you. I believe i have simply lost my money on this program because they are insisting that i provide the same information to them over and over and they tell me its registered and it still is not. Im looking at norton now . May be more expensive but their appears to be a reason for that. It probably works!

Only backs up a limted set of specified file types.

I started using the FULL Archive feature on the folders I specified expecting ALL files in those folders to be backed up. Several days later, much to my surprise, i discovered that many of my most important files (Outlook .pst, Office One Note (.one), Quickbooks .qbw, my iTunes music (.m4a files), and who knows what else were NOT being backed up).

ONLY SELECTED FILE TYPES ARE BACKED UP. There are default file types that are backed up, a limited set of other file types you can select, and, if you happen to know the file extentions, you can add others.

The problem is you do not know what you do not know. When you use McAfee Backup to view the files in the folders you choose to backup, McAfee only displays the files for the default file types (or those you specified). If there are other file types in the folder that are NOT being backed up, you have NO way of knowing that; McAfee provides no visibility to the files in the folder it is NOT backing up.

It gives a false sense of security that your files are being backed up when they are not.

I've used the following work arounds to ensure all my critical files are backed up.
1. Problem: McAfee cannot backup Outlook email file (.pst).
Solution: ZIP the .pst file periodically and add "zip" to the "Other" extensions category.
2. Problem: Do not know what extensions are NOT backed up.
Solution: (1) Under Settings/File Types, select ALL known file types to be backed up (check outer box), then
(2)ZIP all the files you want backed up, open the ZIP file, sort by type, then add each extension (i.e. type) to the "Other" category.
Caution; it will not allow you to add an extension if the extension is in one of the known extension categories (even if you have not selected that extension; hence the suggestion above to select ALL for each category type). Delete the ZIP file; only used to identify extensions.

With the above workarounds, I am quite pleased with the product and would increase my star rating but am unable to update it.

WARNING

If you buy this product McAfee will auto-bill your credit card every year for $[...]. You CANNOT turn this off via the web. You must go through customer service and it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to accomplish. They give you the total run around.

It is one of the slimmiest policies I have ever seen. Totally disgusting!

DON'T BE SUCKERED!

Regretfully, Amazon wouldn't publish the entire transcript between me and Nirmal (I mentally refer to him as Nimrod) that I dealt with last night.

A year ago I purchased my Dell computer with Vista. Yeah I know, I see my folly now. Those Mac commercials are kind, Vista is much worse. Anyway, the McAfee security suite completely conflicted with the computer, and after three weeks of aggrevation, they finally got it to work (basically I had to turn off the error warnings).

Now, a year later, the sneaky auto renewal is back. Even though my virus scan is up to date (according to their records), McAfee won't allow my computer to be scanned or protected until I shill out another $69 to buy their Security Center. Then, and only then, maybe, it will recognize that I have already paid for the VirusScan.

Watch out for these scammers. Unless you pay aggregated 99.99 per year for a bunch of stuff you don't need, you'll be caught in a Bangladesh whirlpool of ESL customer support.

Their solution? Uninstall all McAfee products and reinstall....

If you'd like, I have some hysterical transcirpts and .wav files of these jokers bumbling through their help menus.

After loading it the program completely shutdown my computer. It took several hours to remove the program and get my computer up and running again. Downloaded a free anti virus program from AVG and it works great.

Quite a few others may do just as we do - if a company sells products at a reasonable price that perform well and please us, we tend to go back to that brand name again and again. That has been our history with McAfee. We've been happy with their products in the past, and so tried this one with no hesitancy.
The convenience of it protecting three computers is a plus for us, and their online help has been excellent - especially for this computer challenged person during the installation.
It seems that everyday we read or hear more and more horror stories about computers being hacked or users spied upon. Protection is of the utmost importance to us and we feel that this Security Suite does offer that.
What we do not care for is the automatic renewal - would much prefer that it be our choice not the company's. However, having said that we have found that McAfee provides terrific protection, and we'd much rather be safe than sorry.

The McAfee Suite does a good job of protecting me from the dangers of the internet, but at a cost. It constantly wants my attention, like some sort of neglected digital dog. Here is what comes up the most.

1. Updates, updates, and more updates.
2. "Behind the scenes" scans that are so resource intensive that I either cancel them or walk away from the computer while they finish
3. Running commentary on all sorts of websites (they aren't digitally signed, they could be phishing, or they're spammers)

If I wanted to spend the time to tweak everything I'm sure I could reduce the number of decisions I have to make on McAfee popups. But the few things I've tried to turn off seem to get so upset that the resulting red flags and danger signs are equally disconcerting.

I'd rather have something that just protected me enough without me having to be in a long-term committed relationship. McAfee does the job, but I don't feel like it's worth my time investment.

I was a loyal McAfee customer for years up until 2006, when I went to upgrade to the newest version of the Internet Security Suite. I was a bit put off by all the bad reviews it'd gotten, and I had been a little frustrated with McAfee slowing down my computer with the previous verion I'd had, so I decided to give Norton Internet Security Suite 2007 a try.

BAD MOVE. I was very unhappy with it, and was even more unhappy that neither Norton nor McAfee seemed to have put out a decent product for that year.

When it came time to upgrade again (as I personally don't care to simply renew subscriptions), I was pleased to see the reviews for McAfee being much better than the had been the last time. So, I decided to go back to it, and I'm so glad I did! It's much better than Norton (no lagging, no throwing tantrums, none of that - just good ol' McAfee protection!). The security center is easy for me to navigate, and it's got a nice interface. I feel safe and secure, but without any headaches to go along with it!

It's SO much better now that I'm back with McAfee!