McAfee Firewall

by McAfee

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004SUHJ
• Item model number: MCF-0001-NA-100
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 13, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 1.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,132 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #49 in Software > Networking > Firewalls
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com

Whether you connect to the Internet by using a modem or network card, McAfee Firewall offers a safe and secure personal firewall for your personal computer. Designed to let you monitor all incoming and outgoing network traffic with minimal fuss, this unobtrusive and simple-to-use utility can guarantee the safety of your system, especially now that more users are connecting to the Internet around the clock with DSL and cable modems.

McAfee Firewall sits between your system and the Internet. After installation, you can answer a wizard-guided "interview" that configures your firewall's behavior, along with the programs that will be permitted to work on the Web. Better yet, as individual applications attempt to access the network, the McAfee Firewall will prompt you without interrupting your normal work. After an ordinary session of computer use, this utility had discovered our browser, mail client, and FTP utility, and we weren't bothered with any more warning messages.

Behind the scenes, McAfee Firewall logs every attempt at network access, and saves the last 100 messages. By using its console-like utility, you can view network activity for every program that's running currently. This application gives you fine-grained control of protocols besides basic TCP/IP, with such acronyms as ARP, DCHP, ICMP, NetBIOS, RIP, and PPTP. Although you might not have heard of them, several of these protocols can be used in denial-of-service and other kinds of attacks.

A handy online help page documents the well-known types of security threats. (Chances are that you'll be surprised at the variety of ways there are to disrupt your system.) Don't worry, however; by checking the "Log Unknown Traffic" option in McAfee Firewall and regularly reviewing your log, you can detect any suspicious activity. In all, this low-cost utility can deliver peace of mind and solid security in an application that doesn't get in the way of your everyday Web browsing. --Rich Dragan

Amazon.com Product Description

McAfee Firewall protects and defends your system, filtering both inbound and outbound communications between your computer and the outside world. Log all connections and connection attempts in the log file and review it later for security and auditing purposes. Protect both dialup or direct Internet connections, such as xDSL or cable modem. Filter all applications, system services, and protocols, including file and printer shares (i.e. NetBIOS); IP protocols (i.e. TCP/IP, UDP/IP); service-based protocols (i.e. FTP, Telnet); ARP/RARP; and DHCP. Additionally, it blocks IPX and NetBEUI on a per-device basis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy a network security book with this software!, September 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: McAfee Firewall (CD-ROM)

I hope you work in networking or have prior experience with firewalls, because, if you don't, you'll have only cursory understanding of this product. They provide no substantial documentation either in the box or on their website. Since I work in this field, I was able to figure it out on my own, but you're probably better off shelling out a few more bucks for 'Black Ice Defender' or 'Norton Personal Firewall'. As for the actual software, it seems to work fine and has most of the standard features for firewall software in this price range. Overall, it's a good package for anyone looking for simple protection for their home systems and will keep all but the serious hackers out.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Adequate for novices only, February 19, 2001

By 

Guy Bloomfield "guy bloomfield" (Chicago IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: McAfee Firewall (CD-ROM)

This is an adequate product if you do nothing but surf unsecure web pages and you're happy with their default configuration. If you shop online, run personal web server on your PC or do anything else that's not plain vanilla, this does not work. On top of that tech support is awful and the automated uninstall does not work.

I read one review which said that you could not use this if you weren't technical. Well, I'm technical and I hate it as well. If you understand network security the lack of basic options with this software is maddening.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful, January 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: McAfee Firewall (CD-ROM)

Couldn't get it to work with Windows 2000 and a dial-up account. After searching their site for a while, I found one note to this effect. Two technicians couldn't help me at all with this problem, and I would think this is a fairly common setup. Bad tech support, poor installation and documentation.

I'll never buy another McAfee product again.