Customer Reviews

McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 - 3 User [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I received my customer response message a full 45 minutes before I received a online chat representative.

I contacted McAfee because when I installed their product the McAfee Virus Scan Plus 2008 that I ordered from Amazon a couple weeks before told me that the product had expired. When I contacted McAfee their website said the wait would be 2 min.

The technician I finally was able to chat with told me that the CD does not remove the old version of McAfee. I have to wonder why? Has this never come up before? Can it be that McAfee has so few repeat customers that they would not make their product so that the old version did not interfere with the new version, or baring that they new installer first removes the old version before installing the new version?

This is the way we needed to install products in the 80s. This is not the way that mature well designed products and installer operate.

They only technical support options are online, with the exception of rather expensive pay phone support.

It is my opinion that you might want to give this product a miss and try Norton, CA, shareware or anything else if you think there is even the slightest chance you would like any kind of support


PS I would not give McAfee one star but the system make you give at least one

Look, I could write a review that tries to coddle those who are having a problem with this McAfee Virus Scan program, but for me, it is like finally arriving after a sea of disappointments. (I am talking about McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008-3 User Newest Version) Make sure you remove all other antivirus programs, and firewalls first before loading this McAfee Virus application. I have never seen an antivirus program that works properly with a 2nd antivirus program loaded at the same time.
It includes a Security Center, Virus Scan, Personal Firewall, Easy Network, and Site Advisor.

First of all forgive me for writing such a long review, but there is a lot of ground to cover. For those who like the short version, with less information here it is: Norton slowed my DSL connection down by a third. I spent a day with Verizon, couldn't figure out why all of my other machines in the network were getting 756k, and this one got only 4 or 500 tops. Then I removed Norton, and bingo, instant 756k. AVG free edition is nice but takes a lot of boot up time while it updates upon every single boot up, unless you disable that feature, then it sends out your Outlook email with a message that your antivirus is out of date, and this email could be dangerous, or something like that. Zone Alarm used to be the best, now they are nearing the worst. My Windows 2000 machine went blue screen after an update, took me 2 days to figure out that was the problem, so I removed it after discovering the problem in a forum, and it solved it. Also ZA after recommending it to my friend, would not work at all in a Windows XP Media Center machine. Ask ZA and they say they no longer support it in Media Center. 50 bucks down the drain. Now it takes my XP regular edition SP2 well over 5 minutes to boot with Zone Alarm Security Suite, and I mean WELL over 5 minutes; it's ridiculous. I removed it to load this McAfee Virus Scan (MVS), and the machine immediately booted in only 2 minutes and 15 seconds to the point I was able to bring a Google page up. So I loaded this MVS and the machine booted in only 2 minutes and 45 seconds, once again to a Google page appearing. In both cases I clicked on a Google desktop icon as soon as it appeared, and then waited for the results. It clicks, goes dark blue, and waits for everything else to load, including MVS before it will allow a page to appear. So MVS took only 30 additional seconds to load, and according to Scotty the watchdog in WinPatrol, it loads about 7 .exe files. So that is fast. Now that is with a machine that is loaded up with a ton of programs.

I first loaded MVS in my home office machine, in the same network, with the same configuration, Asus A8N SLI, AMD 64 3200+, 1Gb ram. The home office machine with MVS loaded, gave me the same results but in approximately one minute before I could get a Google page up. (This is an edit, I actually timed the boot up, and not counting the time to type in my password, it booted in exactly 42 seconds) Boot up to Google in only a minute with MVS, and in 2 minutes and 45 seconds in my overloaded machine that used to take well over 5 minutes with Zone Alarm. I'm sold.

While performing a scan it did not affect the performance of the machine, either in surfing the web, or opening programs, even the intensive programs like Dreamweaver MX 2004, or Photoshop CS2.

When loading do as the quick start guide says, put in the CD, then choose the option of loading from the web. It's a 45 Meg download, but it's the latest.

Manage network feature, it recognized all of the other machines, and components with an IP address in my network. It recognized my Windows Server 2003 R2 Edition, but gave me a status message of a request to upgrade to an operating system of at least W2000 or later. I guess that is because of W2003 security, blocking scans.

Before I even acquired MVS I did not understand exactly what they meant by the 3 user allowance, and couldn't find anything on it, so I want to share that with you. Did they mean that you could load it on one machine sharing a network, and then scan individual drives across the network, the same way early ZA did, or does this mean you can put it in more than one machine for full protection at all times. Fortunately it means the latter. I loaded it in the home office machine, registering it in my name to be able to get virus updates, and created a user name and password. Then I went into the other machine, dropped in the CD, did a complete install, but when the registration page came up, I logged in instead, and it instantly completed the registration for me, reminding me of my user name and password, and congratulating me on the installation. So it is a 3 machine complete install, that is cool, or should I say way cool.

I know this isn't about MVS but I advise you to get a free copy of CCleaner from the web. (Google it.) It cleans all the junk out of your computer and you can run it quickly before entering sensitive password sites for example. It cleans out your cache, cookies, etc. in only a few seconds. When you run it for the first time, it will take several minutes to remove it all, for example a ton of web pages you have been surfing, that your machine checks first, before drawing it from the distant server. A slooooow way for your machine to have to work.

McAfee has been around for a zillion years, they have been a leader, and from the performance of this product so far, they have totally aced it. You can see all of the other antivirus and firewall programs I have tried, and this one according to boot up time, and scan speed is the best. It scanned my office machine quickly, although I did not time it accurately. It scanned several gigs of data in what seemed like 10 minutes. My other machine with 230 Gigs of data takes about 5 hours with Zone Alarm, because I am using their older 7.0 version, it took 3 times that long with their newer version that works with Vista and XP. I am using it on an XP machine. Once again, had to get rid of the update, and go back to an earlier version.

Look I can't speak for everyone, or everyone's machine, but all I know is I am totally impressed with this McAfee product, and hope and pray they don't go down the tubes like Norton, and Zone Alarm did. (I have not used any recent Norton products, but Norton was the best when Peter Norton was there solving the DOS problems, almost like a miracle man, then from about 10 years ago, everything of theirs I tried was junk.) Sorry for the pointed remarks, but sometimes you find a product, after spending years in frustration, or at least you find something that works, then it goes bad, and finally, finally, something that really works great like this MVS. For me, my hat is off to McAfee. 150 Stars and counting. Highly recommended to say the least.
PS: I noticed another reviewer was having problems logging onto online acounts, so I put it to the test, logged into my bank account, which is a 3 step process, and also my online server, and did not have any problems. If I have any, or notice anything after using this product more, I will come back and edit the review. All of the essentials place this one at the top for now.

This is a two part review. The first portion was written yesterday afernoon and I saved it in my "drafts folder" in e-mail so if I eeded to change anything after using it for awhile nd eeing if therewer any adverse effects I could go back for a "updated review".

Part 1.


I must say I am very pleasantly surprised with McAfee's VirsScan Plus. I used to not be a fan of McAfee (for no particular reason, I always preffered Norton.

Installation was about as simple as can be. All the "main settings" are already selected by default so the installation pretty much consisted of hitting "NEXT" four or five times. After the install was completed and after a restart it automatically updated the most current Virus Definitions and started and completed it's first scan relatively quickly.

I appreciate some of the features built into the Suite such as FireWall, SpyWare blocking. One of the nicest additions (in my opinion) is the Home Network setup application that enables you to set up a networked printer effortlessly. I have read over the box and the enclosed literature and this feature isn't even advertised but it is a very welcome addition, as I'm sure quite a few people think of setting up a Home Network along the lines of getting a VCR to stop flashing 12:00 constantly :-)

The McAfee "Site Advisor" that shows up in the top right of your browser toolbar is a confidence booster if you happen to accidentally click on a bogus link in an e-mail. Green means it's been tested and is deemed safe and Red means just what you would expect. Stay away!

Finally being provided a license to install this on three different machines without having to pay extra for each additional "license" is great,

My overall rating is 5/5.I took into consideraion, ease of nstallation, and ease of use, feautures, and overall quality. Good Job McAfee.!

Part II.

After 24 hours of having this product installed on two different computers this is a total 360 from my Part I. review. I thoughtI was having "internet issues" during the day today because sites that I go to everyday (CNN, my web bank, etc) I couldn't access anything. The same issue happened on my wife's laptop. I got so fed up with this issue I totally uninstalled McAfee and presto! EVERYTHING works exactly asit should. Hopefully for the sake of everyoneelse it was a "coincidence" on my end that I had these issues, but all it did was re-enforce by preference of NOT using McAfee.

I installed using the CD method and it was fast and clean.
I did a scan and it found 20 problems and corrected them all except 1. I had issues with a program called PRCviewer. I did some research on it, and finally told the software it was okay. I first tried to delete it, but it just kept coming back up.

I turned on the Site Advisor but it gets aggravating. If I was doing it again, I would leave it off, unless I visited a lot of unknown sites.

I didn't restart my computer after I loaded it and it seemed great.
However, on restarting my computer the next morning, my system was jerky. When I would scroll down the page on a forum, there was a long lag. Not knowing for sure if it was the McAfee software I uninstalled it and sure enough it was the software. I have a decent computer that I put together myself, so I don't know what the issue was. I had the same problem with Norton. I reinstalled my free Avast antivirus software and it works like a charm. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles but it works.

I have an Intel 2.80 ghz CPU with Intel motherboard and 3.0 GB RAM. I also have DSL broadband.

I purchased this product after suffering persistent problems with Norton Internet Security 08 and Norton 360. I just couldn't keep the "autoprotect" and "liveupdate" features from breaking. After a couple re-installs and numerous manual fixes I gave up. The McAfee has been stable and quietly working in the background for a month now.
Is either of these providing better protection than the other? Who knows!
At this point, just not having to fuss with it all the time is good enough.

Been using VirusScan for a few years now. Most times it is cheaper to buy the retail package than automatically upgrading through the McAfee site.

The default Firewall configuration is not very helpful. The sections:
Firewall, Security Level is set to "Tight" and should be increased to "Stealth" to block all inbound network connections.
Smart Recommendations gives "Full Access" to any executable it recognizes. Better to Disable Smart Recommendations.
Firewall, Program Permissions. The default Enable Smart Recommendations setting fills this up very quickly. Most programs don't require access to the Internet or they can survive with "Outbound-Access only". I left all the McAfee programs with "Full Access".

The above changes will cause more messages from Mcafee when a program tries to access the Internet. This is much better than the default to automatically give "Full Access".

The SiteSdvisor browser Add-on works well with Google.
e.g. if type micorsoft instead of microsoft, it will put and exclamation sign next to the links in the search results.
However, there is no warning when you type directly into the address bar.

I should start by mentioning that I have never really liked McAfee's software. It has, in the past, tended to be bloatware, much like Norton's products: unnecessarily large (in terms of memory usage), too intrusive, etc.

This version might change my mind, though I would add that I am not planning on giving up my Kaspersky Internet Security Suite anytime soon- it's too good. Installation of McAfee VirusScan Plus went well, it installed quickly and cleanly. The software itself is generally intuitive and elegantly designed. Now I am not a virus lab, and did not run controlled tests to see how many viruses this software caught, but McAfee has generally had a good reputation in that department. The 24/7 live update of virus definitions is great, though I suspect this feature is or should be standard on all virus/security suites. I also like the ability to install this on 3 computers- many of us have more than one PC, and this makes sense.

Overall I recommend this antivirus as one of the best McAfee products in a while. Personally, I prefer the aforementioned Kaspersky software as an all-in-one solution (Firewall, Antivirus, Antispyware, etc), but for those looking for only a antivirus, give McAfee a whirl.

I have been using Norton on all my machines, however am open to change. The software was easy to install and seems to move quickly on my machine.
It certainly does perform as advertised thusfar, and doesn't seem to slow my machine down. I am using it with Vista. You just can't be without antivirus protection these days, and for the money(even full price), this is a nice product.

A very easy to install and manage anti-virus application. McAfee has long been passed off as a "wanna-be" anti-virus software, and has slowly been making its way up to the top. With the release of the new VirusScan Plus, its making itself a real contender in the tight competition out there.

Although it lacks some of the more complex features of the more traditional business protection solutions, it stands out in simplicity of use, updating and protection from hackers, viruses, spyware and safe internet surfing with the included SiteAdvisor software -- all of which is perfect for the casual at-home internet user.

This installation was quite simple; taking about 10 minutes, and gives you the option to install from the CD or downloading the latest from online. Depending on your download speed, I would recommend installing from the CD and then updating later from the main McAfee control panel. Updates were a cinch, and protection was automatically turned on by default. Another great feature to note -- which seems to be more common as of late -- is the ability to install the protection on up to three computers.

Overall, McAfee has done a great job with its latest release, and if you need a simple solution to your internet woes, without killing your PC's performance, and native support for Windows Vista, then look no further.

Five Stars!!! McAfee VirusScan Plus is an outstanding product and an oustanding value. I was previously using Norton 360 Version 2.0 and it was an absolute dog, slowing my computer to a standstill. But this McAfee is just the opposite. Excellent virus protection, easy installation, McAfee SiteAdvisor, easy computer scans, and NO slowing of my computer. My computer is safe and I'm not pulling my hair out!