VirusScan Home 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 Bundle

by McAfee

Product Features

• Bundle includes VirusScan 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0
• Protect your PC from viruses, worms, and trojans
• Email and instant message scanning
• Protection from hackers and identity theft
• Enhanced intrusion tracing

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000CE25P
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 2, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,275 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #20 in Software > Networking > Firewalls
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Bundle includes Mcaffe VirusScan Home 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0.

VirusScan Home 8.0:

Are you exposed? Don't surf the Net, download files or open email attachments without the latest defense against more than 67,000 known viruses and the 300 new ones discovered every month.

Trusted by over 2 million satisfied users worldwide, VirusScan protects your PC, files and email address book from high-risk, productivity-killing viruses, worms and trojans like Bugbear, Slammer, Code Red, Nimda, SirCam and Nicehello.

Easy to use and always on guard, VirusScan automatically checks for virus updates and software updates (included free with your one-year coverage), so your protection is always up-to-the-minute. And it's from McAfee Security, the most trusted name in online security.

Benefits:

• New: Email Scanning: VirusScan automatically scans inbound (POP3) and outbound (SMTP) email and email attachments for most popular email clients, including Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Eudora, Pegasus and others.
• New: Instant Message Scanning: VirusScan scans Instant Message attachments sent via AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Messenger.
• New: ScriptStopper: Many of the fastest spreading viruses, like I Love You, use scripts to infect your PC. ScriptStopper detects then stops these threats.
• New: WormStopper: WormStopper stops mass-mailing worms like Sobig by detecting activity that may indicate a new, undetected worm is active on your PC. Like email sent to more than 40 recipients or more than five emails sent in less than 30 seconds.
• New: Detects Spyware: Protecting loss of data and privacy, VirusScan detects potentially malicious desktop applications like spyware, adware, Web dialers and more.
• New: Windows Explorer integration: Access VirusScan directly by selecting files and clicking the VirusScan icon in the Windows Explorer window.
• New: AutoClean: VirusScan automatically attempts to clean virus-infected files when a malicious threat is detected.
• New: MS Outlook Scanning: VirusScan integrates directly on the MS Outlook toolbar for instant, on-demand scanning of older email or folders.
• New: Silent Updating: VirusScan silently updates virus definitions (DATs), without interrupting your work, ensuring your computer is always up-to-date.
• New: Submit Files to AVERT: VirusScan sends suspicious files directly to the McAfee Antivirus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) for assessment.
• Virus Map & Information Library: See how the latest threats are infecting computers worldwide, then research them via direct links to the McAfee Virus Information Library.

Personal Firewall Plus 5.0:

Are you vulnerable to identity theft? Online hackers know more than 2,500 ways to break into naked, unprotected PC systems. In seconds, they steal private files, credit card statements, tax records, passwords—even Social Security Numbers. A perfect complement to anti-virus protection, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus places a protective barrier between Internet criminals and the personal information on your PC.

Ideal for dial-up or broadband (DSL, cable) Internet connections, Personal Firewall Plus not only blocks online thieves but lets you trace the source of hacker attacks, avoid future threats and alert the proper authorities (including ISPs or law enforcement). And it's from McAfee Security, the most trusted name in online security.

Benefits:

• Identity Theft Prevention: Places an easy-to-use, always on-guard barrier between hackers and your hard drive, blocking access to sensitive files, financial records and personal data.
• New: Enhanced Smart Recommendations: Denies outbound Internet access to malicious applications (spyware, trojans and remote-control agents) that might surreptitiously transmit personal data to hackers, while "fingerprinting" trusted programs to connect without unnecessary or false alarm alerts. An improved application database now offers more details about connecting programs.
• New: Enhanced Intrusion Tracing: Features easy-to-read graphical maps showing the source of hostile attacks and traffic worldwide, including detailed contact/owner information from originating IP addresses and all subsequent steps to your PC. Now includes improved Visual Trace geographical data, helping pin-point locations of intruders.
• Exclusive Hackerwatch.org Integration: Links to a dedicated anti-hacking database and Worldwide Hacker Activity Map, offering tips on responding to specific attacks, self-testing tools and channels to email online authorities of hacker events.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Staying with Symantec, November 30, 2003

By 

techdad review (San Francisco Bay Area) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: VirusScan Home 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 Bundle (CD-ROM)

MY SYSTEM:
==========
AMD Athlon 1.4(overclocked to 1.5)
Asus A7V333 Mobo
Corsair 512MB PC2700CAS2 DDR
Windows XP Professional SP1

INTRO:
======
I'd been using Norton Internet Security 2003 for over a year, but my subscription ran out. I have been reading such horror stories about the 2004 version and it's activation woes, that I decided to return to McAfee for a try. After just week, I've decided that one product truly stands out above the other. Mind you, I'm not happy about any software company using the activation process, so I really did want to like the McAfee offering. So what happened?

Security Center Screenshot:
===========================
http://images.mcafee.com/common/screenshots/msc_vso_696x540.gif

THE GOOD:
=========
* Easy installation
* Easy automatic product update
* Nice looking interface and icons
* Inexpensive (though, with rebates, YMMV)

THE BAD & THE UGLY:
===================
* You cannot uninstall McAfee Security Center and cannot use VirusScan without it.
* McAfee seems too desperate with their attempt to integrate all of their products into their McAfee Security Center. They have a security "index" in which they attempt to make the user aware of how secure they are. But the indexes are skewed and I believe they are trying to breed fear into the user to get the user to purchase their other products. Even though you may only have installed VirusScan and Personal Firewall, the Security Center still shows Privacy Service and SpamKiller tabs. Any curious joe would wonder what were in those other tabs. And the curious joe would find offers for 30-day trials on those other products. Once you install the trials, your security index miraculously improves.
* Though the GUI is nice and pretty, it's slow and painfully unintuitive.
* Start-up splash screen cannot be disabled.
* I'm unsure which of the two is the culprit, but either VirusScan or Personal Firewall seriously slowed up my web browsing with Internet Explorer 6.0. Once I uninstalled them both, IE6 was back to normal. I would guess Personal Firewall caused this with some proxy issue.
* VirusScan does not provide time stats on how long a full system scan takes. I find Norton's stats to be useful for when I want to fire up a manual scan and know when I can come back to the computer.

SUMMARY:
========
What I was hoping for was an efficient software product to protect my computer from viruses and trojan horses. What I found was that while it did protect my computer, it did it in a way that was not very efficient. As I said, I despise activation schemes from software companies, but I despise ad-laden software even more. If I'm paying for a product, I expect not to have to see any ads, PERIOD. I personally would recommend Symantec's line of security products over McAfee's. However, you can decide yourself. Both Symantec and McAfee have 15-day trial periods for virus software and I believe both do as well for their firewall products.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars McAfee creates pop-up nightmare, March 18, 2004

By 

Florida "merbine" (Central FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VirusScan Home 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 Bundle (CD-ROM)

Be forewarned that once your year's worth of free updating of virus files expires, McAfee ironically begins popping up repeat windows warning you of impending expiration, and then expiration, and this continues and even presents multiple pop-ups during one session. I've written them repeatedly and you might as well contact the Great Wall. I hate to switch but any company that does that to a paid customer exhibits brazen insensitivity to the whole spam nightmare. They're not the same company I thought they were, apparently.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars You are now UNDER MY SPELL!!!!, March 1, 2004

By 

Karl Pinto "KP" (Hollywood, Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VirusScan Home 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 Bundle (CD-ROM)

This is horrible. I have been a user of McAfee products for the last 6 years now and have been reasonably happy. Until I bought this piece of junk (yes, I'm seldom this vociferous about my feelings for software).

Anyway, in the past one of the things I liked about VirusScan was that it kept me, the user, in control of things. I bought VirusScan and ONLY used VirusScan. I disabled all the other fancies McAfee shipped with the product since I did not need them.

NOW with VirusScan 8, I cannot uninstall (or even disable) Security Center. It runs and tells me things I am not interested in, takes up PC resources and pops things up when I least need them. I also tried to modify my update options to "manual" instead of automatic, but the software does not update DATs manually (gives some Registry Read error). Its as if they have got me under their spell (in keeping with the "Lord of the Rings") Anyway, this is the LAST McAfee product I am getting and I highly recommend you buy a Symantec product instead.

Since I last wrote this, I discovered another abomination from McAfee Support itself. Even though there is an option for "manual update", one cannot actually update the DATs manually. One HAS to do so automatically via Security Center. So after one year, one HAS to buy another subscription to McAfee if one is to remain protected from viruses.

Hope this helps.