McAfee Firewall

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, saving 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

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Buyer beware!

My wife bought this program because she wanted to protect our computer from Hacker attacks since we added a cable modem, which, along with its high-speed access, has an "always on" two-way link to the Internet that makes our computer vulnerable to such attacks. And on that front, it appears to have done its job. At least, we don't seem to have had any hacker attacks. But that's where the benefits end and the nightmares begin. You see, my wife also wanted to access her office Outlook e-mail from home, and it would not work on our computer. Her Techie at work told her it was probably the Firewall, and said she should turn it off. Turning off all filtering did not do the trick, so we tried to uninstall the application. No dice. The incorrectly named "Help" file said there should be a file labeled "uninstall CPD" in the program folder. No such file could be found. Their online support said their should be an uninstall Firewall option under the start menu, but it was not there. On top of that, the Help file warned that we should not use Windows' Remove Programs feature to uninstall because it could damage our system! Ultimately what we have then is a program that was designed to protect our system that has instead gummed up the works, and prevented our computer from doing something very basic and important, like reading office email at home! What's worse, because there is no uninstall function, and remove programs doesn't work (I ultimately tried it, fingers crossed), I feel like my computer has been taken hostage by McAfee! On top of all that, their customer service is a joke. In addition to the laughable help file, their web page is extremely confusing (just try and find the answer to my uninstall program problem, or even how to email Tech support!) AND you have to pay a fee for phone support, EVEN THOUGH IT'S THEIR OWN PRODUCT's FAULT!!

As you can see, I am frustrated. The irony in all of this is that McAfee sells another program called McAfee Uninstaller. I laughed a gloomy laugh when I saw that on their web site. Could it be that this program is designed to FORCE you to buy their other program to get rid of it?

Who knows, maybe tech support will finally get back to me with a solution, or maybe I will have reinstalled Windows by then, I don't know.

Bottom line: AVOID THIS PRODUCT.