McAfee Security Suite SCREWING UP MY COMPUTER!

[Howard Davis]

On 8/22/06 I bought and installed McAfee's Security Suite, along with the
browser plugin that determines if a site is "safe" or not. Prior to this I
had the Security Suite with VirusScan 10, and it and my computer were
functioning fine. I have Windows XP home edition.

Since the installations, bootup takes an abnormally long time. My browsers
(IE 6 and Netscape) do not work at all - they either cannot come up, or if
they do they are very slow and soon crash. The computer crashed entirely on
one occasion. Running msconfig, I find no new items on my selective startup
list.

I have been unable to contact McAfee tech support online, and when going to
their support website from elsewhere I found no means of emailing them about
this problem - just a time-wasting self-help runaround leading back to where
you start from. They seem to not want to give free support. Telephone
assistance requires a per-minute fee. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY for tech
support when the software I paid for is probably at fault!

Advice would be appreciated - thanks.

 

[Peacekeeper]

On 8/22/06 I bought and installed McAfee's Security Suite, along with the
browser plugin that determines if a site is "safe" or not. Prior to this I
had the Security Suite with VirusScan 10, and it and my computer were
functioning fine. I have Windows XP home edition.

Since the installations, bootup takes an abnormally long time. My browsers
(IE 6 and Netscape) do not work at all - they either cannot come up, or if
they do they are very slow and soon crash. The computer crashed entirely on
one occasion. Running msconfig, I find no new items on my selective startup
list.

I have been unable to contact McAfee tech support online, and when going to
their support website from elsewhere I found no means of emailing them about
this problem - just a time-wasting self-help runaround leading back to where
you start from. They seem to not want to give free support. Telephone
assistance requires a per-minute fee. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY for tech
support when the software I paid for is probably at fault!

Advice would be appreciated - thanks.

Best place to ask is here
http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/

latest release has many issues There is a Patch that fixes most issues in
VS11 coming within a day or so. See if that helps then if still an issue
post in the relevant forum. Advice is free and we have atm many development
techs answering questions so the answers are not just from we mods.

Tony

 

[thecreator]

Hi Howard,

When you have VirusScan Plus 11 and Personal Firewall 8 installed along
with the Security Center there are 13 Processes located in Services.


Services settings to display Startup Icons for McAfee Services.

McAfee E-mail Proxy Set to Manual
McAfee HackerWatch Service Set to Automatic
McAfee Log Manager Set to Automatic
McAfee Network Agent Set to Disabled
McAfee Personal Firewall Service Set to Automatic
McAfee Protection Manager Set to Manual
McAfee Real-time Scanner Set to Automatic
McAfee Redirector Service Set to Disabled
McAfee Scanner Set to Manual
McAfee SystemGuards Set to Manual
McAfee Task Scheduler Set to Automatic
McAfee Update Manager Set to Automatic
McAfee User Manager Set to Manual

13 Services in all.

Change the settings in Services.

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

Tip: By right-clicking Services, you can PIN to Start Menu.

 

[Howard Davis]

Hi Howard,

When you have VirusScan Plus 11 and Personal Firewall 8 installed along
with the Security Center there are 13 Processes located in Services.


Services settings to display Startup Icons for McAfee Services.

McAfee E-mail Proxy Set to Manual
McAfee HackerWatch Service Set to Automatic
McAfee Log Manager Set to Automatic
McAfee Network Agent Set to Disabled
McAfee Personal Firewall Service Set to Automatic
McAfee Protection Manager Set to Manual
McAfee Real-time Scanner Set to Automatic
McAfee Redirector Service Set to Disabled
McAfee Scanner Set to Manual
McAfee SystemGuards Set to Manual
McAfee Task Scheduler Set to Automatic
McAfee Update Manager Set to Automatic
McAfee User Manager Set to Manual

13 Services in all.

Change the settings in Services.

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

Tip: By right-clicking Services, you can PIN to Start Menu.

 

[Peter Seiler]

Howard Davis - 25.08.2006 02:15 :

Thanks - changes made. Will report back with the results tomorrow.

ok, but please without all the unnecessary fullquoting again. THX.

 

[Howard Davis]

Howard Davis - 25.08.2006 02:15 :

No change. I'm expecting information from McAfee shortly.

It seems to me that when a company sells you anti-virus software that acts
like a virus itself, they should be made to compensate you for your time and
trouble, no?

 

[edgewalker]

No change. I'm expecting information from McAfee shortly.

It seems to me that when a company sells you anti-virus software that acts
like a virus itself, they should be made to compensate you for your time and
trouble, no?

If anti-virus software really acted like a virus, it would be free to anyone
that waited long enough for it to come around an execute on their system.

 

[thecreator]

Hi Howard,

What is your CPU Processor Speed? How much memory (Ram) is installed in
your computer?

My CPU Speed is 2.93 GHz and 2 GBytes installed in mine. Thus the
changes I made, did have an effect.

I have another computer with XP HE on it, but VirusScan 10 is installed
there. And it is disabled from running. My CPU Processor speed is 466 /66
and only 256 MB of ram installed. I only do manual scans.

 

[Howard Davis]

Hi Howard,

What is your CPU Processor Speed? How much memory (Ram) is installed in
your computer?

My Dell Dimension 8100 is fairly old - I'm not certain of the processor
speed. I have 256K RAM.

My CPU Speed is 2.93 GHz and 2 GBytes installed in mine. Thus the
changes I made, did have an effect.

I have another computer with XP HE on it, but VirusScan 10 is installed
there. And it is disabled from running. My CPU Processor speed is 466 /66
and only 256 MB of ram installed. I only do manual scans.

Disabling it however prevents the automatic and immediate isolation and
removal of malware, correct?

 

[Howard Davis]

No change. I'm expecting information from McAfee shortly.

After a chat session with a McAfee tech, I downloaded IERegFix.bat. I ran
this, and today the computer bootup and IE bringup times were close to
normal. I'm not certain yet that all is OK - I have yet to open and check
out McAfee Security Certer as advised, but so far so good.

According to a computer tech I know, several other people that have this new
McAfee software are having the same or similar problems. McAfee forces you
to buy new software by making it necessary to do so to continue receiving
virus updates when your subscription expires, but they send (AFTER you've
paid for it) what appears to be beta if not defective software, and you must
deal with the aggravation of hours spent fixing it. What recourse does the
consumer have against these practices?

 

[pc doctor]

According to a computer tech I know, several other people that have this
new McAfee software are having the same or similar problems. McAfee forces
you to buy new software by making it necessary to do so to continue
receiving virus updates when your subscription expires, but they send
(AFTER you've paid for it) what appears to be beta if not defective
software, and you must deal with the aggravation of hours spent fixing it.
What recourse does the consumer have against these practices?

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't McAfee offer a 30-day money back guarantee?

I had McAfee's Online A/V, Personal Firewall, and the "safe-web-surfing"
program (whatever it was called) a couple of years back, but got tired of
paying a $30 yearly fee for each one. I switched over to Mozilla Firefox,
and free a/v and firewall programs (currently Avast a/v and Kerio firewall)
and have been very happy with them, have had no problems at all, and I save
$90 a year.
I highly recommend going the "free" route, even if you have to eat the cost
of the McAfee subscription. (Which I did...about 10 months worth). I
justified to myself that I paid $30 for a good a/v program, and it didn't
matter which program that I had on my system, as long as it worked well and
I was satisfied with it.

pc doc

 

[Howard Davis]

If I'm not mistaken, doesn't McAfee offer a 30-day money back guarantee?

I had McAfee's Online A/V, Personal Firewall, and the "safe-web-surfing"
program (whatever it was called) a couple of years back, but got tired of
paying a $30 yearly fee for each one. I switched over to Mozilla Firefox,
and free a/v and firewall programs (currently Avast a/v and Kerio
firewall) and have been very happy with them, have had no problems at all,
and I save $90 a year.
I highly recommend going the "free" route, even if you have to eat the
cost of the McAfee subscription. (Which I did...about 10 months worth). I
justified to myself that I paid $30 for a good a/v program, and it didn't
matter which program that I had on my system, as long as it worked well
and I was satisfied with it.

pc doc

I'll certainly keep this in mind - thanks.
In the past however I've had problems completely uninstalling A/V programs
(Symantec, I believe), and problems installing a new one (McAfee) prior to
the complete uninstall. I paid $43 total with tax for the McAfee Security
Suite which includes firewall, anti-spyware, and "safe surfing." It now
seems to be running fine, alerting me to incoming cookies, etc.. I think no
one really knows (without extensive testing) which of the many security
programs available offer the best protection. I don't trust anything that's
completely free - where is the profit for the provider, and therefore, what
is their motivation?

 

[thecreator]

Hi Howard,

Disabling it however prevents the automatic and immediate isolation and
removal of malware, correct?

No, because the Personal Firewall is being used on a Tight Security
Level, none get thru. And each night or first thing in the morning, run a
Full Scan of the partition the operating system is installed on.

 

[pc doctor]

I'll certainly keep this in mind - thanks.
In the past however I've had problems completely uninstalling A/V programs
(Symantec, I believe), and problems installing a new one (McAfee) prior to
the complete uninstall. I paid $43 total with tax for the McAfee Security
Suite which includes firewall, anti-spyware, and "safe surfing." It now
seems to be running fine, alerting me to incoming cookies, etc.. I think
no one really knows (without extensive testing) which of the many security
programs available offer the best protection. I don't trust anything
that's completely free - where is the profit for the provider, and
therefore, what is their motivation?

I have seen very few problems with the running and operation of
Norton/Symantec products. Uninstalling them is another matter entirely. Some
time back I realized that I hesitate (getting up the nerve) and actually
hold my breath before I click that uninstall button. I'd guess that only 20%
of Symantec uninstalls go smoothly for me.

I always liked McAfee products. For me it was more the issue of spending $90
each year, which was what they were charging at that time. $43 sounds like a
pretty good deal for the Security Suite. A couple of years back,
**generally** people in this forum were really talking up the free a/v
programs and hammering on the paid ones, so I thought that I would test out
a few of the free ones. I finally settled on Avast's a/v and have been using
it for the past 1 1/2 years. I like that it's security is broken up into
modules, and that they can be turned on or off as needed, so as to save
system resources. It is free only for consumer use. Commercial customers are
required to pay for it. It must be re-registered each year, even for free
users, which means the company (Alwil software) has a count on how many free
versions are in use. I have no idea how the government's taxing system works
in Czechoslovakia, but if it's anything like in the USA, then Alwil has one
huge "tax write off" from all the free copies that are in use. In the USA,
that in itself would be reason enough to give it away.

pc doc