Personal Firewall Plus 5

Rating:
Summary: Poor excuse of a Firewall
Review: Have had McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 2004 v. 5.0 for about 3 months. Installs easy, easy setup, no crashes, very compatible. Would I recommend this Firewall? NO WAY, NO HOW...

Never scaned my ports, figuring McAfee was doing a good job. Big mistake. By chance one day, I did a free port scan at grc.com. First scan showed 4 ports open. NOT GOOD....

So went to built-in "McAfee Scan Your Ports" Showed 1 of the 4 PORTS OPEN. Reason only showed 1 OPEN PORT is McAfee's port scanner, "Hacker Watch" only scans the SAME 9 PORTS, and this takes over 4 minutes to do so. At GRC.com, this site scans 1055 in little over 1 minute. Also same results at dslreports.com/scan., verifying grc.com findings/results. Ports still open 80% of time.

OK I change settings higher. Only can go up 1 setting, without shutting ALL In AND OUT TRAFFIC OFF. Still same results, OPEN PORTS. FAQs don't help, so email McAfee Tech Support. That was two weeks ago. Since then have emailed every other day, no reply... Waited to hear from McAfee Support before writting this review, but no reply... Not going telephone route at 2.95 minute. Can buy better Firewall for 10 minutes talk time, or even free Firewall.

Also McAfee is hookup with many other software utilities, and these popup all the time. Tried to shut these off but can't. Think many software companies distribute their programs before complete. Can happen, but no support not forgivable. Hope uninstall works? Don't go with McAfee Firewall, or you might be writing one of these sad stories.

Rating:
Summary: Avoid all McAfee products
Review: Pros:

- It works?? I don't know - it's never done anything on my computer, so maybe it hasn't been tested yet.

- It can be obtained free after mail-in rebates.

Cons:

- Starting around a month before your update subscription ends, McAfee "Buy New Subscription" pop-ups appear, you click on the x to close and they disappear...... for 60 seconds. Then they reappear, you click on the x ..... a minute later it comes back. There are only two ways to stop these popups - go online with your credit card number to McAfee.com to resubscribe to their update service or uninstall the McAfee program. Customer service and tech support both refused to tell me how to disable these continuously reappearing and incredibly annoying pop-ups.

- Tech support is virtually non-existant, unless you call in to their $2.95/minute or $39.99/issue support lines. E-mails get canned, non-responsive answers. The FAQ section of their website has no responses to real questions and the "24/7" tech support chat system is always busy or non-functional - its unavailable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- Having registered a previous version of a McAfee product may prevent you from getting updates on subsequent versions that the user legitimately acquires. I bought both Viruscan Professional 8.0 and Personal Firewall Plus, after getting VS Home 7.0 (both were free after rebates - the only reason I purchased them) and when the auto update tries to give me the current update of my new programs when I go online, it tells me "You are not authorized to receive this service." An e-mail to customer support got me back a confirmation that I am properly registered for the two new programs and I should have no problems. I guess continuing to receive the "You are not authorized to receive this service" response when I try to update the virus database isn't a problem for McAfee. However, it is a darn big problem for me.

-Who knows what sort of spy-ware McAfee installs on your computer with its standard installation? A quick check with Windows Explorer reveals that their uninstallation procedure does not uninstall 100% of the components of the McAfee software you have installed, that is for sure.

Avoid this horribly run company and its products. Even though it's not costing me any more than tax and postage after the rebates to re-subscribe, I think that's still the opposite of a bargain and I regret my decision to stay with McAfee. In retrospect, I should have gone with either Norton or one of their competitors.

Rating:
Summary: A good program but for one ruinous flaw.
Review: Think of Network Associates' McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0.1.5 as an average automobile that can be driven by everyone. Think of ZoneLab's ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5 (published for retail through Broderbund) as a feature-ladened "modified" car, which can also be driven by everyone, but is only truly appreciated by those with the know-how to tinker under the hood to realize maximum performance.

Personal Firewall Plus is an easy-to-use firewall for the average home user. The choice between PFP and Zone Lab's top-rated ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5 will depend on your taste for technical detail and proactivity. Though PFP has fewer features than ZoneAlarm Pro, Personal Firewall Plus compensates with a simpler interface and generally less intrusive operation.

The major operating difference between ZoneAlarm Pro and Personal Firewall Plus is that ZoneAlarm's security controls are much more granular. PFP only has four general settings for the firewall: Trusting, Standard, Tight, and Lockdown; and three Internet access settings for programs: Full Access, Block, and Allow Outbound Traffic Only. Personal Firewall Plus simplifies the firewall configuration process by integrating with Hackerwatch.org, a Network Associates sponsored database of global geographically- and temporally-tracked information security intrusions and virus infections. Hackerwatch provides Personal Firewall Plus with some basic intelligence to automatically determine which programs should be allowed access or denied to the Internet, without bothering the user for permission. PFP will not bother you to let common applications (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, MSN Messenger, Outlook Express, etc.) access the Internet. In practice, this feature works well but is not as smart as it should be. As of this writing, Hackerwatch does not recognize some common or fairly new applications that use Internet access for ancillary purposes, such Intuit's TurboTax 2003 for downloading the latest program updates and tax code revisions. Given Network Associates' work in corporate-level network security, Hackerwatch's slight ineptitude is somewhat surprising.

Personal Firewall Plus provides occasional pop-up notices from Hackerwatch on the latest virii and security alerts. While the notices may be thought of as informative (especially to those who use don't use anti-virus software), they may also be construed as advertisements for McAfee VirusScan. Fortunately, these pop-up notices may be turned off.

For $10 more (retail), ZoneAlarm Pro offers a bevy of privacy features and precision security settings that Personal Firewall Plus lacks. ZoneAlarm Pro has an ID Lock, a pop-up blocker, a cache cleaner, and a mobile-code (JavaScript, Java, ActiveX, etc.) blocker. ZoneAlarm Pro also has a program manager that can selectively authorize program access to the Internet down to specific program modules; and a site manager to selectively specify for websites users have visited whether cookies, pop-up / pop-under windows, and application code (JavaScript, Java, ActiveX) etc., are accepted or blocked. With the exception of the pop-up blocker, these features should be configured by technically experienced users in order to be effective. For example, ZoneAlarm Pro's ID Lock feature, which intercepts and alerts the user to browser and e-mail traffic that transmit personal information, such as private e-mail addresses, social security numbers, etc., begins with a high number of false positives. It takes some knowledge and experimentation to configure the ID Lock properly; to know what information different websites should be entitled to or barred from.

Like any other firewall, Personal Firewall Plus is meant to be paired with anti-virus software. Of note, MSN Premium broadband internet service subscribers receive Personal Firewall Plus and Network Associates' McAfee VirusScan for free as part of their subscription. The VirusScan and Personal Firewall Plus bundle (and its competitor bundles from Symantec) are also sometimes significantly discounted or available for free after rebate. I have never seen ZoneAlarm Pro significantly discounted.

Unfortunately, Personal Firewall Plus has one ruinous flaw: the program deactivates itself when checking whether a user's subscription service (to keep the program updated against the latest hack attacks) is current and valid. In fact, the onus is placed on the user to be alert to this circumstance and to manually reactivate the firewall. It is unbelievable that a firewall would leave a computer open and unprotected to attack, just to check its customer's credentials. It is akin to having your car secretly unlock itself while unattended in a public place to verify with its manufacturer that you owned the vehicle.

As a result, I recommend that prospective customers buy ZoneAlarm Pro instead. At the very least, ZoneAlarm Pro users are entitled to continue to use whatever version of the program installed at the time of a subscription service lapse, however intentional or accidental. In similar scenarios, Personal Firewall Plus users would unexpectedly find themselves at a terrible disadvantage.

Rating:
Summary: Great app!
Review: This app is worth the money! Keeps everything out that doesn't belong! And, unlike the rest of the 2004 line up from McAfee, it doesn't crash every time you open it!

For Firewalls, go with McAfee, for Virus scanners, go with McAfee, but don't buy QuickClean or InternetSecurity (very crash prone).

Rating:
Summary: McAfee has poor customer service
Review: This software was blocking communication on the LAN and after spending countless hours with live chat and exchanging e-mails with tech support over a 3 month period, they could not help me resolve the problem. McAfee would NOT give me a refund because the product is well over 30 days old, even though they could not help me get this software working. I will never buy or recommend any product from this company.