McAfee Anti-Virus Gripes

The big guys try to take advantage of unaware consumers. See story below for more on this. Microsoft, McAfee, Symantec charge cards repeatedly By Scott Dunn in the May 17, 2007 edition of the Windows Secrets newsletter.

McAfee, Symantec and Microsoft (with Windows Live OneCare) all set your credit card up for automatic renewals when you purchase their security software on-line. For some people this is the right choice, but the gripe is that you can't opt out of this during the purchase. McAfee customers can call 800-791-4577 to decline the auto-renewal. From: Gotcha: Automatic Security-Software Renewals Robert McMillan in PC World magazine. December 21, 2006. Be aware of auto-renewal agreements before you sign up. This is a follow-up to: Antivirus Vendors Shift to Automatic Fees by Robert McMillan, in PC World magazine. November 22, 2006.

 

November 14, 2005. Perpetual Licensing Mysteries at McAfee  By Ed Foster at Gripe2Ed.com.

December 21, 2004.  Are Security Vendors Tricking XP SP2?  PC World.  Windows Security Center may not know when your antivirus definitions are out of date. Quoting: "...when we installed ... McAfee's Internet Security Suite 2005 on a system running SP2, both apps caused the Windows Security Center to erroneously report that the products were up-to-date ...  in the case of McAfee, even the vendor's own product incorrectly reported that it was up-to-date out of the box ... The antivirus signature files are deliberately dated to the time of install, specifically to "avoid Windows Security Center out-of-date messaging," on Windows XP SP2 systems, says Brent Lymer, senior director of product and partner management at McAfee Consumer."

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October 22, 2004. Dell is doing well, selling lots of PCs. I happened to work on a new Dimension 3000 recently which led to these McAfee AV gripes: 

• You have to provide an email address to use the version of McAfee Anti-Virus included with this new Dell PC
• You also have to chose a password to log in to their web site. Using competing programs does not require this. Needing to remember an email address and a password should not be needed to get virus updates 
• Virus definitions are called a DAT file, no very user friendly 
• The user interface does not tell you when the subscription expires. 
• It has no options for scanning the Master Boot Record (MBR) or the Boot Sector
• Answering the simple question of what version of the software you are using is too hard. For example, the computer in question is Build 9.0.10, Engine version 4.3.20, DAT version 4.0.4400. 
• Answering the simple question of how recent are my virus definitions is also too hard. I think this is a DAT file. Then again, for the DAT file the software reports both a version and a date. The difference is not obvious at all. In contrast, Norton AntiVirus reports the date of your virus definitions. Simple, easy, obvious. 
• Script blocking does not include an option to permanently authorize a script - Norton AntiVirus does. Without this, if there is a script you use more than once, you will have to authorize it to run each and every time you run it. 
• When it needed updating, the software said "a web service update is available". A web service? AntiVirus software needs new virus definitions and bug fixes to the software itself. What is a web service? The term has a meaning in the world of computers but it has nothing to do with anti-virus software per se. 

November 3, 2004. Sure enough, not long after registering, I started getting spam from McAfee. At the bottom, the fine print of the spam said "This message is being sent to customers who have a McAfee SecurityCenter 90-day expired subscription."  That is not true, it had been less than 90 days from when I registered until I got the first spam message. This is the first time I was told how long the trial subscription was for.  Another spam message, the next day was forthcoming about the trial dates. It said that the 90 day trial expires in 75 days. The cost of a one year subscription was $35. Ouch. 

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See my Dell gripes for gripes about the McAfee security center that is pre-installed on Dell computers. May 16, 2004. 

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August 6, 2003. McAfee Antivirus Tool Blocks Internet Access eWeek magazine. By Dennis Fisher. When VirusScan Professional 7.0 is update to version 7.03 on some machines running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, it prevents the PCs from connecting to the Internet after the suggested reboot. The problem seems to be affecting customers who upgraded from 7.02 to 7.03. 

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PC Magazine, April 22, 2003 issue. They reviewed personal anti-virus programs. Quoting: McAfee VirusScan Home Edition 7.0 ... requires too much knowledge on the part of inexperienced users when a virus is encountered." They preferred Norton AntiVirus 2003. They also said "...its plethora of configuration options can leave less experienced users perplexed by tough decisions about suspicious files." The magazine points out that paid tech support on the phone is either $39 per incident or $2.95 a minute. 

The magazine also reviewed the results of independent lab tests on how well assorted anti-virus programs actually perform at catching viruses. McAfee anti-virus was the worst. Quoting: "Aside from Network Associates (McAfee), with only 69 percent, the rest of the products fared respectably."

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In the July 2002 issue of PC World magazine, they said the ease of use of McAfee Anti-Virus was poor (page 95) and they preferred Norton AntiVirus. 

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McAfee, Stop Nagging Me! The On Your Side column in the July 2002 issue of PC World magazine (page 48) deals with the problems of a McAfee VirusScan Online user. The person was bombarded (their word) with pop-up messages saying that his account information needed to be updated immediately even though his subscription did not expire for months. When he could not get a response from a human being at McAfee, he wrote to the magazine. The magazine follow-ed up and was told that "McAfee.com asked him to enter his credit card information in his online account so that if he renews his subscription he won't have to enter it.". Wow. 

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March 25, 2002. Is McAfee pushing users to upgrade their virus scanners to version 6.0 because their current versions are "out of date and are no longer supported"? Some users may not need to purchase the upgrade. Read about many contradictions on McAfee web sites which are confusing and misinforming. Dennis Faas, Infopackets 

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February 7, 2002. Yikes! No Gripes? New York state has sued the maker of McAfee anti-virus software alleging it is restricting free speech by barring customers from publishing product reviews without its consent. Network Associates explicitly prohibits customers from criticizing products. They demanded a retraction of an unfavorable review published in Network World magazine.  Read the story from Excite, CNet,  Salon and the New York Times. 

January 2003. A judge has enjoined Network Associates from selling its products with a speech restriction. For several years Network Associates has prohibited users from publishing "product reviews" or "benchmark tests" without permission. January 17,2003. From New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer

January 9, 2002. McAfee Internet Security 4.0: Strong Security, Fragile Software. PC Magazine by Edward Mendelson. This is a very rare negative software review. Quoting:  "...McAfee Internet Security 4.0 ($54.00 street) is obviously a direct competitor to Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2002... On our tests, however, the software crashed often, was confusing to use, blocked fewer ads than Internet Security 2002, and had one problem that couldn't be fixed by a downloadable upgrade—the supposedly bootable CD wouldn't boot any of our four different test systems."