McAfee Total Protection 2008 - 3 User

List Price: $79.99 Discount Price: $24.99

Features:

• Comprehensive PC and Internet security software
• Guards against viruses, hackers, and spyware; 24-hour protection
• Stops wireless intruders, identity thieves, spammers, and predators
• Backs up and restores important files; intercepts prohibited Web sites
• Automates file and printer sharing among trusted friends and family

Customer Reviews:

Solid protection, SiteAdvisor a bright spot [Posted on 2008-07-15]
McAfee is one of the two top providers of protection software for the PC and this latest package is ambitious as anything they've ever done. Long gone are the days when they just put an anti-virus program on the shelf, this suite includes a firewall, backup options, spam filters, parental controls, and an advisor that warns you when you're visiting a web site known for activity such as tricking you into downloading adware.

In many respects, it's difficult for an individual to truly test a package like this because you're not going to slam your system with viruses and engage in all sorts of risky behavior just to see if the software protects you successfully or not. I can say that I have had no problems with the package and it appears to be doing its job. The feature that has been the most obvious helpful so far is the SiteAdvisor which warned me about sites offering free screensavers and similar come-ons to infect your computer with adware. It's also warned me that certain sites spam you with excessive emails if you sign up and has generally helped me stay clear of trouble. It does it in a fairly low-key way but is very helpful.

I gave up using anti-virus programs some years ago because I'm pretty careful about what I put on my machine and I simply couldn't stand the constant barrage of popup messages from the programs that were nothing but reminders that they were on my system. In effect, they were early forms of adware more annoying than some of the viruses they were there to protect me from. Thankfully, McAfee seems to have realized that this software should keep a low profile unless it has something useful to offer and I've been very satisfied with its performance so far. I would especially recommend the product to those who register with a lot of web sites or download a lot of material from the Internet (or friends).

Does The Job, But Only Average Product Overall [Posted on 2008-07-17]
Let's say that your computer has no protection suite and you have never used a competitor's product, you will probably never know the difference and your system will be adequately protected from the worst scum of the universe. That is probably the strongest recommendation that I can bring myself to give for this suite.

I will start with the good on this review, because there is not really that much to say. The product installs easily (remember to uninstall any competitor's product before trying the install of McAfee Total Protection, it will remind you if you have forgotten). Configuration is not difficult and the included products are pretty extensive (read the product description above, it has nearly everything you could hope for in protective software). That, however, pretty well sums up the good stuff.

On the flip side, after installing, I found that the boot time on my dual core Centrino system with 4GB memory, increased by minutes over the 10-20 seconds that I had come to expect with Norton 360 installed. I also had trouble registering the product even after multiple manual attempts. Online support was relatively helpless to help me resolve this problem, at least the first line team. I was eventually bumped to the true technical help (after first being advised to call the fee based help line). At this point the registration completed successfully. Throughout the process McAfee Total Protection had been advising me of new products that I might be interested in (remember those popup windows browsers used to display before popup blockers? Yeah, you get the picture). This required another online help session to turn off that setting on McAfee's end (I was informed that this is a user selectable option, but once it is set, the user cannot change the setting, only McAfee can change it).

All in all, after a couple of days, I uninstalled the suite and reinstalled Norton 360. Boot time is back to what I expect and I do not see any unreasonable slowdowns or spurious alerts messages advertising products. I still prefer Norton Internet Security for the ease of non-standard configuration, but I can wait until after this year's subscription expires to make the change. P-)

Where, oh where? [Posted on 2008-07-17]
Sheesh, comes time to review and you still can't find the installation diskette!

Will update review after I've had some time with the product ...

Good Protection [Posted on 2008-07-17]
It's hard to review security software, since when it does its job you (ideally) don't notice it. I have had no problems using McAfee Total Protection on my Windows Vista computer, and that's all I can really ask of it. It was easy to install, it's easy to use, and it hasn't caused my computer to crash so far.

Seems to be working at least as well as its competitor on my machines [Posted on 2008-07-20]
Installation. If you have Vista, the CD requires that you download the software; for other platforms, you can choose installation by CD or download. I have installed it to XP computers using the download version. I would welcome full CD-based installation for all platforms since that's what I would do for a computer that I suspected was infected.

After the full download, the installer checks for incompatible programs, which you must uninstall before continuing. Most of these, such as rival virus software, will require rebooting in the middle of the McAfee installation. This worked but it seems inefficient to me: why not run a software check before downloading the full program?

Operation. Boot time with this software is quicker than the rival program I had been using. This differs from the experience of some other users who have reviewed the product.

I've been using it for about a month, and I have no evidence of viruses or spyware, so it seems to work. I didn't test it by trying to infect it. I use Firefox as my browser and web-based email through a university with a very good spam filter built in, so my exposure is different than, say, a Hotmail+Internet Explorer user.

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