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Not liking the McAfee security - anyone else ??

Ever since the Security Suite changed from Norton to McAfee I've been having some computer issues. CPU usage is 100%, some hangups and slowdowns. I have highspeed DSL. I"ve checked in programs and it looks like all of Nortons programs were removed. Anyone else having any issues? I'm reluctant to contact Verizon since I always get outsourced! thanks

Comments

dslr595148

#1 If you paid for that program, cancel and go get your self another anti-virus program such as Avast.

#2 If you do not pay for that program, good 🙂

Go get your self another anti-virus program such as Avast.

#3 Be sure after downloading the program, to unistall McAfee Before you install the other program.

tinaeva

This program practically shut down my laptop. Constant scripts appearing, everything running incredibly slow--I couldn't even type a transaction into Quicken without the hourglass--and crashes whenever I tried to save files to a CD. After a couple hours on the phone with Verizon tech, they had me download the malwarebytes anti-malware app and it found 22 files, but removing them did not solve any problems. I finally "triple-removed" VSE from my computer and am now happily using Microsoft Security Essentials with no problems and for free. I was actually afraid my hard drive was about to go before I got rid of the McAfee "upgrade" but now everything is fine.

Spencer58

Yes it sux my other computer was attacked by a virus and Mcafee says everything is OK ...can't even start up ???

tjswist1

Site Manager kills my clock speed. I've installed and installed three times to no avail; furthermore the package won't activate my updates account. I am going to opt out and go third party--for $5.99 a month it's not worth the hassle.

Garry

i never did like McAfee.

Always seemed "buggy" to me.

I used to buy Norton every year, but was in contact with our local cable provider a few years ago (before I switched to Verizon DSL) and he told me that the only thing they use in their own computers is Avast. He was very serious and told me that for what I used the computer for I could get away with the free version of Avast and be just as safe as if I was using a pay-per-year subscription to Norton and any other ant-virus software.

NO antivirus program can say that they are 100% effective.

Yeah, it missed 1 or 2 malicious "bugs" here and there over te past couple years I've had it .... but so did McAfee, Norton, The Shield, Kaspersky, .....

If you play it safe and don't download a lot of "questionable" material you should be fine.

Avast works!!

Just my 2 cents worth of experience if it helps.

MikeNH1

I've had way too many problems with the McAfee software since the change.

From the first I couldn't get the install to proceed past the Initialization step. This was on two computers both configured about the same.

I requested help through the on line chat session and after remotely accessing my computer the Verizon support person ended up uninstalling my old VISS software and disconnecting. So now I have only the MS Firewall and no anti-virus or other security software.

After stumbling around for hours I installed the Verizon In-Home Agent, which seemed to finally install the new McAfee VISS software. But it indicate the software isn't activated. When I try to activate the activation dialog comes up and never completes. I have to go the to the task manger and kill all McAfee and Verizon processes to get rid of it and then reboot to get the security software back online. (rebooting alone didn't work because the activation dialog came right back.) Also, many dialogs cannot be acknowledged. There are buttons for OK, or cancel, but pressing them has no affect. I can usually alt-F4 to kill them.

So know my VISS will expire in about 1 week. I tried the on-line chat agent again and again with the remote accessing and after 3/4 hour they got nowhere.

I think my next choice is to purchase my own security suite but I think a better choice is another ISP.

Mike

MikeNH1

Well I've finally solved the problem, I managed to get rid of VISS and am now using Comodo, a free AV and Firewall suite.

As I mentioned, it took several hours to get the new McAfee version of VISS installed...well, it took me much longer to get rid of it. It absolutely would not uninstall. I had the exact same situation on both of my PCs. I tried to rip it out by the roots using some sysinternals tools, stopping services, deleting files, removing registry entries, etc. Finally I had it completely gone, unfortunately I caused some further damage to windows.

I wouldn't have been that aggressive but a few years ago I had gotten Acronis -- a tool that saves backup images -- and I had recently imaged both machines to a USB hard drive. I restored the image with the old VISS software, uninstalled it, installed COMODO, and I'm off and running again.

By the way, my system performance has significantly improved over either version of the VISS.

I probably have spent around 12-15 hours getting both systems right -- I don't want to go through that again.

Mike

dmars008

Still having trouble activating service. Also CPU usage is at 100% at all times

Also, virus scan has been on-going and slowing entire CPU down-going on a 24 hour virus scan

My PC sounds like it's about to explode

thefelts

I had the Verizon orginal security suite for over 3 year on several pc's it worked great ...than when they switch to McAfee i started to get some many problems i had to cancel my subscribtion..and get my own anti..virus

rellim5

Mcafee is driving me crazy. I keep getting a message that I must activate the Verizon McAfee Security Suite by 1/30/11 or my computer will be unprotected. I've hit "activate" several times, the wheel spins, then I get an error message that the Security Suite cannot be activated at this time. It says I should contact Verizon Support. I have contacted Verizon support support. They tell me this is a McAfee problem, not a Verizon problem, and I should look at "www.DropDead.com". I've spent many hours looking at web sites supplied by Verizon all over the place, and still no solution. I'm getting very tired of this techie nonsense. 1/30/11 is coming in a few days. If I don't find a solution by then, I'll be unable to use the internet . I'm. new to using my own computer, and am thinking of chucking the whole thing. Or perhaps seeing if I can cancel the security contract with Verizon, going to Easy Tech at Staples, and asking them to install Norton for me. This nonsense is taking hours and hours I should be devoting to more important work, not trying to solve **bleep** , unnecessary technical puzzles.

smith6612

Don't bother with Norton, McAfee. Security Suites are honestly unneeded and tend to be more trouble than they're worth. Download and install Panda Cloud AV or Avast! Free Anti-Virus, both of which are very lightweight on resources and have great detection rates; remove any other Anti-virus software before installing one of them. Use Windows Firewall as a firewall, and also keep MalwareBytes Anti-Malware handy. For a browser, I suggest Firefox with the Adblock Plus Plugin (subscribed to EasyList USA). You'll be covered nicely with this setup.

rellim5

Thank you for the information. I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind, but I don't know if I have the cumputer sophistication to do all that right now.I'm learning a lot from these current struggles though. I really appreciate your concern for m y security problems. Verizon Support has not been very helpful. I also accidently blocked the screen sharing they use to help. (www.verizon.net/share). Can you tell me how to unblock it in mcAfee---thank you

smith6612

Open up the Security Suite and search for the Program Control section of the firewall. It should show a listing of programs on the computer that are allowed or denied access to the network/Internet. Find the name of the support software they use, and simply change it from Deny to Allow. I'm not too familiar with the software, but it should give you an idea of where to look.

LucyLou3

I have McAfee and was looking at a site that has domains and websites for bidding and buying purposes when I got a virus or something that locked my computer up. I saw a red warning in a flash. It happened so fast. I had been looking at the site a long time and was deep in the site. The site allows you to click on the actual site in order to look at it and I think that's when it happened. The site is popular (Flippa.com). They wouldn't do anything about it either. It cost me almost $100 to get it fixed. McAfee would not own up to it.

PhonicsSealed.com

rellim5

People who know computers much better than I tell me McAfee is not the best Security Suite. They recommend Norton, Bit Defender, Kaparsky, and other systems mentioned in this blog.I'll stick with Verizon McAfee for now, but I intend to research this issue in Consumer Reports and other sites. Going out on the web without a really good security suite is like having sex with many strangers without a really good condom---very dangerous!

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