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McAfee Security Center 90-day free trial???
Hogwash!! Had my Dell 4600 for a month and still can't get a straight answer about the McAfee Security Center free trial. Virus Scan Online? I'm "not authorized for updates". Firewall and Personal Privacy? "Not installed". Tonight I finally got through their registration process, selected Virus Scan from the menu, downloaded it and applied updates, rebooted, and now Virus Scan Online is "not installed". Standalone scan works fine, though.
My ISP is Earthlink, which offers virus protection, spam blocker, spyware blocker, etc., etc. Is this sufficient protection, or should I be looking at Norton or someone who is more user-friendly AND responsive to inquiries? Seriously, I understand the need for protection but I don't want to commit time and $$ to overkill.
I've been a mainframe systems programmer for nearly 40 years and wouldn't tolerate this kind of garbage from IBM, CA, etc.
This experience makes me wonder why Dell would include the software. Must be a lot of $$ involved.
BBlackie
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February 26th, 2004 05:00
Dell includes that software so that the user will have some initial protection against viruses. McAfee supplies it in order to entice the user to purchase their software under the presumption that most people would rather continue with what they have rather than go through the process of uninstalling it and reinstalling something else.
The firewall and privacy service are optional addons which are not installed by default because the user may choose to invoke the XP internet connection firewall and because the privacy service is really directed at controlling children's access to the net.
The protections the Earthlink claim to provide are certainly NOT enough for protection. Typically it only applies to email for the anti-virus and spam blocking. I seriously doubt that E-link has anything the blocks spyware.
Since you mentioned CA, perhaps you would be more comfortable with their products for your PC. They currently have an offer for a one year free subscription to their anti-virus and firewall programs here:
http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/
If you choose to go with that, be sure to uninstall the McAfee products first by using the uninstall programs for each part in the Start->All Programs->McAfee.com menu, not the Add/Remove in the Control Panel.