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tjp63
Contributor III
Message 51 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

The alert viewer issue was a problem for several months, but isn't anymore, since the new firewall doesn't really alert about anything, so the alert viewer practically never pops up, which is what we're talking about here. In the linked article, there was a pic of a pop-up asking whether a risky connection should be allowed or blocked, but I doubt most people ever that pop-up because there was no mention of how to edit outbound connection rules. In the article, McAfee has blocked "The curl executable" from connecting www1.ajaxcdn.org. Fair enough, but that pop-up should appear the first time any program tries to connect to any site, and you can then allow or block it, and create rules.

Let's take a very simple example. Like many people, I have Microsoft Word installed. It being a word processor, there is zero reason for it to automatically connect online, anywhere, ever, unless specifically requested and allowed to do so by the user, perhaps for update purposes or perhaps to embed an external image. Any connection Word makes should therefore automatically be categorized as "risky". Yet, that's not the case. Word can connect to just about every site it wants, and the firewall doesn't inform the user. There is no pop-up, there is no prompt, there is not even a log note. In the previous firewall, there was. In just about every other firewall, there is. In the new "advanced firewall", there isn't. I have yet to encounter a single connection the new firewall would block, yet I have dozens, if not hundreds of connections I used to block with the old firewall, still want blocked, and now have to block them using another firewall despite paying for McAfee's firewall.

Or another example. As we know, FTP uses port 21. I use Filezilla to upload content to my server perhaps once a month or so. Under every other time, I want port 21 to be blocked, and when Filezilla wants to connect, I want to be informed about it, and then allow or block it. Again, this used to be possible in the old firewall, and is possible in every other firewall. But in McAfee's new "advanced firewall", Filezilla just connects as it pleases, no prompts, no log notes, nothing. If a user wants to block it, a user again needs a another firewall, despite McAfee being installed.

The level of security offered by "advanced firewall" is basically non-existent, and user has no control over it. Arguably, if some program would want to connect to www.full-of-viruses-and-other-nasty-stuff.com, McAfee might inform of it (or it might not), but that's not adequate protection, not by a long shot. People here want to make their own decisions on which programs are allowed to connect, which ports are open, and so on. Yet, all the settings to make that happen have disappeared. The question is, where have they disappeared, why have they disappeared, and are they coming back? Because if they're not coming back, the "advanced firewall" is not only useless. It's worse than useless, since it provides a false sense of security. You're thinking you're protected because you have this "advanced firewall" running, yet all the programs keep connecting as they please.

We'd all want the old firewall with all the settings back, preferably with even more settings and more alerts, but if it's a choice between Windows Defender Firewall and McAfee Advanced Firewall, and just Windows Defender Firewall, it would've been better for McAfee to remove the firewall altogether. At least Defender Firewall, as simple and flawed as it is, allows to you make certain settings which McAfee does not, so at the moment, the "advanced firewall" is just a hindrance that confuses Windows Security Center, and even if one want to use McAfee for everything else other than firewall, there doesn't seem to be an option to install McAfee without installing the firewall.

In all the decades McAfee has offered their security solutions, this is, in my opinion, the worst development ever. Removing Anti-Spam was bad, but at least it was removed completely. Removing App Boost... Well, I doubt too many people cared about that. But removing firewall (and it has been, for all intents and purposes, removed, when one considers what a firewall is for), one of the most important components of a security suite, and perhaps even more important than an anti-virus, is unimaginable. This needs to change, or a lot of subscribers will leave, and reviews will be terrible, McAfee being so inferior to every competitor out there.

Srfnken
Contributor III
Message 52 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

@Venkat_YM 

No your answer is not a solution to our problem.  The McAfee firewall does not work!  It will not allow me to set rules for programs that I do not want to connect to the internet.  Your current version of the firewall only allows McAfee to set these rules, like you know what is best for my PC.  I do not think so.  We want to be able to set these rules, not let the software decide.  Is that going to be fixed back to like it used to be or do we abandon the software all together and go to a competitor?  Because I paid for a 5 year license in December so this is now a change that has gone backwards to the 90's when computers were just were just starting to connect to the internet.

Tarek1
Contributor III
Message 53 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

The answer to all our problems is the same by all mods, It looks that nothing will change. Simply, change to other security software with good built-in Firewall

cyberdude
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 54 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

question

one user has reported to have received Version R109 and has no longer the mcafee icon in notification of taskbar for Windows.

therefore not longer possible to right click and have menu option visible..........

does anybody else have received version R109 already and see the same ?

McAfee Support Community - Re: Taskbar icon is gone - McAfee Support Community

 

phizzle
Contributor II
Message 55 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

@cyberdude : i can't confirm this. i have r109 now and still see the taskbar icon.

(firewall is also still the same sh*t...)

tjp63
Contributor III
Message 56 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

For me, the icon comes and goes, and it did that already in R108. I only realized I got updated to R109 because Security Center first informed me my virus database was out of date, and then informed that both McAfee Anti-Virus and Defender are off. That seems to happen in these R1XX releases. Sometimes the icon comes when I open McAfee from the start menu, stays for a while, then disappears. Sometimes it appears after a reboot. Sometimes it never appears, despite opening the program. Bug, definitely, but appears only sometimes, so I couldn't replicate it if I tried. Wouldn't know how.

Opening up R109 the first time, there was a pop-up advertising Advanced Firewall, so I guess this is how it's from now on. Just for the hell of it, I ran McAfee on a new laptop with nothing crucial on it, and that I was going to format, anyway, so I wasn't logged in on anything, and therefore felt pretty safe. I installed dozens of software I never ever ever want to "phone home", and I used two torrent clients and downloaded the shadiest software from the shadiest sources.

McAfee's previous firewall would've informed of all of these, and blocked them. Most of them automatically, thanks to my rules, and the rest when they would've requested access and I would've denied it. How many warnings/blocks by McAfee's Advanced Firewall? Zero. Not a single one. And these were some truly shady connections, and the programs were known for sending personal info to the maker's server needlessly.

For a while, I thought I'd keep McAfee and NetLimiter running, but now I'm thinking of throwing McAfee away for good, and exchanging to a better one. I don't want to promote anything in McAfee's own forums, but as long as McAfee's firewall is at it is now, I think all the options are better. Suffice to say that I'm considering a program that really acts as a DEFENDER for my BITs...

I don't know which bothers me more. McAfee still advertising Firewall on their main page, or McAfee advertising "Online security experts: Get technical assistance and peace of mind from our dedicated team and support knowledge-base". I have nothing against using cheap labor (probably Indian people) who aren't fluent in English, if they'd know just the very basics of the software, but anyone who's been in contact with McAfee's customer service knows that the people there can only tell you to uninstall and reinstall the software. I guess the "experts" and the "peace of mind" are reserved for large corporate clients? Still, one would assume that private consumers as a big group do bring revenue, and since McAfee no longer offers any real benefits over just using Defender, one has to wonder how many will choose McAfee anymore? Probably only those who read the promo ads from the main page and then get a truly false sense of security?

cyberdude
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 57 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

hello @phizzle 

thanks for responding.

i received also in the meantime version R109 and noticed the icon was still there on my end in the taskbar iconsection.

i have asked the poster in the topic above and he could confirm that he had the icon now visible.

perhaps the update was not completely done and after several new starts it did correct itself...

anyway problem soved for now for this user.

thanks

cyberdude
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 58 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

hello @tjp63 

yes, i am concerned aswell of the new version in particular of the Advanced Firewall. still in WSC center not visible that mcafee is working with Windows Firewall as indicated in the Mcafee App itself.

we have to see how things go on from here and waiting for reviews in coming months of this new version.

strange is that when i want to do a fresh install i still have version R51 and have to wait for a few days that it updates to this new version........................

 

Peacekeeper
Message 59 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

Mate consider yourself lucky mine does not ever update past R51. Lol

cyberdude
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 60 of 77

Re: Firewall Release Name: 16.0 R107 settings for blocked programs missing

@Peacekeeper 

could a mod provide you with the new installer version perhaps ?

did you see my pm in your inbox lately  

 

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