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Arrlington
Former Member
Message 21 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

I'm a computer consultant that just had my customer purchase McAfee Total Protection 2011. I just wanted the product for the antivirus product to minimize its software footprint, particularly in comparison with a popular antivirus product that slows down a machine. So, I installed ONLY the Antivirus portion. That means I did not install the McAfee Firewall, which I have had prior performance issues with. I re-activated the Microsoft firewall. (BTW, I consider it an undocumented feature [=BUG] when a software package disables part of the Windows operating system and does not inform the user.)  I learned how to disable the firewall alert, and disabled the informational alerts for good measure. I restarted a couple of times and continued to get the misleading alert.

From reading about thie problem, I see this problem has been in existence for several months. Still, McAfee's (likely) offshore programming team can't solve what appears to be a simple programming problem. In my view, corporations get what they pay for when they offshore software development and maintenance. I long for the days when the U.S. citizen programmers were working at McAfee locations inside the U.S. to quickly and properly resolve such problems. I recognize that a few "fat cats" might not like the slightly diminished profit margins. However, I'm confident that customers would appreciate the difference between buggy "Brand X" software and reliable software (like McAfee used to produce.) The benefit would be increased market share for McAfee. Customers are willing to pay for quality.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 22 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

You can't avoid installing McAfee Firewall, however you can disable it and tell SecurityCenter to ignore it.

I suggest you contact Technical Support Chat for verification of this.

It has long been a sales decision to include the firewall as part of the protection package with no option not to install it.

Unfortunately we volunteers have little influence in those decision making processes.

The best feedback would be for customers to try the next year's beta product HERE and use the Bug Reporting procedure to provide feedback on the issue.

By the way, the product you installed, whilst labeled 2011 for sales competitive sales reasons, is the 2010 product relabeled, a common industry practice around this time of year.  The 2011 product has only just entered public beta testing.

Message was edited by: Ex_Brit on 15/12/10 5:58:03 CST PM
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 23 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

By the way, to turn off the Firewall double-click the taskbar icon to open SecurityCenter then click Web and Email Protection, then Firewall.   The setting to switch off the alert about the firewall being disabled is under Navigation (top right) > General Settings and Alerts > Protection Alerts

Check the box and don't forget to click Apply.

POed_Customer
Contributor II
Message 24 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

FYI, I have kept running McAfee on the machine I reported the problem against and inspite of all the updates applied since there has been absolutely nothing done to address this bug.  I recommend that you move on to another vendor to avoid this "maketing and sales driven" misleading and incorrect alert..

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 25 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

As only a handful of people seem to be having the issue it would seem that other factors maybe at work here.

Technical Support Chat is your best option.

POed_Customer
Contributor II
Message 26 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

Now I'm POed more than ever. Just prior to my last post I tried to recommend changing to the vendor named N O R T O N, but when I submitted my post I mysteriously got "an unknown error occured" from McAfee's web server.  I guess they have chosen to spend their precious engineering resources to hide their customer's disatisfaction on their forum instead of fixing bugs in their product line.  Looks like time to move this discussion onto a public forum so a we can have an uncensored open discussion.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 27 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

The servers are in flux as the whole board is in the process of being upgraded...sorry for the inconvenience but it's hardly the end of the world.

I wouldn't start posting those type of posts or the board Admin might take umbrage.

POed_Customer
Contributor II
Message 28 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

Ex_Brit,

I'm sorry, but McAfee support has been stonewalling on this BUG ever since I first reported it.  You on the other hand always seem to respond to forum posts in seconds with either "shutup and drink the Kool-Aid" or "take this issue to a more private discussion with support" type responses.  If you are an independent volunteer immediately reponding to all the posts unfavorable to McAfee so promptly then I find your efforts and dedication quite laudable.  However, your tone and language certainly communicates the message that McAfee PR and marketing are hard at work squashing any open discussion that McAfee doesn't like on this forum. Thanks, but no thanks.  MCAfee has had more than enough time to take interest in, resolve, and deliver a fix to this BUG in the product.

exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 29 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

Sorry but posts that simply complain that nothing is being done really annoy me, especially when the threat of going to the dark side is made, which achieves absolutely nothing,  because something is obviously being done,.   As I just stated - only a handful of people have this issue and the only way it will be sorted out is by opening a case with Technical Support and asking for it to be escalated.

If you like I'll bring the subject up again on our weekly conference call with McAfee management but I can't promise anything.

POed_Customer
Contributor II
Message 30 of 110

Re: Can't turn off "Windows Firewall: off" alert.

"You can't avoid installing McAfee Firewall, however you can disable it and tell SecurityCenter to ignore it."

Another "shut up and drink the Kool-Aid" reponse. Oh and BTW, telling Security Center to ignore that the McAfee firewall has (supposedly) been set to disabled is what this thread is all about.  It flat out doesn't work and it still keeps throwing erroneous alerts to the same all the time.

"It has long been a sales decision to include the firewall as part of the protection package with no option not to install it."

This is pure and simply a sales and markting driven Nazi approach to software engineering. I really don't know what your customer's need better than we do.  Time to shut up and listen or just dry up and blow away like all the other software companies that decided to not listen to their customers.

"Unfortunately we volunteers have little influence in those decision making processes."

Here let me translate, "McAfee PR hard at work here!"

The best feedback would be for customers to try the next year's beta product HERE and use the Bug Reporting procedure to provide feedback on the issue.

What this really says is "we want you money for another year's subscription if you want any (false and mislead) hope of any support."

By the way, the product you installed, whilst labeled 2011 for sales competitive sales reasons, is the 2010 product relabeled, a common industry practice around this time of year.  The 2011 product has only just entered public beta testing.

Unfortunately, this may be the only truth I've heard on this discussion in long time.  It's truly sad that all it says is "Yes, we are misleading and deceiving you with our sales and marketing product decisions."

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