Firewall Not Working Properly?

[Quaffa]

Rather than take another discussion even further off-topic, I decided to create a new one, because I thought you might be interested.

Since the upgrade to the 2010 version of the McAfee software, I have had a number of issues with it, including the relatively minor one of getting an occasional 'McSvHost.exe' error message being thrown up on shut-down, and I have made a few contributions to this discussion on the forum-> http://community.mcafee.com/message/123461#123461

My annual subscription with McAfee falls due in a month, on 8th May, and I made it know in that discussion that I felt that I would not be renewing it until the issues with the new software were addressed. I thought I'd give them a month...

However, this morning I received an email from McAfee which informed me that they had already automatically renewed my subscription. I was not best pleased with this... (They justify taking your money 30 days early, apparently, on the basis that this will "ensure the uninterrupted service of your security software", so it's really nothing to do with them just getting your money early, then...)

I followed the instructions in the email to cancel this automatic renewal, and obtain a refund, and this led me to having one of the GoToAssist chat sessions that they do. During the 6-minute chat session I successfully managed to cancel my renewal, BUT...

As soon as the chat session window was closed, a McAfee security alert popped-up, to inform me that a 'Program wants Internet access'. The program it was warning me about was... 'Citrix Online GoToAssist Corporate', the very program I'd just been using to chat with McAfee Customer Support!

Apart from the wonderfully ironic invitation on the pop-up to 'Tell McAfee about this program', it rather alarmed me.

I assume that the alert occurred because I had not previously set the Firewall to 'Allow' this program full access, but if that is the case:-

• Why did it take McAfee over six minutes to warn me about this 'unauthorised' Internet access? Imagine how much data could have gone back & forth in six minutes.

• Why did it not throw up the alert last week, when I had two, rather longer, chat sessions with McAfee Tech Support about the issues with the new software? Was my McAfee firewall not running correctly then? Is it not running correctly now?

I have had McAfee security software installed on my computer since I bought it back in 2007. I am beginning to think that getting annoyed about the way they run their auto-renewal scheme has done me a huge big favour...

[Dinz]

Hi Quaffa,

If you select Standard or Tight security in the Security Settings options, Personal Firewall displays an alert when it detects Internet or network traffic from new or modified applications. If an alert appears recommending caution when allowing the application Internet access, the option Click here will  get you more information about the application and once again this option appears in the alert if Personal Firewall is configured to use Smart Recommendations.

Moreover, Personal Firewall does not recognize all applications which may require Internet access, therefore not all applications will have Smart Recommendations associated with them. And to deal with this, Mcafee has an additional option - Tell McAfee about this program by which you will be directed to a web page asking you for information related to the application. By filling out the form with as much detail as possible, the information you provide  is used in conjunction with other research tools by our HackerWatch team to determine whether an application should be listed in our known applications database and how it should be handled by Personal Firewall.

And regarding your other issue regarding  McSvhost error , I have requested for some additional information through your email, please reply back to it so that we could help you with our best here.

Regards,

Dinesh K

McAfee Community Moderator

on 4/8/10 10:21:10 AM GMT-06:00