McAfee Firewall 3.0

When I first attempted to install the product, I was unable to connect to the internet, but was able to connect to AOL. Using a backup computer, I chatted with a tech via live chat. The tech pointed me to the article on the McAfee website on "How to Configure McAfee Firewall 3 for AOL". After much effort, I finally was able to connect to the internet. However, I was still getting messages indicating that something was not right. I used the software, problems and all, for awhile and then decided to try to fix the problem. I uninstalled the firewall and then reinstalled it once again trying very carefully to follow the directions provided by McAfee. After I did this, I was unable to connect to the internet, but still able to connect to AOL. I decided to "junk" the software and uninstalled the firewall. However, after uninsntalling the firewall this time, I still could not connect to the internet. Once again I contacted McAfee via live chat (using backup computer) and was provided with instructions to manually uninstall the firewall. I was informed that there was probably some files left on the computer that related to the firewall, and told that the manual uninstall should take care of the problem. The directions assumed you still had the firewall installed. I asked the tech if that meant I should reinstall it. He said no and to just start where you edit the registry. After following all these instructions to edit the registry, I found that only one file folder relating to the firewall remained in the registry. After deleting it and rebooting, I still was unable to connect to the internet.

At this point I am totally disgusted with the product. Now I can't even connect to the internet with my good computer and I'm still trying to figure out how to correct the problem.

So, if you have AOL and are thinking about purchasing the Firewall 3.0, please take heed and do so at your own risk. I hope this article will prevent others from suffering like I have over the installation of something that should have been "a piece of cake"!

If you do, you should pick the package to be compatible with your anti-virus software, since the two can conflict. Fortunately, that's not hard since both McAfee and Norton make anti-virus and firewall products. There is another popular firewall by Fail-Safe Technologies, ZoneAlarm Pro 2, which I actually like better in some ways than the McAfee Firewall and Norton Personal Firewall offerings, as it has a more intuitive interface and is simpler to work with, but I ultimately had more trouble integrating it with my other software.

So if you're already running McAfee virus software, you should probably go with their McAfee Firewall, and similarly for Norton's Personal Firewall. So whichever one you choose will be dictated by whatever anti-virus software you're already running, since you're likely to already have that installed before a personal firewall application.

I note that the two reviewers here didn't rate the McAfee product very well, but two reviews isn't a very large sample. In that case I would recommend you try McAfee if you already have their anti-virus software, and if that doesn't work, give ZoneAlarm Pro 2 or Norton's Personal Firewall a try at that point. Eventually you should find something that will work okay.

Keep in mind that all firewalls require a certain amount of patience setting up and configuring, even for a home system, since you will have to decide which programs you will allow automatic access to the net and which not, otherwise your firewall will constantly be popping up alarms every time a packet from another system comes in. Fortunately, most of them allow you to set up special rules and to customize the filtering and blocking process to some extent.

Anyway, hope this helps. Good luck with it and happy computing!