The Vault

McAfee Personal Firewall 2005

 McAfee Personal Firewall

Just like old times.

As the boxed versiosn and the online versions become the same, streamlining and small footprints are the rule and not the exception.

There is a great deal to like here. With the exception of the most discriminating of users,  most can get by just fine with this old favorite.

Thursday, October 23, 2004

McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 6 2005

Company: McAfee Inc.

www.mcafee.com

Price: $ 30 to $ 46.00 

Requirements 

Windows 98 through XP

16 Megs of Ram

8 MB hard drive space

Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher 

Review by Kurt von Behrmann 

Many people, myself included, were not aware of the fact that McAfee.com existed as an independent company from the boxed McAfee product line. Realizing a convergence was needed, the boxed versions and the online versions are now identical.  Making the process easier and the software easier to use, McAfee has continued in creating software that is much more user friendly than the competition. 

For those familiar with McAfee Personal Firewall, the program has had some slight changes, but not overwhelming ones. The strong points for the program have always been easy installation, easy set up and of course a small footprint. With convenience in mind, McAfee Firewall remains one of the easiest firewalls to configure and arguable the least intrusive. 

Set up is easy and the program conveniently adapts to your needs.  As a personal firewall for stand along use, this is about as easy as it gets. The program automatically configures itself to the network you are using and quickly adjusts to learn which programs should have net access and which should not. 

A side screen on the right side of your monitor immediately flashes to show you what is taking place and discreetly asks for permission for the given program to access the net. Of all of the various Firewalls, McAfee is the rare one that has an easy to manage user interface. As solid as Zone Alarm is,  adjusting a setting demands navigating a sea of menus and tabs. McAfee has a much more intuitive menu system. 

Stats, programs granted access, net work activity, most if not all of the useful information about your firewall protection is available in an easy to use visually attractive interface. There is little that is intimidating here even for those new to Firewall protection. 

Integration with Hackerwatch, an online site with information about security attacks is still present and the world map of tracker activity is still around as well. Both are interesting, but neither will point you the culprit responsible for hacking your system. But they are interesting and information and if nothing else great to look at on your monitor.

Where McAfee excels with their Firewall protection is the ease of set up and the accessibility of the program. For those new to all of this and just want to get online and stay safe from attack, this program has been a strong contender in an arena dominated by Zonealarm. 

Summation 

Microsoft recently added improved firewall protection with their recent update Service Pack Two for Windows XP.  The only problem is that it is not complete. It only tracks attacks form the outside in and not programs already on your PC calling outward.   

The need for increased Firewall protection is just as important as an Anti Virus program. With users online longer and broadband access making more systems vulnerable, now more than ever, we all need to be more alert. Keeping this mind, Mc Afee has come up with a system friendly program that should keep you safe from the vast majority of what is out there online. 

For those new too all of this, McAfee’s firewall is not a bad starting place.