B****y McAfee !!

I bought myself a new laptop last Christmas for my college studies last November and took advantage of the free 12 months McAfee security that came with it, however, I didn’t subscribe until late December. I immediately marked up my calendar for the 18th December this year, to remind myself to cancel the subscription I had to set up, before the end of the month.

I got a notification yesterday from PayPal that they had just paid McAfee £89.99 from my account..... a whole month early !! 

To be fair to PayPal, once I emailed them they’ve put an immediate hold on the money, lodged a complaint with McAfee on my behalf and cancelled the auto renewal that I set up last year. They agreed that they shouldn’t be taking money so far ahead of the anniversary date and it sounds like McAfee might be using the purchase date of the laptop, not the date I commenced the subscription.

I’ve also sent a complaint, cancellation and refund request via recorded delivery to McAfee Head Office in the UK, so I wait with baited breath to see how quickly my money goes back in to my account.

You get McAfee free if you're with BT.

It may depend a bit on what version of Windows you have, but the consensus among computer security experts seems to be that, for any recent version of Windows, the security/antivirus protection that you can get for free directly from Microsoft is as good as any of the paid for ones...

Paulmold wrote:You get McAfee free if you're with BT.

You can put it on your phone and tablet as well.

Paulmold wrote:You get McAfee free if you're with BT.

I’ve recently taken on BT broadband & TV, with free McAfee protection, which is the main reason I wasn’t going to renew my subscription.

As Mojo says Windows comes with a perfectly functional security tool set built in, no need for any 3rd party bloatware security suite.

Haven't had the problem since Windows 10 has been released but I lost count of the number of XP, Vista and 7 systems running dog slow fixed by uninstalling any one of the multifunction AV suites. Stopped using them since the release of Microsoft Security Essentials and never had a problem.

McAfee did the same to my other half, she rang up pcworld where she bought it from as they put the free year on the computer for her and the money was refunded
Matt

Assume BT will be same as Plusnet.

McAfee 'full version' is provided free for upto 3 PCs, we make use of this on 3 pcs.  

Regarding the Windows Defender Software as mojo suggests is ok and this is on the remaining two, but I still have other software (Malwarebytes & CCleaner) on these 2 "spares" as additional support.
  
One of the main things on any any pc is to keep all the software updated and one feature that McAfee (and some others do) is scan your pc for outdated software for you if you are not in the habit of doing this manually.

I have been using the free version of AVG for years with no problem. I used to use and pay for McAfee but had a problem with it so stopped - could get it for nowt as we are BT broadband customers.

Just moved our mobile contracts to BT - lower price and more data than O2. We now have some reception at home - O2 mast went down and they could not be bothered to repair it for ages and when they told us they had we still could not get a signal.

I was a bit puzzled on why I had am not using McAfee but when I checked PlusNet Ts & Cs you only get it free for 3 months with basic fibre and then it is £2 a month.

Thats interesting Ron as you pay more for the fibre line that what it costs for normal broadband. Not looked but has it been brought up on PN forums ?

I've just bought 12 months McAfee subscription for £7.50 from Argos. What is important when installing is to skip the bit where they ask for payment details.

I did have it with BT but changed to Vodafone as the telephone line rental, telephone, caller display, call any number and fiber broadband was just £29. BT's line rental had gone up to £20 ish.

Well that was fairly painless, full refund received today from McAfee and 60 days extension, until the end of February.

first thing I delete/remove is McAfee on any computer I have, never did like it
mike vwt4

Hi Guys, Found the old grumps section. Have an old comp 2010 with WinXP Pro which never sees the internet. It runs 3D CAD and DTP and is wickedly fast partly because it does not need AV software - much faster than at work. Laptop was as old and running horrid Vista and AV software no longer supported was painfully slow. Salvation was at hand; newish used Dell Latitude laptop had it dual booted so that I can boot up with horrid Win10 or Linux Ubuntu. With the totally free super fast Linux operating system you do not need AV software and most software is free including FreeCAD a full 3D programme. I regularly thank heaven that I no longer need to use or update any Win10 or AV let alone pay for the agony! You cannot be serious - you pay for that rubbish and pay again to update it. What - you pay what for broadband and pay what for phone - go to three 123 PAYG phone and three for dongle internet - use anywhere!

Don't pay for it. Windows 10 has it built in from day one and has never needed a 3rd party AV

I would also say that some banks provide it but none is better

Keep the Windows up to date and clean and it will NOT slow down.

That does not means use speedup tools to Clean Windows, even worse than AV suites for causing damage.

John&Maggie wrote:Hi Guys, Found the old grumps section. Have an old comp 2010 with WinXP Pro which never sees the internet. It runs 3D CAD and DTP and is wickedly fast partly because it does not need AV software - much faster than at work. Laptop was as old and running horrid Vista and AV software no longer supported was painfully slow. Salvation was at hand; newish used Dell Latitude laptop had it dual booted so that I can boot up with horrid Win10 or Linux Ubuntu. With the totally free super fast Linux operating system you do not need AV software and most software is free including FreeCAD a full 3D programme. I regularly thank heaven that I no longer need to use or update any Win10 or AV let alone pay for the agony! You cannot be serious - you pay for that rubbish and pay again to update it. What - you pay what for broadband and pay what for phone - go to three 123 PAYG phone and three for dongle internet - use anywhere!

I guess different products suit different people, J&M. How good that we have the choice.

Fatal to think Linux does not need an AV.

There are many ways "viruses" work and some still work on the Unix platform.

Then again more than one historical viral attacks have been based around the user rather than the O/S so I suppose believing that one is not needed could be construed as one such Virus. Who remembers the "delete XYZ file because its a virus" virus. It hooked into the fact that AVs (mostly) worked so how else could the malicious do damage?

In fact I don't think I have actually had to clean up a true virus attack for several years now, far more prevalent are scams of one sort or another which are very much about tricking the user rather than the O/S. If somebody is tricked to do something stupid there is not a lot AV providers can do about it.

I have over the years tried Linux in many flavours and none work as well as a properly installed and maintained Windows installation of a concurrent era, as Linux has improved so has Windows with the current Windows 10 being pretty solid all round.

I reiterate properly maintained does NOT mean generic speedup or cleanup tools which should be avoided like the plague and that includes many oft repeated names.

Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features. Is there a scroll bar on the right, if so why? What don't you need? I don't think one of my customers edit DVDs but a lot of them have DVD editor software. My entire installed program list takes up half the screen but god knows how many have been installed over the years. No longer needed, get rid of it.

Finally if you upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 go to Settings > Update and Security > Recovery and look at Reset for a clean install of Windows.

Go along with HFs comments on Linux there are 2 laptops here,one with Ubuntu and the other running the latest Mint and both have a Conical sourced AV program on cos years ago someone using Linux daily on a support desk told me what HF has just posted It doesn’t slow the m/cs down
As i have said previously McAfee on the other 3 cos it’s free with Plus Net
Will go along with Peter also AVG is a good free package but it’s got bloated and will slow an older m/c down but great for newer pc’s

I too have free BT McAfee and windows 10. My old confuser used to have C cleaner on it which I ran every now and again, is there any point in using something like that again? Thanks

Whilst McAfee has clean up facilities etc I don’t think it’s as thorough as CCleaner which is also good for software removal (imo better than Windoze own remover)

Thanks Roger
Think I will download that.

NOOOOO!


Not needed, don't do it , pleeeze.

Fatal to think Linux does not need an AV - says HairyFool - Hey Dude; I am still here alive and kicking in the fast lane! There are no known Ubuntu desktop malware in the wild. Perhaps HairyFool or Roger can identify one for us - ? Take a look on the web - I suggest:
howtogeek.com/135392/htg-explains-why-you-dont-need-an-antivirus-on-linux-and-when-you-do/
or askubuntu or security.stackexchange.com/questions/63097/should-i-get-an-antivirus-for-ubuntu
They (PCWorld columnist) say: “Believe it or not, there are antivirus programs targeted at desktop Linux users. If you have just switched to Linux and started looking for an antivirus solution, don’t bother – you do not need an antivirus program on Linux. Linux malware isn’t all over the Internet like Windows malware is. Using an antivirus is completely unnecessary for desktop Linux users. The antivirus software will scan for Windows malware and delete it. It isn’t protecting your Linux system – it’s protecting the Windows computers from themselves.”
So why would I want to install AV? To slow down my super-fast Linux OS laptop by continually scanning for thousands upon thousands of Windoze malware? I don’t think so.
About a year ago I went to the library to use their internet connection to update Win10 - 25% in two hours so gave up; have not booted up Win10 since!
Those of us who use high end CAD or analyses programmes recoil in horror at the mention of the AV’s you advocate as they just slow a good computer down to snail pace. As for that support desk guy - well just fire up your performance monitor and watch the AV eat up processor and VM.

As I am to pick up my first Motorhome on the the 29th; yes that same day which the turkeys voted for Xmas (Brexit) - perhaps I should boot up Winslow10; it may help me to acclimatise to life in the slow lane? Seriously though; we are the target - beware of scammers!

It is not "completely unnecessary" just less of a risk. Over the decades there have been hundreds of Linux based malware attacks, few successful and far fewer than Windows but they are real

There are few true viruses even in the windows platform nowadays but the more accurate term would be "malware" many of which are about getting the user to do something, even Linux has to be at risk otherwise that would mean the user can't actually do anything at all.

OS-X is Unix based and that suffered a 270% increase in attack during 2017-18.

Clam-AV is free, puts virtually no load on the O/S so why wouldn't you use it.