Problems with McAfee New Version 11

Yesterday was a bit of a computer challenge day here at our house. It was a day of change and that can be frustrating.

I had to be in a meeting up in Charleston (which is about 2 hours away) at 9 AM. So as is my usual habit, I got up early to write up a blog post and then head on my way.

As I was shaking the sleep out of my eyes and getting my thoughts together, McAfee, our anti-virus/firewall software decided it wanted to upgrade. Since I am the computer person in our house not Gorgeous, I decided I better let it so the program didn’t keep asking her all day long while I was away.

That decision turned into a bit of a hassle. The set up said it couldn’t install a portion of the programming because I had AdAware installed to root out spyware and apparently they are incompatible. Would I like to skip it? Sure.

That was a mistake.

When the stuff finished its 20 minute download / install / reboot process there was no anti-virus protection at all. I knew I didn’t want to leave the computer for a day with no virus protection with Gorgeous having to use it all day. That could have unrecoverable consequences.

So I uninstalled AdAware. And rebooted the computer. 10 minutes.

Then I had to hunt around to find where I could put the anti-virus portion of McAfee back on. They sure didn’t make it easy. I finally had to go into my account on the web site. And that involved yet another search on my part. What was that account’s password again?

25 minutes later I was ready to install the missing component.

Fortunately the second install should go quicker because it would only install the missing portion, right?

Wrong.

It appeared to go through the exact same process and took just as long the second time complete with reboot.

Something like an hour and a half into it our computer was protected again. And I had really hustle to make my meeting on time.

When I got back home Gorgeous mentioned something about email being slow. Another 30 minutes of poking around and I narrowed down the culprit to the new anti-virus portion of McAfee. Specifically the scan outgoing email function was totally gunking up Outlook, keeping outgoing emails from going out while they were scanned indefinitely.

The only way I could get it to work was to disable the scan outgoing email portion completely. And that puts a nice little notice in the system tray that keeps telling me how unprotected I am.

In my meeting in Charleston we got on the subject of Port Security and I mentioned that there will all ways be a bit of a tension between commerce and security. The only way to be sure of security is to completely shut off commerce. Balancing the two is the trick.

But apparently that is McAfee’s new approach to virus protection. If they completely stop email traffic they are sure to get a good handle on virus propagation. Oh, and after a quick check of McAfee’s Forums, I am not alone in my frustration with this new version.

Unfortunately that cure may be worse than the risk of disease for most folks. I know it is for us.

Then Gorgeous got up this morning and found out she missed a sales target with her business because the company she represents made some major changes to their web site too. She put in an order yesterday which would have taken her over her target with a bunch of hassle because of not being familiar with the new set up. And apparently the new pre-order form looks very similar to the old finalized order form so she thought she was done but she should have clicked one more button to finish it.

As a result she missed out on a sizable commission bonus.

Days like that are times when I appreciate the emotion that David poured out in the Psalms.

O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O LORD my God!
Restore the light to my eyes, or I will die.

Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

I will sing to the LORD
because he has been so good to me.

Sometimes it can be encouraging to know that even great men had their own struggles.

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