Adventures with McAfee

Thought this should be shared with interest, and possibly amused (or
unamused, depending on your viewpoint) people. It comes from someone who is
by no means tech-oriented and may be entirely wrong.

After buying a new computer a few months ago, I installed Dell's McAfee
security package, including Spamkiller 7. Good spam filters are absolutely
necessary because I'm a journalist and receive tons of the stuff. Anyway,
the antispam program was working just fine for a few weeks and then,
nothing: "This e-mail cannot be blocked," time and again.

Later, I had to reinstall the entire AV program for a different reason, and
noticed that after I did, the spam program worked again . . . for a few
weeks. If the computer is turned off, the program quits upon reopening .
After trying everything possible short of another reinstall, I gave in and
reinstalled. Voila! It worked again. This happened twice more until this
morning, when I got annoyed enough to call McAfee.

The polite gentleman on the other end of the phone informed me that mine was
a common problem: McAfee cannot block RoadRunner messages because RoadRunner
installs so many filters on them. I told him that the only filters I have on
my computer are McAfee's. Doesn't matter, he said in his lilting, Bengali
accent: Road Runner automatically filters its e-mail at the server level and
that causes Spamkiller not to work. So, what about the messages that *are*
blocked after the program is reinstalled, I asked. "That's because it goes
back old settings," McAfee Man replied. "Spamkiller simply is incompatible
with RoadRunner." He would show me how to uninstall it immediately. Thank
you, I replied. That, I know how to do after months of practice.

So I called RoadRunner and asked for a supervisor, who asked me if I has
using Outlook or other filters (I'm not). I read him my notes from the
McAfee conversation. Then he laughed and laughed. "Complete nonsense. What a
joke. Their Spamkiller doesn't work at the server level, it works on your
mailbox, as you probably know." He took notes so other RR customers would
know about the line being handed them -- and probably subscribers of other
ISPs -- by McAfee.

Is there another answer? I took it, and so did the RR tech, as tacit
admission that Spamkiller 7 does not work. Wonder what that says about its
AV program?

ld
<who wouldn't have McAfee at all except that it was free and you do indeed
get what you pay for. Uninstall to follow, in favor of NOD-32 or Kaspersky>



.

Relevant Pages

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