Complaint Review: Cox Communications McAfee Security

Mike,

     From your description, it sounds like your computer has a malware infection, not a virus.  McAfee, Norton (Symantec), Kaspersky, and most all of the antivirus software on the market today will not pick up readily on malware infections.  The reason is because the "heuristics" level or sensitivity settings would have to be so high that the AV software would start quarantining many legitimate programs as malware.

The suggestions I would offer are these:

1.  Contact Cox's McAfee tech support staff about this issue.  There is the possibility your program could be corrupted or did not install properly to begin with.

2.  It is highly recommended that computer users supplement their existing antivirus software program with an anti-malware program, such as (((ROR REDACTED))) and (((ROR REDACTED))).  I myself have Malwarebytes (and also have Cox's McAfee Security Suite software as well).  You can download the FREE version at their website:  (((ROR REDACTED))).  They do have a PAID version, however, that version utilizes real-time scanning and you should not have two security programs running in real-time mode at the same time on your computer.  Some major problems are known to result.

After downloading it, and going through the setup routine to install it, run a FULL scan of all your drives, including any external hard drives or USB flash drives.  Depending on how many files, etc are on your system, the scan could take over an hour to finish.  Once completed, it will generate an on-screen report listing any suspicious items it found.

These items are placed in a "Quarantine" area and the program also saves the scan report for future reference.  You can then go into the Quarantine area, review the items shown, and either delete them completely off your computer, or restore them (e.g. if by chance a legitimate program or item was mistakenly quarantined).

3.  Consider reviewing the McAfee community forums website at:  http://community.mcafee.com/.  There is a wealth of helpful information posted there and you can even post questions about problems you are having with your McAfee software and generally the moderators and other very knowledgeable members (including McAfee tech support staff) generally respond to posts with 24 hours or less!

Anti-malware software is NOT designed to replace your major antivirus software...it is intended to supplement it.  There are so many new variants of malware appearing every day that no one security program will catch every single infection, every single time.  Security software developers are always a step or two behind the cretins who design these malicious malware programs.

Definitely get some form of major antivirus software installed on your computer at the very least, and ensure it is updated regularly.  This also holds true for any anti-malware program you may obtain (and there are a number of free versions out there; just make certain the software does NOT have real-time scanning.

In the case of(((ROR REDACTED))), you can actually set an automatic notification so the program will open a dialog box (when you go to run a scan) to inform you that your software has not been updated in whatever # of days you have specified during setup. I update mine every day since (((ROR REDACTED))) staff update their software at least 2 or more times per day.  I've found it to be an excellent malware detection program, personally.

Hope you are able to obtain a satisfactory resolution to your issues.

sorry, allowing you to give a competitors name would instigate others to just file against their competition, to only come back later to suggest their company your comments on this policy are welcome! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

". I can write HTML and understand basic SEO etc so that said, the problem is not me "

      Ever heard the phrase 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"?  That said, the problem is you ( and would have occured if you were using Norton as well).   

" First it sucks at blocking viruses. Next you ALWAYS get pop ups saying "your computer is at risk", "virus protection not installed". Then when you click "virus protection not installed" you get a link that says "install this feature now" and that link does NOT allow you down download the protection."

   Where do we start?    What you are describing is a common scam based out of Azerbaijan.  It is designed to convince rubes such as yourself to actually download and install a virus.  In order for the scam to work, it requires that the user blindly believe every message that pops up on their screen and start clicking "install" buttons that actually load malware into their system.    The fact that you have not been able to download the bogus payload and render your system inoperable (until you pay the scammers) would lead me to believe that the McAfee software is protecting your  system in spite of your amateurish blunders.  And you consider this a ripoff? 

I apologize for any problems you have encountered getting the McAfee Security Suite provided by Cox to run properly.  If you would like any assistance getting this matter resolved please fee free to email me at hrd-hsi.newsgroups.com and I'll do what I can to help.

--CoxTech1