McAfee broken update (was: Re: [TriLUG] Earthlink Tech Support)

[Scott G. Hall]

On 02-12-2005 21:18 EST, Kevin Flanagan wrote:
> I had a similarly frustrating experience with Mcafee's support last
> night.  My wife runs Windows XP, her machine came with Symantec AV
> for 6 months, once the trial expired I wanted to install the Mcafee
> we bought a while back. I did the installation, it went fine, that is
> until it updated itself, the update broke it completely.  All pieces,
> including the updater were broken by the process.  I did a chat
> session, after 3 different techs the last one got snippy with me, he
> told me that the computer was infected.....   I asked for the feedback
> email address and he gave me a bogus one.  I'm going to go on a
> crusade now to tell everyone to not use Mcafee's products.

We had an identical experience on my wife's computer 2 years ago when
she bought it: it came with Win-XP Home on it with McAfee preinstalled.
When we went to install a purchased copy, it updated and hosed itself.
Their tech support was non-existent at the time.  For that reason and
that reason alone (the hosed update), we had to by a [more expensive]
copy of Norton Antivirus.  And we never did get our money back from
Best Buy for the McAfee product, because "it was [already] an old
version".

Well, after tons of update and subscription money spent on various
pieces of software, SP2 brought her machine to a crawl (it _was_ the
fastest in the house).  So I finally got her to stick it to Microsoft
and their supporters: she's now running Xandros Desktop 3, with most
of her PC-holdout software running under CrossOver Office (Wine), and
only 1 app running under Win4Lin w/Win-98.  I got her to do most
everything she can in native Linux -- and now her box is the fastest
screamer in the house.

Oh, and if you do have a spouse or family member still stuck on MS-Win,
check into ClamWin and ClamAV for antivirus and spyware work -- a lot
cheaper, more durable and just as effective at eradication.  Just
don't expect MS Security Panel to recognize it.

-- 
Scott G. Hall
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net