McAfee Personal Firewall Plus

McAfee is one of the most well-known names in PC protection, so it's no surprise that it should have a personal firewall in its range of products. Curiously, the table on the back of the McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 2004 v5 box suggests a basic Internet user probably doesn't need a firewall - not advice we'd endorse these days.

Installation is straightforward, but requires an email address for registration and a password that you'll need to remember when the program auto-updates the first time you run it. As well as the Personal Firewall, McAfee Security Centre is also installed, which can launch other apps in the company's range; we'd prefer to see this only if you have other apps, since it means you have to click on the System Tray icon then pick a sub-menu to get to the firewall.

McAfee's contribution to the firewall world is smart recommendations - the program comes with a database of known programs so you don't have to configure them all - though, once again, Netobjects Fusion wasn't included. You can submit information about a program to McAfee so it will be included in future, but it seems to involve a bit of cut and paste - we'd prefer to see that happen automatically.

We had no problem with file sharing on the local network using the default settings, though MSN Messenger file transfers were problematic. Dealing with attacks or other incoming alerts is simple and straightforward. The trace facility will automatically look up both IP address and domain whois for a potential attack, and you can submit details automatically to the McAfee Hackerwatch site. The online help explains different types of alert and how worried you should be. And non-critical alerts can be set to disappear after 10 seconds, saving excess clicking.

Given the price, this is a good package, and if you have other McAfee products, it will integrate well.

Contact: McAfee
http://uk.mcafee.com

System requirements:

• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• Pentium 100MHz
• 8MB disk space
• IE 5.5

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