Why McAfee as a free AV sollution?

[#1]

Erm - are we sure  it's free?
I'm on the Extra product and yet the portal states

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McAfee Security, for £2 a month, has now been added to your account. Go to downloads page to download the software.

I've raised a support ticket, but thought I'd post here to see if anybody else is being billed for something they shouldn't?

[#2]

@geof looks like its Only free for new accounts

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Free McAfee security Get our Plusnet Protect powered by McAfee security package free

from the info page for new Extra accounts

[#3]

Quote from: Liam

McAfee is also much better than it used to be.

I have to disagree... it used to be very good, especially in it's commercial format but over the past few years it has become mediocre at best and below average for detections and false positives. Like many of the good A/Vs and firewalls it has become more and more resource hungry  and bloated to the point where I cannot recommend it for any systems. I have come across it in various businesses, especially as a support engineer and I have seen far too many PCs slowed down or unable to run some programs and the problems miraculously disappear when it is uninstalled!
While it may help in securing systems that don't already have A/V software installed it causes far too many other issues on the PC to not make it worthwhile. There are many much better alternatives, many of which are free like MS Security Essentials mentioned earlier, which I have used a lot recently without any issues, and I personally use avira for both speed, low resources and again no issues so far.
If you have to pay for it, there are much better alternatives around.

[#4]

Aren't we forgetting something here?

Security update hits Windows PCs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8636985.stm
Who in their right mind would recommend  McAfee after this debacle?

[#5]

Quote from: Gus

@geof looks like its Only free for new accounts

Nope - according to the page on my portal where you go for the download

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Plusnet Protect powered by McAfee (included) A fully featured security package, including all you need to stay safe online. Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware - email, chat and browse without worry Firewall defends your PC from hackers and viruses Identity theft protection and Anti-Phishing McAfee SiteAdvisor® shows you website safety ratings Protect up to 7 PCs Go to downloads page to download the software £0

Clearly £0
Not £2 as the link that appeared once it was ready for download claimed.
CSC don't seem to know what is going on either.

[#6]

@ geofftswin
What page of the portal, please?

[#7]

It was only on the portal the first time I logged in after requesting it, as an announcement.
The link to get the addon is
http://portal.plus.net/AddOns.html

[#8]

Quote from: Peter

I have to disagree... it used to be very good, especially in it's commercial format but over the past few years it has become mediocre at best and below average for detections and false positives.

I don't entirely agree with this statement. If you go here http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests and look at the latest tests McAfee have very good detection results but with above average false positives. However the thing to watch is in the detail and if "in the cloud" is not available the detection rate drops significantly. Also the test for new malware (which largely depends on heuristics they are well behind the best
The Feb 2010 test is most informative in this regard where the McAfee detection rate drops from 98.9% to 94.9% where "in the cloud" isn't available.
This is why I asked the question about this earlier which hasn't been answered.
Personally (although I use Kaspersky) I used to recommend Avira over Microsoft but for a new and really inexperienced used the Microsoft offering is probably the best overall.

[#9]

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"in the cloud"

Er, sir?

[#10]

Have a read http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/antivirus-in-the-cloud-is-remote-security-remotely-secure-49303059/...; Although this refers to Panda many of the Antivirus companies have used the same technology

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Panda Security has been producing antimalware and security products for desktop PCs since 1990, and late last year its desktop suite scored well during virus-detection tests. This is its first cloud-based antivirus product, currently in beta. It does several interesting things, but first and foremost it uses a centralised virus definitions database, stored on Panda's servers. This means you're always having your computer monitored, scanned and protected by the latest, up-to-the-minute database of known threats. The other advantage is that as new threats are caught on a user's computer, they're scanned, analysed and disinfected in the cloud, supposedly within minutes. Protection against these new threats is immediately made available to all other connected users without any need for them to update their software. That is, as long as you're connected to the Internet. The app does store an offline database on your machine as well, but this database will become outdated for as long as you remain offline -- the traditional vexation of antivirus apps. Of course you can't contract new viruses while offline, but one may become active if you execute a file for the first time.

[#11]

Thanks: bookmarked for a long read,

[#12]

   Hi,i saw the free security on extra a/cs yesterday and being a tyke thought,i might give it a try,so went into my a/c to be able to download it.In between times i get an email to say it will take a 2 or 3 hours to be able to download it and it will cost me £2.I thought not to worry,i know its free,it says this,extra a/cs f.o.c.Couldnt download it yesterday and ive been trying this morning,intermitently for around 3 hours,couldnt make it work,then i thought sod it,im stopping the activation after reading how bad macafee is on the forums.I then got another email saying,its been cancelled but will not show up until your next billing date,little alarm went off,i got south africa on the phone,ive found them very helpful,again the guy was up to speed and told me he would put me through to the technical section and they would tell me how to download it,i said id already tried to activate it,my a/c keeps telling me,it wasnt ready to download.He then told me i could not activate it through my a/c as im not a new customer and the call centres must do it,what a bleeding rig ma roll.I will be sticking with my comodo,im still not sure wether or not i would have had to pay £2,after one of you gents have said only new customers get it,well i think thats what you hinted at.Just a mess,i think.??P.S.The south african lad said it had never actually been activated in the first place,even better.
                                                                                                   regards ray

[#13]

[quote=geofftswin][quote=Quote from: Gus on 07/10/2010, 23:17]
@geof looks like its Only free for new accounts
Nope - according to the page on my portal where you go for the download

On my account I get -

[#14]

...and on mine

[#15]

Whenever I buy a new PC, the first thing I do is remove the "included" McAfee and, currently, install the Microsoft free "security essentials". (Microsoft have a vested interest in supplying a free security product to keep people from abandoning their product.) Before that became available and when I used "Windows" regularly, I  used ESET NOD32. The economics of  software supplied by a third party as "free" means that only the very cheapest is supplied and you get what you pay for.