HOT: FREE McAfee VirusScan 5.15 AND McAfee Personal Firewall with conditional MIR; also, good PGP offer

[Wolfgang]

Basically, it's free IF you can show you owned almost any version of any McAfee or Norton utility or anti-virus software (send them the title page of the manual, the program CD or diskette 1, or the electronic license certificate).

OTHERWISE, it's $20 -- which is still an excellent deal, considering this includes the firewall.

This uses electronic distribution, so there's no wait whatever in getting it, and no shipping or handling charges. OTOH, if you have a telephone modem, better do it overnight. It does recover from interruptions, so even then it's not a nightmare.

Make sure to click on "View Receipt" and print that out for the rebate.

Only through March 12.

Beyond.com McAfee Showcase

More particularly, the free-or-really-cheap combos are any one of:

VirusScan and Personal Firewall
VirusScan and McAfee Uninstaller
VirusScan and Guard Dog (filtering software)


For those interested, they also have a PGP/VirusScan bundle for $15 after the same Mail-In-Rebate. This includes PGP disk, transparent disk encryption -- good especially for notebooks with confidential data.

PGP offers



NOTE: Apologies to Richard98 -- he already posted this deal in a slightly different form. For some reason, it just didn't come up in the search. Until after I posted.... But I suppose it's a good enough deal to repeat.

 

[shiznut123]

Aww man, I could have got that for my friend who bought that for way more.

 

[Wolfgang]

If this works the way other Beyond.com downloads have, you can always download it and put it on a CD-R to give it to someone else later.

I would imagine (and hope, for their sake!) that they have some sort of protection in to prevent multiple folks from using one download, but that doesn't prevent you from saving it now and giving it later to someone legitimately.

 

[Spartanfool]

Just be wary.....

I got both these free (after MIR) with my WinME disk and ended up removing both. Virus Scan gave me BSOD and their tech support could never figure a solution. McAfee Firewall was nowhere near as easy to use as Zone Alarm, so I removed it as well.....

I would recommend Zone Alarm and either Innoculate Personal Edition or PC-cillin. (I run McAfee on the office PC and my laptop, so I've been a happy McAfee user until then.)

Still, the price is right if you have no problems........

Spartanfool

 

[Wolfgang]

I've have very good luck with VirusScan (and downloaded this time simplky to get another year sub free), but I agree ZoneAlarm is hard to beat.

Apparently, the Guard Dog is a highly rated filter, however.


Brief reviews of Personal Firewall, Guard Dog, and some competitors:

Personal Firewalls

 

[unclebud]

we've got mcafee throughout the company, it's alright...
the free versions of innoct are relatively troublesome to update (i know i'm an idiot, but what can i do?)
i don't know why i bought norton firewall for $4.88 though (oh yeah--15 of 50--nm)

 

[SemperFi]

I am really glad right now that I saved my old Norton Utilities cd. I am currently using it for a coaster on my computer desk. I wonder if it matters weather it is readable in drive.

Thanks! Wolf

 

[Wolfgang]

I'd think they'd accept a photocopy of a CD; I can't imagine someone wanting to send in their Norton Systemworks CD to get a free copy of VirusScan.

But maybe that's how the rebate place saves itself $20....

(They have a toll-free number, but it's late now.)

 

[Wolfgang]

Silly, silly, silly me: OF COURSE you need to send in AN ORIGINAL PROGRAM CD if that's the way you choose to prove that you owned a previous version -- a mere photocopy showing that you HAVE such a CD is not enough. (The kind lady, and I kid you not, did say that I could make a photocopy of the CD and keep it myself, and then send in the original -- uh, great!!)

I guess I just wasn't thinking like a rebate center....

If you have any question as to whether what you have counts as proof, just call 1 800 621 7332. Seriously, they were friendly and helpful -- it's just the answer they gave me this time that was useless....

 

[Capster]

VirusScan 5.x isn't even worth free on a Win2k machine. The performance hit is very noticeable and is quite buggy. I saw this firsthand when I got my copy at home. Check the newsgroups and you'll see tons of posts of folks looking to return it. It's that bad. We use the 4.x version here at work and it sucks rocks as well on Win9x machines. Sure it catches viruses but it penalizes performance on our Netware network. An early version of 4.x wouldn't even let you run applications off of the network. It was a documented bug and they came out with a fix so it worked but still makes it frustrating at times.

 

[Seattle]

THE REBATE FORM AT THE SITE SAYS THIS DEAL IS GOOD UNTIL JUNE 12.

 

[Wolfgang]

Hmmm.... one of the reasons I went to McAfee over Norton Anti-Virus is that I thought NAV 2000 had too big a performance impact -- comparatively, McAfee isn't hurting me, that I've noticed. (Haven't tried NAV 2001, even though I have it; it's supposed to be a better performer, but I'm happy with McAfee for now.)

I guess as with all things, YMMV -- but it's worked fine for me under W2K.

 

[Wolfgang]

Yes, the rebates are good until June, but as I understand it, the promotional pricing that results in free-after-rebate ends March 12.

 

[Wolfgang]

Capster, I should have asked in my prior post: do you use NAV 2001? You pleased with it? If McAfee is slowing me down without my knowing it, maybe I should try NAV 2001. But McAfee is a lot better performance-wise than NAV 2000, at least in my experience.

 

[SemperFi]

Norton Utilities version 2.0 I won't be giving up much.

I am running 2000 is there an antivirus program that won't act like a boat anchor to 2000? I will probobly do this deal though since I don't have a software firewall at present.

 

[Wolfgang]

There's a good review of anti-virus software at Cnet.

http://www.cnet.com/software/0-3746-7-2776301.html

In a nutshell: VirusScan is fast and good (and best against http-borne viruses), but NAV 2001 is best. In particular, they say NAV 2001 is not the system-resource hog that the earlier versions were, and, http aside, did the best job of detecting viruses.

 

[Wolfgang]

Also see Epinion's reviews of VirusScan.

If you're not eligible for the rebate, or simply prefer Norton Anti-Virus, the best deal on that is to get Norton SystemWorks Pro 2001 from DirectDeals.com -- $14!! An incredible deal. This includes not only NAV 2001, but also Norton Utilities 2001, Ghost, etc.

 

[SemperFi]

Wolf I went to check out the cnet review and all of the links on that page are not working page could not be found. I am leaning toward that norton I was looking to get ghost. I might have to do that $14 system works. Heck I just priced ghost at office depot for $60.