McAfee Firewall Enterprise MFE [EOL] Reviews

We use this for protection against virus and malware on our endpoint. It hasn't been that great because we cannot find resources to help us configure it, so most of the time the virus still goes on our computer and McAfee doesn't detect it.

It does give certain protection for everything that is well configured on our McAfee server. We have good protection with it. If we could find a feature and make it work, it would work perfectly, there would be no bugs, and it would be really good. For our organization, what it's really helped with is the overall security protection. Now we need a little bit more because we have had a couple of virus episodes, so we need better protection and better resources to help us. That's why we chose Cisco, but for McAfee, everything that was well-configured was working perfectly on our endpoint.

It's pretty easy to use on a daily basis, but there are no other features because it's hard to configure on the server. On the endpoint it's really easy to push. It's hard to configure on the server, though. It's hard to find resources to help us configure it, and there is not much online help that you can find. Most of the time, we were looking at the forums, and we needed to go very deep to find what we were looking for. It was hard, and McAfee was not really helpful when we were trying to get the product to work perfectly. This is why are changing it.

They should let the users configure more of the options, like with the blacklists and the whitelisting configuration. We didn't have that much control over what we could whitelist and blacklist, and it was complicated and hard to implement in their solution.

Customer support and AV are both lacking and are really hard to come to you when the product is installed. Those are the two major points that they need to work on.

The solution is pretty stable. There was no major bug. We had some problems in the beginning because it was making our computer go slow, but then it got fixed in their later version, so now it's okay. Our computer is not slow anymore, but the beginning was really rough on our processors. Overall, despite everything that I said, it was very stable as a product.

Scalability is pretty easy. It's easy to buy more licenses and to just add users. There is a maximum, but we didn't get there, so we didn't have to buy another firewall to help us. In our scenario, the scalability was perfect. There were no problems in that regard.

We do not call McAfee directly because they couldn't provide us with the help we needed onsite because we needed someone to come and help us configure it. At some point, we find out the resource, and when the resource came to our premises he was not able to help us configure it more. They need to work on that a lot.

We were just using the one that came with Windows and it was not working. It was not a solution that we should use in business so McAfee was our first real big experience with something of that type. We had a security problem and we had viruses and malware that would come in which is why we decided to go with McAfee in the first place. We thought it would be the best option for us, but turns out it was not. It did the job for a little bit, then we got to bigger concern, and we worked a lot on our security, so we needed to continue to improve in that direction.

We consider several criteria when evaluating a solution. Customer support is really important to me. It needs to be user-friendly so people don't have to do a thousand hours of work to understand the product, know how to use it, and to deploy it.

I would rate it four out of ten because of the complexity of the installation, and the lack of technical support we have from McAfee and their vendors. That is really what destroyed the rating for me. They need to work a lot of their customer support and maybe their vendors that need more trained personnel to help us with our problems and our configurations of McAfee. They should also make it a little bit easier, more user-friendly to use and install on the endpoints and the firewall. 

I would advise someone considering this solution to make sure it's the right fit for you because it's evolving so fast and there are so many different options that you can go with and it doesn't fit to all business cases. Make sure that you try it before you buy it.

• VPN IPSec
• Network analysis

We have 10 offices throughout Brazil, and can now they are all connected by using the VPN feature of the firewall.

• Link load balance
• Application control
• Smart filter
• Administration of the firewall is a little confusing for end users

I've been using it for four years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Levels two and three of tech support is very good.

The client had a Linux-based firewall, and they switched as it is not a corporate firewall designed for big companies.

The implementation is not difficult, because all firewalls have the same logic, and if you have experience with firewalls, it is very simple.

We implemented it in-house.

Yes we did, and we chose MFE because it is a good tool for securing networks.

Pay attention and write a security policy to ensure you have the correct rules in the new firewall.

• Application layer filtering
• Reputation based filtering
• DoS prevention

The UI has improved a lot over time.

In most cases, all products have room for improvement and in this particular case, I’d mention central management stability.

My personal experience with the product is six years.

HA configuration is a bit difficult for the first time.

It's very stable and mature.

I've never approached customer service with regards to this particular product.

I've never approached tech support with regards to this particular product.

I’ve been familiar with the product since its predecessor, Sidewinder G2 so have not made a switch, apart from upgrading to newer versions.

Initial set-up is straightforward except for high-availability and heartbeat VLAN set-up, I had issues with it, but these were solved eventually.

We used a mixed team and we were satisfied with the vendor's professional service.

Yes we did, but I cannot reveal the others we looked at.

It's a very functional and stable product if you're looking for a Layer 7 firewall with reputation filtering and encrypted traffic inspection.

For managing multiple MFE firewalls it is incredibly handy, convenient, and it is easy to use the product with McAfee Control Centre. This provides a most valuable means to manage all your firewalls.

Using it with control centre allows you to manage all McAfee Firewalls using a central accounting and authorisation system such as Cisco ACS, Radius or Active Directory. It also allows for a ticketing/workflow system which competes with Checkpoint.

It would be nice if more time was spent considering ways in which it helps, and makes it easier for ustomers to migrate from one version to another. For example, from v7 to v8.

I've used it for five years.

Migrating from v7 to v8 of McAfee Firewall Enterprise, in many cases, involves you having to completely re-write all of your previous McAfee Firewall Enterprise v7 policies due to the difference in the way the interfaces are named in the product going from v7 to v8.

I have not encountered any major issues with stability.

The product is already very feature rich. The product has some really good features like GTI (Global Threat Intelligence) and Trusted Source which allows for the dynamic identification, and potential blocking, of malicious hosts on the internet when you are using this product as an internet facing firewall.

Customer service is good. You will generally have access to a team of account managers, should there be any need, for any escalations or prioritization of critical issues affecting your business.

When you buy the additional support from Intel McAfee you get a quite good level of support from a dedicated team of McAfee Firewall Enterprise experts.

Yes, we have an estate of mixed vendor firewalls using Checkpoint, Fortinet and Intel McAfee.

Relatively straightforward given the type of product as the nature of firewalls always requires a significant amount of configuration.

The solution used was implemented in-house.

We have been using the product for a while, even from when the product was referred to as a CyberGuard.

We have a team of roughly 20 engineers who support and provide technical expertise on this product from implementing to supporting.

For security purposes a layered approach has been taken so we have multiple vendors providing protection to avoid one vulnerability on one product affecting all of our products.

If at all possible, you would do well to pay for Intel McAfee to provide professional services and consultancy as they can give you invaluable tips and expertise during your implementation process.

• Customize rules creation
• Customize port

We have experienced many hardware failures in this product, and SSL VPN should be supported.

• Better hardware production
• SSL VPN should be supported as other firewalls have support for VPN

I have been using it for three years.

We had an authentication issue (feature present under the passport tab).

The hardware is not stable and we have faced many stability issues.

No issues with the scalability.

It's ok.

It's satisfactory; a few engineers from the McAfee Firewall tech support team are not trained well and don't have the desired skillset. This is the reason they ignore opportunities to initiate a remote session to help diagnose issues.

We are McAfee Elite partners so we do not have a chance to work on another solution.

It is not very complex. Once the installation procedure is completed, then the license needs to done and then you can start the deployment procedures.

I have implemented by myself and have not had an opportunity to work with the vendor.

It's good.

No we didn't because of our relationship with McAfee.