I have the free McAfee personal firewall (standard) which seems to be working, although this morning the little icon in my tray was grey. It started up okay but now the icon has a black cross through it! It seems to still be finding attempted "events" every few seconds, so I assume is still working. But why the black cross through the icon? Thankyou.
I think it's time to look elsewhere - zone alarm ... possibly
or avg
I don't use Mc myself
however generally the greyed out icon means requires updating .... is there a status page ... or somesuch?